Jesus always met people where they were.

He used examples of every day occurences as an example if how heavenly things worked( i.e. the sower and the seed )
The great Teacher brought His hearers in contact with nature, that they might listen to the voice which speaks in all created things; and as their hearts became tender and their minds receptive, He helped them to interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes upon which their eyes rested. The parables, by means of which He loved to teach lessons of truth, show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature, and how He delighted to gather the spiritual teaching from the surroundings of daily life. (CG 51)

The purpose of the parable was to teach. Those that would not listen nor understand, didn't. Those that were truly seeking for wisdom did.

in many hearts the truth had taken no root, and it had been quickly caught away. "Therefore speak I to them in parables." He said; "because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. . . . For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed." Matt. 13:13-15.
... Christ had truths to present which the people were unprepared to accept or even to understand. For this reason also He taught them in parables. By connecting His teaching with the scenes of life, experience, or nature, He secured their attention and impressed their hearts. Afterward, as they looked upon the objects that illustrated His lessons, they recalled the words of the divine Teacher. To minds that were open to the Holy Spirit, the significance of the Saviour's teaching unfolded more and more. Mysteries grew clear, and that which had been hard to grasp became evident. (COL 20-21)

It served a twofold purpose;
1) It taught a lesson to those in hearing,
2) it hid from them things they weren't yet ready for.

By doing this, as they yeilded more and more to the leading of the Holy Spirit, the lessons became clearer as they watched the every day occurences used to explain heavenly things.

Are they true or false?
I guess it would depend on your personal viewpoint, or, on whether you believe that God cannot lie.
Either they are true, or, Jesus is the biggest liar in history.
Personally, I believe they are true, we just don't understand all there is to understand about them.

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What is popular is not always right.
What is right is not always popular.
Gerry B.

I have to ask this question. Does it really matter whether the parables were "fables", "hyperbole" or whatever you might want to call them. We are all in agreement that Jesus is truth.

I agree that Jesus/God must speak to/with us in terms that we can understand. Were He to approach us in a language that explains everything clearly 1) would we listen, 2) would we even truly understand? We as humans look for the underlying message - as we are meant to do. Each of the parables has a message that lies underneath the story - and Jesus often gave us a clue, or hint or the message itself so that we would understand.

We must also remember that Jesus was not only speaking to the people 2000 years ago, He knew that He would be speaking to the generations to come, so He needed to phrase things in such a way that we would understand - even 2000 years later. We cannot necessarily judge or know what was going on back then, just as we cannot judge or know what will happen in the future.

Pastor Potts was talking about the Rich Man & Lazarus the other day during the seminar, and mentioned that this was a story believed to be very popular in the days of Jesus, and he used it to teach a message. When we try to explain something to someone, we must use illustrations that they are familiar with. If my computer programming (student) husband tried to explain something to me using programming language, I would NEVER be able to figure out what he was saying - it would be Greek to me, just as an example.

My thoughts anyway. This is an interesting topic. Where will it lead. . . ?

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Sarah Moss
*Prayer Changes Things!*

One word can and usually does have several meanings. The first definition for fiction, as provided by Linda, was a story derived from one's imagination. I fail to see how there is anything wrong with that. Like I said before, lying is deceiving someone. However, if someone tells a story that everyone understands is not factual, that is not a lie because no one has been deceived. If it is, then Jesus was a liar, and that is not possible...

A person can generically talk about events everyone understands in common and explain a bigger truth by doing it without having to give all the specific details of a specific event that happened. That is what an analogy or allegory is, it is not the telling of a specific event but telling of the commonly understood facets of something in story form that get points across and tie them in with the facets of the story.

The dispute seems to be over semantics. One person says fiction with one mind set and another reads it with another mindset, and then words fly and communication regarding actual intended meanings stops quicker than a test crash car into the wall.

Jesus used word pictures. His oils have never faded. However not all word pictures taught what He said, some were rubbing their noses in their fictions, like house training a stubborn kitty. Heaven ain't Abraham's bosom & Hell ain't a hole in the ground. But Jesus used them both to repaint the common misconceptions.

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Edward F. Sutton

[This message has been edited by Edward F. Sutton (edited November 08, 2000).]