Little Talkers - The Elephant in Eden

from The Elephant in Eden:

"... When all of the animals were finished complete
The Lord took some dust and made man so neat.
[God] formed him and made him and called his name Adam
But he was alone, just a man with no madam.
Then God called to us in [God's] voice so deep,
'Adam will name you,' it made my heart leap.
We all marched in pairs, I was swinging my trunk
I was certainly glad I wasn't called skunk..."

This comes from a children's poem. While it may be perfectly okay for kids, it unfortunately reflects the sad state of many adult Christians' own faith-education: too many believers rarely progress beyond an immature, child-like faith. Even a cursory reading of the first two chapters of the book of Genesis shows the error in the verses of this poem and a glaring contradiction in the text itself. In the account of creation told by Gen. 1-2:3, God creates vegetation, then animals, and then, last but not least, people. Yet the creation tale that is told beginning in Gen. 2:4 states very clearly that "when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up" (2:5) God created adam; only then did God create a garden with trees and fruit and, a little later, animals and birds.

I suggested that these verses from "The Elephant in Eden" help to reveal a contradiction in the opening pages of the Bible. But this is only the case, and therefore only a problem, if one attempts to read the Bible literally. Such a reading fails right away - and this should be cause for celebration. What we learn from its opening pages is that the Bible is not a history book, not a science book, not a text book, not a cook book, not a political constitution, not a legal book, and certainly not a word-for-word, literally reported and completely inerrant statement by God. It is not any one of these things alone; it does, however, contain many of these kinds of writings, as well as many more (such as poetry, in the case of Genesis 1). It also clearly reflects the history, science, politics, laws, and culture of the people who contributed to its recording (much of which was itself flawed, relative, or contextual). Yet these people were incredibly faithful - or, at least, they tried to be. And in the pages of the Bible are displayed the working out of faith by a people who are in the thick of life: and mostly in the midst of hard, one-day-at-a-time living. They are not left to work out their life alone, and that is ultimately what sets the Bible apart: God is present and active in life and in their lives. Yet their own witness clearly shows that life is rarely a black-and-white, good-and-evil proposition. Honest, faithful study of the Biblical record replaces such child-like notions with a true understanding for the complexity of God's creation and reinforces our need for faithfulness even as we work together on deepening knowledge and faith.