why do you equate reading genesis 1 as allegorical to dismissing it?
because you remove actual events from our history and change them to fit what secular science says ignoring the rest of scriptures which tells us not to follow the world, lean unto our own understanding, , that God created in 6 days and so on.
you are dismissing the words from God, demoting them to arbitrary thoughts of man for a purpose not intended by God.
If I say that Jesus is not a literal lamb, but an allegorical lamb, or that Jesus will not return with a literal sword protruding out of his mouth, but an allegorical sword, would you say that I was being dismissive
but you are not replacing those words with secular constructs as you are with Genesis. youare keeping the literal meaning, Jesus was the sacrificial lamb for our sins; Jesus will return not as a sacrifice but coming as a king.
there is a big difference between what you are doing with genesis and what you are doing there in the new testament.
If I say the story of the Good Samaritan is not based on a historical event, would you then say I was being dismissive as well?
possibly, because we do not know if it was or wasn't. here is what the oxford dictionary says about the word 'parable':
'a short story that teaches a moral or spiritual lesson...'
it is highly possible that it was a true event, we do not know.
did God say the Good Samaritan story was historical? How do we determine these things archie? Did he say the "Tree of Life" was literal?
1. not so many words, just usually used the word parable but would Jesus make up a false story to make a moral point? think it through.
2. The Holy Spirit guides us to the truth. i wish i could say more but i do not have everything at my fingertips, sorry.
3. by the words used, the actions involved then yes He did. read the story of the fall again and see how it all unfolds. everything is written to tell us it was literal.
again, don't relate the uses of the words 'tree of life' as meaning THE tree of life. we know these type of expressions in today's world as well.
there is only one true tree of life and if it weren't real, i highly doubt solomon would have used those words when he wrote proverbs. no one would know what he meant.
Tell me archie, are these trees of life to be taken as literal trees made of bark and leaves? And what determines if it is or not?
i always hedge my answers as i know people are looking for openings to justify their beliefs which differ from the Bible. you already know i can only say know and then you will go 'aha ...' well all i will say here is...
'the original tree of life has to be real, literal and alluding to an actual tree because all the israelites and those who beleive the Bible know exactly what is meant by the passage'
an allegorical or metaphorical original tree of life would hold no meaning to anyone and every example thereafter would be dismissed as false as the allegorical original. nothing would be gained by making the original tree imaginary.
there is just so much more here at stake than you realize