Issued: 5/24/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh of hosts [later Jesus] and Yahweh the Most High God, lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the One and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from God the Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

   Like all important teachings in Scripture, sex has its shadow/substance aspects.  By ‘shadow’ we mean human behaviors/events that correlate with spiritual teachings [substance], as for example human marriage vis-à-vis the union between Jesus and the Church (Mark 2:19↔Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:23,29-32; Revelation 21:9).  Paul’s observations in Ephesians unmistakably link Jesus/Church to Adam/Eve; as he did in Romans 5:14:  Adam being figure/type of him [Jesus] who was to come; as well as in 1Corinthians 15:45:  Adam became a living being [i.e., mortal man] whereas Jesus, “the last Adam,” became a life-giving [i.e., immortal life] spirit. Even the name given Woman, Eve, meaning “mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20), applied both to Eve [shadow] as mother of mankind and to the Church [substance] as ‘mother’ of God’s elect (Galatians 4:26), who even in death are ‘alive’ to Him (Luke 20:38)—as opposed to unrepentant sinners He regards as ‘dead’ (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Brief Review of Biblical ‘Timekeeping’

   Since the command to procreate appears in Genesis 1:28, careful consideration must be given to its context.  As explained in our series Genesis: The Myth That Never Was, Genesis 1, from creation of Light to Millennium Sabbath (Genesis 2:3↔Revelation 20:4,6) is an overview—albeit in highly symbolic language—of human history.  This relates in no way whatsoever to men’s chronologies from Big Bang to the ‘evolution’ of life on Earth:  If anything, Genesis 1, with its spontaneous creations from non-being into being (Romans 4:17) and fully developed forms of life, contradicts scientific wisdom.¹

   The  claim that creation took a ‘week’ to complete, and given Matthew’s and Luke’s chronologies (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38), all suggest that our world is not millions of years old but thousands of years old; and if we equate the Millennium of Revelation 20:4,6 with the Seventh Day of Genesis 2:2 when Yahweh of hosts, the proxy Creator, rested from his work,² it might be assumed that each day prior to the Sabbath was roughly of equal duration—i.e., one thousand years↔2Peter 3:8?

   Scripture supports this timeframe in two places.  Habakkuk 3:2’s plea to Yahweh the Most High to revive His work “in the midst of [one-thousand long] years,” meaning Jesus’ incarnation and ministry within the context of human history, the ‘midst of years’ corresponding to the ‘Wednesday’ in Genesis 1’s symbolic week.  Daniel 9:27 uses the same approach, though here time is reckoned in years rather than millennia:  “And [the Messiah—Daniel 9:26] will confirm a covenant [of faith] with many for one week, but in the middle of the week[the ‘Wednesday’] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.”  End to what sacrifices and offerings?   Mosaic remission of sins through the blood of sacrificial animals, which Jesus invalidated with his death on the cross (Galatians 3:10-15; Hebrews 9:11-25, 12:24).  In both cases the ‘Wednesday’ when Jesus died is the conceptual line dividing the times of the Gentiles [Luke 21:24↔Common Era] from the expiration of the “times of ignorance” allotted to the Jews (Acts 17:30↔BCE).

Two Creator Gods, Two Different Days of Rest

   All of these imply that the Most High foreknew, even before Eve bit the forbidden fruit, who in the course of history would be saved and who would not, as attested by Jesus in John 6:39 and Paul in Romans 9:23-24; both of which imply God’s elections and rejections well in advance of Judgment Day.  This is not to be confused with Calvin’s misguided notion of predestination, for predestination means no choice (Ecclesiastes 7:13) whereas Judeo-Christianity is all about freely choosing between righteousness or sin (Deuteronomy 30:19-20; Ezekiel 33:11).  To put it simplistically, God did not have to wait until the Nazi Era to consign Hitler and his minions to the bonfire at Armageddon:  Nazis made personal choices for evil, and foreknowing those choices, the Most High wrote them off before history began—or rather, had their names and deeds recorded in books to be consulted on Judgment Day (Daniel 7:10; Revelation 20:12-13).

