LITERALLY

Jesus: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

Disciples: “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” (John 11:11-12)

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The more I think about it, the funnier this exchange gets.

Is this the first recorded incident of believers assuming every word spoken by God must be taken absolutely literally – and thus completely misunderstanding the message?

This reminds me of a friend I had in seminary who had a simple litmus test for who among us were “true believers”: 

• If you believed the earth was created in a literal six day period – as Genesis clearly teaches – you were a Christian.
• If you did not, you were obviously not a true believer. 

And that’s all there was to it.

(I said it was a simple litmus test … I didn’t say it was a good one.)