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Sandra writes: I am a new Christian, and I have been studying the Bible through Dr. (A
fine Christian Minister) 's tapes. His teachings have been educational.
Answer: Hello Sandra: As regarding birth control, I don't know of any Scriptures that speak against it in the Bible. And I like your choice of 'tube tying' as it prevents the birth before conception. The problem with many other forms of birth control is that they terminate the birth after conception. I do not claim to be a doctor but with the IUD method, I believe that the IUD device scrapes the egg off the uterus wall possibly after a conception had occurred (check with a doctor, as I am not qualified to dispense medical advice). But for sure the RU486 (morning after pill) terminates a conceived pregnancy. As you now, condoms prevent the sperm from reaching the egg, and sponges kill the sperm before it can reach the egg. Therefore no conception occurs with these methods (if they don't fail). The reason that the point of conception is important is because it is then that life begins. There has been much debate between abortion supporters and opponents as to when life actually begins. On this the Bible is not silent. There are several Scriptures that illustrate that life begins in the womb. One example is when Jesus was yet in Mary's womb and Mary went to visit Elisabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. As Mary drew near to Elisabeth, The fetus of John the Baptist leaped with joy because he sensed the Glory of Jesus who was just conceived in Mary's womb.
The babe in the womb could not have known anything if he had no life in him, If he had no intelligence or soul. Another Scripture that illustrates that there is life and personality while yet in the womb is in the book of Romans. It sys that God hated Esau while he was yet in his mother's womb, thus illustrating that there was life and personality in the womb. This Scripture may seem harsh at first look, seeing as how it is hard to imagine that God could hate an innocent fetus. But you have to understand that God knew what kind of soul Esua had, and it must not have been too good. If you are a newer Bible student don't let this bother you, God is very fair, and He knows what Esua may have done in the first earth age. See When was thee beginning in-depth Bible study to understand about the first earth age. We supply this verse to document that life begins while still in the womb:
A couple of other Scriptures that illustrate that there is life in the womb:
But anyway, that's about it for the question of contraception. For whatever my personal opinion may be worth to you in this matter, I can find no Biblical evidence that the use of contraception is forbidden by God in a marriage. But that is only my opinion based on the aforementioned facts. Sandra, pray on it, and ask our Father to help you understand His wishes in the matter. I really can't see what commandment it would violate by getting your tubes tied. God bless you, and I pray that the Father shows you the way and makes you confident in your decision. Now having said all that, it is possible that this could make someone feel bad about a mistake they may have made in the past. I am speaking about abortion. For this reason We are including a segment from a Bible study titled "When a Christian takes a life" below. Excerpt: "Likewise today in our lives, some people are chosen by God and allowed to bear an awesome responsibility or set of circumstances, and only by God's Grace and our knowledge of His Word, The Bible, can we make the right decisions and live with them in everlasting life. God knows your mind and heart, and he counts your good intentions as deeds done; even if you fall short. And likewise, sometimes accidents happen that cause the death of another Human Being. God knows your Heart and your intentions, and He will not punish a soul for murder if the death was the cause of an accident, an unintentional manslaughter. And no, you cannot con God, do not even try! This Bible study would be remiss, if we did not cover an area that has caused many women distress. Many women in this generation, when they were younger perhaps, were put into a devastating position. They became pregnant and found themselves very much alone. They were afraid, they felt as though they had nowhere to turn, so they chose a option that made the problem go away. They chose to have an abortion. And it is a shame that they were made to feel as though they were alone in trouble, that they alone bore responsibility for this awesome situation/decision. It takes two to make a child and believe me; two will answer for the outcome. Many men feel that they are not responsible because it was "not their body," they think that they waltz away "footloose and fancy free", this however is not the case. But God is a loving God, an understanding