My girlfriend studies Theology and they go quite in depth on various matters. A big misunderstanding, and it's something fellow Christians will not really agree with me on, is that the Bible itself is a holy book. It isn't. It's a book about a Holy God. Most if not all of it has to be taken in the context of the time period it is written to understand its meaning and relevance. An example being in revelations where it speaks of a new heaven and new earth, in the new earth they talk about there not being an ocean (like it's specifically mentioned that the ocean is no more and they kinda celebrate that fact) . Now to anyone reading the Bible in the 21st century you'll probably go "Well that's dumb, what's so great about no ocean?". To the people in the time that the book of revelations was written, the ocean was a source of evil and death and stuff. So it needs to be understood that there being no ocean meant that a symbol for evil and dispair no longer exists. (cont.)