Literal vs. Figurative
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Here is the Christian world professing to believe the Bible, can you show me wherein any of the predictions of the prophets, whether those of Jonah to the city of Nineveh, or those of Isaiah to Israel, or to Tyre and Sidon and other ancient cities and peoples, have fallen unfulfilled? No, there is no man can point to a single prophecy of the servants of God that has failed in its fulfillment. Does not the Christian world know that the Bible is full of revelation pointing to this day and age of the world? Let them read the revelations of St. John given him while upon the Isle of Patmos and they will know what judgments await this generation before the coming of the Son of Man. There is a work for somebody to perform. But when we undertake to declare in all seriousness that God has anything to do with the work in which we are engaged they will laugh you in the face, and the reason is, they have departed from God and are entirely unable to comprehend his ways or his purposes; and instead of believing the plain and literal meaning of the word of God, they spiritualize it to suit themselves.
Elder Wilford Woodruff
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Key Six: Rightly Distinguish between Literal and Figurative Passages This is difficult to do, it requires considerable experience and discernment, and it surely rates as a three or a four. In general we are safer in taking things literally, although the scriptures abound in figurative matters. Literal occurrences include speaking with God face to face as a man speaketh with his friend; man’s being made in the image of God, both physically and spiritually; the coming of Christ as the Only Begotten in the flesh; the Lord Jesus himself dwelling in Enoch’s Zion; His personal reign during the Millennium; the resurrection of all men from the dead with corporeal bodies of flesh and bones; and so on. Figurative matters include Enoch’s walking with God, the Lord Jehovah dwelling with ancient Israel, Christ being the living bread that came down from heaven, eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the sacramental ordinance, and so on. Teaching Seminary: Preservice Readings [2004]. Supplement, A Symposium on the
Elder Bruce R. McConkie
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