God. He is what is known as a "Heart Knower". That means that He can see into the depths of your soul, He knows your innermost thoughts, your intentions, and the level of your knowledge and understanding at the time that you committed a certain sin. In other words, He acknowledges that some sins were done in a certain degree of ignorance. Many, through ignorance of God's Word, do things that they don't fully understand the awesome significance of. While common sense tells them that what they are doing is unnatural, they do not realize that it is of the magnitude that it truly is. Has a women who has had an abortion, murdered, or has she killed in ignorance? Has a man who causes an accident that takes a life, murdered, or has he killed involuntarily? What if he was intoxicated at the time of that accident, then is he a murderer, or did he kill because he irresponsibly put himself into the position of not being able to react quickly enough or fall asleep at the wheel? Am I saying that abortion and vehicular manslaughter are OK? God forbid, of course not. But God does looks at intent, will God judge a frightened woman or an irresponsible man the same way that a murder for hire "hit-man" will be judged? Beloved, man can not pass judgment, man is not to try to do God's judging for Him. So as we always should do, lets go to God's Word for our answers. Everything in the Bible happened for a reason, so that we could have wisdom and instruction to draw from in our own lives today. The answer to the problems that cause people so very much distress, have been sitting on their shelves in their Bibles all along! I wonder how many people are found laying dead on the floor with a self inflicted gunshot wound, laying in the shadow of the source of the true relief that they really sought after, as it remains closed and unread on their bookshelf, that relief and comfort being the Bible. " (End of excerpt) May God continue to bless your study of His Word! [For questions on sexual matters, see our: Is sex within marriage only for having children? and Masturbation, does the Bible speak against it? and Sexuality, Marriage, and Pornography and "Suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man," was God just kidding? Also: Feminism/Lesbianism/whoredom/abortion and Does the Bible prohibit birth control?]| Back to top |
Is sex within marriage only for having children?
Mrs. M writes: Answer: You state that both you and your husband became Christians after you were married, for committing ones self to God is to accept His Son Jesus Christ as Savior. You then state that because of becoming a Christian you and your husband have somehow changed in your "marital relation activities". I can only assume that you are speaking of sexual relations between you and your husband (I say "your husband" because from your name I gather that you are female). You state that because of becoming a Christian, your views on your sexual activity are now different from other married couples. I will also assume that by "other couples", you mean non-Christian couples. Then you tie it all together by asking how you can please God and your husband without contradiction. Is this a fair assessment of your question? I wonder if you have been led to believe that sex is somehow wrong in a marriage if it isn't done for the express purpose of procreation. I say this because many churches seem to laden Christians with guilt over sexual relations. Many churches teach that sex is only for making babies, even in marriage. This is a false teaching, and it causes concern and strife in a marriage, especially if only one partner is a Christian, because the other partner isn't to happy about the abstinence that is incorrectly brought into the marriage. Let's talk about it and then document from the Bible. Many people will throw the "your body is a temple of God" statement on a Christian and take it totally out of context. They also use that statement as a catch-all to cover smoking, drinking coffee, eating too much, not eating enough... Actually, the deeper teaching in the Scripture they are pulling this from is really speaking of spiritual adultery and spiritual fornication, ie: worshiping false Gods, and idols and such. It is just using the fleshly acts of adultery and fornication to teach us on a level that we as flesh beings can understand. God is Spirit not flesh (save for when Jesus came). But how people can take the below Scripture and misconstrue it to be used against every little pet peeve of theirs that they can not find Bible Scripture to cover, is beyond me:
Your body houses your soul, so yes it is to be treated with respect, for God places a very high value on our souls. But how does having sex with our husband/wife defile our body or soul in God's eyes? First of all, what happens when we become married? We become ONE flesh.
So how could one flesh sexually defile itself with itself?
