Figurative Language in the Bible, and Q&A

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/01/24), Hank shares his thoughts on hermeneutics, focusing particularly on metaphors in the Bible.

Hank also answers the following questions:

Is Jesus the same as Jehovah? Cliff - Calgary, AB (7:24)
Is the description of heaven in Revelation figurative? Can you explain the Nephilim? Sharon - Grand Prairie, TX (15:12)
What is your position on speaking in tongues according to 1 Corinthians 14:16-18? Tamara - Broken Arrow, OK (19:23)
I had a near-death experience, was what I saw real? Tyrell - Memphis, TN (22:48)

Episode Transcript

(00:07):
You're just in time for the Bibleanswer Man broadcast with Hank Anagraph, the
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(00:29):
to order resources or donate, calleight eight eight seven thousand CROI or go
online to equip dot org. Thefollowing program was pre recorded. Now here's
the President of the Christian Research Institute, Hank Canagraph. Thank very much.
Randy will go to your calls injust a moment. But I have sent

(00:50):
something for a while, and ithas been pressed upon my mind, and
that is the confusion within the Bodyof Christ with respect to the language of
the Bible. And so I thoughtit might be important for me to define
some of the terms that we usewhen we talk about reading the Bible for

(01:14):
all its worth or mining the Biblefor all its wealth. The figurative language
of the Bible turns out to bethe principle means by which God communicates spiritual
realities to his children. In otherwords, God communicates spiritual realities through means
of earthly, empirically perceptible events,persons, or objects what might best be

(01:41):
described as living metaphors. But whatis a metaphor? I again sense a
tremendous amount of confusion within the Bodyof Christ on matters such as this.
A metaphor is an implied comparison,and biblically, it is an implied comparison

(02:01):
that identifies a word or phrase withsomething that it does not literally represent,
and far from minimizing biblical truth,metaphors serve as magnifying glasses that identify truth
we might otherwise miss. This isso important to grasp. A lot of

(02:24):
people will say, look, ifyou think the Bible contains metaphors, you're
not taking the Bible literally, andthat is literally far from the truth.
In fact, metaphors are identifying truthwe might otherwise miss, and that identification

(02:46):
creates a meaning that lies beyond awoodenly literal interpretation and requires an imaginative leap
to grasp what is being driven ator what is being meant by the text.
For example, when you Jesus saysI'm the bread of life, he's
obviously not saying that he is literallythe staff of life or literally physical bread.

(03:09):
Rather, he is metaphorically communicating thatHe is the stuff of life,
the essence of true life, andtherefore to taste and see that the Lord
is good is hardly cannibalistic. Biblicalmetaphors are never regarded as occasions for subjective

(03:30):
flights of fancy. No, they'realways objectively meaningful, authoritative, and above
all true. And there's a greatdanger in misinterpreting the metaphors of the Bible.
If you do, you're going tothink that, for example, the
intermediate heaven is a physical place,and some think exactly that that when we

(03:54):
leave this body will get another body. No, the Bible talk about the
intermediate heaven as being away from thebody, being in a disembodied state.
And yet people use the metaphors ofthe Bible in such a way that they
come to the conclusion, no,it is really a physical state. Now,

(04:15):
heaven will be a physical state whenJesus appears a second time, but
it is not now a physical stateupon death, that is the unnatural rending
of body and soul. When Jesusappears the second time, the soul returns
to the body. But yet peoplewill argue, well, look doesn't revelation
depict departed saints dressed in fine linen, and therefore, because they're wearing white,

(04:42):
fine linen robes, they must havebodies. And are there not golden
bulls full of incense in heaven?And what about the golden lamp stands?
In fact, one Christian author goesso far as to point out that the
transitional heaven must be physical because inscripture the apostle John is said to have
grasped, held, eaten, tastedthings there, including a little scroll that

(05:08):
tasted as sweet as honey. Soof course the transitional heaven is a physical
place, right, well, nowrong, Because it is crucial to recognize
that God often communicates spiritual realities throughmeans of earthly, empirically perceptible objects and

(05:30):
events. So the eating of scrollsthat taste like honey would be an example,
And even though the example is unreal, it provides us with a means
by which to ponder reality and bythe way getting back to the fine linen,
bright and clean, This should notfor a moment be taken as proof

(05:53):
positive that the transitional heaven is amaterial context in which a bride is dressed
in physical cloth, because as thetext itself may explain, fine linen stands
for the righteous acts of the saints. Likewise, the golden lamp stands represent
the seven churches, and the goldenbulls represent the prayers of the saints.

