Jesus and the bride

[radical4god]

I have been tought and believe that the bride of jesus is the church. 1st I am having a debate with a friend and he asked me where it says that the church is the bride of jesus which is mentioned at the end of revelations. I told him I took the bible literaly and he said I couldnt because then I would have to believe that jesus was not marrying the church but an actual person. (which I know is ludacris) But I could use some reference or advice on how to explain it to him. Thx, Ur brother in christ

 

[Ken]

to take the Bible literally means to take whatever genre the Bible is speaking in, and interpreting it in the light of what the original authors said... so when Jesus said "I am the door" we know that He was not saying He was a literal door, but that one must go through Him to enter into heaven... so if your friend tries to insist that to take the Bible literally means that Jesus is actually marrying a woman, you can educate them in one small aspect of the biblical science of interpretation, ie hermeneutics by letting them know that often by just using common sense we can differentiate between what is to be taken literally, and what is to be taken metaphorically, allegorically, etc....... we look at the passage in question and ask, is the Bible talking about a literal woman marrying Christ? We can look at (Rev 19:7 NNAS) "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." and say, well obviously this is no tmeant in a woodenly literal sense, otherwise we would have a Lamb getting married! LOL!! So the passage is clearly figurative.... next we can look at (Rev 21:2 NNAS) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." Here again, if we were to be woodenly literal we would have a city getting married, and again, by using common sense, we can see that the passage is figurative.... what about
(Rev 21:9 NNAS) Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." same as the first example... Lastly we have (Rev 22:17 NNAS) The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." Since Spirits do not literally get married, nor is this meant to be literal water, we can again easily see that this is figurative language..

hope this helps, blessings!!