I Want To Concentrate On The Candidates Answers About The Bible, One At A Time.

You Tube Question:

'Do You Believe Every Word Of The bible?'

Here Is What Guiliani Said:

"The reality is, I believe it, but I don’t believe it’s necessarily literally true in every single respect. I think there are parts of the Bible that are interpretive. I think there are parts of the Bible that are allegorical. I think there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be interpreted in a modern context.

So, yes, I believe it. I think it’s the great book ever written. I read it frequently. I read it very frequently when I’ve gone through the bigger crises in my life, and I find great wisdom in it, and it does define to a very large extent my faith. But I don’t believe every single thing in the literal sense of Jonah being in the belly of the whale, or, you know, there are some things in it that I think were put there as allegorical."

http://godandculture.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/huckabee-is-the-clear-winner-last-night/

This Last Part Of Course Is In Reference To The Book Of Jonah Where Jonah Is Swallowed By A Great Fish.

"Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 16 At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him. 17 But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." (Jonah 1)

Disbelieving Or Making Allegorical Any Of This OT Story Renders The Whole Story Useless.

Old Testament Passages Say 'Great Fish', Most NT Translations Say 'Whale.

This Is Also Related To The Language They Were Written In.

The OT Hebrew Word 'dawg', Means Only Fish (According To Strongs), And The NT Greek Word 'Icthus' (Whose Acronym Is Jesus, Christ, God's Son, Saviour) In The New Testament Means 'Fish, While Whale In The Greek NT Is 'Kaytos' Means Huge Fish, Whale And Is What Is Used For The Jonah Story.

There Are At Least Two OT Hebrew Words For Whale But Their Meanings Can Range From Jackal To Serpent And Sea Monster.

The Old Testament Often Conceals (Great Fish) And The New Testament Reveals/Gets Specific (Whale)

Way Too Many People Think That The Bible Is Like A Buffet Where You Pick And Choose What To Eat And What Not To And How To Eat It.

No One Agrees On What Is Literal And What Is Allegorical Because They Have No Uniform Rule On What To Believe And What Not To Believe.

But Often It Is Really A Matter Of Whether One Is Going To Believe The Bible Or Not.

"And the fact is that when people ask do we believe all of it, you either believe it or you don’t believe it." Huckabee

But More About All Of What Huck Said Later.

"If The Plain Sense Makes Sense, Seek No Other Sense To Replace It, Lest You End Up With Nonsense."

This Is Essentially Faith.

"The p'shat is the plain, simple meaning of the text. The understanding of scripture in its natural, normal sense using the customary meanings of the word’s being used, literary style, historical and cultural setting, and context. The p'shat is the keystone of Scripture understanding. If we discard the p'shat we lose any real chance of an accurate understanding and we are no longer objectively deriving meaning from the Scriptures (exegesis), but subjectively reading meaning into the scriptures (eisogesis)."

AND

"This is where another (implied) meaning is alluded to in the text, usually revealling a deeper meaning. There may still be a p'shat meaning as well as another meaning as any verse can have multiple levels of meaning."

http://www.yashanet.com/studies/judaism101/sidebars/pardes.htm

Believe What You Read, Unless What You Read Doesn't Make Sense, Then Seek Another Sense.

And By Not Making Sense I Don't Mean Refuse To Believe.

The Question Ought To Be, Can An Almighty God Cause Someone To Be Swallowed By A Whale?

The Answer Would Be An Obvious Yes.

Obviously Guiliani Doesn't Take Literally The Command To Not Separate (Divorce) What God Has Joined Either, Seeing That He Has Been Divorced Two Or Three Times. (Matthew 5:31,32)

The New Testament Says:

"He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here." (Matthew 12)

Notice The Words, 'For As'?

Jesus Compared His Three Day Stay In The Grave To Jonah's Three Day Stay In The Whale And If Jonah's Stay In The Whale Wasn't Literal Then Neither Was Jesus' Stay In The Grave.

If The Time Given Or Where The Time Was Served Wasn't Literal For Jonah Then Neither Are Aspects Of Jesus' Stay In The Grave.

So You See What Happens When One Arbitrarily Decides What To Believe And What Not To Believe Simply Because They Cannot Believe It?

If Jesus Would Have Said, 'As Pinnochio Was In The Body Of A Whale Three Days So....'

We Would Know The First Story Being Untrue Would Have Disproven The Second Story Which Was Being Compared To It.

This Cookie Cutter And Cafeteria Style Theology Is Like The Calvinist Saying He Believes 'All' Are Depraved But Christ Did Not Die For 'All', Even Though These Two Truths Are Connected.

Why Does The Calvinist Decide That All Are Depraved But Not All Given An Opportunity To Be Saved.

Because It Doesn't Fit His Preconceived Notions And Unbelief.

"Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. " (Romans 5:18)

Other Verses: (Romans 11:32; Titus 2; 2 Corinthians 5:14,15)

It Often Affects The Very Heart Of The Gospel When Someone Uses The Eeny, Meeny, Miny Mo Method Of Interpretation.

So Yes, The Story Of Jonah Is Literal And So Is The Story Of Jesus.

And Why Are Republicans Asked These Kind Of Questions And Democrats Are Not?

I Think It Is Because Republicans Should Know The Answer And Democrats/Liberals Are Way Out In Left Field And Close To One Third Of The Voters That Will Consider The Republicans Claim To Be Evangelical Christians.

Bj Maxwell

12/3/2007

Copyright ©

Romneys Answer And My Response Here.