   Genesis 2, by contrast, is not so much about human history but as an allegorical experiment commenting on the human condition:  “Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed” (Genesis 2:8).  The ‘Yahweh God’ being referenced here is not the Most High God but His only personal creation and proxy Creator God, Light = the Son (John 1:9, 8:12; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14), Yahweh of hosts/Jesus (Psalms 2:7-8; Hebrews 1:5-10).  The same idea is implicit in Isaiah 5:1-7:  The planter of the vineyard is the beloved Son; the Father is the one lamenting the Son’s vineyard going to pot.  [See also John 1:10-11].

   Genesis 2 tells us that on some earthly location delimited by rivers familiar and unidentifiable, Yahweh of hosts created Man in the image he shared with his Father³ and made Woman out of one of Man’s ribs—hence their joint name:  Adam (Genesis 5:2).  It was on this garden that the experiment went awry and from it that Adam and Eve were evicted into the world as we know it.

   It thus becomes clear that Genesis 2:21-24 and Genesis 1:26-27 are shadow and substance respectively, the human event prefiguring the spiritual one; for as the latter pertains to the sharing of immortal flesh between Jesus and the redeemed post-first resurrection (Psalms 17:15; Corinthians 15:52-54; 1John 3:2), the former applies only to perishable flesh.  Consequently Genesis 1:26-27, in the context of human history, prefigures the creation the Most High intended all along:  Man [Jesus] and Woman [Church] as one body fashioned in His immortal substance [i.e., ‘image’] at end-times prior to the millennial Sabbath of Revelation 20:4.

   As stated before, the God who rests from all his works during this Millennium is Jesus—not the Most High God—after accomplishing his mission:  Uniting all things in heaven and earth so that the Most High is reconciled with everyone (Ephesians 1:10, 4:4-6).  After that Millennium, the Most High God will wreak the promised vengeance upon His enemies, so that it is from Him that fire comes down from Heaven and vaporizes evildoers at Armageddon (Deuteronomy 32:35; Revelation 20:7-10)—on the ‘Sunday’ [i.e., first ‘day’] of eternity.  In its aftermath a new creation, with new heavens and a new earth, will fulfill all the parameters of God’s original conception down to the vegetarianism of Genesis 1:29-30, after which the Most High will literally rest from all His works (Isaiah 60:19↔Revelation 21:23↔in reference to the Holy City / Isaiah 11:6-9, 30:26, 65:17, 66:22; 2Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1↔in reference to the Kingdom of God at large).

Back to Genesis

   Why all this rigmarole?  Because it is essential that we view sex in the context that the Most High conceived it—that is, from the perspective of Genesis 1 [world history] and not Genesis 2 [the human condition].

   Although the command to procreate was given in Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2 does not mention Man and Woman⁴ having sexual intercourse until after their fall and exile from Eden, from which union Cain was born (Genesis 4:1).   Thus it remains unclear whether prior to exile they ever had sex as we know it; and given that nakedness before then was shame-free (Genesis 2:25), one must wonder if seeing their private parts with ‘new eyes’ led to ‘dirty thoughts’ previously unknown to them—hence the loincloths made of fig leaves to curb lustful desires (Genesis 3:7).

   What is clear—via the hidden wisdom discussed in the previous essay—is that Adam and Eve were shadow to the substance of their spiritual counterparts.  As with everything else in Scripture, the Genesis narrative provides insights into Christian theology:  Note how Paul links Adam and Jesus in terms of image (1Corinthians 15:45-49↔Genesis 1:26), as well as in terms of sharing one body/identity (Ephesians 5:23,30-32↔Genesis 2:23, 5:2).  Note also the correspondence between Jesus leaving His Father in Heaven to become one “flesh” with the Church (Genesis 2:24), which required his transition from Angel God (Genesis 48:15-16; Exodus 3:2,4-6, 23:20-21; Acts 27:23) to man (Hebrews 10:5-9; Philippians 2:5-7)—the reason why Jesus portrayed himself as bridegroom and followers as his “bride” (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; John 3:29).  Even the “rib” used to fashion Woman has symbolic connotations.  Why not a kidney or some other indispensable organ?  Because while on the cross, a guard pierced Jesus’ side, an unnecessary act since Jesus was already dead; but which on the evidence of spurting water and blood pinpoints Jesus’ rib-cage (John 19:34-37).⁵  

