@josephw

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And all the metaphors, allegories, idioms, parables and figures of speech are about realities.

For example; the Bible says that Satan can appear as an angel of light. What does that mean? Consider the context in which it appears.

2 Corinthians 11:12-15
But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Abstractions right?

So it is with the idea of a serpent. But who knows, perhaps Satan inhabited the body of a snake and spoke to Eve. Devils were cast into a herd of swine. Real devils. Real swine. Maybe a real snake.

Who knows? We're a long way from the environment that existed before the entrance of corruption that pervades the world we know today, and we are far from what Adam was in his genius.

Now it seems we sit around and bitch at each other about things we really know very little about, trying to cypher out its meaning and purpose.

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I'll overlook the grammatical error of that sentence. 😒

There was a literal serpent. It's name is Satan, and he spoke to Eve, in a literal garden.

@josephw said
There was a literal serpent. It's name is Satan, and he spoke to Eve, in a literal garden.

The serpent was allegorical, surely, and not literally a serpent, right?

@josephw said
I'll overlook the grammatical error of that sentence. 😒

There was a literal serpent. It's name is Satan, and he spoke to Eve, in a literal garden.

We have literal evidence that we evolved from more primitive creatures (even if you only go back a few million years). Was Eve therefore such a primitive creature?

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A conceptual error on your part, again.

A "tree of life", not a tree that "gives" life.

You stumble cognitively because you spiritualize the narrative. A real man and woman, real animals, real earth, sun, moon and stars, trees too. Vegetables to eat, and fruit.

If you think the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is anything other than a literal tree, please tell what you think it is referring to, whether metaphorically or otherwise.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
We have literal evidence that we evolved from more primitive creatures (even if you only go back a few million years).

No you don't. If you had solid evidence it would be demonstrable.

@fmf said
The serpent was allegorical, surely, and not literally a serpent, right?

I've seen serpents. They're real snakes.

God is real. Creation and everything in it is real, except what's not.

Satan is a real being. The term "serpent" is applied to Satan in the narrative of a real event that occurred in the real garden of Eden.

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It's all very real, and will really happen in a real world, in real life, just as the scriptures say.

You're so hung up on the words that you can't understand the interpretation, meaning and application of them in practical reality.

Did Jesus turn the water into wine? Did Jesus walk on the water?
Did God raise Jesus from the dead?

Are there things in existence that you can't see or hear?

Revelation gives descriptions of things not perceptible by the physical senses, but have very real applications in the very real world we live in. You can count on it all coming to pass.