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The creation account has been used by many as a foundation to produce myths and stories.\u00a0 While this post will concentrate on modern day myths, it is also helpful to understand some of the historical myths about the creation of male and female.<\/p>\n
One of the myths of creation comes from Plato where the androgynous sex<\/strong><\/a> existed as what humans were in the beginning. Here is the edited speech at the Banquet by Aristophanes (189e-193b of Plato’s Symposium): <\/span><\/p>\n “Anciently….the androgynous sex existed…coupled back to back…till jealous Jupiter divided then vertically …as people cut eggs with hairs…after then, these divided and imperfect folk ran about over the earth ever seeking their lost halves to be joined to them again…and the reason being that human nature was originally one, and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called love…..” <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Another version is concerning Hermaphroditos who was a Greek androgynous deity.<\/p>\n Hermaphroditos<\/a> <\/strong>(HERMAPHRODITUS) Greek androgynous deity. The cult of Hermaphroditos appeared first in Cyprus, but never became prominent in the rest of the Greek world until the Hellenistic period. Originally the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The Naiad Salmakis (associated with a fountain of the same name in Caria, a region of Anatolia) fell so passionately in love with him that their bodies merged into one. In some versions, it was her entreaties to the gods that finally resulted in their becoming one being.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In1 Timothy Paul warns that myths give rise to speculation and this can hurt our faith.<\/p>\n 1 Timothy 1:3\u00a0 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,<\/p>\n 1 Timothy 1:4\u00a0 nor to pay attention to myths<\/strong><\/em> and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation<\/strong><\/em> rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Today, as in Paul’s day there are still many myths about creation and some of these myths not only distort who man is, but they also distort the image of God.\u00a0 While complementarians can be tempted to distort the image of God by saying that God is male, others distort the image of God by saying that God is male and<\/strong><\/em> female.\u00a0 The truth is that God is neither male nor female.\u00a0 God is spirit.\u00a0 God has no sexual body parts and as spirit God has no sexual gender.<\/p>\n As a Christian apologist I frequently come across doctrinal error that has crept into the church through all kinds of TV preachers.\u00a0 It is a good idea to learn how to test the “new truths” that these teachers are spreading so that our foundation is based on the word of God and not popular myths.<\/p>\n One of those teaching a modern day myth is\u00a0 Kenneth Copeland who says that God is both male and female like the first human Adam.\u00a0 The audio clip is here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n You know that God created Adam.\u00a0 We won’t go back over that again.\u00a0 He created him in authority.\u00a0 God said and it was.\u00a0 God said let there be light and there was.\u00a0 Then he came up to create man and said, God said “Let us create man in our image.\u00a0 Let him have dominion.”\u00a0 Those were the words that he used to bring Adam alive.\u00a0 And then he created Eve out of Adam.\u00a0 Actually God didn’t name her Eve.\u00a0 Adam named her Eve later.\u00a0 That wasn’t her name.\u00a0 Her name was Adam.\u00a0 When God said Adam, they both came.\u00a0 Their authority was one and the same together.\u00a0 They did everything together.\u00a0 They had always been together even when she was still part of him.\u00a0 He was as much female as he was male, like God is<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 God separated the female part of him and then put him back together.\u00a0 And she was Adam.\u00a0 They were Adam.\u00a0 He was the man, she was the woman.\u00a0 She was the man with the womb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Bible says nothing at all about the words “Let him have dominion” as the words that brought Adam to life.\u00a0 This is a word of faith myth that allows Copeland to teach that man was given such extensive dominion that God now has to have our permission to do anything in this world.\u00a0 In this myth man becomes god-like one who has the power to create whatever he speaks.<\/p>\n Copeland also teaches that God created Adam as an androgynous being, with both male and female body parts.\u00a0 Once the myth has been established in people’s minds, Copeland builds on this myth and makes God in the same image as his creation.\u00a0 He says that the androgynous Adam was made like God is<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 This theology is Greek myth more akin to Zeus of the Greek pantheon.<\/p>\n In contrast, the Bible is absolutely clear that God is our Heavenly Father and in his divine nature, sexual distinctions are non-existent.\u00a0 God is not like man with male and female parts.\u00a0 God is pure spirit.\u00a0 When God first created Adam, he created man in His image and then God created the woman in both the image of God and the image of man. The concept that God is a being with sexual identity as both male and female is transforming God into a pagan mythological deity.<\/p>\n Copeland also teaches that wholeness only comes<\/strong><\/a> with men and women together.<\/p>\n After that, man and woman had to come together to be perfectly whole.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If this was true, then single people could never have wholeness in life unless they are currently married.\u00a0 Yet Paul says that singleness can be a blessing because it can bring time for undistracted service to the Lord.<\/p>\n 1 Corinthians 7:34\u00a0 … The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. It is also a myth that one cannot have wholeness unless one is married.\u00a0 This myth can be devastating when it is taught to those who are single.<\/p>\n Benny Hinn also teaches that originally man was both male and female and that Adam gave birth to the female out of his side.\u00a0 Listen to the audio clip here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Holy Spirit said something to me and I had to go like a mad man and looking in the Word.\u00a0 He says, “God’s original plan is that the woman was to bring forth children out her other side<\/strong><\/em>.” \u00a0 What?\u00a0 You know that there is nowhere in the Bible but where God gives birth out of His side? Jesus gives birth to the church out of His side.\u00a0 Adam gives birth<\/span> to his wife out of his side<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It was sin that turned the thing around. And it was sin that transformed her flesh and her body.