A devout old Christian was visited by his grandson who was on Spring Break from college. “How are you doing, Gramps?” asked the grandson. “Fine, just fine,” said the old man.

“How is school going?” the old man asked. Are you learning anything up there?” “You bet,” answered the grandson. “I’m learning all kinds of stuff.”

The grandson then began to enlighten his behind-the-times grandfather on 21st century intelligence. He said, “Grandpa, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings but your generation got a lot wrong.” “We did?” replied the grandpa with a tone of surprise in his voice. “What did we get wrong?”

“For starters,” said the grandson, “mankind isn’t made in the image of God. My biology teacher made it very clear that evolution is no longer just a theory. It’s proven science with all kinds of evidence to support it.” The grandfather countered by saying, “But the first two chapters of Genesis teach that God created Adam out of the dust of the earth and placed him in the Garden of Eden, and that He made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.”

The grandson shook his head and said, “See, that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about. You guys interpret that whole story as literal history, but I’m taking a Religions of the World class and my teacher says that the Bible shouldn’t be understood like that. She says that every religion thinks their book is holy, but none of them actually are. They were all just written by men.”

The grandfather said, “But 2 Timothy 3:16 says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” In response, the grandson reasoned, “”Oh, that’s just the bible bragging on itself.”

“Well,” said the old man, “I guess we can’t trust what the bible teaches about abortion being wrong, homosexuality being a sin, men and women playing different roles in the home and society, spanking a disobedient child, our political leaders allowing for the death penalty in certain cases, or anything else that is not politically correct.” “You got it,” said the grandson. “Our society has moved on from all that. None of the kids in my dorm believe any of it. They say it’s all just ancient thinking and that it’s up to our generation to make things better.”

“Okay,” said the grandfather, “let me ask you one last thing. What about our need for salvation and the fact that those who know Jesus Christ as Savior will go to heaven in the afterlife and those who don’t will go to hell?” The grandson laughed and said, “Now c’mon, Gramps. Even if there is a God up there somewhere, everybody knows that He’s a God of love, forgiveness, tolerance, and acceptance. He would never send anybody to some awful place like hell.”

“And who taught you that?” asked the old man. “The guy who leads the Christian youth service I attend,” answered the grandson. “He’s really cool. He’s got long hair. He wears faded blue jeans and an untucked shirt. He’s got Christian tattoos all over him, and he’s got this gold cross necklace that hangs around his neck. All the kids love him. He’s like a rock star.”

“I see,” said the grandfather. “Well, I have to admit that this has all been very enlightening.” The grandson grinned and said, “That’s why I wanted to come visit you, Gramps.” “I love you and I wanted you to know how behind the times you’ve gotten. You really need to catch up.”

To that the old man replied, “No, I don’t think that will be happening. I couldn’t catch up to all that even if I doubled my speed.” Puzzled, the grandson asked, “What do you mean, Gramps?” The old man answered, “Well, son, you’ll just never catch up to something if you keep going in the opposite direction.”