The Bible contains allegory but when it does it is also makes it clear in the passage. I think along with legalism there is a strong relationship between those that twist Bible passages into allegory and heretical movements and cults.

We can look at the history of Christianity since the Apostles and we will see a reoccurring pattern between allegory and heresy. The first heretics were legalists that wanted to put Jews that found the Messiah back under Jewish law. Soon after we know that gnostic heretics became a plague on the Church. They made scriptures allegorical so it would comply with their old and new mystical beliefs. It seems most heresy either comes from legalism or from some allegorical interpretation of passages in scripture that should have been taken in a common literal sense.

Throughout the history of Christianity we have had those that went beyond the literal contextual meaning of the Bible to develop strange theologies. The Roman Catholics are legalistic on some interpretations of scripture but on others they make the passage allegory without any reason other than doing so supports their theology. Where Catholic theology is first formed from opinions or decrees of fallible men rather than contextual common sense reading of the  scriptures they sometimes need to look to legalistic and allegorical interpretations or even extra-biblical writings for support.

Armed with Replacement Theology allegory and Catholic Dominion Theology allegory, the Roman Catholic hierarchy persecuted Jews and true Christians. Even today the Roman Catholic Church still thinks that they rule the Kingdom of Christ on earth based on their legalistic and allegorical interpretation of scriptures. So does that abuse of scripture put the huge Roman Catholic Church in the category of a heretical cult? I will let you be the judge. If you need any help, I suggest you read “A Woman Rides the Beast” by Dave Hunt.

One day a Catholic monk named Martin Luther appeared. He took scripture more literally than the Roman Church of his day and presented them with 95 theses that were taken from what scripture actually said. Rome of course rejected what Luther and scripture said and Protestantism rose in opposition to Catholicism. The early Protestants tried to stay true to the scriptures but since there were prophetic passages that they did not understand they retained the claim that these scriptures should be taken in some spiritual allegorical sense.

Both the Catholics and the Protestants created elaborate theologies to support their belief that scriptures to Israel should be taken in some spiritual sense as allegory and really referring to the spiritual Church. That generally is now the crux of a system now known as Covenant Theology. The allegory was mainly on passages referring to Israel and Bible Prophecy but their allegorical view of these passages also impacted most other theologies and not just eschatology.

In Covenant Theology the true believers in Israel are the same covenant people as the New Testament Church, so any passages referring to any future restoration of Israel is really allegorically talking about the spiritual Church that superseded natural Israel or even is Israel. That thinking paved the way for heretical Replacement Theology where Jews were seen as Christ killers that are a people forever cursed and evil. That view paved the road for persecution of Jews with support from those calling themselves Christians.

Some in Covenant Theology do see a time ahead where Jews will be saved just before the end, but they see no earthly significance to the scriptural passages that in any common sense reading are talking about a literal physical restoration of the nation of Israel or a literal restored Israelite Kingdom.

After the printing press was invented the Bible got into the hands of common people who read the book in a common sense way. They read the Bible as if God wrote it to be understood by men. Many of the common people reading the Bible did not understand that the Bible needed interpretation through a higher clergy that specialized in explaining allegory because the passages just made common sense as read.

The common sense reading of the Bible caused new Christian leaders to emerge that taught that any literal honest interpretation of the scriptures indicated that there would one day be a restoration of a literal national Israel and that a literal Kingdom would be established on earth and ruled by Jesus from Israel. The common reading and the belief that the Bible should be read and interpreted in a literal natural sense, except where it was obviously not literal, brought about the creation of new denominations. Some existing denominations also became influenced by the common sense teaching of scripture.

This theology that God still had a plan for physical Israel and that prophetic scriptures would be fulfilled literally as written became most widely known as Dispensational Theology. Dispensational Theology claimed that God dealt differently with people in different dispensations of time to accomplish His own purpose on earth. They saw a distinction between the covenant Israel make with God that put them under law and the New Testament Church where grace was freely given to all nations that believed God and trusted in His Messiah by faith. In Dispensational Theology Israel did not become the Church. God still has covenants with national Israel that still must be fulfilled before any eternal state. They believe the clear common teaching of the prophetic passages of the Bible teach this.

