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I have studied and read the Bible and it is full of contradictions. When something is unexplainable it is labeled by Christians as "rhetorical" or "symbolic" Lay people just get the church "dogma" of their denomination. Me, I taught academic religion. It is taught, even in seminary not like Sunday School, but through discussion and debate.
The lay person is given one explanation, but at seminary 2 or more explanations are given and argued for. Who comes up with this symbolic/rhetorical stuff??
Assume that when Jesus said "Father, father why has thou forsaken me?" while he was on cross, is also a rhetorical question. Then it would follow that Jesus the son is asking a rhetorical question of his
Father, who is really just himself, so Jesus is asking himself a rhetorical question. That would make him neurotic. I would like to know who is qualified to judge whether a question asked over 1000 years ago is rhetorical or not.
In similar fashion when there is something in the Bible that disagrees with what they want it to mean, they say it's rhetorical or symbolic. Here is why Christians have trouble with such explanations--then everything could be called into question and said to be merely symbolic or
rhetorical.
For example, when Jesus says, "Me and the Father are one", perhaps this is also rhetorical. The majority of Christians interprets this to mean Jesus is God. However, it makes more logical sense that Jesus is saying that his philosophy is the same as that of God
The lay person is given one explanation, but at seminary 2 or more explanations are given and argued for. Who comes up with this symbolic/rhetorical stuff??
Assume that when Jesus said "Father, father why has thou forsaken me?" while he was on cross, is also a rhetorical question. Then it would follow that Jesus the son is asking a rhetorical question of his
Father, who is really just himself, so Jesus is asking himself a rhetorical question. That would make him neurotic. I would like to know who is qualified to judge whether a question asked over 1000 years ago is rhetorical or not.
In similar fashion when there is something in the Bible that disagrees with what they want it to mean, they say it's rhetorical or symbolic. Here is why Christians have trouble with such explanations--then everything could be called into question and said to be merely symbolic or
rhetorical.
For example, when Jesus says, "Me and the Father are one", perhaps this is also rhetorical. The majority of Christians interprets this to mean Jesus is God. However, it makes more logical sense that Jesus is saying that his philosophy is the same as that of God