(06:16):
Now this is not just my interpretation. This is the interpretation that John actually
provides for us. So it ishard to miss his meaning. When the
Bible speaks of God's throne is flamingwith fire, we intuitively recognize that an
implied comparison once again is in view. Likewise, when we read of lamps

(06:43):
of fire before God's throne, weapprehend there's more going on than mere fire.
Indeed, as John explains, thelamps of fire are the seven spirits
of God. The point here,once again is simply to recognize that the
Bible uses metaphorical language, and itdoes so such that we understand a greater

(07:09):
spiritual truth. Again, I've writtenabout this in various places, including my
book The Apocalypse Code, which isavailable through the ministry of the Christian Research
Institute. You can check it outof the web at equip dot org.
A lot of you hanging on,We'll go right to the phone lines first
up, as Cliff in Calgary,Alberta, Canada. High Cliff, Hi

(07:31):
Hank, thanks so much for takingmy call today. I'm doing a study
in the nature of the One TrueGod in relationship to the Jehovah's witnesses,
and in doing so, I'm goingback and forth between Old Testament scripture and
New Testament scriptures, and I'm findingthat there are scriptures in the Old Testament
that speak about the Lord per se. I mean, I don't have a
Greek Bible here, but anyway,but some of the same clients that they're

(07:54):
saying in the Old Testament, alsoChrist makes those claims or they're set about
him in the New Testament. Forexample, in Isaiah forty four twenty four,
he says, thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that
formed thee from the womb. Iam the Lord that maketh all things that
stretches forth the heavens, and Istretch forth the heavens alone. And then

(08:15):
of course, in the Gospel ofJohn chapter one, verse three, all
things were made by Him, andwithout him was not anything made that was
made. So my question is,is Jesus considered to be Jehovah in the
Old Testament or is there a correlationthere? Yeah, there is. In
fact, Jehovah actually is a wayof saying Yahweh, and Yahweh is a

(08:37):
way of saying y hwh This isthe Tetragramatan in the Old Testament, or
the unspeakable four letters. And thereason they're unspeakable is because they represent the
name of God, and God isconsidered altogether holy and separate and to be

(08:58):
revered above, and therefore even speakinghis name was thought to be something that
we could only do with fear andtrembling, and to take his sacred name
upon our lips must indeed be oneof the weightiest matters one could imaginably conceive
of. So the name Yahweh carrieswith it the concept of eternal or self

(09:24):
existence, and therefore it is away of referring to the Holy One of
Israel. But as related to yourquestion, what's very interesting is that it's
actually used or applied for Christ inthe New Testament. For example, in
Romans ten thirteen, calling on Yahwehand calling on Jesus Christ, or you

(09:48):
might say, calling on Jehovah andcalling on Jesus Christ are equated, demonstrating
of course that Jesus Christ is God. But there are many examples, and
you've noted some. There are others, like the apostle John in the same
book that you referred to. Youcan go to the twelfth chapter where he
wrote that Isaiah saw the glory ofJesus, and the glory of Jesus,

(10:11):
therefore, along with the glory ofGod, are made to be equivalent.
Yeah, because you know, I'mjust trying to formulate in my mind how
to talk to them. But thisis a bit of a kind of a
revelation for me because I think yousometimes when you read in the Old Testament,
you're not really thinking that the Lordas thirty is Jesus Christ that they're
speaking of there. But I thinkyou know that feel like you get a

(10:35):
bit of a revelation for me personally. Yeah, sometimes when the Angel of
the Lord is used, for example, Angel of the Lord, it is
a way of speaking about a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. Well,
thank you so much. Heals alot, you got it. Thank you
so much for your call. We'llbe right back in just a moment with
more answers to your questions. Righthere on the Bible instrument broadcast. Are