In the 20th century leaders of old mainline denominations were not satisfied at just taking some scriptures as allegory they started taking anything that did not seem reasonable to them as allegory. That lead to modern higher criticisms of the scriptures and liberalism took over seminaries. They produced clergy that often questioned if the words in the Bible were actually God’s word. Man’s reasoning about the scriptures often led them to believe that the Bible is just allegory and nice short stories about how people should live. This brought to Christianity many liberal heresies and heretics that denied anything supernatural in the Bible. Today these generally oppose God’s plan for Israel and generally take a liberal humanist worldview and a unbiblical worldview on just about every moral issue.

To make a long story short. The allegorical liberals continue on their heretical way and now are in general spiritual apostasy in declining mainline churches. Those still believing God’s word in a common literal sense soon became known as fundamentalists and later Evangelicals. But, soon even in the Evangelical churches some leaders used certain passages allegorically to support popular but aberrant views. Books with doctrines of psychotherapy, pop psychology, self help theories etc., often were taught and scriptures were ripped out of proper context to make it seem like the views were supported by the Bible.

Of course for many decades we have also had the “Christian” cults that go way beyond any literal reading of the Bible. They formed their own allegorical interpretations of Bible passages to force fit them into some new extra-biblical revealed truth. For example: Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Christian Science, Unity, etc.

The Pentecostal movement also came from those who took the Bible literally but it did not take long for more allegorical leaders to split that movement as well. There are now the Pentecostals that try to keep God’s word in proper context (for example: Calvary Chapels, some Assemblies of God, etc.) and there are those that use passages allegorically to support new and subjective physiological manifestations and doctrines (For example: Word/Faith churches, most Vineyards, etc.).

More recently we see a new breed of heretical leaders emerging with their postmodern views. They are splitting the Evangelical movement into those who still take the Bible literally and the New-Evangelicals that are redefining everything in God’s word and again making much of the Bible allegory. They make allegorical claims much like the heretics of gnosticism and mainline liberals combined. Worse, they are also pushing it toward heretical pluralistic universalism with an “all paths theology” and even pantheism.

Also among the “Evangelical” postmoderns we find a new push toward soft Dominion Theology from those that buy into the basic goodness of man and Marxist/socialism. They downplay biblical doctrine as if Christianity was just one allegorical truth among many truths that eventually leads to a socialist utopia on earth, achieving the Kingdom of God on earth.

In addition, we see the allegory of various Liberation Theologies that make God a racist including Black Liberation Theology with the heretical far Wright and the dictatorial Obamanations forced on white America (just seeing if you are really paying attention).

There also is a hard Dominion Theology coming from allegorical heretics best known as the “New Apostolic Reformation” that use their own allegorical twisting of God’s word and claims of direct revelation to appeal to Christian patriots and conservatives that are now being led to believe that Christians can take the world for Christ. They teach Christians need to take dominion of the earth by force before Jesus can even return.

We also have the heretical date setters in Bible prophecy that see allegorical time lines through various cryptic techniques that I am not going to rehash in this article.

I obviously have been broad bushing and generalizing a whole lot here because I am trying to be brief and not spend a week on this one article. Much more could be said but you should get my main point. There is a long pattern or relationship here between those in Christianity that like to over allegorize scriptures and most heresy. Heretical movements start when people depart from a common literal interpretation of God’s word. Heretical movements are fueled by those that put their own meaning on  passages that are obviously perfectly clear in any common reading. The Allegoricalists have been been creating heretical movements since the days of the Apostles and it will only end with the destruction of the Harlot of Revelation chapter 17.

While I am on the subject of heresy I just read this report on a  vile blasphemous article published in “Christianity Today“. Want to know why Christianity is in big trouble today? Just read this article and you will get an inkling. Understand that “Christianity Today” was started and is endorsed by some of the biggest names in Protestant Christianity today. If you also read what is said about Billy Graham in this article you will realize that there has been a radical change in his thinking since his earlier days as an evangelist. That change is the reason why I no longer support the BGEA.  I will let you investigate how his theology changed for yourself.