I was not being sarcastic. And I do not think that there really is an inconsistency with most people. Most of the people that believe Adam was a fictional character to get across a concept are going to take most of the OT as figurative anyway.

The only issue would be if you took that story as figurative but still wanted to maintain that everything surrounding that was not figurative.

First off, I use the term "somewhat accurate" because I do not think that it was a play by play, but captured everything important. I was just trying to avoid the nits around here.

Secondly, I never said "embellishments". What I was referring to with "flowery language" is things like Satan being referred to as the serpent. There is no reason to believe that "serpent" is anything more than a figurative term, and that it was not actually a talking snake.

lol, if you think that is an actual issue. Do you constantly throw out and/or fail to understand something every time someone uses a figure of speech? Your life must be very confusing. When someone uses the word b i t ch, do you look around for a female dog?

If someone said, "man, that guy is a pig" do you actually believe that the thing in question was an animal, or that the guy turned into a pig?

No, that would be ridiculous. He was a fallen angel. Everyone knows angels don't look like snakes!

Here you are insulting me, as if interpretation of the bible isn't something that dogs all of Christiandom, and it should be obvious to me that a talking serpent is flowery language, but a dead person coming back life and flying to heaven is real - or is that also flowery language?

Go **** yourself, you arrogant prick.

Wow Airship, someone piss in your cheerios this morning? I don't think he was really insulting you, he was just trying to make a point. Compared to some of the insults that fly around this forum...just sayin...

lol, calm down man. You gotta get some thicker skin. It was not even directed at you specifically. Just making a point. I get torn into every 3rd post, you don't see me crying.

you are a joke sometimes

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."

"The LORD God said to the serpent, " Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;"

if you read that any other way than the "serpent" being an actual snake, then your life must be very confusing.

Agreed, Jib if you can interpret this another way I'm all ears, but I assume you have to at least assume Satan has transformed himself into a snake and that God was fooled and didn't recognize him. Also, why the heck should cattle and field beasts be cursed? What did they do?

Done and done.

If he doesn't twist the verses you quoted to claim that they were meant to be taken figuratively, Jib will be claiming that the verses you are quoting were mistranslated in some way.

"You see, the ancient Hebrew word for 'snake' can also be translated as 'evil one', and the ancient Hebrew word for 'belly' can also be translated as 'feet'..."

Ahem... You know the 10 commandments are in the OT, right? I get the feeling that "do not kill" was figurative. And so were the first 3 commandments.

I don't think the serpant and satan are the same characters

Again, watch the first few lectures in the course I linked... everybody.