(10:58):
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(11:22):
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(13:00):
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(14:03):
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(15:11):
Talk next to Sharon and Grand Prairie, Texas Series XEM one thirty one.
Hi Sharon, Hey, thank youtaking my call. I appreciation to
see I ask my question in andhang out because I'm really I'd like to
know if the Heaven, the goldsheets and the progates, and the description

(15:35):
in the Bible about how how manyof our wife it is and how how
the vaults are is that figurative andit's it's so, why did God give
us those details if it wasn't youknow, a literal place? Yeah,
okay. Well, first of all, as far as the description of Heaven
and Revelation Chapter twenty one is concerned, it is described in a particular way,

(16:00):
not to tell us what Heaven lookslike, but rather to tell us
what Heaven is like. It's veryanalogous to Jesus being described as a lion
in a lamb. He's not describedas a lion in a lamb because he
looks like a lion, or helooks like a lamb, but because that

(16:21):
imagery is pregnant with meaning. Youthink immediately of the lion of the tribe
of Judah, or you think aboutthe Lamb who is slain before the foundations
of the world. So that imagerytells us something about Jesus that we might
miss if the metaphor wasn't used.And this is true as well with the
cube shaped New Jerusalem. If youread popular books, it's not uncommon to

(16:47):
see Heaven described as a translucent cube, and it measures fifteen hundred miles in
each direction. And some of theauthors will tell us exactly how many people
they estimate will be saved, andtherefore how many acres each one of us
will have in the cube shaped NewJerusalem floating around somewhere. But this is

(17:08):
not at all what is meant.They're simply missing the point. And just
as if they were going through somekind of vivid description of the hair that
Jesus has because he is a lion. I mean, it is just outrageous
when you read modern day Christian booksin this regard. Again, the imagery

(17:30):
even casual readers of the Bible shouldbe intimately acquainted with. So the imagery
of gold, precious stones, pearls, their luminous beauty is repugnant when associated
with the extreme wickedness of a hartlit city, glittering with gold and precious
stones and pearls, and yet it'sresplendent when associated with extravagant wisdom and wealth

(17:56):
of the Holy City coming down tothe Heaven from God, Harlot's city is
an obvious parody of the Holy City. And this is likewise the case when
it comes to Heaven's description as acube. Its measurement is not only parodied
by the length and width of MysteryBabylon the ancient Roman Empire, but as
with the cube shape of the Holyof Holies in which Jehovah dwelled, Jerusalem

(18:22):
imagined as a cube, will foreverbe the dwelling place of God. And
that's why John says, now thedwelling of God is with men, and
He will live with them. Theywill be his people, and God himself
will be with them and be theirGod. Again, reading the imagery and
the sense in which it's intended isso critical. Even when the wall is

(18:45):
described as being twelve times twelve onehundred and forty four cubits thick by man's
measurement which the angel is using,even that has incredible meaning. You think
of twelve times twelve, for example, the twelve Apostles of the Lamb of
the twelve Tribes of Israel, whichare mentioned just previous to this measurement being

(19:07):
given in Revelation chapter twenty one.So again it's important to read the scripture
in the sense in which it's intended. And I lay all of this out
of my book The Apocalypse Code,find out what the Bible really says about
the end times and why it matterstoday. Back to the phone lines.
We'll talk to Tamra next in BrokenArrow, Oklahoma. High Tamera, Hi,

(19:27):
Hank, how are you good?Thank you? I've heard you speak
on tongues before, speaking and prayingin tongues. Unfortunately only catch bits and
pieces, but every time I do. The passage in One Corinthians fourteen,

(19:48):
where is it Paul is talking abouttongues and speaking and praying in tongues,
And I just wonder what your positionis? Am I misunderstanding your position?
What what do you see as tongue'splace in a Christian's life? Well,
you know, in First Grinthas chapterfourteen, he's talking about propriety in terms

(20:12):
of the use of tongues, andhe's there saying that if someone is speaking
in another language and there's no interpretation, tongue of course being equivalent to another
language. And if there's no interpretation, then people listening are going to think
you're nuts. You know, you'rebabbling incoherently, So there has to be
an interpretation. And then with theinterpretation, tongues then will serve the same

