Creation
(and the New Testament references to it)
(and the New Testament references to it)
An absolutely crucial passage is Genesis 2:18-25
Genesis 2:18-25
18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Jesus and Paul both quote this passage as foundational to an understanding of marriage.
Matthew 19:4-6
4 “Haven’t you read,” he [Jesus] replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” (See also Mark 10:2-9)
Ephesians 5:31-32
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
The key point is that here we see God’s intention for intimate sexual relationships. They are to involve a man and a woman. Woman was created as the God-ordained companion for a man. It didn’t apply only to Adam and Eve. The principle is stated generally (Gen 2:24).
There is absolutely no equivalent (or even inequivalent) passage suggesting that God intended a similar relationship between two men or two women.
Genesis 1:27-28
27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God created humans male and female.
Part of God’s plan (in fact, a major part) is that these relationships are to produce children. Obviously, homosexual relationships cannot do that. They are simply not what God intended when He made men and women for each other.
I am sure Liberals are sick and tired of hearing it but it remains true: God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
Many of the later passages about sexual morality and marriage allude to the creation event. It is here that God’s will is revealed.