   Thus Adam = Jesus and Eve = the Church, conclusions suggested by the punishments imposed on either of them.  Adam was saddled with the thankless task of tilling the soil, which would produce thorns and thistles along with good crops (Genesis 3:18); Jesus was given the thankless task of tilling the world, so that along with converts there would be plantings by Satan causing him grief (Matthew 13:37-39; Hebrews 12:3).  Note the ‘thistles and thorns imagery’ in Ezekiel 2:6, plus the crucial fact preaching was imposed on ‘son,’ not ‘daughter,’ of man—i.e., Son of Man, the descriptor Jesus used to identify himself [Matthew 9:6 = remitter of sins]; Matthew 24:27 = harvester of souls; John 5:27↔Genesis 18:25 = Judge of all flesh / John 6:53↔1Corinthians 5:7 = Paschal Lamb].

   All of these spelled out the divine intention that preaching the Gospel was solely binding on males (Ezekiel 3:17-21; 1Corinthians 9:16); which along with Jesus’ selection of male Apostles, kept reiterating the prohibition—not honored in our apostate days—that women were not commissioned to preach the Gospel; an argument Paul based on familiar precedents:  “But I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness.  For Adam was formed first, then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression” (1Timothy 2:12-14).

   For her part Eve’s ‘punishment’ involved painful pregnancies [‘persecutions/ordeals’↔Matthew 24:9; John 15:18-21; 2Timothy 3:12; 1Peter 5:9] and loss of equal standing with Adam (Genesis 3:16), a jarring note to today’s feminists but the way things had to be between Jesus [head] and Church [body] totally dependent on him (John 15:5).  If in the shadow sense Eve was the mother of mankind (Genesis 3:20), in the substance sense the Church was the ‘mother’ of Jesus’ spiritual progeny, so that Eve’s/Church’s enmity and position vis-à-vis Satan establishes the links between Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12:1—which has nothing to do with Mary, the mother of Jesus, as Catholic dogma would have us believe.⁶

   That this “woman clothed with the sun” represents the Church is evident from the symbolism associated with her: Her radiant garment represents the righteous deeds of saints (Revelation 7:9,13-14, 19:8); her crown of twelve stars harkens back to Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37:9-10, where twelve stars symbolized the tribes of Israel from which the 144,000 are first-fruits (Revelation 7:4-8).  Not only that, but as grandchildren of Abraham, co-inheritors with Christians of the promise of salvation which is by grace through faith (Romans 4:13-25, 11:28; Ephesians 2:8-9); so that the crown denotes the roots of the Judeo-Christian Church,⁷ the body comprised of the divided nations God proposed to unite in Jesus (Ezekiel 37:21-22; Ephesians 1:9-14).

   Note Paul’s distinction between earthly Jerusalem, enslaved by sin with her mortal children, and the heavenly one, who is barren but with spiritual progeny both free and innumerable (Galatians 4:25-27↔Isaiah 53:8; Acts 8:33; Revelation 7:9).  Jesus ‘sires’ the children of this barren bride, the Heavenly City (Revelation 21:2,10); for that he does not rely on sex but on followers like Paul, who understood his surrogate role in raising spiritual issue to his childless, departed brother [Jesus] so that Jesus’ name would endure (Deuteronomy 25:5-6; Galatians 4:19; Philemon 1:10).  It is not coincidental that compliance with this duty first appears in Genesis 38:7-8, when Judah told Onan to sleep with sister-in-law Tamar and raise offspring for his dead brother, Er.  Why specifically Judah?  Because Judah was the progenitor of the tribe in which Jesus was born (Hebrews 7:14).

Back to Genesis 1:28

   So from this early on, Scripture was laying the foundation for two methods of reproduction, carnal sex being shadow to the substance of spiritual intercourse = interactions between Jesus and his followers ‘to birth’ converts.  In terms of animals, procreation would be achieved through sex; but when it came to human beings, procreation became two-fold, either through the flesh or by the spirit.  Which tells us that human sex—not the original sin which was disobedience—was foreknown to corrupt creation, and provisions were being made regarding the raising up of a spiritual progeny promised Jesus in the person of Abraham (Genesis 17:7, 21:12↔Romans 9:7↔Galatians 3:16,29; Genesis 15:5↔Isaiah 53:8↔Revelation 7:9); to wit, “I [Jesus] and the children God has given me” (Hebrews 2:13↔Isaiah 8:18), none of whom would be lost (John 6:39, 17:12).

