JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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The problem with this position is that it brings into question religion and theology itself.
Does it make sense to trust doctrine if the facts are unreliable? Is it logical and safe to believe
someone in hidden matters if what the person says concerning plain facts are false after all?13
These are false distinctions. This is an unnecessary dichotomy. There is no warrant for
distinguishing between facts and truth, between that which is religious and secular. All are of one
piece. The Bible simply does not regard itself as mythological or as a book of nonhistorical
truths. Rather at its very core the biblical revelation is historical. Even though many of the
details given in Scripture may be incidental, the gospel has to be factually as well as doctrinally
true if it is true at all.14
Liberalism constantly brings in alien criteria and then try to answer questions when
there is no answer. It is futile to ask questions of Scripture which it was never attempting to
answer in the first place. A wrong question will lead to a wrong answer.
Statements do not have to be precisely scientific to be true.15 An example would be
the popular statement, "the sun rises." Obviously this is phenomenological (as they appear to be),
not scientific language. On its own terms then the statement is true even if it does not meet
modern scientific analysis.
Furthermore the Bible is written in various genres. Even though there is little reason to
believe there is myth (the modern definition which equates it with nonreality) in the Bible, it
would be incorrect to treat all the writings of Scripture the same. To treat poetry as a factual
record or to dismiss the historicity or even the truthfulness of poetry because it is not a factual
record shows a complete ignorance of the nature of literary language.16
Different Kinds of Literature to Interpret
In order to understand the writer's aim, it is vital to understand the nature of the literature
he is writing. It is helpful to understand something of the general characteristics of this nature
and of the methods of writing them.
History
Christianity is an historical religion. History is, therefore, central to the Christian faith
since God has been revealed through historical people and historical events. Much of the Bible is
devoted to describing this revelation of God. These parts should be taken seriously as the history
of God's dealings with His people and not treated simply as books full of interesting moral
stories.
Although the biblical historians were concerned to tell us what happened in the past, they
were not primarily concerned, as modern historians, with economic and political issues, nor do
they always intend to give precise information on chronology and numbers.