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is nothing less than a myth.\u00a0 There is not even one verse to confirm that the woman was originally created to give birth out of her side.\u00a0 Again we have the mythological teaching that the first man was created as male and female with Adam giving birth to Eve.\u00a0 It may be a very romantic idea, but it has no basis in the scriptures.<\/p>\n How far the myths can be stretched is shown by Benny Hinn’s bizarre teaching about the super being abilities of Adam. Listen to the audio file\u00a0 here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Adam was a super being when God created him.\u00a0 I don’t know if people even know this but he was the first super man that ever lived.\u00a0 First of all the scriptures declare clearly that he had dominion over the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea, which means he used to fly.\u00a0 Well of course, how could he have dominion over the birds and not be able to do what they do?\u00a0 I’ll prove it to you.\u00a0 The word dominion, in the Hebrew, clearly declares that if you have dominion over a subject that you do everything that subject does.\u00a0 In other words that subject if it does something you cannot do, you don’t have dominion over it.\u00a0 I’ll prove it further.\u00a0 Adam not only flew, he flew to space.\u00a0 He was with one thought he would be on the moon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is nothing in Benny Hinn’s story that has any validity to it.\u00a0 The Hebrew word for dominion does not mean that you have to do everything that your subjects are able to do.\u00a0 It is preposterous to think that there is even a hint in the scriptures that Adam had gills like a fish to breath underwater so that he could have dominion over the fish of the sea or that he could also buzz around like a bee.\u00a0 This is an untrue myth.<\/p>\n Another myth has come along into the landscape that Adam in the beginning was called both “male” and “female” and both “him” and “them”.\u00a0 Christiane Carlson-Thies<\/strong><\/a> writes an article for CBE (Christians for Biblical Equality) in and this article she states that one<\/strong><\/em> person can be called “them”.<\/p>\n In Genesis 1:27-28, God clearly elevates Adam above every creature creating him in the “image of God.” And God gives clear marching orders: Be fruitful. Fill the earth. Rule. But what is this Adam that God creates in his divine image and that he authorizes to fulfill the cultural mandate? In this passage, God uses a lot of words that don’t normally apply to a solitary person. Specifically, God calls Adam variously “him”, “them”, “male” and “female.” Hmmm. Know anyone like that?<\/p>\n From Genesis 1:27 through Genesis 2:21, we learn the story of Adam, “him-them-male-female” – the world’s first and only truly “generic man.” Granted, if we had a photograph of this Adam, from our perspective in a universe of both male and female humans, we would identify the creature we see as a male human, but in Adam’s universe, to what could he compare himself to fix his human identity? What plants, what animals were like him? None, as Adam sadly discovers in Genesis 2. Distinctly different from all of God’s other creation, Adam is human, nothing more, nothing less. Going back to God’s own words again, Adam is “him-them-male-female,” a formulation repeated in Genesis 5:2.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What Christiane fails to realize is that Genesis chapter 1 is not talking about the creation of one<\/em> person as a plural, but about one person from whom was made another person.<\/p>\n Genesis 1:26\u00a0 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” In Genesis 1:26 God says that mankind will be made in the image of God.\u00a0 He doesn’t say “the man” as he does elsewhere because in this instance, it is the generic term for mankind.\u00a0 Speaking of his plan, God gives the rulership to “them”.\u00a0 This was the plan even before God created, that they would rule.\u00a0 Then in verse 27 God speaks about the creation of the man (the noun is definite) and after that point, God will use the plural for male and female.\u00a0 This proves that both male and female were created in God’s image, not just the male.<\/p>\n In verse 28 we can see that the rulership of the creation is given when both male and female are together.\u00a0 The male does not get rulership given to him before the time that the female is created.\u00a0 This is clear from the text because it would make no sense to tell a single human to “be fruitful and multiple”.\u00a0 This is spoken to both the man and the woman.\u00a0 God also tells both of them what they can and cannot eat by giving them parameters for food.\u00a0 The word “you” in the Hebrew is plural.\u00a0 God gives the man and the woman only the plants yielding seed and only the fruit from the trees which yield seed.<\/p>\n There is no indication in the original Hebrew that God is speaking to one person as a plural.\u00a0 This is a myth.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Can the truth of God’s word be blended together with modern myths or pagan mythologies?\u00a0 I believe that when we do this we water down the world of God.\u00a0 I believe very strongly that the word of God is eternal, infallible and unchanging.<\/p>\n Now let’s deal with some questions regarding what kind of person Adam was before Eve was created.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Could Adam’s exclamation that Eve is\u00a0 “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh” mean that she was a female part of him that was taken out?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many who say that Adam’s exclamation is just poetic language and isn’t to be taken literally.\u00a0 There are two problems with this view.<\/p>\n There is nothing in the text that would make Adam’s words non-literal.\u00a0 If the words were not literal, where would we get the meaning from?\u00a0 No other meaning in scripture is ever supplied for Adam’s words other than what he literally said.<\/p>\n Also if Eve came from a female organ that was taken out of Adam, Adam’s words would contradict that fact.\u00a0 In the literal Hebrew Adam said “this is the once bone from bones of me and flesh from flesh of me”.\u00a0 The first “bone” is singular and the second bone is plural.\u00a0 Literally Adam said that she is made from what was once “a bone” amongst his multiple “bones” and she is flesh from what was his flesh.<\/p>\n
\n1 Corinthians 7:35\u00a0 This I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\nGenesis 1:27\u00a0 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
\nGenesis 1:28\u00a0 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
\nGenesis 1:29\u00a0 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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