#communicates

General revelation communicates truth to everyone – truth that ought to lead each of us to turn to God. And yet nowhere in the Bible is there record of anyone turning to God on the basis of general revelation alone. This shows a problem with neither the revelation nor the Revealer, but rather, with the human being. All men reject this revelation of God.

I’m often asked, “Do you take the Bible literally.” My answer is, “Yes, where it is meant to be taken literally. When I read, ‘Jesus is the door,’ I don’t think he has hinges.” That’s a metaphor. It communicates a literal truth but not in a literal way. In fact, everything in the Bible is literally true but not all of it is expressed in a literal way. Likewise, when Paul says that he preached the Gospel “all over the world,” he doesn’t mean literally everywhere. He means in many prominent places, just how we might describe a lengthy trip by saying we went “everywhere.” That’s a literary or rhetorical device called “hyperbole”—exaggeration for effect. We don't communicate in a hyper-literal way, and we shouldn't expect a book as diverse as the Bible to either.