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The Bible is the book God wrote.
But people wrote it, didn’t they?
Yes, but note how the Apostle Peter describes the process: “…men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).
The Bible Claims to be the Word of God. The biblical writers claimed to be writing the words of God (see 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:16-21; Revelation 1; 22:18-19).
But Do You Take it Literally? It is too simplistic to say that we read the Bible literally or any other way. Literal interpretation has been overdrawn and inspired some crazy practices, like snake-handling (search “snake handling churches” on YouTube, just for fun), but we should not dispense with literal interpretation because of poor applications of it.
So do we take the Bible literally? Yes, when the genre calls for a literal interpretation.
The Bible and Genre. The Bible is made up of many different types of literature or genres, such as poetry, proverbs, narrative, rhetoric, epic, personal letter, etc. The Bible also contains many figures of speech, such as metaphors, allegories, symbolism, sarcasm, and parody. We must take these literary forms into consideration when interpreting a particular passage, just as we would when reading Harry Potter or the New York Times.
When Sick Doesn’t Mean Sick. We speak like this in everyday life. When someone is excited about their new iPhone and says it’s “sick,” they don’t mean it’s malfunctioning, they mean it rocks. I mean, they mean it’s cool (which originally was a reference to temperature). That is, it’s great (which originally meant large).
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The Power of the Word of God. The Bible calls Christians to be diligent to study the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15), because the Bible is God’s way of equipping us for the Christian life (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The Bible is therefore a means to an end: to know God and be changed by his power through that relationship. 2 Peter 1:3 says that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of God. That notion inspires us to study the Bible, to learn as much about him as we can. The word of God is able to transform our thoughts and lives (Psalm 119:9, 11). The Word of God is “at work” in those who believe (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ, is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16).
That is why we are freaks for the Bible.