Is it true that when the Bible says it, then it must be taken literally? (pls read b4 answering)?

The Flat Earth Society is, you guessed it, a group that believes that the Earth is an unmoving flat disc that situated on pillars, has corners, ends and edges, and the Sun, moon, stars, and planets moves around the Earth, explaining sunsets and sun rises, and they claim that their belief is true because it is written in the Bible...



I'm a Catholic, but I don't take the Bible completely literally like the Flat Earth Society does, I'm not saying that the Bible shouldn't be believed, but it should be taken both literally and metaphorically, anyway, these are the Biblical references that the Flat Earth Society thinks supports the notion of a flat Earth:



Isaiah 40:22: It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth...

Isaiah 11:12: ...the four corners of the earth.

Revelation 7:1: ...I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth...

Job 38:13: That it might take hold of the ends of the earth...

Jeremiah 16:19: ...the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth...

Daniel 4:11: The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.

Psalm 93:1 and Psalm 96:10: ...the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved.

Psalm 104:5: Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

Job 9:6: Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

Job 38:4: Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Job 37:3: He directeth it under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth.

Job 28:24: For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;.

1 Samuel 2:8: for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them.

Ecclesiastes 1:5: The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.Is it true that when the Bible says it, then it must be taken literally? (pls read b4 answering)?
Hebrew was an underdeveloped language to express things like globe. The language had no way of expressing even simple things like two hundred or two thousand.



If you go by "4 corners", can we have four directions on a globe? These are figures of expression and speech.



"Heaven" in the old testament is just sky!



.
The Flat earth society long since went to heaven. The modern version is a tongue in cheek organisation.



The Bible does not support the idea of a flat earth anyway, although the shape of the earth is irrelevant to that spiritual book.Is it true that when the Bible says it, then it must be taken literally? (pls read b4 answering)?
Even C.S. Lewis, long a favorite among literalist-minded fundies, said, "The Bible is far too serious a book to take it literally."



Fundamentalists are fundamentally dangerous.
%26lt;%26lt;is it true that when the Bible says it, then it must be taken literally?%26gt;%26gt;



No, it isn't.



The Bible is actually a library of books. Some books are literal, some are allegory, some are historical, etc.Is it true that when the Bible says it, then it must be taken literally? (pls read b4 answering)?
Not everything is to be taken literally.

It is helpful to think.
if only "christians" would take literally jesus when he said, 'i have one commandment, to love one another." that's be sweet.
No, The bible is not suppose to be taken literally. The stories are to be used as an example.
a close reading of the old and New Testament will make you aware of the enormous inconsistencies within that book.
many religious people violate the law of contradiction when it comes to the bible
joke books are for kids
Sounds like they need to apply Biblical Hermeneutics to their interpretation of the Bible. These are foundational keys that teach when to interpret literally, and when to interpret figuratively, among many other things. There are a lot of other "flat earth" mentality beliefs still in existence today, because people don't use Biblical Hermeneutics.
Isaiah 40:22 shows that the earth is a circle or round, not flat.



I keep reading about the "Flat Earth Society" in stuff written by those who don't believe the Bible, but I've never been invited to attend a meeting.



Next time you go, please invite me.



The thing is, I don't believe that there is or ever was a, "Flat Earth Society".
%26lt;%26lt;is it true %26lt;snip%26gt; in the Bible...%26gt;%26gt;



The Flat Earth Society is what happens when people make the mistake of thinking they can Interpret the Bible for themselves.

ONLY the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church ONLY has the God-given Authority to Interpret the Bible.



Why only the Catholic Church? One only has to look at the Flat Earth Society for a glimpse of the idiocy that mankind is capable of when presuming authority rather than having it bestowed from Above.





%26lt;%26lt;I'm a Catholic, but I don't take the Bible completely literally like the Flat Earth Society does, I'm not saying that the Bible shouldn't be believed, but it should be taken both literally and metaphorically, anyway, these are the Biblical references that the Flat Earth Society thinks supports the notion of a flat Earth.%26gt;%26gt;



The Bible is not merely one book but a whole library of books. We get the word 'bible' from 'biblia' which means 'library'.



When reading ANY book, not just Scripture, one has to take into account the intended meaning of the author, both the earthly author as well as the Divine Author.

We do this automatically - and without question - when it comes to reading pretty much anything other than the Bible.

For some reason, all of a sudden, whenever picking up and reading Scripture, people get this wacky idea that it's THEIR PERSONAL "interpretation" that is the 'valid' one - forget all about the earthly author and Divine Author's intended meaning!



So how do we know what the Divine Author intends? That's one of many reasons God has given us the Church, so that the Truth can be imparted on us.
No, The Flat Earth Society are a group of mislead individuals ignorant of what the Word of Almighty God (The Tree of Life and Light, the Christian Bible) truly reveals. The Word of God has seven meanings. B2p257

1. Literal

2. Homiletical (sermon)

3. Mystery of Wisdom.

4. Numerical values.

5. Hidden mysteries.

6. Deeper Mysteries

7. Laws of: fit and unfit, forbidden and permitted, clean and unclean.

Remember what you allow yourself to think, see, hear, say and do literally set into motion God’s

creative powers that form the matrix of life’s reality you find yourself now walking so be circumspect,

putting your mind, eyes, ears and tongue on what is good, positive and constructive.



