story 1 part 2

We rested in the middle against the slimy rocks, and as always our conversation turns to God.

"What if God didn't mean to enter the historical record until Jesus was crucified?" I asked. As conquerers, the Romans kept records of everybody they killed; it was one way of getting your family geneology done for free.

"Then God doesn't reveal himself to everyody."

"That doesn't make sense. God must be known to everybody just the same."

"Why?" wondered Glen, for the first, but not the last time. Then he fell to his usual line of inquiry: "There must be another way."

"Come on," I said. We had about half mile to go to the diving cliffs still.

I break clear of the surface and take a huge breath in. I look up at Glen. far above me. When you jump, I tell him silently, make sure you jump out as much as you jump down. There may be rocks near the cliff just under the surface of the water.

Glen jumps. He picks up the conversation from the rocks as if an hour hasn't elapsed.

"The trouble with you is you want evolution and revelation."

"Yeah, so?" So was my challenging point.

"They don't go together, evolution and revelation."

"Says who?"

"Says a lot of people."

I reach the base of the cliffs and scramble up the right. "The Bible doesn't say so," I counter, going up a mere fifteen feet before turning to jump. Glen scrambles after me.

"The Bible doesn't support evolution."

I jump. A few seconds later, Glen is next to me, bubbling and laughing.

"It doesn't disprove it, neither." It's my story, damnit, and I'll tell it the way I want it.

"So then, it comes down to a matter of interpretation. Which, I suppose, is a matter of faith," he said, dejectedly, though it was hard to tell while swimming. He knew where faith led to in our friendship. But I propose a different topic, just to keep him off-balance.

"Maybe Jesus shows up in different places to different people at different times. He is God, you know."

"But he shows up in a specific place with a specific purpose at a specific time."

I swim over.

"Yes, in our version of the story. Come on. Even if you don't believe in evolution you gotta admit there were others living in far reaches of the globe at the time."

"Like the Amerindians?" he offers weakly.

"Yeah, where are they in the Bible?"

I continue.

"See? The Bible is too narrow to be the inerrant word of God. That's a lie made up by a bunch of priests with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo."

This time he reaches the cliff-face first and scrambles up. He jumps from very far up, and sails over my head.

"I don't know," he calls out. He hits the water, arms already flailing. He breaks the surface and adds,

"You've got to give the Bible more scope."