(20:37):
purpose as prophecy, which is tosay, not foretelling the future, but
forthtelling. In other words, tonguesthen becomes equivalent to strengthening, equipping,
edifying, encouraging the body of Christ. So someone speaking therefore is impacting the
body of Christ, because everybody understandswhat is being said. So if there

(21:00):
are various languages being spoken within thecontext of the worship service, they should
be interpreted. But even that hasto be done with propriety such that it
doesn't lead to confusion. And Paulputs a limit on how many different languages
should be spoken within the context ofpropriety within worship. So again, all

(21:21):
of this is with respect to proprietyand worship. And we shouldn't suppose necessarily
that because the gift operated there,that it's going to operate normatively. Now,
the reason being that at Pentecost therewas a unification of people so that
the Gospel might go out throughout theworld, whereas at Babbel there was a

(21:42):
diffusion of tongues or languages because peoplewere trying to enable themselves through a humanistic
enterprise as opposed to resting on thearm of God Almighty. So you have
the inverse going on Pentecost that youhad going on at the Tower of Babel,

(22:03):
and again it becomes really important torecognize that this is a non normative
event that we wouldn't consider to bethe norm in our present epic. In
fact, Azusa Street with the PentecostalAwakening, a lot of people tried to
go to foreign lands's missionaries without learningthe languages. They just thought they would

(22:25):
have the gift of speaking in othertongues. It didn't work out quite that
way, and therefore they had tocome back and if they wanted to pursue
their mission enterprise, they had tolearn the language and then go back to
the country, which many of themdid to their credit. I've written about
this in various places, including theComplete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition, available
through the Ministry of the Christian ResearchInstitute. You can order online at Equipped

(22:47):
dot Org. I want to goback to the phone lines. Now we'll
talk to Terrell in Memphis, Tennessee. Hi, Terrell, Hello, good,
thank you, You're welcome. Iwould want to ask a question about
the near deafence sense. See.Four years ago, I was shot in
the face of the twelve gage.I was twenty two years of age when

(23:08):
I got shot, and I wasin the hospital of three months. Two
of those months I was in acoma, and during a coma, I've
seen heavy and I believe well,since I didn't, I wouldn't say it
at that time, but as Igot out to it, I gotta say,
I've seen New Jerusalem. Saw tosay, well, my pastor had

(23:30):
been telling me I seen New Jerusalemand it was still with a lot of
glory and everything, and I waswondering, can you can you go through
that? Is that possible? Well, here's what I would say. You
didn't experience biological deaths because you're stillalive. So you experienced what is called
a clinical death. And there's adifference between being almost dead or being in

(23:52):
a coma and being biologically dead.Secondly, you had an experience, and
that experience is real, but weare always called by scripture to test all
things in light of the Word ofGod, and then to hold fast that
which is good. So experiences shouldnever be the test for truth. We

(24:14):
should always test experiences. And Ican tell you, having studied near death
experiences on a broad base, thatuniformly what you will find as everyone has
a different experience. Now there aresome similarities, but the recollections of what
the New Jerusalem looks like are uniformlydifferent. And logically we can say on

(24:36):
the basis of that that they canall be wrong, but they can all
be right. Secondly, you haveto understand that when we die, now
we are absent the body present theLord. As believers, we are no
longer physically involved because our body isburied and our soul goes to be with

(24:57):
the Lord and there. Now,for the New Jerusalem at present is a
person. It is not a physicalplace. Souls do not have physicality,
they don't have extension in space,so we're not talking about a physical location.
We're talking in relational terms. So, as Jesus described it, when

(25:21):
Lazarus died, he was carried bythe angels to Abraham's bosom, and there
he was comforted, and so itis a place of comfort. But when
Jesus appears the second time, thenthe new Jerusalem will come down out of
heaven from God, prepared as abride, beautifully adorned for a husband.
Then the dwelling of God will bewith men, and he will live with

(25:42):
them. And that, of courseis what we look forward to, but
it is not yet a reality.It is what happens when Jesus appears the
second time, and then the universeis liberated from bondage to decay, and
God himself will with us. Thankyou, uh, mister Hank is right,

(26:03):
yep, Okay, thank you firstGod, bliss shoe. So long
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