1.) Is every word of the Bible always literal? For example, in
Matthew 23 when Jesus called the Pharisees "snakes," did He literally mean that they are legless reptiles? Hey, Pharisees, you're snakes. The Lord said so. Get down on the ground and start slithering, because that's what snakes do. Or wasn't He instead using figurative language to make His point?
Every word of the Bible is true, as it is God's Word and He does not lie. There is a mixture of genres in the Bible, including literal, poetic, allegory etc. The rule of thumb is if the plain literal reading of the text makes sense why seek another sense.
2.) If some of the Bible is using symbolism and/or figurative language, how do we know for sure what parts are literal? Using the word "day," as the quoted passages do, has been done symbolically. Haven't we all heard an older person say something like, "Back in my day, kids had respect for their elders." "Day" doesn't mean a literal 24-hour period in this context. It could very well mean a literal 24-hour period in the Biblical passage. God is certainly powerful enough. He didn't even need six days to accomplish it. He could have done it all in an instant. But how do we know that this passage does refer to a literal day, rather than a symbolic one?
Using the rule of thumb I gave above, if a 5th grader read 'Evening and morning one day'. How many days would he say that was? It takes some 21st century pseudo scholars in an academia ghetto to come up scratching their heads over the answer. ..brainwashed by schools of higher criticism, professing to be wise, they became fools. (Rom 1:22).Don't get swept away by the so called 'scholars' as that would be scholarolatry. When it comes the things of God's Kingdom including His Word we come as children.
3.) Can a passage, or any statement, be true without being literal? (I vote yes.)
Perhaps, do you have an example?
The problem with spiritualizing or allegorizing the text, it subjects the text to anyone's imagination, to the point where sin is no longer sin, death no longer death, a bodily resurrection no longer of the body but 'Christ has risen in our hearts' and other fanciful imaginations which reduces God's word to pablum.
Summing up...
“When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise.”–Dr. David L. Cooper (1886-1965),
The common sense Golden Rule of Interpretation - BibleTruths
