Double Helix: Our Spiritual DNA – April 16, 2025
Introduction Continued: Two Truths
I get very frustrated when Christians tell me that they “take the Bible literally.” What does that even mean? Sometimes I am afraid that it means conforming the meaning of the Scripture to our human agendas and not the other way around. Sometimes I think that it means reducing the unfathomable meaning of the Word of God to some simple, easily digestible reality that a portion of people seem to have arrogantly assumed. Sometimes I think it is just a way to shut down questioning of any kind. What does the word “literal” even mean in this context?
I take the Bible very seriously. I have devoted my life to its interpretation. But does taking the Bible literally mean that I cannot embrace mystery?
Oxford Languages defines the word literal as “taking words in their most basic sense without metaphor or allegory.” But why would I want to take the words of Scripture in their most basic sense when there are so many more senses to be taking in, so many layers of meaning? Why would I dumb it down and simplify it except perhaps for my own comfort and security?
The Creation stories are true. They tell us deep truths about who we are as a human race, about our relationship to our Creator, why we are always struggling, and how we were designed to care for the earth and its creatures. In order to narrate these deep truths about human existence, the Scripture had to express these truths in the form of two stories and not one, because there are two paradoxical realities that run side by side at the very beginning and that must be told in order to set the stage for our salvation.
1. We are very good.
2. We are struggling.
We know that God made us and yet, the world is somehow not as it should be. People die. All people die. No matter how much you exercise or how much organic food you consume, you will die. And our dying feels wrong. Not only that, but our pain feels wrong. Our broken relationships, our shattered dreams, poverty, war, hatred, violence-all of these things just feel wrong. Why? Because God initially designed us for Eden. We were made to live in love and harmony with one another. Our pain is not part of the original plan. God did not intend for us to struggle.
So there are two stories. One in which we are made, loved and praised. The other in which we are made, estranged and suffer. Both are true and their complexity and their beauty will only be realized as the greater story of Scripture unfolds.
I like this.
We are very good because we are divinely made. We struggle because while we are divinely created we are fully of this earth. We live in a natural order, the order of nature but because we have both divinity and natural elements coursing through us, we experience the cruel and seemingly randomness of life on the earth and try in the brokenness of being human to explain it. To explain what our souls yearn for in the context of our mortality. Thank you for this powerful image to grapple with God and ourselves.