The story has nothing to do with a man riding on a little colt.

They have no reference at all to any person, who lived in time and space, or to any event that ever occurred upon earth.

Do not ask me to give up my belief in Jesus the man, or in Moses the man, or in Peter the man.

The Bible has no reference at all to any person who ever existed, or any event that ever occurred upon earth.

But if you have listened attentively to my message these past four nights, I do not think you want any more proof that the Bible is not history.

The authors of the Bible were not writing history, they were writing a great drama of the mind which they dressed up in the garb of history

The perennial value of the Bible is its symbolic value.

Throughout the centuries we have mistakenly taken personification for persons, allegory for history, the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction itself, and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended.

The form of the various stories of the Bible is as distinct from its substance as the form of a grain of wheat is distinct from the life germ within it.

Its object is not to give an historical account of physical life, but to exhibit the spiritual possibilities of humanity

the ancient teachers were not writing history, but an allegorical picture lesson of certain basic principles, which they clothed in the garb of history

The stories conceal an underlying meaning, and the task of scripture interpretation is to discover these psychological truths which are expressed in this symbolism.

A spiritual and symbolical interpretation alone yields truth, whilst a literal acceptation profits nothing.

Scripture is not secular history. It is salvation history.

Learn to extract the meaning of the story, and hope it unfolds within you.

But when man knows the Bible is the greatest collection of psychological truths and was never intended to be seen as history or cosmology, then he gets a glimpse into this great wonderful book.

they are all revelations of the mind of God expressed in symbolism

for, as you know, it is not a book of history

You put your hand on the book of truth and swear to tell the truth, and here is this statement in this very book on which you swear, and you don’t believe it.

A parable is a story told to illustrate a truth.

Now you take that, and that is the code - but what does it really mean? That it took place, actually?

Scripture was a closed book until it was acted out, the acted parable. Then we could go back into scripture and understand it. We didn’t understand it before.

You think that an individual, 2000 years ago, went through an agonising frightful experience to save the world. No. The story is all about you.

the Bible, which is the greatest book in the world, is completely misunderstood, for it is not history; it is a series of visions, which are acts of Grace.

The Gospel does not tell how Christ came at all, but how he comes.

I know the story is truer than I ever knew it to be (the story of the birth of Christ Jesus), but it is not something that took place; but it is taking place.

The Bible is the most modern book in the world. Every year, books come out and the concepts change as more books come out, and change and change, but here is this everlasting vision that is true.

Many books of the Bible are commentaries . . they are not visions, but the first five books are true visions.

The book called the Bible is not what any of the priesthoods of the world think it to be.

Most of the eastern world says the Christian Bible is the opium of the people, and the western world says it is history. But it is a series of visions that will come only after the way is prepared.

It is a series of visions from beginning to end. The Old Testament shows what is taking place in the whole; the New Testament tells what is taking place in the single or individual man.

the Bible is addressed to the Imagination, not to the man of sense or the man of reason – the one that is “lost” or “dead” or “sound asleep.”

It is the history of the soul of man and someday you will know it is taking place in you

you will find all through the 66 books of the Bible that He is always appearing to man in a dream

everything in the Bible is true on a higher level, but it is revealed figuratively, and man confused literal truth with metaphor

And the “Word” is the play from Genesis to Revelation. If you took all the Bibles and burned them, the play remains in spite of the written record.

These characters of the Bible are not people: they never walked the earth as people. We play all the characters, but they do not live any more than Hamlet lived.

throughout the centuries man has mistakenly taken personifications for persons; and the acted parable for history; and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended; and the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction itself.