The Bible...Literal Or Spiritual?

There are books in the Old Testament of The Holy Bible or Torah that were written as far back as the 4th century B.C.. All Books of the Old Testament were written thousands of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. All could be described as have been written at the very beginning of Ancient Civilization immediately after the end of what is known as the Prehistoric Period of mankind. Many societies were still living in caves when some of the Old Testament Books were written. The New Testament was written during the 1st century A.D. at least 2000 years ago!!! The totality of the Bible was written during a time when ancient man was just becoming civilized. Their social needs and moral values were totally different than those of modern mankind today. There were hundreds of thousands of people worshiping everything from stone statues to living men as gods. Today, we could not conceive stoning the owner to death if their ox broke loose and accidentally killed someone. As a matter of fact, not many of us have ever even seen an ox! But that law is in The Book! I don't think adultery, as immoral as it may be, would qualify as a capital offense calling for the death penalty in these modern times. Common sense should tell us that the extreme advancements in mankind's social and technical growth should also command an extreme difference between the human ethics of ancient civilization and the human ethics of this modern civilization that we live in today. We are not the cave men!!! We do not live in Ancient Times! Today, The Bible cannot be interpreted literally, because literally we in no way remotely live under the same conditions as the people of that ancient era. This present age of civilization, as troubled and flawed as it may be, has advanced by leaps and bounds since Biblical Times! As a matter of fact, much of the Bible was never intended to be interpreted literally...even way back then! However, The Bible can be and should be interpreted to reveal its spiritual principles and moral messages that it can be adapted to coincide with any time period or social advancement that mankind will ever live through . It appears that the people who attempt to force the literal activity that occurs within the pages of the Bible onto others have failed to decipher the under lying spiritual message of the ancient passages. Therefore, they cannot adapt the Biblical messages to fit or parallel the social growth of mankind since those ancient days. They are literally stuck in a story book of the ancient past. This causes more harm than good and has caused some good people to be judged unjustly. The Bible can not be taken literally because none of us living today and none who have ever lived in our modern times can tell us what life was literally like for the ancients those thousands of years ago. There haven't been any eye witnesses alive for thousands of years! Our best conception of ancient life would only be a calculated guess! The laws were harsher because survival was exponentially harsher in those ancient times. Mankind was just learning how to be civilized and the stories within the bible reflect that brutality. Societies were constantly being conquered, wiped out and enslaved.The Bible is an ancient book written by ancient men from ancient places about ancient times. It must be interpreted realistically to fit the growth of humanity since those ancient thinking men wrote it! There were no cars, no planes, no trains or buses, no electricity, no super markets, no radio or t.v., no computers, no phones, no money as we know it...No Nothin'! To those men who wrote The Bible everything that we take for granted today would be either a miracle or an act of witchcraft! Their world was absolutely and completely different. Even the simple way that the Amish live is much more advanced than the societies that existed when the Bible was written. We have literally advanced too far as a society for us to interpret the Bible literally! It is a spiritual Book that must be interpreted for its spiritual value more so than its literal and material meaning. The spirit is stronger than the flesh! -CGB