The Literal Truth

The voice said, “Cry out!”
And he said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”  ~Isaiah 40:6-8, NKJV

As one who has been a passive Christian for years, one who hasn’t taken the time to read her Bible until recently, and one who has struggled with ideas of the world, without taking the time to compare it to Scripture — I understand why so many view the Bible as being outdated.  After all, we are inundated with “progressive” ideas from a liberal media who want to assume anything that is faith-based is both outdated and / or racist and bigoted.

However, the Word of God is timeless.  Its as relevant in today’s culture as it was when it was written. I think we live in a society that wants us to cherry-pick which of God’s verses we can apply to modern day, and dismiss the rest.

With that verse in mind, and with a commitment to obedience to Christ, I believe the Bible verbatim. I have to.  My faith demands it so I believe it word for word. The Bible is not subject to reinvention of any passages to fit according to what I think it should be; God’s ways aren’t my ways. And I’m a firm believer that there are some things about God we’re not meant to understand this side of heaven. But God is all powerful and all knowing. Any attempt on our part to re-write his laws and re-word his Bible is the epitome of the clay giving direction to the potter. Isaiah 64:8 says, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.”
We don’t make the rules nor do we have the authority to second-guess God’s word. Romans 9:19-21 further demonstrates the matter, “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?”
So, with that said, I am taking the Bible literally, at face value. I, as the clay, don’t have the right to question my maker. He made me, He made the world, and He makes the rules.
And 6,000 years after He created the world, He is constant and unchanging.