I've Always Wondered

 I’ve Always Wondered

          I have a question that has always bothered me. It starts with Genesis 2:23-24. In case you don’t know the Bible by heart, I’ll save you he trouble of looking it up. ….The bone taken from Adam has been formed.

2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken from man.

          Wouldn’t that make Adam the first mother?

2:24Therefore shall man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall become one flash.

          I know the Eden story by heart, but I hadn’t picked up on this. I always assumed this was God giving Adam instructions on the rules of life. I hadn’t realized this was Adam’s statement. Adam, according to the story, had never seen another human other than Eve. He had no parents. His knowledge was limited. All he knew was: He was dirt and Eve was a part of himself; his own rib.

          Doesn’t that make Eve Adam’s possession? Every woman would need a man to donate a rib for her life? While Adam and Eve were formed fully grown adults, why isn’t everyone still formed of dirt and rib and complete adults?

          We teach that the Bible is infallible and that God never changes. I can understand how people get confused and decide church and the Bible is not for them. This god has changed his mode of operation twice before babies are even brought into the story.

          This story makes God, a god unknowledgeable and more than slightly dense. When this god tells Adam that he needs a helpmate, he leaves it up to Adam to pick from all the beasts of the field. Adam looks them over and names each one, but he didn’t find one that interested or impressed enough to make his life partner. Like god would not know that Adam needed another human for a mate? Come on now. Can you believe this?

          This all-knowing god is not aware where Adam and Eve are hiding and what they had done? Why would an intelligent god place a magnificent tree, loaded with lush, ripe, desirable fruit in the middle of the garden, where it would be seen daily reminding them of what they were missing? Was it to test them?

          Have you ever wondered, as I have, what this sly, subtle talking serpent looked like when it was conning Eve? Before god cursed it into a slimy, crawling snake? Eve must have spent many hours wondering what is so special about this fruit that we aren’t allowed to eat or even touch it. It looks so delicious, god won’t miss just one. I doubt that the serpent had to coax very hard to convince Eve to eat. But why would ‘it’ care what Eve did or didn’t do?

          And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.

          An allegory god would say that. An allegory is a story in which people, things, and events have a hidden or symbolic meaning. This allegory god is too inept to be the God we worship. My God is of purer eyes than to behold evil.

          WHICH BRINGS US TO MY IMPORTANT AND DEEPLY SERIOUS QUESTION…

          In this enlightened, intelligent, modern age---Why do most churches continue to teach the Eden allegory as actual historical fact? I am not trashing the Bible; only the way it is interpreted and presented. The church would have us believe in a lesser god. One that shared his power with Satan.

          They completely ignore the first chapter of Genesis. This gives a beautiful narration of the spiritual creation of all that was created. God would think what He wanted, say, “Let there be,” and the form was complete. For five days God readied a place for His children and after each day He surveyed His work and pronounced it good. As God created the animals He named, blessed, and nourished each one. Not like allegory god who quickly formed beasts from the ground and brought them to Adam to name and choose for a mate.

          The God of chapter one gave thought to what He created. He provided for each one according to their need, but protection was unnecessary. There was no killer instinct and nothing to harm them. God made the plants before He placed them in the ground. God is spirit and He alone created all spiritually.

          On day six, God created His children; male and female; in His image and likeness: spirit. There was, and is, nothing to protect His children from either; then or now.  God spirit fills all time and all space. Where is there room for an opposite? What God did not create does not exist!

          I don’t expect anyone to agree with me. The race consciousness has accepted the Eden allegory and I may be wrong. However, there are not two creators and two creations. One uses dirt and ribs. One uses spirit. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Only one can be our creator.

          855 words          Loretta Ellen Edwards