I'm on the fence myself. I think the core messages of the Bible--like the 10 Commandments, the virgin birth and crucifixion of Jesus, etc.--need to be taken literally. And when you're getting a direct command--like when God says don't commit murder or don't covet or Paul is saying (under divine guidance) that one should abstain from sexual immorality--then those need to be taken literally. Taking it literally in those instances is the only way to grasp what Christianity really is; otherwise, you end up molding Christianity (and God) into what you want it to be.
Great answer.
Jesus said -
44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me."
Luke 24:44
All of the Old Testament literally happened as was recorded, however those people and those incidents also portray Christ.
These are called shadows and types.
A good example would be the Passover -
They literally sacrificed a literal lamb as God commanded, however this was a "shadow" of what Jesus would do for us on the cross to take away the sin of the world. Read Exodus 12
Likewise Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 10 -
1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples,
and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Corinthians 10:1-11
All the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms are filled with these.
The literal things that happened to those in the Old Testament, paint a spiritual principal for us today.
Aaron was a type of Christ as High Priest.
David was a type of Christ as King.
Peter uses Noah and the flood as a type of Baptism -
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21
There is also an anti-type which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:18-21
So the scriptures are both literal and prophetic [allegorical] in nature.
18 It is good
that you grasp one thing and also
not let go of the other ; for the one who fears God
comes forth with both of them. Ecclesiastes 7:18 NASV
When studying the old testament this way,
take hold of both the literal and the prophetic type that it teaches.
JLB
