In his own image pt 3
We are made in His image, but how does that all play out, particularly in the relationship between man and woman?
We saw in Part 1 how the Torah reveals the astonishing fact that God made Man in His image and in His likeness. Yet, if we turn to our newspapers today we read man’s appalling distortion of the truth, and the increasing attempts to advance radical gender ideology, including ignoring differences between the biological sexes.
An article in The Times, August 2017, by Janice Turner1 reported how the basic biological facts are becoming “unsayable” – “The new orthodoxy is that whether you are a man or a woman is merely a feeling, an inner essence, which transcends biology. If Justine Greening‘s proposals on the Gender Recognition Act are passed, this will be enshrined in law.” The Gender Recognition Act Discussion (February 2018)2 states: “In its day the GRA, and the access it provided to a new birth certificate, was considered groundbreaking, but the world has moved on. Now, several countries have written more appropriate legislation which recognises the human rights and personal autonomy of individuals whose gender identities are not stereotypically associated with their sex, as assigned at birth, on the basis of genital appearance alone. It is opportune that the NHS, in line with the World Health Organisation, now recognises that gender incongruence is not psychopathological; accordingly, it will be moved out of its present location under Mental and Behavioural Disorders in the International Classification of Diseases, into a non-psychopathological section.” It continues, “In general, there is much greater acceptance of trans people, including in religious institutions.”
Janice Turner was writing about the increasing attempts to advance radical gender ideology, including ignoring differences between the biological sexes. I suspect that this will not be the end of the story, but that fallen man will go on to mix not only gender, but species too.
Not Good
Scripture repeats “God saw that it was good.” Then, on the sixth day God saw all that He had made and said it was very good – tov me’od – exceedingly, abundantly good (Genesis 1:31). It was created by the One who is good (Mark 10:18). We are suddenly faced with a situation where God declares “It is not good.” In Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Having said that, you might be excused for thinking God would go on to provide a “helper”. Instead, He gives the man a mission. God brings all the beasts of the field to the Man. The animals were created male and female, but in emphasising male and female in human creation, God is emphasising the difference between humans and animals. It is Man that names the animals, not the animals naming Man. There is an interruption in God providing a helpmate for the Man that draws attention and begs the question, why?Why didn’t God provide the woman first and then lead the Man to naming the animals? Perhaps it was to reveal to Adam, to cause him to see and understand for himself that there was something missing in his life. As well as naming the animals Adam required the ability to distinguish between the species and to characterize them. It was then that he discovered his loneliness, and that there was no other species like him, none was his like. There was no-one that he could interact with intimately and intellectually, creating an inner yearning for a soul-mate. There were no other humans. When God created Woman, the Man exclaimed, “This time, bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). Until now, Man is called Haadam (the man – Adam, Man). When the Woman appeared, the Man names the Woman, Isha, which is derived from Ish or because she was made from Ish; the name according to Hebrew, the Man has given himself and how he refers to himself. It appears that in studying and naming the animals, the Man discovered something about himself.
Haddam derives from adama, or soil, the same substance Man is made from, and is the same stuff the animals are made from. Todays ‘advanced’ teaching tells us that man, over millions of years, evolved from lower forms of life. Evolution is a denial of Creation and a denial of the Creator God. Adam came to the true understanding, and this is revealed in naming himself Ish. He is profoundly different from other animals. Naming the animals, recognising the different species, and that Man is different from the animals was an important and necessary part of Adam’s education, and this is what is missing in today’s education system. I remember as a child, the science master looking very knowledgeable as he explained that the appendix in the human body is a leftover from when humans were apes.
The distinction between humans and animals is not quantitative but qualitative – Man is created in God’s image and likeness. Dr Fern Elsdon- Baker was encouraged by her recent research. She said: “The most encouraging aspect of the survey is that there appears to be a large majority who accept evolutionary science.” On a positive side, the survey revealed that one in ten Britons do not believe in evolution. They believe God created man directly, as in the story of Adam and Eve. The same research was carried out in Canada where nine percent agreed with the statement “Humans and other living things were created by God and have always existed in their current form.” In America, the figure was much higher, with one in four shunning evolution. One in seven Canadians rejected evolutionary science. More than one in ten UK atheists agreed with the statement: “Animals evolve over time but evolutionary science cannot explain the origins of human beings.” Yet Evolution is taught in our education system and Creation isn’t.
Two Trees, Two Paths, Two Humans
Now in the Garden there were still the two distinctive trees, and two paths. The difference is that there are now two people. Having chosen the path of good and evil and experiencing the effects of the Fall, fallen Man is ejected from the Garden, because “The Man has now become like one of us, Knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (Genesis 3:22). Note that God’s plurality comes out again in this verse. So, Man was banished from the Garden, and much of what man was to experience after the fallout of the Fall, was evil. It was after being expelled from the Garden of Eden that Adam changed the Woman’s name from Isha to Eve (Chavah – mother of all life – Genesis 3:20). The Jewish rabbi and scholar, Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) said the change of name was as if to say, “She talked me into eating that forbidden fruit” (Genesis 3:17) and that Chavah means “talkative”. Discussion over this word meaning continues among the scholars. Eve is not her Hebrew name, and for some, the name Eve has connotations with evil, as in blaming the Woman for the Fall. The Bible gives the explanation, “mother of all living”. There is more to be said on this subject.
God rescued Adam and Eve; He did not abandon them to their fate. “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:10). Should we fall, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9); but pity those that do not yet know the Lord and have no-one to lift them up.
The Lord Intervenes
“When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created— and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them’” (Genesis 6:1-7).
In the 4th and final part, we will take a giant leap, to the days approaching Noah and the Flood.