6-Man and Woman
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:26-27 ASV)
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Dismantling the Virgin Birth Doctrine: An Introduction
I was raised to believe… Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, and Joseph was not his biological father. The idea was that while Mary, a virgin, was espoused to Joseph, she was visited by the Holy Spirit and miraculously became pregnant with Jesus without Joseph’s involvement. And when Jesus was born, Joseph became his adoptive parent. As a result of this miraculous event, the thought continued, God was able to appear to mankind clothed in humanity. This paved the way for another fundamental tenet of my Christian faith: the notion that Jesus was God. I couldn’t really explain it rationally, but I had believed that Jesus was fully God…
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Made in His Image and Likeness
Genesis 5:3 establishes the notion that within humanity, a son bears a likeness to his father. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: (Gen 5:3 KJV) We all understand this with physical features, where a son may physically look like his father bearing the same skin tone, hair and eye color, build and facial features. But because he was taught by his father, he also may carry similar traits found in his: temperament work ethic love/compassion towards others integrity/moral character And similar interests like: a love of the outdoors being an avid reader sharing…
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The Finished Work of Creation
When I began voicing my objections to the Virgin Birth doctrine, stating there was no precedent in the Old Testament for such an occurrence, I was met with the claim that the Creation of Adam is the needed precedent for the Creator to create again. Let’s evaluate what took place in the beginning and test that claim. In the Beginning… Genesis 1:1 establishes the notion of a Creator God when it records: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth land. (Genesis 1:1 KJV, adaptation mine) For six days, the author lays out the creation or fashioning of the heaven and the land and seas with vegetation, seed-bearing…