Why do you believe everything in the Bible is literally true, as you appear to do?
Floo
I don't think Spud is arguing for a 'literal' truth in these instances (at least as far as dating the Last Judgment, End times etc). What he's doing is promoting an extremely convoluted
interpretation of a number of scriptures. If he were arguing for a literal truth on these matters, then there wouldn't be such a devious distortion of the meaning of such words as "soon", "quickly", in "this generation" etc. We all know what the literal meanings of such words are (and many modern biblical scholars of a critical outlook are quite happy with such literal interpretations here). The reason why fundamentalists and evangelicals are not happy with a literal interpretation of the time-interval involved is that it leads to the horrific implication that
Jesus got it wrong. This fits in with the usual procedure of fundamentalists and evangelicals: unless the scriptures are obviously of a poetic nature such as Psalms and Song of Solomon, they are quite happy to proceed "literally". This brings problems, because contradictions and other anomalies soon arise, and there are many - as you well know. It is then that the whole apparatus of convoluted exegesis and interpretation comes in to play, until the obstacle is explained away, and then the literal reading can continue until the next stumbling block.
So while such Christians certainly believe that all the Bible is
true , it's certainly not the case that it's all a literal truth that's being asserted.