I Started a Fight, Finally Concluded

Episode 5: Things Get Untwisted

(You may want to read Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3 and Episode 4 to learn the back story.)

The whole thing started when I went to my sister’s Bible study and said that God planned for humankind to fall and that he put the tree in the Garden of Eden as one of the means of the fall. The teacher, you remember, hadn’t liked this statement much. But he wanted to continue the discussion, so he and his wife had been invited to my sister’s home for Sunday night supper.

Sunday night rolled around and we had a pleasant supper. Then the time came for me to defend my “twisted theology.”

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I Started a Fight (con't.)

Episode 4: The Phone Call

(You may want to read Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3 to learn the back story.)

As we pick up the story, I am just waking on the Thursday morning after I attended an evening Bible study with my sister at her church. During the study, I had a short discussion with the teacher over the reason God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. The teacher had disagreed with me strongly, calling my view that God planned from the beginning for humankind to fall “twisted theology.” But it had been a short discussion and I hadn’t pushed my point much. I assumed, as I left, that the discussion was over.

But I was wrong. I woke Thursday morning to the sounds of the phone ringing. My sister took the phone call, and I could tell it was from the teacher of the previous night’s study. I could also tell he was at least animated, if not agitated, and he wanted to continue the discussion.

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I Started a Fight (con't.)

Episode 3: Things Get Twisted

(You may want to read Episode 1 and Episode 2 first.)

Yes, I know. Cliffhangers aren’t fun, but they are good for us. Waiting produce endurance, and endurance produces character. Buck up, dear reader, this is good for the constitution.

Now where were we? Ah yes. I was sitting in a Bible study and had just responded to the question, “Why would God have put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden?” I replied, if you remember, that God planned from the beginning for humankind to fall, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was put in place as one of the means of the fall.

There was gasping, I think, and the teacher responded to me. His words, I remember perfectly. “That,” he said, “is twisted theology.”

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