OK, when we mention "So how could one flesh sexually defile itself with itself?" What immediately comes to mind is masturbation, right? Many so-called religious teachers will tell you that it is against God's law for one to masturbate. Now I realize that this is far off from your question, and perhaps it is an embarrassing topic, but we are adults, so let's talk about it. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that it is wrong to masturbate. I mean, the Bible says, not to commit adultery, not to have sex with animals, not to have homosexual sex, not to have sex within your family members... But within all the sexual morality laws found in the Bible in [Leviticus Chpt's. 18-20] (among other places), God does not choose to include masturbation as something to be commanded against. Are we to assume that God didn't know that we would figure that one out and give it a try? Of course not, and I jest a little, but if God was offended at masturbation, I'm quite sure that He wouldn't have been too bashful to tell us "Thou shalt not ..." There is one place in the Bible, where people take it out of context to be a Scripture against masturbation. And once again, I apologize for including this topic in your answer, but it has come up before, and this is as good a place as any to cover it (since were talking about sex and all). Most Christians are uncomfortable talking about sex, but how do they think they got here??? Anyway, in the Bible in [Gen 38:9] we see a young man "spill his seed on the ground", and we are told that this is about masturbation. This young man's name was Onan, and God killed him for what he did. But he wasn't masturbating, he was refusing to impregnate his dead brother's widow. You see, back in the old Hebrew law, when a man died without having had a son by his wife, it was the duty and obligation of the deceased man's brother to not only take in the widow, but also to impregnate her with a son so that the deceased man's name would be carried forth. Obviously, things are different now, but back then that was the Hebrew law. What this man Onan did to draw the wrath of God was to indeed enjoy the widow sexually, no problem with that in this context, but when it was time to "plant the seed" in her, he withdrew and spilled "it" on the ground. This was why God struck him dead.
It should be interesting to know that this widow (named Ta'mar) was in the genealogy of the Messiah Jesus Christ. Ta'mar is an ancestor to Mother Mary, our Lord's mother. But anyway, back to our topic. Apostle Paul deals with issues relating to marriage and sexual relations with a marriage quite in-depth. And through the Holy Spirit of God inspired writings of Paul we shall be able to fix in our minds exactly how God feels about sexual relations between a man and a wife. In the below Scripture there is a wealth of information regarding our topic. First of all, who is Paul addressing? The church leaders at Corinth. It begins by saying that it is better if a man who is to be a minister not to marry. But it does not say that a minister cannot marry, and as Paul states in the last verse below, it is only his recommendation and not a commandment from God. In those days, ministers traveled away from home for much of the year, and it wouldn't be fair to leave your wife alone. It then goes on to say "to avoid fornication" (having sex outside of marriage) you should get married. It then says that you are to sexually please your spouse, and that your 'desire' will be for your mate. We will cover verse five after the Scripture, but it should be clear from the teaching that it is not only OK to have sex and to please your spouse, but it is in fact the duty of both of the married parties. You will notice that no mention of having children is made, this Scripture is regarding a wholesome sex life with your spouse. Paul does not say that you should do this only a couple of times to bear children:
OK, verse five is somewhat confusing the way it is written. What it is
saying is that you are not to sexually deprive your spouse except if only
for a short time that you may have willingly set aside to dedicate a few
days or so to to the Lord and abstain yourself through prayer and fasting
(and sexual abstinence) to show your love to Him. And even in this case,
it is stated that this should be done with the consent and agreement of
you spouse. Then after that dedicated set aside time, you are to not
withhold yourself sexually from your mate, or else satan may used the pent
up sexual frustration to lead one of you into adultery. At the end of this
verse five we see the word "incontinency", let's look at the old
Anglo-Saxon word "incontinency" from the 1828 Webster's
Dictionary (The same 'old' English as of the time of the writing of the
Bible). There should remain no doubt in your mind as to the fact that the
Bible speaks of, and supports the sexual relations between a man and a
wife in a committed marriage, not only for making babies but for pleasure,
release, and satisfaction as well.
This is just good common sense. For if one partner has a strong sexual drive and the other does not fulfill it, then there is always the chance that the person may be tempted to find that sex outside of the marriage. It isn't right, but we all know that it does happen, and adultery is a serious thing because it destroys the union between two of God's children. God places a very high value on the union of His children in marriage! We pick it back up two verses down and see that Paul continues to state that if someone has a strong sex drive, it is better that they marry and have a spouse to have sex with, than it is to burn with desire (lust, want or need of sexual release). Paul abstained from sex by choice, not by any command from God. Nor does the Bible say that priests are not supposed to marry, this is an unsound Catholic tradition that is not Biblical, and has led to the downfall of the integrity of the priesthood in the most obscene of ways.
