Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science

by John C. Lennox

Next, in many places a literal understanding will not work. Let’s take first an example from everyday speech. We all understand what a person means when they say: “The car was flying down the road.” The car and the road are very literal, but “flying” is a metaphor. It stands for something real that we could express more literally as “driving fast.” Just because a sentence contains a metaphor doesn’t mean it is not referring to something real. Indeed, metaphors in general do stand for something real. For a biblical example, take Jesus’ statement “I am the door” (John 10:9). It is clearly not meant to be understood in the primary, literal sense of a door made of wood or any other material. It is intended metaphorically. But notice, again, that the metaphor stands for something real: Jesus is a real means of access into an actual, and therefore very literal, experience of salvation and eternal life. We should also note that the reason we do not take this statement literally has to do with our experience of the world. We know about doors, and our experience with them tells us that Jesus is using a metaphor.