IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON February 4, 2008 Issue

A weekly column in which writers discuss Bible passages that appear in the Christian Science Bible Lessons.

BABEL-BUILDER OR SPIRIT-MOVED HEALER?

KEITH WOMMACK

WHAT STRUCK ME when I first read through this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson was the contrast between two of its Bible stories. The stories prompted me to ask myself: "Am I, right now, a 'Babel-builder,' or am I, this moment, joining in on a Pentecostal experience?"

This first story, found in the book of Genesis, is mythological. Much more than being a tale of God indiscriminately interrupting a building project, it shows how evil's attempts at gaining a foothold are stopped.

In the Lesson's second section, the narrative begins: "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ... And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. ... And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech" (Gen. 11:1, 4, 6, 7).