Utterly Helpless

The first parents were created the day before the Sabbath. The timing was perfect, because, without any background experience from which to draw, Adam and Eve were utterly helpless—defenceless—and in desperate need of divine instruction. God used the Sabbath as time to further reveal His knowledge to them.

Besides understanding that the God of the Old Testament, who instructed Adam and Eve, was the One who later became Jesus Christ (I Cor. 10:4), it is also important to grasp that the Bible covers the Creation account and the events concerning our first parents in only the briefest summary. It omits the details of what transpired, covering only the most important high points of this beginning history.

When God taught Adam and Eve on that first Sabbath, He covered the most essential information needed to educate and guide their newly created minds. They learned about God’s Way and how following that way would lead to fulfilling their awesome potential in becoming spirit beings with eternal life. Of course, God also provided them with necessary physical knowledge, such as the kinds of foods they were to eat (Gen. 1:29). And He taught them about their unique roles as husband and wife and the true understanding of sex.

We have now understood that God revealed to them that there were two paths of life from which to choose, symbolized by two trees in the Garden of Eden. And, as mentioned earlier, that the first tree God brought to Adam’s attention was the TREE OF LIFE (Gen. 2:9). And further, that this tree symbolized access to God’s Holy Spirit, the way for man to realize his ultimate human potential. God told Adam that he could freely eat of the tree of life, along with virtually all the other trees of the garden.

And the other tree we saw was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told the man that if he ate of that tree, he would surely die (Gen 2:2:17). Disobeying God and eating of this tree would be sin, and the result of sin would be death (Rom. 6:23). Conversely, the gift of God is eternal life—the result of partaking of the Tree of Life.

But, to knowingly sin, Adam would have had to understand right from wrong—that sin is the transgression of the law (I John 3:4). The first man transgressed with knowledge of his actions and was held accountable: “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin” (James. 4:17).

Physical Creation Complete—Spiritual Creation in Process

Man was created after the God kind—in His image and likeness: “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness...” (Gen 1:26). The account continues: “...male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it...” (James 4:27-28).

In creating male and female human beings, God becomes the Author of sex, and the sole authority on it. Sex is the product of God’s design and creative forethought, and is not, as some religionists think, a mischievous stunt in which the devil somehow “marred” God’s otherwise perfect creation—and there are those who believe this nonsense, and thus that God was powerless in the face of the devil’s efforts to confuse God’s Purpose. (Certainly none believe that Satan is the author of sex in other living creatures.) Just as He had done with every other aspect of His creation, God concluded that the creation of male and female—including sex—“was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

Just as God created sex for a purpose, He also made certain to instruct Adam and Eve about its proper function within their unique roles as male and female, husband and wife. Though the Genesis account gives only highlights, God reveals the vital, hidden dimension in sex in various other scriptures throughout the Bible.

Man was created from clay, from physical matter. Yet, the Master Potter is forming something far more enduring than the mere physical elements and chemicals of which the human body is composed. The Creator’s ultimate goal is to spiritually develop His holy, righteous character within all human beings. For now, God has called a tiny few to see His truth. But ultimately, He will offer all men—past, present and future—the opportunity to build His godly character within them. This spiritual process involves choosing to follow the right path and using self-discipline, through the power of God’s Spirit, to reject the former paths of human nature and worldliness.

When people choose to go their own way, they reap curses—sometimes in effect immediately and other times occurring later, and lasting what can be a shorter or longer time. But every transgression carries one or more penalties, usually not immediately apparent.

Despite being carefully instructed by God, Adam and Eve rebelled against Him, rejecting the only way that would have brought blessings. (And humanity has consistently followed—usually directly choosing—the same course ever since.) This spiritually-revealed knowledge included the right, wholesome, God-intended purpose of sex and the command to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

The Human Pattern of Reproduction

As with the animal kingdom, one of the purposes of sex between human beings is that of reproduction. However, this is not the only purpose. The pattern of human reproduction—including the fascinating significance of conception (or begettal) and birth—parallels a spiritual plane that does not apply to the animal or plant kingdoms.

Satan has gone to great lengths to corrupt this world and to hide the true meaning found in the proper purpose and understanding of sex and reproduction—and how these parallel the process of spiritual growth and the development of godly character, the only path by which men can be born into the Family of God. The devil has blurred, disguised and suppressed this truth through numerous means, but primarily through the “hush-hush” Victorian prudery of the old morality and the reckless promiscuity and accompanying kaleidoscope of perversity of the new morality.

In human reproduction, after a male sperm cell has joined with an egg cell, life is imparted to the egg. At this stage, human life has been begotten and at this point it is considered an embryo. After the first 17 weeks or so, the unborn child developing in the womb is called a fetus. Over a period of several months, the begotten fetus grows, from nutrition taken in by the mother, until it has developed and matured sufficiently to be born as a new, little, separate person.