What do you think?

Last week at pre-marital counseling, the Pastor was asking me about the youth group and the church. He had us take a True/ False test about different questions that had to do with marriage and the like. He prefaced it by saying, base your answers Biblically...sounded easy enough. Then we started taking the thing and more and more of my answers weren't exactly matching what the Bible said. For instance...can a divorced person remarry...I said yes but the Bible says no. I guess that during the first few questions...the whole "base your answer from the Bible" thing escaped my thinking. So I was wondering...do Christians take the Bible as seriously as we should? Or do we view it in the same light as a book from John Maxwell and read it only to "succeed in life"?

Growing up in an uber-conservative household, I was never taught to take the Bible literally...thats just what we did. The fall out was that we didn't wear shorts, didn't have cable. Mom didn't wear pants or cut her hair or wear jewelry...make-up...we didn't go to the public pool...or bowling...or anywhere to eat that served alcohol! You get my point. However, in the same passage where it talked about women not wearing clothes that men wore it talked about building a fence around your roof so that no one would fall off. To the best of my knowledge, we never had a fence on the top of our roof...ever! So do we just pick and choose what we decide to be holy and relavent for today?

Was the Bible meant to be taken literally word for word? Was it meant to be symbolic of things to come? Or was it to be used like some Christians use it today...a "dummies guide on how to have a great life"?

Good day.