Some will wrongly teach that in verse nine "burn" means to 'burn in hell'. Of course that is incorrect, let's go to the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and look at the original Greek word that is translated to "burn" in our Scripture:
God would rather have us marry and have sex with our spouse than to be 'jumping from bed to bed' without any respect for ourselves. And He most certainly will not tolerate adultery. In the Scripture below, we see that within marriage, there is no sin in having sex, but single people behaving like tramps, and married people cheating on their spouses are in danger of the judgment of God against them:
So how can we sum this up? Sex is a gift from God, He didn't have to make it so enjoyable, but He did. And it would be foolish to deny that God built into us a desire for members of the opposite sex. When we see someone that is attractive to us we get excited, this is not lust. Lust is not the admiration and attraction for the opposite sex, that is normal, but rather it becomes lust when you try to 'bed down' every Tom, Dick, or Harry (or every Jane, Judy, or Jenny). A married couple must reach an agreement as to how often they wish to physically enjoy each other, and it is wrong to deny your partner just to be selfish, but everyone has different sex drives. It is silly and irresponsible to imagine that God would have us to marry our spouse, live and sleep together for the rest of our lives, with all of the nature physical and hormonal attractions between men and women, and added to that, the unique emotional and overwhelming bonding between two people in love; and then to believe that God would 'taboo' sexual activity between these two. It is no sin for Christians to enjoy a healthy sex life if they do it God's way within the boundaries that He set up for us in His Holy Written Word, the Bible. Either I have totally erred here with my perception of your question, and if so, I apologize and please re-submit your question with a few more facts. Or as I suppose, you have been listening to some false teaching that is causing strife in your marriage and putting your spouse between you and God. God gave you that mate, and you should be happy that He blessed you so, for there are many lonely people who have nobody to share life with. If you still have doubts, pray on it, you must be sure in your mind. God always hears you when you pray to Him, He won't let you be without an answer in the matter, and I'm sure He's proud of you for wanting to do the right thing in His eyes. God bless you and your family, in the name of Jesus Christ! [For questions on sexual matters, see our: Is sex within marriage only for having children? and Masturbation, does the Bible speak against it? and Sexuality, Marriage, and Pornography and "Suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man," was God just kidding? Also: Feminism/Lesbianism/whoredom/abortion and Does the Bible prohibit birth control?]
Ann writes:
Hello Aaron And Ann: Both of your questions relate to the same matter so we shall answer them together. Also, we have added an addendum at the bottom of this answer regarding the variant reading in one of the newer manuscripts (which, while we agree with the implication of the newer manuscript, we do not support the newer manuscript, for it is corrupt). I hope we don't confuse with that statement, we will explain at the the end with the variant reading. You both are referring to our study: What was the Real sin in the Garden of Eden?. Ann, the short answer to your question of where did Eve get the extra warning from God, is: God told her. We will explain deeper. These are both excellent questions, and perhaps we were unclear regarding the matter, so we welcome this opportunity to clarify. Not many people catch the fact that Eve's conversation with satan (the serpent was satan) contain more information than Adam's recorded conversation with God about the same topic. ie: The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let's start on a solid foundation in Biblical fact. We must understand what the sin actually was that Eve committed in the Garden of Eden before we can realize the significance of her giving an amended version in [Gen 3:3] of God's command regarding "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" than Adam received from God in [Gen 2:17]. We know from Scripture than both Eve and Adam partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil:
Most people today even, do not understand the true sin in the Garden of Eden. We have an In-depth Bible study titled: WHAT WAS THE REAL SIN IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN?!? that fully documents the true nature of the sin, but in short, Adam and Eve did not eat the wrong apple, Eve was beguiled by the serpent (satan) and lost her virginity to him. Adam also partook of the forbidden 'fruit', but the nature and scope of his participation is not clear from the Scriptures. As we continue on, we will document from Scripture the fact that Eve participated in a sexual act with the serpent. I know this may sound remarkable to those who have never been taught the truth, but hang in there with us and we will bring the Scriptures to light that document this fact. But once again, the Bible study WHAT WAS THE REAL SIN IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN?!? a 15 page document that takes the subject to it's most in-depth explanation. OLD TESTAMENT:
NEW TESTAMENT:
In a moment, we will examine what the Scripture meant in that it says that Adam WAS NOT deceived, but that Eve was (although the inclusion of verses 12 & 13 about should give clue).
