I suspect you'd find fewer Christians today who believe the Bible is the literal truth dictated straight from G-d's mouth than you'd find Christians who believe as he does. Whether that is a failing of faith is something none of us will know until Judgment. Personally I'm rather agnostic about the Bible as literal truth; certainly a being powerful enough to create our universe could have done anything in the Bible, but as many of the things are contradicted by known science, I don't think believing the Bible is a collection of parables is entirely unreasonable, whether you believe those parables came from G-d or simply from people recognized for wisdom. I'd also point out that there is nothing mankind can't fuck up, so believing that the Bible is the literal word of G-d is also believing that over thousands of years G-d made sure no one was allowed to change His word in the slightest, whether intentionally or accidentally. For instance, Catholics and Protestants and Mormons all have different Bibles, and for the first two there are numerous translations which are not always in agreement. And some other books were considered for inclusion and rejected in the face of opposition. I have no problem believing that those early Christians were solemn, honest men with the best of intentions, or that they were divinely inspired. I have a bit more problem believing that those early Christians were infallible and that their own preferences and cultural mores never crept in.
Honor the man who seeks to know G-d's will; fear the man who says he knows it. The Bible is G-d's lesson collection for us; understanding that does not require belief in its literal truth. And even the deepest faith in the Bible as literal truth does not tell you which parts should take precedence, or how much to weight each requirement, or what to do in every situation. Which is as it should be - what use is a G-d who allows no personal decisions?
I absolutely believe one of the old time saints (cannot remember who) got it right when he said something like (paraphrased) "When science shows us that our interpretation of the Bible is incorrect, then we need to go back and look again for we obviously got it wrong". He said it better than that, but that is how I understand it.
God's will is found in the Bible..but it still takes searching to find it in there.
Study will never be complete.
The Bible is far more than a collection of parables, it actually contains a lot of history which has been corroborated by other souces (the Babylonians were very good record keepers). It is the life and times of a people, where they went wrong, why, how they could fix it. It also gives us a peek into the mind of God.
The Bible is like an onion, it has many layers. The surface layer is enough for most people and it is a great guide on how to live your life. It tells us what God wants for us and what we should do to please Him. It goes much deeper than that, but much study and understanding is needed.
For example, the tale of the Prodigal Son (which is a parable of course), is actually a derivation of a VERY well known Jewish parable from before Jesus was born. In the Jewish version, the father is sitting at the gate and the son comes grovelling to him - but he turns his back on the son and the son has to go away alone. Sounds horrible, right? But wait, there is something we do not know but the Jews would. To get your inheritance, your father must die. To get it early, you must tell your father he is dead to you. You must legally call him dead. When that is done, the two of you can never talk again, for the father is dead...and you cannot hold a conversation with the dead. So the son "killed" his father and took his inheritance and left...then wanted to come back and have a father again later. Too late. Also, the father must consider the son to be dead and gone forever.
What Jesus did is say that this is the wrong view to have. The Torah is not for death, but for life! The father in Jesus' version proclaims that his son who was dead has returned to life. What father would not happily embrace a son he thought was dead but later found was not dead at all? Jesus preached forgiveness for it. The son would never receive another shekel of inhertance, but he regained a father.
There is so much more there than just the basic story of forgiveness...but without knowing about the culture and the times it is lost.
Also, many of the rules of The Law (which only apply to Jews) are there as God's way of seeing if we will do what He says. The food laws are one which God did not explain, just said "do it". The basic explaination of why comes down to surrendering to God. Food is the only thing in your life you have 100% control over (provided you actually have food that is). Ever try to force a baby to eat when it does not want to eat? Failure has never been so complete as when you try to do that. God basically said the Jews are to give Him control over the only thing they truly have control of simply because He said so.
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