Episode 1: The Question
There are, it seems, a few people who haven’t forgotten that I said I might post something about the fight I started in church while I was visiting Minnesota last February. Yep, there are a couple busybodies who are still waiting to hear the details of my lastest drama. That’s what I get, I guess, for making something sound a lot more exciting than it was. (It was my sister, actually, who labeled what I did “starting a fight,” so if you think the reality of my story doesn’t lives up to the title, you have her to blame.)
It all started when my sister invited me to go with her to a Wednesday night Bible study at her church. It was a study of Genesis, and for the first two-thirds of the class, I sat quietly and listened.
But then there was a question from the floor.
(If you are reading with a feed reader, now’s when you click through to read the rest.)
“Why,” said one of the students, “would God have put that tree in the garden?” That’s a good question, isn’t it? We have God’s generous approval of eating from every tree in the garden—every tree, that is, except the one. There’s one forbidden tree among many authorized ones, and one prohibition among many permissions. And what misery would come from breaking the single prohibition regarding that single tree! Later we’ll see God take powerful precautions to prevent the dire consequences that would come should Adam eat from another of the trees in the garden. Why not put cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Why have that forbidden and dangerous fruit there where Adam and Eve would have easy access to it?
This question was put to the class and then, eventually, directed to me, who, remember, had been silent up to this point. So I answered and that’s what started the brouhaha.
You’ll have to wait until the next post to find out what I said, because I’ve decided to turn my drama into a soap opera. Meanwhile, why don’t you tell me how you’d have answered if you’d been asked?
Update: Story continues here.