Christians: How do you Decide Where to Draw the Literal Intepretation Line in Scripture

[MSizer]

I once was asked by my mother-in-law, an Anglican, "Can you believe that there are actually people who think that the Noah story literally happened?"

I didn't think much about it, becuase I was well aware that there are such people. It didn't even occur to me to add "yes, and there are even more who still think Jesus rose from the dead". It didn't even occur to me that she sees no conflict between criticizing believers in the old testament, but not believers of the new testament.

So, "moderate Christians", how do you decide where the line is drawn between scriptural fact and allegory?

 

[Charity]

Many people prefer to believe fiction and prefer to ignore facts....I guess it's each to their own interpretation.....

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I believe it was Augustine who said that if science demonstrates that the Bible doesn't make sense literally, then we should interpret it spiritually or allegorically.

 

[Katzpur]

That is a super hard question to answer in my opinion. If it makes sense to me to interpret it literally, I do. If it doesn't make sense to interpret it literally, I don't. Dumb answer, I know.