… true conversion is the result of a revelation of God to the individual.
However, the experience of that revelation varies from person to person depending on the circumstances and the manner in which the Gospel is presented. Features of this truth may be obscured or denied altogether. Some things may be added to this revelation that have little or no connection to the truth as was demonstrated in the Galatian church. In other instances the Gospel may be disconnected altogether from its essential nature as revelation, being presented instead as a tradition or ritual that’s no longer experienced or presented as a personal engagement with God.
An illustration of what I’m describing is what I call:
“The Story of the ‘Coconut’, or the Myth of the Brown Round Fruit.”
Once upon a time a people from a faraway land were forced to flee their homes due to a great catastrophe. They took to the sea in small boats, eventually finding their way to an isolated island. On this island were plants that they’d never seen before and in order to survive they had to sample the vegetation to determine what could and could not be eaten. Some leafy plants were edible but didn’t provide enough sustenance. Other plants produced fruit which proved to be edible, but it made the people sick after they had consumed it. Over the next days and weeks the people became more and more desperate; they couldn’t seem to find enough to eat and they were becoming weaker and weaker. Leaving the island would have been a tremendous risk, for they barely made it to this place and embarking on another journey into the unknown would have been a terrifying prospect, especially in their weakened condition. Eventually some of the people began to die of starvation.
About the time that all hope was lost something unexpected happened. One of the plants on the island was a huge plant that towered thirty or forty feet in the air. It was a plant that none of the people had ever seen before. They noticed that up at the top of the plant’s long trunk, there were broad leaves and what appeared to be a kind of fruit. They were able to retrieve a sample of this “fruit” when one of the younger men managed to climb up the trunk. But when he brought it down for inspection it turned out to be inedible. It was just a big hairy brown ball that was as hard as a rock. They tried to crack it open like a nut but they were unable to crush it or split it open with their hands. They even tried using sticks to break it open but to no avail. Eventually they just gave up.
Then one day as they were foraging near these plants one of the brown balls fell to the ground and landed on a sharp rock. The impact split the ball open and what they found inside was not only edible it was very tasty. It had a kind of white “meat” that could be chewed and consumed rather easily, and there was a white liquid that could be drunk as well. Everyone who tried it liked it and it proved to be very nourishing. There was plenty of it on the island, and once a proper technique was developed for cracking it open, this fruit became a central part of the people’s diet, and they flourished with its consumption.
This fruit also proved to have a medicinal use as well. Along with a lack of food the people had also been weakened by some insects that would bite them when they were sleeping. It turned out the island was infested with them and their bites would often get infected. However, a salve made from the milk and meat of the brown balls proved not only to be soothing, its application also acted to prevent being bitten, and it had a scent that was most pleasing. Once the people learned this, the application of the salve became part of a daily regimen, and with its use the people were no longer plagued by the insects.
However, along with all of its benefits, the use of this fruit also required constant attention and effort. This was because there was no reliable method for storing the fruit. If the contents were left overnight it would rot, becoming useless as either food or salve. If someone did try to eat the leftovers they would invariably become nauseous and vomit. And the day-old salve, for its part, no longer acted to repel the insects and produced a noxious odor instead of the appealing fragrance it once had. This meant that the fruit balls needed to be cracked open, and their contents prepared for use, every day.
The unopened balls could be harvested from the plants and stored for later use, but their storage life was not clearly understood. Eventually even the fruit in the unopened balls would rot and become unusable. But the time it took for this to happen varied, and the reason for this variation was not apparent. Sometimes the harvested fruit was still usable after being stored for several months. In other cases it took only a few days for the contents to spoil. This meant that the usefulness of stored fruit was never certain; it was always better to crack the balls open and consume the contents the same day they were harvested. This wasn’t seen as a problem at first; the people were just glad to have enough food to eat and have an effective means to ward off the insects. Eventually, however, the regimen required for using the fruit became tiresome to the people. And as time passed, other sources of food were found on the island and the use of the fruit balls gradually diminished.
Once the problem of getting enough to eat had been solved and their survival assured, the people began to address other concerns such as building shelters, investigating other aspects of the island, and learning how to make the best use of all the resources that their new home offered. Over the next few years they were able to build a thriving community. And as the population increased new communities were established on various parts of the island, for it proved to be a large island that could accommodate a great many people.
When the children of these communities grew up, they replaced their parents as leaders, and eventually all those who had been part of the original founders of the island community died. Then the children of those founders died and their children became the leaders, and so the society continued for generations.
Eventually the importance of the brown round fruit diminished and its significance was replaced by other fruits that were found on the island. These alternative fruits weren’t as nourishing, but they were adequate, and they didn’t need to be prepared daily in the manner of the brown round fruit. It was also the case that the islanders no longer needed to rely on the brown balls for medicinal use. This was because once the people started living in buildings they were no longer subject to the attacks of the insects. And with disuse the benefits of the round, brown fruit was eventually forgotten.
However, because it had proved to be so crucial for the survival of the original founders of the island community stories about the brown balls survived. In fact, a kind of organization was formed that sought to commemorate the importance of the fruit when the community was first established. Insignias were used by the association that included representations of the fruit. A large version of that insignia was sometimes displayed at the front of their meeting hall and some of the leaders actually wore a jacket that had epaulets on the shoulders that also displayed the fruit insignias. However, as the stories of the fruit were passed on to later generations, the understanding of its importance was often altered.
Over time, as the membership of the group grew, there arose disputes concerning how the story of the brown round fruit should be told. This dissention resulted in the fracturing of the membership into groups that formed their own associations emphasizing what they thought was the best version of the story of the brown balls. Then the diverse groups began to compete with one another for new members, each seeking to become the largest, most important, brown fruit association on the island.
This competition became so intense that it affected the well-being of the entire island society. Several of the communities on the island became closely associated with the particular brown fruit group to which their villagers belonged. It also became common for membership in the fruit society to be instrumental in securing positions of leadership within the community at large; in fact, many communities would only allow association members to lead them. And because of their influence, most of the people on the island were members of one of these organizations. People who were not members came to be considered as odd, even dangerous. Some of the more obstinate “non-clubbers,” as they were often called, decided to form their own community in which the formation of brown-ball societies was banned. In their place these communities focused on stories that gave little, if any attention to the brown round fruit. Their stories focused on such things as the boats that carried the original founders to the island, or the nature of the biting insects that used to harass the people. However, they circulated these stories without organizing “clubs” to support them.
Eventually cooperation between the communities began to erode as each community took on characteristics that were more and more distinct from those embraced by the other communities. And the more important distinctions had to do with the issue of the associations. Most communities only allowed one organization to be established among them. And, as has been said, each community’s organization had its own version of the brown fruit story. There were one or two communities that allowed more than one group to form, but it was difficult to maintain the peace in these communities because each association promoted its version of the brown fruit story among the people, sometimes with violent results.
However, the greatest contention resulted from the establishment of communities without any association at all. They were viewed as odd because they failed to recognize the importance of the heritage of the islanders. They were out of step with the social fabric of the island culture, but they couldn’t be ignored for they too contributed to the fortunes of the entire island.
To be Continued
