When there is a serious disaster, like a plane crash or a pandemic, we often demand to know what went wrong – so we can avoid it happening again. It’s made many things better: safer air travel, more successful medicine, buildings that don’t fall down.
Public Inquiries and Royal Commissions are good when there is a well-focused question, but how do you answer the “What went wrong?” question in the biggest context?
The Bible doesn’t shy away from the truth in all its bleak reality. In many ways the Bible exists to ask, and then answer, the very core question: What went wrong?
So what did go wrong? What led to the situation we find ourselves in – a world of selfish people, of wanton destruction, of conflict, of violence, fear and malice?
The Bible doesn’t hesitate to answer, and the ‘what’ comes right at the beginning in Genesis 2. Adam ate an Apple. And he ate it because he thought there was something more important than doing what God said.
And the Bible also tells us what God’s response is: Jesus. Adam disobeyed, Jesus obeyed: “by the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” Rom 5:19.
How shall we respond? We could follow Adam, but my advice would be to follow Jesus.
Raymond