The Danger of Literalism
I saw this yesterday and thought I would mention something about it today. A man in Tennessee quit his job because he received a W-2 with the number 666 on it. Setting aside the various textual problems with the number itself, there a few things I wish Christians would keep in mind when reading and applying the Bible. First, the book of Revelation is Apocalyptic literature. It doesn't take a lot of studying to figure out almost everything in the book is symbolic or figurative of some other thing. When and if there is a literal number of the beast, it probably won't actually be 666 -enough said on the particulars of this case. Second, we absolutely must be aware of different genres in the Bible. This goes for every single book. We can't read a letter the same way we read a psalm or history or love songs or you get the point... Third, we must leave behind as many of our presuppositions as possible when we come to the biblical text and then apply it to our life.