   Since the Eden experiment did not pan out, it is impossible to say what type of sex Adam and Eve would have practiced; but we do know that Jesus’ immortal progeny is sexless:  “In the resurrection, people neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels [all of which, by the way, are male]  in Heaven” (Matthew 22:30); so that we can be certain that sex will not rear its ugly head throughout eternity in the Kingdom of God—which is Eden all over again.  And this suggests, by extension, that the Most High, though tolerating sex throughout the “times of ignorance,” never gave it His divine imprimatur:  It was a concession given humans to hold in check their passions until self-control came of age.  Obviously, some spiritual impurity attaches to sexual intercourse, so that when the time came for Son to incarnate as Jesus, Mary was implanted with an embryo that had no human DNA (Luke 1:31-35).

Heterosexual Sex

   As early as Genesis 6:1-8, men were engaged in heterosexual promiscuity:  Women were beautiful; the more plentiful they were, the readier were men to sample them—shades of modern times!  Of all ‘widespread wickedness’ mentioned in verse 5, it is suggestive that promiscuity (verse 2) is the one singled out as evidence of the evil intents of men’s hearts (verse 5).  Still “Noah found favor in Yahweh’s eyes” (verse 8); and guess what?  Noah was no female sampler but committed to one sexual partner:  his wife.  So amongst his generation, Noah was having sex within the context of Judeo-Christian marriage (1Timothy 3:2), the only divine ‘platform’ that sanctions sexual intercourse (1Corinthians 7:8-9).  This is why Noah was singled-out for salvation along with his family, proof of Paul’s contention in 1Corinthians 7:14.

   Most Old Testament male exemplars were monogamous [Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Samuel]; Jacob was saddled with two sister-wives due to Laban’s self-serving ruse (Genesis 29:20-27).  But then Jacob, renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28) and progenitor of the twelve tribes, prefigured Yahweh of host’s ‘marriage’ to his two sister-wives,⁸ Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 3:6-11, 11:10; Ezekiel 16:51-52, 23:5-11)—Scriptural code for Judaism and Christianity respectively.  Both in Jeremiah and Ezekiel please note that the greater infidelity is that of Judah, Jesus’ tribe [Christianity (Hebrews 7:14)]; for if Jews betrayed God in their spiritual ignorance, are ‘whorish’ Christian churches not more culpable for having disseminated abominations throughout the world (Revelation 17:1-5↔harlot mother (Roman Catholicism) and harlot daughters (Protestantism)?

   Jesus was the first to insinuate—and implement—the merits of celibacy vis-à-vis getting stuck with one sexual partner while either one lived⁹ or going cold turkey throughout one’s lifetime (Matthew 19:8-12).  Now Jesus was no sex therapist, but his millenary experience as the pre-existent Yahweh of hosts must have taught him the emotional toll such self-denial exacted on human beings.  And though Scripture does not dwell or even hint at Jesus’ carnal cravings, in the sense that he was tempted in all things as all men are (Hebrews 4:15), his 33-year-long sexless, sinless life must have been beyond unendurable.

  By contrast Paul, who seems to have been battling a demanding libido (Romans 7:21-24; 2Corinthians 12:7-9), chose to become a ‘eunuch’ [à la Matthew 19:12] in order to remain fully committed to his ministry (1Corinthians 9:5; 2Timothy 2:4).  Note Paul’s choice of words:  marriage, one of the affairs of ordinary life, is treated as an ‘entanglement’ keeping espouses focused on each other rather than on Jesus (1Corinthians 7:32-34)—i.e., a trap.  For him intercourse was like exorcising the cravings of the flesh to regain the sanity of contemplative prayer, suggesting as well marital intercourse should be sporadic and consensual—more by way of concession than command (1Corinthians 7:5-6).

