I put doors in your trees

If you are searching for a natural way to combat acid reflux all you need is a gallon of Aloe Vera juice! Don’t worry it only tastes like battery acid and bear urine!

So today I am thinking about the Bible as symbolic poetry?
I am mostly thinking about it with a profound since of disappointment.

I just got done reading and writing a book review for, In the Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen. Theissen goal in writing this book is to create a fictional narrative in which the reader will gain a better understanding of the historical context of Jesus’ life and ministry. He tells the story through the eyes of a Jewish upper class merchant who finds himself in the middle of Rome and the Jewish Zealots and meets Jesus somewhere in the middle. Gerd Theissen is a well respected New Testament scholar and I guess writing a fictional story about someone in the time of Jesus isn’t necessarily a career builder. So he is very careful to differentiate between historical fact and fiction. Which he does well and I respect. What disappointed me was the way he diminished the divinity and miraculous nature of Jesus and the events surrounding Him. For instance there is a scene in the book where Andreas is watching the crucifixion of Christ from afar and his servant says this,
“If the sun could see and feel as we do, it would go dark for grief. If the earth could feel, it would quake with anger.”

And then Theissen goes on to say,
“But the sun did not go dark, and the earth remained at rest. It was a normal day and the darkness was only in me. Only in me did the foundations of life shake.”

The Gospel of Matthew puts it this way:

“From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"… At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

Do we loose anything if this only poetical symbolism?

Maybe we don’t loose anything or maybe we loose everything.
I’m certainly not content with this being symbolic.

Theissen said that it was just a normal day. Maybe it was but I doubt it.

Little did they know that it was anything but a normal day. It was the day that was sealed before the foundation of the world. Jesus was never plan B. He was always the way.

“Even more astonishing and confirming of the truth of this is that in the Jewish Scriptures 700 years before the crucifixion of Jesus, the death of Jesus is described like this: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6). His death was punishment for sin. But not his own. The crucifixion of Jesus is precious to those who believe, because by that death we are ransomed from sin and guilt and condemnation and hell, and given eternal life. This is what Jesus came to accomplish: eternal life for all who believe. This is why he was crucified. It was public, painful, planned, punishment (for us!) and precious.” –John Piper

I choose to believe that these things happened the way the writers of the Gospels said they happened. I am sure to be thought a fool for taking the scripture so literal. All I can do is trust in the supremacy of Christ and His Holy Word.