Back to the issue of Consistency
So we have seen that the Bible is a mixture of many kinds of literary type or genre, and that there are many questions we need to ask of the text and its background to get some idea of the message underlying what we are reading. A literal understanding of the text is often going to be of little help navigating its meaning for us today. Unfortunately there are far too many people around who think that this is the only way to understand and interpret the Bible. This approach whilst being done under the banner of "belief in the Bible as God's inspired Word" if anything does this Word a disservice by refusing to grapple with it as it rightly demands. Belief in the Bible as the Inspired Word of God does not mean that you have to take it literally. However those who not take the Bible literally are accused by their critics of undermining the truth and integrity of the Word by explaining its challenges and demands away. A literal approach to reading the Bible does give you a