Get your “but” out of here!

Get your “but” out of here!

By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman

Ironically, Biblical interpretation can lead to many disputes.

My maternal uncle and I had one a few weeks ago on the question of original sin and the nature of man. So, as usual, we opened the Bible to settle the question. Of course, the Bible, itself, created the question!

The scripture, Gen. 1:31 plainly says—

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

"The phrase, ‘All that he had made’ includes man, necessarily, Uncle.” I said. “That is because God also made man.” I then referred him to this scripture:

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Gen.1:27.

“So, Uncle, ‘Man,’ being part of the ‘all he had made’ is also ‘very good,’ not inherently bad, evil or sinful.” I insisted.

“But…” intoned my uncle.

“Ain’t no ‘but’ in there, nowhere, Uncle! So, get your ‘but’ out of here!” I said, before I realized what I had said. The pun: but/butt had slipped out.

I had been speaking over the telephone to my mother’s brother.
We, my siblings and I, simply didn’t use that manner of speaking to older relatives. Even though I was 59, at the time, myself, when that involuntary pun slipped out of my mouth, I immediately apologized. We’d been raised better than that by both parents, and my uncle knew it!

He chuckled, himself, at my startling utterance, and went on to agree with it, in spite of himself. The double entendre “butt” and “but” was so sudden, and so stunning, you couldn’t help but laugh. It was like a “discovered check” on the chess board! In this case, it was a discovered checkmate!

So went our good-natured repartee on original sin, and the alleged “fall” of man. It was one of many theological discussions between us. Most of the time, he got me. Today, I’d turned the tables.

My uncle and I were always discussing theological questions over the telephone, since we lived 250 miles apart. I knew my uncle’s ways, well. He was Mississippi-ole school Baptist, whose daddy and grand-daddy had been Mississippi- ole school Baptist preachers.

On one previous occasion, he had told me that Genesis did not accurately describe “the beginning.” But, the book of John did. That one floored me. So, we turned to that book. Sure enough, it said:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:1-5. That reference had, frankly, surprised me, and left me slightly exasperated. So, not desiring to get lambasted yet again with such a scriptural hay-maker, I had cut my uncle off, unwisely and imprudently, to my detriment.

I have since inwardly resolved to never do that again!

Our most recent “debate” concerned itself with whether Peter had been “too proud to pray” for the former Samaritan mystic/sorcerer, Simon, who had become wealthy through his sorcery?

Simon, along with many other Samaritans, had been undergone conversion and baptism by Phillip. Later, after his conversion and baptism, Simon had been sternly rebuked by Peter, of all people, (considering Peter’s multiple rebukes and later forgiveness by Jesus) after his conversion to “The Way.” Simon had offered to pay Peter for knowledge of the Holy Ghost and for the gift of healing, by the laying on of hands, in Acts 8:14-25, after seeing Peter and John lay hands upon and heal worshippers, who received the Holy Ghost.

After his rebuke, Simon had asked Peter to pray for him, so he might avoid experiencing the scourges in Peter’s rebuke. Peter ignored his request for prayer and went on with his business as though Simon didn’t exist.

I argued that Peter was wrong for refusing to pray for Simon, after his rebuke. My uncle, naturally, took the orthodox view, insisting that Peter had done nothing wrong, because Simon’s heart was not right with God. I told my uncle the scripture didn’t mention anything about the rightness of Simon’s heart. Besides, 2 Chr. 25:2, doesn’t require that your heart be right, as long as you do what is right in the sight of God. That scripture says: “And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart.”

Well, there we left it in Jesus’ name, till our next theological visit.

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