Read it, taught it.... What is the context? Let me help you-

2 Peter 3: 3-4 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Now, verses 8-11
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,


By man's standard, Christ is not returning, and God's wrath is not coming, because it hasn't happened yet. By God's standard, it's imminent, and it will happen. What man views as a long period time (remember, our time is but a vapor that appears for a short time and it gone), in God's perspective and plan (eternal God), He see it as a very short time.

Here is the interesting part: Christ Himself quoted from Genesis 1-11 at least 8 times during his ministry. He used the text as literal and historical. If that text was symbolic or flawed, then Christ becomes a false teacher and a hypocrite. And if a false teacher, he could only die for his own sins and not for mine. And to quote Paul- we are still dead in our sins, and our faith is vain, and we are of all men most miserable

The 10 Commandments, given to Moses, used the literal 7 day "week" as the 4th commandment (Exodus 20:8-11).
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Is this a literal 6 days of work and 1 day of rest, or 1000s of years of labor and then a 1000 day of rest?

As in Peter, man wants to superimpose his knowledge, of both time and space, over top of God's authority, and force God to fit in the box that man has constructed. As Peter warned: The Lord is not slack concerning His promise.

To further the point, outside of creation, Time does not exist- hence eternity past and eternity future. I believe that part of the construct of original creation was the structure and confinement of time. On day 4 of creation (ironically similar to commandment 4....) God created physical lights, one to rule the day and one to rule the night. And then He declared this:

Genesis 1:14-18
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

So now we have a sun "ruling the day" and a moon "ruling the night", but yet the "day" is 1000s of years?? How long is the night?

Before you answer, remember on day 3, plants and trees were created.... but no sun. If one believes the Day Age theory, how did plants survive thousands (millions?) of years without the sun?

Theistic evolution opens more problems than it solves. Trying to marry man's corrupted knowledge with God's wisdom is problematic. Either you believe what God said, exactly as He said it (every word and all of it), or by default, you believe none of it.

God can do all things, but He can't do that?

With God all things are possible. As I said, God is unimaginable, so far beyond our range of thinking, we can only speculate. I agree theistic evolution opens more problems than it solves.

Issues with taking everything written as literal can become a matter of interpretation. Example: "This is my body. This is my blood." You may take that as literal and I may say figurative.

Guess I typing an answer to your question while you were posting it. We must have been thinking the same thing at the same time.

I don't want to hijack the tread but I have a question.

Is there Scripture that states I have to believe EVERYTHING in the Bible to be saved or will Romans 9:10 cover it?

He could. But that would not be consistent with His character.

However, God is a God of order. For Him to dictate to man His law (God's law) and state "You, man, will work 6 literal days, even though I worked 6 "symbolic days" (which was really millions of years), and they you, man, will rest 1 literal day, even though I rested for 1 "symbolic day" (which was really millions of years)...."

The law given by Moses, written by God, to the people, was clearly understood and accepted as God's literal 6 day creation, and man's literal 6 days of work, and God's 1 literal day of rest, and man's literal 1 day of rest.

God doesn't provide a law just to be oppressive (although He could). He provides a law to teach and instruct and for remembrance.

The first thing God tells us about in His Book, is His creative act. If we are already starting to symbolize, and parse, and question, and infer, etc etc, in chapter 1 of book 1- where do we stop? Every point that is brought up, is brought into question, and is subverted from original meaning and intent. It becomes a worthless book, with no value.

"Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
- the Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans

So you as a man are deeming what order is to God.....nice.

Romans 9:10
10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

Umm, how about Romans 10:9?


Romans 10:9
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

All you have to do, BUT let me ask you this:

What does it mean to confess with thy mouth?
What exactly are you confessing?
What does it mean to "believe in thine heart"?
What is involved in "that God hath raised Him from the dead"?

Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Far from it. I am taking what God has revealed of Himself through the 3 devices that He chose to reveal Himself through, and growing in my knowledge of Who He is.

if evolution from monkeys was true then shouldn't at least a few naked humans walk out of the jungle each year?

So that's a no. lol

That stopped when we got cell phones and could snap pictures.

Evolution just dropped its support of the NRA...

I think by some of what you are saying, you are trying to put God in a box. You said it yourself, "Where do we stop?" Some of your scripture quotes make no sense to the subject matter. What does God's rejection of the gay lifestyle have to do with 6 days?

You are evading my question about a matter of interpretation. Remember? "This is my body. This is my blood."