We notice at once that Adam is not included in this 'beguiling,' though we know from the Genesis Scriptures that Adam 'ate.' We see Eve's sin referred to as 'exapatao' - to seduce wholly (sexually). You should notice the sexual overtones in the above Scripture (jealousy, espoused, husband, virgin, chaste, beguiled). What it means is that just as we are to be the SPIRITUAL bride of Christ, Eve was taken as a physical sexual 'bride' of the serpent. Apostle Paul is telling us not to become SPIRITUALLY beguiled by satan as the giver of false doctrine, as Eve was physically beguiled by satan (as the serpent in the Garden of Eden). Ok, now let's realize the significance of Eve giving an amended version in [Gen 3:3] of God's command regarding "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" than Adam received from God in [Gen 2:17].
Ann, as you so pointed out, Eve makes a statement in [Gen 3:3] "neither shall ye touch it", that is not recorded as being said by God to Adam in [Gen 2:17]. That does not necessarily mean that God did not say that to Adam, for God walked with Adam and had direct daily conversation with him. It is not unreasonable that God stated many things to Adam that are not mentioned in the handful of exchanges between them recorded in the Bible. But I feel there is more to it than a simple omission of a particular conversational exchange. I cannot however, document my position with a particular Scripture, as very little of God's conversations with Adam and Eve are recorded in Scripture. Join me as I reason, then you must make your own mind up as to what you will believe to be the case, for some things just are not written, but God did us common sense and reasoning abilities and why not expect that He would wish us to utilize them here? Once again, I must state that this synopsis is my own personal opinion and I can not back it up with Scripture. I very rarely do this, but in this case, it is the only way. Adam was formed as a grown man, this much we know. God obviously gave him the power of language and an adult reasoning from the very moment of his coming alive. Therefore God by necessity would have had to tell Adam certain things that he would need to know to survive. ie: what to eat, what not to eat, how to avoid certain physical dangers, not to afraid of the first sundown or the first thunderstorm, sanitation and hygiene, how to dress a wound, what animals to play with and what animals were dangerous. . . . Well Eve was also made fully grown. She was a full grown woman from the moment she became alive. Adam was able to share with Eve the things that God had taught him, but there were things that Adam could not have taught Eve. As you know, Eve was a woman, a fully functional human adult woman. Eve menstruated, God surely had to calm her fears as she saw herself bleed during her cycle. Adam could only have taught her that when you bleed, you have been injured. Eve would have been terrified at her first menstrual cycle had not God told her that it was: "the manner of women" [Gen 18:11]. Eve also would become pregnant, her stomach would grow, her body would ache, she would have morning sickness, she would also need to be delivered, the placenta removed, the umbilical cord dressed. These are all things that God would have had to specially instruct her and not necessarily instruct Adam about. Before Eve, these things did not matter in Adam's world. My point in this is that there were obviously times that God spoke directly to Eve when Adam was not necessarily present. Why not reason that God told her: "neither shall ye touch it" regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but not tell the same to Adam before? But why would God give Eve a special instruction that was not given to Adam? Is there no answer to that question? Yes there is! And to find that answer we can now go back to the Scriptures, for God tells us this one. The word 'touch' in the statement: "neither shall ye touch it" is a very curious word in the Hebrew Manuscripts. We see that the word 'touch' as it is translated here is the Hebrew word naga` , and it means, among other things, "to lay with a woman" (as in to have sexual intercourse). Let's look at the definition from the Strong's concordance and relate it to a very male serpent (satan) and very female Eve:
Now perhaps, void of any other supporting evidence that Eve was sexually seduced by the serpent, one could argue that there are several different meanings to the Hebrew word "naga` ", but in light of the over, say five, different direct references to the sexual nature of Eve's beguiling by the serpent, it would most certainly seem consistent. Now God knew that Eve would be the great, great, great,... great, great grandmother of the Messiah Jesus Christ, and the genealogy lists in the Bible document that very fact. God also knew that satan would attempt to corrupt that perfect seedline from Eve to Mother Mary, thus making it impossible that the perfect Sacrifice could be born - Jesus Christ. This was in fact satan's first attempt at destroying the seedline of the Messiah Jesus Christ, who would eventually destroy satan in the Lake of Fire [Rev 20:10]. A few of the many other attempts by satan to destroy the seed were: The fallen angels of Gen chapter six, King Herod's command to kill all males under two years of age in Bethlehem [Matt 2:16], the tempting in the wilderness of Jesus by satan [Matt 4:1-11], the crucifixion - which in reality had sealed satan's fate. For when Jesus died and arose again He had defeated death. Death is one of satan's many many names. Jesus defeated satan through the crucifixion, that was the purpose of the crucifixion, that is the reason that it had to happen:
One more thing needs be made clear before we can fully understand what really happened in the Garden of Eden that day some 6000 years ago. In the Bible, people are often referred to as 'trees'. For the sake of time we will examine only two Scriptures out of many that illustrates that 'trees' are used as a euphemism for people in the Bible. :
In the Garden of Eden, satan was that "tree of knowledge of good and evil"! And Jesus was the "tree of life" although His time was not yet to be, which is why God placed a Cherubim guard around it [Gen 3:24], for it was not yet time that He (Jesus) would provide everlasting life.