   For centuries on end, in contrast, Roman Catholicism instructed women patiently and dutifully to submit to their husbands’ unilateral demands, while abdicating conjugal equality granted in 1Corinthians 7:4-5.  Paul also voiced his personal opinion that people would be better off staying single, but “if they do not have self-control, let them get married, for it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire” (1Corinthians 7:8-9)—another teaching that went in one of Rome’s ears and out the other.  Whereas Jesus suggested celibacy, as did Paul, as a personal choice, Rome went rogue an enforced priestly celibacy, which in 1Timothy 4:1-3 the Holy Spirit characterizes as ‘doctrine of demons’—despite the fact that Peter, who Roman Catholicism considers its first pope [dismissing Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 20:25-27 23:8], was married when Jesus conscripted him into service.

   Another corruption of Paul’s teachings stems from his own carnal struggles:  “I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:22-23↔Galatians 5:17↔Matthew 26:41), for which reason “I discipline my body and make it my slave” (1Corinthians 9:27).  He was not talking about self-flagellation, a practice that became rampant in Roman Catholicism and splinter sects, but in the spirit of Proverbs 16:32, 25:28:  Self-control; for Paul, with his understanding that the body was the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 3:17, 6:19; Ephesians 4:30), would not have desecrated it with forbidden practices (Leviticus 19:28).  James exhibited the same reverence for the human form but from a different angle:  “With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9); so that in essence, verbal and physical violence against the human body meant desecrating God’s image rather than honoring it (1Corinthians 6:20).

   Honoring God in the body meant abandoning sinful ways to embrace spiritual norms, though the struggle would be hard and protracted.  “No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  “You husbands must live with your wives according to knowledge [Christian norms], considering and honoring them as weaker vessels but co-heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing may interfere with your prayers” (1Peter 3:7)—Paul’s focus in 1Corinthians 7:5.  “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority” (2Peter 2:9-10); in short view sex like controlled medication to placate addiction in the race for salvation (1Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1). Oh, and none of the lustful practices with which people who do not know God ‘spice up’ their sex lives (1Thessalonians 4:4-5).

Divorce

   Marriage provided the framework for having sex, but it came at a price some balked at:  “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning [from Adam to Sinai].  I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.  The disciples said to him, ‘If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry’” (Matthew 19:8-10).

   This is a tricky one.  First note that Jesus’ perspective is from the husband’s point of view, standard Scriptural methodology:  God communicates with males, they relay His instructions to females in their orbits—the same arrangement between Jesus, God’s go-between (1Timothy 2:5), and all members of his Church/Bride.  None of this precludes that if husbands were the sexually immoral ones, wives would not be able to divorce them, for if God is no respecter of persons as He claims to be (Deuteronomy 10:17), men and women must be accorded the same privileges, since there are no gender distinctions in Christ (Galatians 3:28).

   Jesus was harking back to his pre-existence as Yahweh of hosts and his experience with Ohola (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), his two ‘wives’ given to spiritual immorality [i.e., adultery with alien nations/gods], one of whom, Ohola, had been given a “certificate of divorce” and sent away (Jeremiah 3:8; Ezekiel 16:51-52, 23:5-11).  That Yahweh of hosts/Jesus was the husband in question is implicit in Isaiah 54:5:  “For your maker [proxy Creator↔John 1:3; Colossians 1:16] is your husband, Yahweh of hosts…the Holy One of Israel and your Redeemer (Isaiah 44:6):  He will be called God of the whole earth” (Matthew 28:18↔Revelation 2:26-27, 12:5).

   Does this mean that Jesus washed his hands off the Jews before canvassing the Gentiles?  No, he prioritized the unfaithful Jews first and ministered exclusively to them Mark 7:27), thus remaining faithful to the ‘woman’ of his first [Mosaic] covenant.  Then he ‘married’ Christians under a new covenant of faith (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Mark 2:19), to this day remaining faithful to them though they have surpassed Jews in spiritual immoralities.  So going back to Matthew 19:8-10, Jesus, bridging the gap between Judaism and Christianity, was alluding to himself as the man breaking away from an immoral first wife [Israel/Samaria/Jews] to contract ‘marriage’ with a new one [Judah/Jerusalem/Christians], yet not abandoning either one.