Lol

When a person is saved - they have no problem believing the Bible because the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to the interpretation of Scripture. I've heard many folks say the Bible is full of contradictions. When I ask them to show me one - they have no answer.

To your question:

2 Timothy 3:16
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness"

I missed the part about having to believe it all, is that what that says?

If you want a contradiction in the Bible Look up Matthew's version of the thieves (Rebels) on the cross and then Look up Luke's version if your faith can withstand 2 differing accounts in God's book.

I apologize, I missed your post, wasn't ignoring it. I'm accustomed to talking these issues out face to face, whether individually or in a group setting, and usually only have 1 respondent at a time.

We have to remember that literary styles are applied to the writing of the Bible. This is why context is king. The book of Psalms for example, is a hymnbook, i.e. poetry. We understand that this style of writing lends to figurative language, but also contains literal usage at the same time.

On the other hand, a book like Joshua or Judges, are a history books. They contain factual accounts, even though at times there are miraculous events that happened, that are beyond human understanding..... that's why they are called "miracles".....

When we read through Scriptures, we must look for grammatical notations that alert us to symbolic language. "Like" and "as", indicate similes. At times, we are given something, and then it is explained. Jesus taught in parables. They were stories that the common person could relate to, but they held a spiritual meaning. A sower went forth to sow- everyone knows about planting seeds. Yet when questioned about it, Jesus gave the true meaning- the seed is the word, the ground is a person's heart. Let him that hath ears, hear.

So, when we come to a passage such as Christ at the last Passover, announcing 'this is my body' and 'this is my blood', we fully understand that He is not speaking literally. The Passover was a memorial celebration of deliverance from Egypt. The lamb that was eaten in the memorial dinners did not deliver from wrath. But it did cause a remembrance of things past, and at the same time foretold a future event of Christ's suffering and death. As the blood of the lamb was applied, and as the lamb was totally consumed, so the Lamb of God would apply His blood and be totally consumed in the process.

Sometimes we have difficult texts and it's hard to understand whether it's literal or symbolic. The book of the Revelation is one in particular. Certain elements are defined as symbolic. Some can be derived from careful examination of the Old Testament, and language and typology used there. Others are still hard to decipher. As Daniel was told when he asked for interpretation, the book is shut until the end times, and then it will be painfully obvious to those at that time.

Our study of such passages should be to take it literal, unless we are clearly instructed otherwise. This is the example that I teach with: When I was young, we had a lesson on end times, and we discussed the 2 prophets that God will send, who will be killed and their bodies will lay in the street for all the world to see for 3 days.

Now, in the early 70s, this is an impossibility. We can't even get one clear channel on the TV, how is the entire world going to see these 2 slain people in real time? The pastor told me, I don't know how it will happen. Maybe God will project it onto the sky for all to see. We just have to believe.

Fast forward to 2018. How much faith do I need now, to believe that something impossible in the early 70s, is now a no brainer? Take your pick: YouTube, Snapchat, Facebook Twitter, all on handheld phones that everyone has. There is no doubt in my mind today that this prophecy will be fulfilled, literally.

Enlighten me. I think one account says both railed on Jesus, and the other account says one did and one repented.

I think the timeline bears out, that early during the crucifixion, both railed on Jesus, but as the events unfolded, one came to the realization of who Jesus was, and repented, and the other continued to rail.

There is only one contradiction in the Bible. It is in Proverbs 17:15

15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.

How can God justify me in my sin, and how can Jesus be condemned (being made sin for us), being the only righteous man that ever lived?
This is why belief in Christ and in His resurrection is so important. The Son of God solves the only contradiction in the Bible.
This is why it's more important to fully understand the wrath that against me, the cost of appeasement, and the payment that was made, than to just nod your head up and down when someone asks you if you really want to go to heaven and to ask Jesus to come into your heart.

They are only different in the way each man perceived the occurrence - not in what happened.
It doesn't say you have to believe it - but one might consider accepting it by faith.
Some folks believe in baptism by sprinkling - some by immersion... I can't find where the thief on the cross next to Jesus was taken down, baptized and then put back on a cross. (How about baptism by the Holy Spirit?)

For the saved Christian - they will seek out any perceived difference in what is written and will find and answer. (Let Scripture interpret Scripture)
We all come by salvation the same way, but we must "work out our own salvation".
Each of us have things, habits etc we need to get rid of - but everyone does not have the same things.
The Holy Spirit may show me something I need for that time in my life, and use the same Scripture to reveal something quite different to someone else.
Do you HAVE to believe it? That's up to you.