23 Don,

You said:

Misuse does not deny correct use. Even if something is shown to be pagan before Moses does not mean Moses could not use it.

While I can agree with the basic concept, the fact that something has a pagan use/origin should cause us to want to make sure that we are not following the pagan view. This makes it doubly important to search out whether such a thing is there in scripture or not.

Genesis 1 is an overview of creation, while Genesis 2 is the details that are important for us to understand the creation of humanity.

2. When God creates something in Gen 1 it cannot be in contradiction to him forming the same thing in Gen 2; they are different ways of expressing the same thing. In other words, forming something can be PART of the act of creation, it does not need to be ex nihilo, from nothing, or instantaneous.

Unless otherwise shown, creation and forming are words that are interchangeable with the creation of man. God can create through speaking or He can create through forming.

3. Gen 1-11 are poetic narratives or narratives with poetic elements, the more historical and less poetic narratives start with Gen 12. I use the term poetic broadly, there are MANY understandings of how Gen 1-11 teaches us about reality.

We can’t go wrong in understanding the historical story of Genesis need to be seen as anything other than history unless scripture shows us it is something else. I know that some see Genesis as a story that is not historical or true but merely a creative form, but in doing so the foundation for much of the rest of scripture is removed. For example, some believe that Adam and Eve of Genesis 1 and 2 are figurative for _____ (fill in the blank), yet if we remove the historical account of the first man and the first woman we have no basis to understand how sin entered the world or how God originally gave mankind freewill, etc. It is very easy to be tempted to treat scripture as poetry when the scripture taken literally says something that doesn’t fit our worldview. I would rather adjust my own worldview than force the historical beginnings (this is what Genesis means) to be a fairytale meant to teach us whatever we think we want it to mean.

Some believers can think something in Gen 1-11 is more poetic and some can think it is more historical but I do not think this should divide believers, just like I do not think end times things should divide them. For example, I do not believe the Gen 1 days are 24 hours and my sis does, we do not let it divide us, altho we do discuss it sometimes, never changing the other’s mind, yet we both agree God is Creator.

I do agree with you that we should not let these issues divide us, however I do believe that there is much reason to earnestly contend for the truth so that we can rightly divide the world of truth. Whenever we lay aside something that God has given us as a foundation and we replace it to make it a piece of poetry, we remove fact and replace it with feeling. Poetry is meant to have imagery and feeling and thus can mean many different things to different people. One apologist in an attempt at refuting my exegesis of 1 Timothy 2:15, said that this verse should be taken as poetry. This was the excuse taken to get out from the clear grammar that is specifically worded to create a one-of-a-kind ending to the prohibition of 1 Timothy 2:12. This just doesn’t work, nor does it work to take history from the scriptures and make it poetry.

4. When Moses does not say something, we need to respect him NOT saying it. As Moses never says Adam/human was male before the split, we do not need to think he was or was not, it is simply not stated.

God is the one who said that the Genesis of humanity was male and female. We need to respect God. If he said that it was male and female in the beginning, we need to believe that. He is completely silent on any pre-male form and so we need to respect him NOT saying there was anything before the genesis of his creation in humanity.

We do know both the male and female were named Adam by God. We do know they were made of the same stuff. There is a lot that is taught and if something is not taught that we wish were taught, then God is telling us we do not need that for our faith, instead, look at what is taught.

Yes, this is true. This is the genesis of humanity and it is history and it is fact. God did name them both Adam and they were created of the same stuff.

This is one of the key reasons why I reject an a-sexual or bi-sexual Adam. In the historical record, God did not tell an a-sexual or bi-sexual being to be fruitful and multiply. (Genesis 1:27, 28) This would make God appear to be unreasonable. He did tell the male and female (them) to multiply.