   And rather than rephrase the rationale for the above, here are the pertinent Scriptures (Malachi 2:14-16) and related commentaries:

   “Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem…

all Judeo-Christians, the ‘Jacob/Israel’ of Malachi 2:12, the entire nation of Jews and Gentiles sharers of Abraham’s faith the Deliverer [Jesus] from Zion [Heavenly City/God’s dwelling place] would save at end-times (Romans 2:28-29, 11:25-27); 

for Judah has profaned…

Jesus’ tribe (Hebrews 7:14)—i.e., Christians, comprising the body of Jesus’ mystical Church, which is the Most High’s Holy of Holies (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 10:19-20);

and has married [consorted with] the daughter [Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth (1Peter 5:13; Revelation 17:2,5) of a foreign god [Satan, whose throne/sanctuary is in Rome (Revelation 2:13, 18:2)];

Yahweh [the Most High] has been witness between you [Jews and Christians] and the wife of your youth [Jerusalem/Heavenly City]; against which you have dealt treacherously [dishonored by consorting with alien gods], though she is…the wife of your covenant [Mosaic or faith].  Did He [the Most High] not make one [Jesus] who had abundance of [Holy] Spirit?  Why one?  That he [Jesus] might seek a godly seed [spiritual progeny for God through either wife (Galatians 3:16; 1Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:9-10);

Therefore [let your souls take heed], and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.  For I hate divorce, says Yahweh, the God of Israel [the Most High], and covering one’s garment with violence [as opposed to righteous deeds (Revelation 19:7-8)], says Yahweh of hosts [the begotten Son].  So take heed yourselves and do not be faithless”

   In summary, due to men’s sinful natures, sexual intercourse and divorce were bundled up to mitigate egregious behaviors, but they were never part of God’s original conception.  Come Jesus abstaining from sex and life-long marital fidelity became the ideals, though concessions had to be made in situations where either objective became untenable.

   Enter Paul with a one-approach-fits-all to both challenges:  “Do not [abstain from sex] unless you agree to do so just for a set time…so that Satan does not tempt you through your lack of self-control…To the married I give this command—not I but the Lord—that the wife should not separate from her husband, but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife” (1Corinthians 7:5,10-11); for as Jesus had taught divorcees became adulterers when having sex with partners other than the original but still living partners (Luke 16:18).  Why?  Because of the non-negotiable onus God placed on married couples in Malachi 2:16:  “I hate divorce,” so you had better remain faithful and married.

   Paul then argues for going the extra mile:  Even if living with either partner were difficult, remain together in case the one faithful to his/her vows mayhap, by virtue of his/her sacrifice, be instrumental in saving the other’s soul; but “if the unbelieving partner [wants a divorce], let it be so; in such a case the [faithful] brother or sister is not under [any obligation]” other than finding personal peace (1Corinthians 7:15)—whatever measure of it was possible in his/her ensuing sexless life.

   Paul’s proviso in 1Corinthians 7:14 is unclear, for at times he was in the habit of brushing over comments he should have gone into with more detail—e.g., 1Corinthians 9:27; 2Corinthians 12:2-4.  “For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through her husband.  Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”  It is understandable that the one who has accrued grace might tip the scales in favor of others who have not: Noah’s faith saved wife and children whose spiritual condition Scripture does not reveal (Hebrews 11:7); Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

   Is Paul suggesting that if married couples separate their children are no longer ‘holy’ by virtue of divorce?  Or is he saying that if couples separate and have other children with other partners, the latter are ‘unclean’ because they were conceived outside the original marriage covenant?  In God’s eyes, while formerly married couples still live, remarriage is akin to adultery, and offspring from those unions ‘bastards’ rather than legitimate issue—hence their ‘unclean’ status.

   That word, ‘bastard,’ appears in Hebrews 12:8 in connection with God’s discipline:  “If you are left without discipline, of which every true son has had a share, that shows that you are bastards, and not true sons.”  Is this one of the reasons why Jesus had to endure God’s discipline (John 18:11↔Isaiah 53:10)?  Did his ‘divorce’ from Jews to ‘marry’ Christians transgress the ‘letter’ of Malachi 2:14-16?  So that by assuming the sins of both while in the flesh, he had to die to invalidate prior covenants and then resurrect as a new being—neither as pre-existent angel nor man:  an immortal groom to contract marriage with an immortal bride (Revelation 21:2,9), true flesh of his flesh, embodying all his redeemed, immortal Jewish and Christian offspring.  

