The Bible as Truth

I've recently discovered that there are many Christians who fully believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God and believe it is absolute Truth yet don't believe that all of the Old Testament stories are historical accounts. One of these people reiterates over and over that just because he doesn't believe they actually happened – starting with the story of Creation and including Noah's ark, Jonah and the whale, etc – does not mean that he considers them to be any less Truth. He is a professor that teaches "The Bible at Literature" and explains that the different writing styles used indicate that some stories are historical fact and some are stories used to illustrate Truth.

In the past, I've always believed them to be historical fact because the Bible seems to indicate that they are (on the surface at least, since I don't know much about the styles of writing at this point). At this point, I'm not entirely sure what I believe other than the fact that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. I'm not sure it even matters much, but I do think it's important to know about these issues and what others believe (to me, it is not a salvation issue and therefore should not cause division between believers).

This professor also pointed out that many of the students in his classes come from conservative Christian backgrounds, and those who are homeschooled or attended Christian school are so sheltered from other popular (and unpopular) beliefs that they almost go into shock when they start hearing what other people believe. This is actually one reason we want to homeschool...not to shelter our kids from these things but to explore them with them...talk about different beliefs, why people believe what they do, the evidence for different belief systems and why we believe what we do...allowing them to discover the Truth without being afraid of what other people believe.

Anyway, this post is mostly just rambling because I've been thinking through a lot of this as I read Genesis. One day I hope to get a bunch of books on both sides of the issue and be able to read them and decide for myself.