TGM Moderator
You're not supposed to take it literally "all" the time. If so, then we would take revelations literally when it is clearly allegory/metaphorical/etc. The verses you've provided can all be explained rather simply this way.

Isaiah 40:22 - They use "circle" in the bible because there wasn't a word for "sphere" back in that time, therefore they settled for a simplistic description. It doesn't mean they didn't know it was round

Isaiah 11:12 - That's metaphorical in representation of a compass rose

Revelation 7:1 - (Same answer above)

Job 38:13 - Metaphor

Jeremiah 16:19 - Metaphor

Daniel 4:11 - Rhetorical hyperbole representing kingdom growth

Psalm 93:1 %26amp; 96:10 - This is describing that the earth cannot be "removed nor destroyed" by its enemies, not that it cannot physically move, like through space.

Psalm 104:5 - (Same as above)

Job 9:6 - "Pillars" is an error in translation, another translation is "foundations" which fits perfectly

Job 38:4 - God is talking to Job as a parent talks to a child. He is asking rhetorical questions that He knows Job cannot answer. Read Job to gain an understanding of why.

Job 37:3 - Metaphor

Job 28:24 - Metaphor

Job 28:24 - Metaphor

1 Samuel 2:8 - Again, pillars is an error in translation, substitute for foundations.

Ecclesiastes - I fail to see the issue in this verse.
There could be some excuse for thinking so a few centuries back, but to continue doing so now when there is prima facie evidence to the contrary (pictures from space, the ability to personally circumnavigate the planet with relative ease, etc.) is the utmost in self-delusion.
Surely they take their name in irony . . . I sincerely hope so.



It is He that sitteth on the circle of the earth -- the word "circle" is more accurately translated "sphere," I am told, though I am not a scholar of ancient Hebrew.



The four corners of the earth . . . this is a saying time out of mind referring to the farthest places of the earth -- all of them -- coined by people living in square houses and tents (as indeed most of us do, too). The ends of the earth is the same. The bible was scribed by humans, and when God spoke to them, He spoke in language they would relate to. The ancient Hebrews were masters of metaphor. I, too, love metaphor and find it a superior tool of communication, but not to the literal minded children of this forum, apparently.



World established so that it cannot be moved . . . well, can YOU move it? Yes, it moves, but not from its place. The world is always precisely in its place, wherever that might be at the moment. It is a clockwork universe. Once in a while you see something out of the ordinary, but for the great, great, great majority of the time, everything moves peacefully (or not so peacefully) in its orbit. Scientists can predict the movement of the stars and planets far into the past and the future with near perfect accuracy. Job 9:6 appears to refer to earthquakes, which are not uncommon in the biblical lands.



We still speak of the sun rising and setting, yet we know full well that this phenomenon is caused by the earth's movement. Yet it works better to say it thus -- much more economical, and the vast majority understand it perfectly.



When I was a child, I read how Jesus told John (Revelation) that members of a certain church would be rewarded by being made into pillars of the temple. This frightened me. Now that I am no longer a child, I don't take these things literally.
Well it's just a question of interpretation, because you also have many literalists who allege that there is mention of a round earth in the Bible. They emphasized this a lot, saying it proves the advanced knowledge of the Bible writers. See: http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Scient…



In general Catholics take the Bible both literally and metaphorically, it depends of the text (so your case is perfectly normal).This is something that protestant in general do not appreciate, because they don't see how it is possible to determine when to take it metaphorically or not.

I personally think that it doesn't make sense to take it literally as many authors succeded, copies were made of copies, so that the various texts you have in the OT for instance have been modified a lot of time. Moreover the writers often had some kind of social or political agenda. You can't rely on everything in the Bible.



But know that most literalists see scientific discoveries in the Bible's texts, like roundness of the earth and other things...



I also want to add that the verses the FES thinks prove a flat earth are not relevant, because "four corners" can simply mean "the four directions", "the end of the earth" can simply mean "the horizon line"... Plus "circle" was the same as "sphere" in Hebrew.
1 Corinthians 2:14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.



The four corners of the earth are North, East, West and South. Not actual corners of a square. Your first verse claims it as a circle. The bible is to be taken literal even though it uses symbols like the fig tree to describe Israel. It seems like it is incomplete or contridicts itself but God intended it to be cross referenced. Isaiah and the Psalms explain the gospels. Daniel and Ezekiel explain Revelations. Psalms 104, 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Timothy 2 explains Genesis 1-3. There are always 2 or more witnesses for each passage. That is why there are 4 gospels.



2 Corinthians 13:1 In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.