   We will conclude our discussion in Part II.

¹ Two obvious examples, the law of conservation of mass and Darwinian evolution.

   Furthermore, Genesis 1:1 tells us that before Light was created, there were waters and land of sorts uncompressed in any shape or form; so those ‘pious’ scientists who argue that Genesis 1:3 is the Bible’s version of the Big Bang, had better switch their scientific caps for spiritual ones and start afresh.  Also Genesis 1:9-10 contradicts theories of our Solar System’s evolution, land masses and seas forming before celestial bodies—including our Sun and the rest of the cosmos.  No evidence of million-year-long rains filling up the oceans either:  Genesis 2:5↔Jeremiah 14:22 states that the God responsible for rain as we know it had not yet “sent rain to water the earth.”  Oh, and Genesis 1:20-21 tells us that birds appeared on command out of the waters, meaning they are not evolved dinosaurs who took to the air.

² The reason why Jesus declared himself Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8):  He was the one who instituted it to establish the connection between himself as embodiment of God’s people and the Most High God (Exodus 31:13↔Isaiah 66:23), the source of Jesus’ creative powers.

   The works in question were Jesus’ crucifixion, stewardship over the world (Matthew 28:18), his second coming heralding the first resurrection (1Thessalonians 4:16), and the last Judgment (John 5:22; Acts 17:31).  The Most High Himself takes over at Armageddon (Revelation 20:9), while Jesus and the redeemed watch the destruction of their enemies from the ramparts of the Heavenly City.

³ Which accounts for the “our image” scholars interpret as evidence of polytheism in the religion of ancient Israel.

⁴ Woman was differentiated from Adam after the transgression, when Adam named her Eve (Genesis 3:20).

⁵ During crucifixions, lungs filled with water since normal breathing was not possible; and the transfixed feet did not allowed victims to achieve better breathing positions.  Scripture seems to suggest that the lance pierced both Jesus’ heart and left lung.

⁶ The Revelation 12:1 is standing on a moon, which rules over the night.  The sun and moon of Genesis 1:14 are shadow to the substance of Light and Darkness in Genesis 1:4-5.  Light is the one and only creation of the Most High God, the only begotten Yahweh of hosts/Jesus in the context of time (Psalms 2:7); who the Holy Spirit through Paul calls superior to all angels (Hebrews 1:5-6) as well as the firstborn of all Creation (Colossians 1:15); and why Jesus himself corroborates that distinction in Revelation 3:14—all fulfilling John’s golden standard (1John 5:7). 

   Please note that Son is notably absent in Genesis 1:2; God Himself creates Son in Genesis 1:3, since Holy Spirit is not involved in any form of creation; but after Son is in the picture, Man is created in their image (Genesis 1:26)—which leads us to conclude that the Most High entrusted His Son with the rest of Creation, angels included (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16), so that the ‘image’ given Adam—and all angels—was the same the Father impressed upon the Son:  His own.

   If this is so Darkness/Satan, the second thing created, was the work of Yahweh of hosts (Colossians 1:16), not the Father, since the Father could never create anything evil.  We get an inkling of this from the assessment that Light was good, whereas Darkness is separated from Light and given no seal of approval (Genesis 1:4).

   The same holds true for their shadow counterparts in the natural world.  Light = sun, more specifically the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2) as well as the Morning Star (Revelation 22:16); Darkness = moon, which rules over the children of night/darkness, the enemies of the children of day/light (1Thessalonians 5:5).  It is in this sense that Isaiah 14:12 must be understood:  not that Lucifer is equated with the planet Venus but that he owes his existence to and reflects the light of his parental morning star [standard Scriptural symbol for angels], Jesus.

   To summarize:  the moon under the symbolic woman of Revelation 12:1 references Satan, placed at Woman’s feet as the serpent of Genesis 3:15↔Revelation 12:9.  Likewise this symbolic woman is no mortal creature like Eve and Mary but a Scriptural device symbolizing all followers of Jesus persecuted by all minions of Satan (Revelation 12:17).

⁷ See the corroborating argument in Romans 11:11-24.

⁸ Like Leah and Rachel were.

⁹ Divorce was allowed only in cases of sexual immorality, but this was no carte blanche to go prospecting for another main squeeze.