So in light of all of this, is it not reasonable that God would tell Eve not to " naga' " (have sexual intercourse with) the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (satan) so as to preserve the integrity of the lineage of the future yet to come Messiah (Jesus Christ), and not to have told Adam the same thing, Adam a man being incapable of becoming pregnant? Satan was not romping in the garden having fun, he was trying to preserve his own miserable life by defiling the seed that would eventually defeat him (Jesus Christ). Now regarding the Scripture wherein it states that Adam was not deceived, and Eve was. In the below Scripture you observe that Paul had just finished stating that the man was to be the head of the woman, and that a woman was not to lead the man:
In other words, before Eve came along Adam obeyed God, Adam did not partake of the tree that the Lord had told him not to. But after Eve came, she was weak and easily led astray by the charismatic serpent, Adam was then deceived not by satan (as the serpent) but by the woman. Is that not in the nature of mankind even today? Man is easily deceived by woman, and woman is easily deceived by charismatic talkers. I do not wish to offend, but most cults lure predominantly female followers, and sexual abuse is present in every single cult. Sex is corrupted as power, control, obedience, domination and subjecation in cults. Most all cults are led by an dominant, aggressive, charismatic male who imposes his will upon others. First as a so-considered 'wise' man, a 'spiritual' leader, one who is infallible and in possession of some deeper truth whom must be blindly obeyed if the follower to attain the 'promises' falsely guaranteed by that leader. With the female follower of the cult this naturally takes on sexual overtones just as in the Garden of Eden with the serpent and the woman. Jim Jones and David Koresh both were cult leaders who are alleged to have sexually used their female followers (the Moonies are also sexually abusive, as are the New Age cults), even married ones whom left their husbands to follow their cult leader. This is what Eve did. In time, if unchecked, even the young female followers are sexually abused, often at their own mothers permission and even insistence! The whole lot of them become wholly corrupted both in doctrine and moral boundaries. The become reprobate and consumed in lies. Quite a sad thing. As the cult leader becomes consumed in their own self-granted godliness and false doctrines they go on to a point where they feel above condemnation and accountability -- they begin to believe that they are what they tell people that they are -- they become deceived about themselves, or, they deceive themselves into believing that they are divine. Their doctrines become more and more bizarre and they become more and more tyrannical as they manage their cult with more and more domination -- eventually leading to physical and sexual abuse. The cult leader becomes an idol, an object of worship and adoration. The cult no longer says "what does God say," the cult says "what does our leader say." Therein lies the danger to a soul. There are even death threats made to followers who try to leave the cult (like the Jehovah's Witnesses). Cults are of satan and their fruit bears witness against them. As John warned: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." (I Jn 5:21). But anyway, the below Scripture is showing that Adam was doing alright regarding not disobeying God, but then Eve came along and feel 'hook, line, and sinker" for satan's lies. It was then Eve that satan used to deceived Adam. Though I personally feel that satan wasn't particularly concerned about deceiving Adam, for Scripture shows no instance where the serpent approached Adam to sin. Eve did it for him after she herself sinned. The serpent (satan) wanted to place his seed in the womb that was destined to bear the Savior, thus defiling the womb and destroying the line of Messiah. God had other plans though, for we know that 4000 years later that the promised Messiah was born of a virgin. It is in that childbearing that Eve can be forgiven, for Christ came to save transgressors.
