Is this intended to make you feel more secure to tell yourself this? I think the fact I have a degree in theology alone invalidates this fantasy of your wishful thinking.
Little do you know about how the human mind works, or the purpose of symbolism in spiritual growth and development, or the manner in which language inspires. It's not meant to mean one thing, but many things.
Do you think a piece of music is the playing of a single note? Yet it isn't confusion when the many notes sing. It creates a harmony. Confusion is when you don't understand music being tone deaf. In the case of religion, that tone deafness finds its equivalent as spiritual blindness.
I gave you more than what you asked for. I told you that if I have to find the meaning of the angels on the altar, you have just told me I shouldn't read the bible literally. You told me I should read it symbolically, and that contradicts you saying it's meant to be read literally. How hard is that to understand?
Do you know what symbolism is? That is my question to you.
Why is that necessary? There is a lot of human knowledge and understanding of reality that is not spelled out in the bible. That doesn't negate the facts of it. Show me where a car is in the bible, or an airplane or a rocket. Yet these are real despite their absence on its pages.
What does it mean to you? What does it symbolize to you? What does it mean to others who are not you?
I'm sure there are plenty of theologians and scholars throughout the ages who have lots of different takes on the meanings of them. That's the beauty and power of symbolism. Do you think there should be one and only one meaning to these things?
Again still, you're not reading the bible literally when you have to ask what does the angel symbolize. That is what you are doing each time you ask me. You are flatly contradicting yourself. It appears you don't know what symbolism means. That's very unfortunate.
You should want to hear me say this or that. It will help your understanding of things to grow, and subsequently the quality of your life increase. Education is a powerful tool and gift from God.
Can you give the book and chapter and verses that tell you you should read everything literally? And I'm not asking you for your interpretations of the meanings of the verses (which supports what I say about the symbolic value of the words), but a verse the literally says "this is how you should read the scriptures, not symbolically, but as scientific and historical facts without any interpretation at all". You can't, and therefore sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. You have to deal with the facts.
