Blog 2023-07-05
"You have a spiritual truth that may be hard to be understood. You lay along side of it a physical, earthly story which gives understanding to that spiritual truth. That is a parable. " -- John MacArthur
I liked John MacArthur's literal-ist approach to scripture, when I was a young Christian. He protects himself from adding to scripture too much. He still uses free-for-all allegory from time to time. For instance, in the parable of the mustard seed, he says the birds are Gentiles. That is pure invention.
His pure literal-historical approach to scripture hides Christ and the cross in much of his understanding. In the quote above, he completely contradicts what Jesus said about parables. Jesus said he taught in parables so that they would not get saved by teaching. If they could get saved by teaching, the cross would be meaningless.
The main point of Christ's teaching IS the cross; the culmination of all history revealing the invisible Father. Thy mystery of the cross, hidden in prophetic riddle, could not be revealed until after the cross. The parable of the mustard seed is about the cross, as all the parables are.