Back in Genesis we see that Adam was punished for "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree" (Gen 3:17), but Eve was punished for "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat" (Gen 3:13):
The serpent's transgression: Not stated, for he knew, he instigated the whole event.
The serpent's punishment: 14
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
I hasten to add that all women are alike, nor are all men alike, but there is an identifiable pattern of behavior; just look around you today. I also hasten to add that there are many women more fit to preach the Word than many men are. And I hope that I have not offended anyone here, but we cannot give room to political correctness over Scripture. Some things are the just the way they are and we must accept Scripture as our authority. God made man and woman and He knows the weaknesses in each. Ok, I mentioned that there was an interesting idiosyncrasy in some of the manuscripts used in the newer Bible versions. (See: Adulterations in the Newer Bible Versions (NIV, NASB...); Proof that the King James Bible (KJV) is the True Word of God) below is the wording in the newer manuscripts of the newer Bible versions. These Manuscripts are somewhat different than the Manuscripts of the King James Bible and the King James Bible must be accepted over them. I only offer this because I had mentioned it earlier.
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What is the best Bible version to study from and why?
Joseph writes:
Answer: Hello Joseph, glad to have you studying with us. Your answer is covered in great depth in the study Adulterations in the Newer Bible Versions (NIV, NASB...); Proof that the King James Bible (KJV) is the True Word of God
We also have a Bible study that covers the movement of God's Word from His lips, through the Prophets and Apostles pens, through the translators, into our current Bibles. Within the below supplied study segment and the WHERE DID OUR BIBLES COME FROM in-depth Bible study you should have a good basis to pick the particular Bible version that you will study God's Word from. All Bibles are good, but for reasons outlined in the below study segment and the WHERE DID OUR BIBLES COME FROM study, we only use the King James Bible. We also highly recommend the Companion Bible which uses the text of the King James Version Bible and also has side notes from the Manuscripts and THE MASSORAH. At the end of this current answer we will supply from our Bible Study Aids section a brief description and a means to order the King James Bible, the Companion Bible, and the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance; three tools necessary for the serious student of God's Word. Excerpt from the Bible Study Aids section: We recommend the King James Version Bible for two very good reasons;
Let us offer a quick example of the benefit of the 'good old' King James Bible. In [Mt 4:6] satan is quoting scripture to Christ. Satan is quoting [Psm 91:11-12]. In [Mt 4:6] satan added the words "at any time" to the scripture of [Psm 91:11-12], and it changed the whole meaning of the verse. By adding "at any time" in between the verse of [Mt 4:6], satan was telling Jesus that He can just flippantly endanger Himself and the Angels will make it safe. God does not work that way, that would be like saying to God that you are going to test if He is real and if He can save you from every premeditated foolish act. This was yet another attempt by satan to kill Jesus, satan was tempting Jesus to jump from the top of the Temple to His death. I will supply the verse with satan's added words to the scripture in RED BOLD CAPITAL ITALICS for those who may have a 'modern Bible', and have been cheated of this great witness to satan's method of operation in deceiving Christians. Check it against your Bible version.
Below we see the true verse that satan was quoting and that which he corrupted when he quoted it to Christ:
This is from the KJV Bible and is as it appears in the original manuscripts. All the current newer versions of the Bible have for reasons unknown omitted satan's addition to the scriptures thus robbing us of the valuable lesson that God intended that we learn from it; The lesson is that satan will twist scripture to deceive you, just like the false teachers are doing this very day. It's harder for them to twist the KJV Bible because it has been around a lot longer than the new wave of satan's false teachers that are flooding our generation. The more man re-translates and paraphrases the various newer Bible versions, the more deeper truth that becomes lost. Many people use the newer Bible versions today because it is easier to understand to the modern English reader, but in reality they are losing the deeper understanding of the warnings and prophecies in God's perfect Word, the Bible. From our Bible Study Aids section we supply the below three study works. You may click on the Blue book title to be sent directly to our supplier (Amazon.com) and order them there. we have ordered from Amazon.com many many times in the past and have always been treated well. Most books arrive by mail in about 2-3 days (if they won't, then it will say so on the order page with an anticipated delivery date).
I hope that answered your question Joseph, and God bless your study of our Heavenly Father's Word!
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