“Did God really say?”, is a frightening question. The Devil asked this question first, deceiving Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Word of God is not self-interpreting, despite how many exegetes would like to argue that. We need teachers who teach the truth and when teachers cannot agree, we need to the Church to settle the matter. Yet, some teachings, like the teaching to abstain from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, are hard to understand. After all, why did God put two trees in the Garden? Why even risk it? Who can know the mind of God? What is it that God is mindful of man?
So too, we are in a challenging environment with more denominations than there are countries, each preaching a myriad of different ways to approach God. But even when it was only Cain and Abel, God still received one, and not both. Many “churches” claim to have the corner on the truth. Many provide philosophical and hermeneutical justifications for their theology while simultaneously preaching that “Anyone can read and understand the Bible for himself” and then encourage people to go to seminary to get the training necessary to “really understand” the text.
So, we too find ourselves with the Devil, outside the Garden, where he whispers, “Did God really say?”
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