No man … ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means.
I once read in a Bible commentary that the word "Christian" means "little Christs." What an honor to share Christ's name! We can be bold to call ourselves Christians and bear the stamp of his character and reputation. When people find out the you are a Christian, they should already have an idea of who you are and what you are like simply because you bear such a precious name.
If you want to know what Jesus meant by what Jesus said, pay attention to that Jesus did.
The Bible, of course, is not a theology book. It is certainly not a philosophy book. So we have to derive the meaning of terms from the context in use.
And the Bible is not primarily a book of history. It is "His story," the story of God.
Yes, I think that when the Bible refers to a horse or a horseman, that's exactly what it means.
One of the core ideas of the Bible is that meaning can be found in history. The sheer act of telling and retelling stories helps us to understand God's role in the world as well as our own position in a long line of ancestors who have wrestled with similar issues to the ones we wrestle with every day.
As Luke 24 shows, it's possible to read the Bible, study the Bible, and memorize large portions of the Bible, while missing the whole point of the Bible.
The word "wilderness" occurs approximately three hundred times in the Bible, and all its meanings are derogatory.
The primary and literal meaning of the Bible, then, is its centripetal or poetic meaning.
