Can you believe in God without literally believing every word in the Bible?
English Transcript:
Jesus said, "I am the door." I think that's some kind of metaphor, right? He doesn't mean that he swings on hinges. When it says that the earth was created in six days, does that mean six periods of 24 hours? Might it mean something else? If somebody tells you, "You need to believe all that stuff literally or you can't believe in God. You can't believe in Jesus," you can tell them they're wrong because there are plenty people who can debate some of these things— debate the age of the earth, debate whether, uh, Job of Jonah are poetic or literal— these can't be the deal-breakers. I mean, if, if, if that's what is driving somebody away from experiencing the God of love who wants to bless them and help them with their life, and.... I mean, if that's what's keeping you away, don't let that— that's like, ridiculous. If God says it happened literally, okay, then I'll say, "It happened literally." Jesus walked around literally. He rose from the dead literally. There are things that you have to take literally, but there are poetic forms, there are things that are said in Scripture which are not meant to take literally in that sense, and if you think that you have to check your brain at the door and you have to believe that all that stuff happened literally or you can't possibly be a Christian, I would say, uh, "I don't think that is true." I would, I would be really careful about letting some weird, uh, thing like that keep you from, from, uh, from believing the Bible is true, and again true, not literal, but true. I think that, um, intelligent people who believe the Bible can have disagreements in conversations on this, and they're fun but they, they shouldn't be the thing that keeps you from God because God is real and, uh, you kind of don't want to miss that.
Spanish Transcript:
La Curiosidad Colectiva
Jesús dijo: Yo soy la puerta. Creo que esa es una especie de metáfora, ¿cierto? Él no quiso decir que es un vaivén en bisagras. ¿Se debe tomar la Biblia literalmente? Cuando dice que la tierra fue creada en seis dÃas, ¿se refiere eso a seis perÃodos de 24 horas? ¿PodrÃa significar algo más? Si alguien te dice que necesitas creer todo eso literalmente, sino no puedes creer en Dios, o no puedes creer en Jesús, puedes decirles que están equivocados, porque hay muchas personas que pueden debatir algunas de estas cosas, debatir la edad del tierra, debatir si Job o Jonás son poemas u obras literales. Ésto no puede ser lo que rompa tu fe. Es decir, si eso está alejando a alguien de experimentar al Dios de amor que quiere bendecirlos y ayudarles con su vida... Es decir, si eso es lo que te aleja, no permitas, eso es ridÃculo. Si Dios dice que pasó literalmente, está bien, entonces voy a decir que pasó literalmente. Jesús caminó entre nosotros. Literalmente se levantó de entre los muertos. Literalmente hay cosas que debes tomar literalmente. Pero hay formas poéticas, hay cosas que son expresadas en las Escriturs que no están destinadas a ser tomadas, literalmente, en ese sentido, y si crees que que debes comprobarlo y debes creer que todo eso sucedido, literalmente, o no puedes ser cristiano, yo dirÃa: no creo que eso sea cierto. Yo serÃa muy cuidadoso sobre permitir que algunas cosas extrañas como esas eviten que creas que la Biblia es verdadera —y de nuevo, verdadera, no literal, pero verdadera—. Creo que personas inteligentes que creen en la Biblia pueden tener desacuerdos en conversaciones sobre esto, y son divertidos pero no debe ser lo que te aleja de Dios, porque Dios es real y tú no querrás perderte eso.