Why Did Adam and Eve Wait to Have Sex Until After the Fall?

If marital intimacy is for married people, then why didn't Adam and Eve consummate their marriage until after the fall? That's just one of the questions we'll be asking on Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day.

If you have a voice mail system, feel free to leave a voicemail, 833-843-2673. You can always email us your question as well at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today let's go to Ginger in Tennessee. Ginger, what's your question for Adriel?

I love you guys. God bless you. My question is, my nine-year-old grandson was called the N-word in school by the principal's son, and I did go and speak with them. And my question was, should I take my grandson out? Or, as I said, I did go visit with the principal and shared my faith with them and let them know that if Jesus was in their heart, you know, if the world could be changed, if everyone would do their part and spread the good news.

And they were pretty happy with that, hearing that. Ginger, it sounds like you spoke with the principal whose son said this to your grandson, and was there any disciplinary action? I mean, what happened in that situation? I said that they disciplined their son, or I said the mother really disciplined him and took him away from games after school. And then he asked me if he could apologize, could his son apologize to my grandson?

And I said, most certainly, you know. Well, Ginger, I mean, obviously this is very hurtful, maybe, you know, traumatic as well. I think a couple of things.

One, I mean, you have to determine what's best for your family. I don't know much about this school. I don't know if it's a Christian school, if it's a public, I don't know what's going on there. But I think if there's a pattern of behavior and abuse and things taking place, well, then maybe it's not the best place for your grandson to be at. And I know that, I mean, there are all sorts of issues here.

It's like, okay, well, what are the options that we have? But first and foremost, you want to care for his well-being. You want to make sure that he's safe. And you want him to grow in the grace of God, the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

I'm grateful that you stepped in and that you went to the school and that there was this apology. But you have to determine, okay, is this the right place for my grandson? Is he going to continue to mature and grow into a healthy young man, being a healthy young man here? And I can't, from where I'm seated, I can't tell you, I can give you that answer, not an easy answer, but there certainly is one thing that would raise a serious red flag for me. If the people who are leading this school, you got the principal here, if his children are speaking in this way, I think that would be, I mean, that's a serious issue. Is this a Christian school that he's a part of? No, it's a public school and they did tell me that, or he tried to reassure me that that language does not occur in their home and other children come into school with that and other kids speak it up. He apologized, but I told him I will give him, give my grandson the option of what he wants to stay or if he wants to go to another. And we could move on with a hardship and deal with the paperwork and move on to another school. But thus far, my grandson said he wants to stay there.

He has several friends. Okay, well let me pray for you, that the Lord would give you wisdom and pray for your grandson as well. Father, we lift Ginger up to you and we lift her grandson up to you. And Lord, we pray that somehow through these circumstances and this situation, that you would grow and mature her grandson, Lord, that he would come to know you more and more, to love you, to walk with you. I ask that you would give Ginger wisdom as she thinks about this very important decision, the kinds of influences her grandson is going to have around him, Lord, and wanting to see him grow in Christ and to be brought up in the instruction of the Lord. And I pray that you would equip her to do that, to continue to be a light and an encouragement to him, and just ask that the seed of faith would be planted deep in his heart and would grow and blossom into something beautiful, Lord, bearing fruit to your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

Let me just, Ginger, say one more thing. One of the encouragements that I just love is what the Apostle Paul says. In 2 Timothy, as he's writing to Timothy, he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, verse 5, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. Passing down that faith, if you will, that promise of the Gospel, that goodness.

Well, how did that happen? He says, just a little bit later, to Timothy in the very same book, that from childhood he has known the sacred writings which are able to make him wise for salvation. And so I just want to encourage you, Ginger, to, with your grandson, be immersed in those sacred writings, in Bible stories, in talking about the Lord and praying for him, and in having that influence and see how the Lord uses that for his continued maturity and growth and grace, and may God again bless you and give you wisdom in that too. Thanks for reaching out to us. Ginger, thanks so much for listening to CORE Christianity, for your call, and we will continue to pray for you and that entire situation with your grandson.

Just heartbreaking when things like that happen. This is CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. You can leave us a voicemail 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Chad in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Chad, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel. I just have been struggling understanding Zechariah 14 verses 16 to the end. In light of the New Testament revelation, it's just really thrown me for a loop.

Can you give a little bit more—so what is it about—I'm opening up there right now. Zechariah 14 verses 16 and following, what you said in light of the New Testament revelation. Yeah, it's more of this, you know, millennial, eternal state. It's just—there's, you know, talking about the festival, the FIFA booth or Tabernacle.

I can't quite remember. I don't have it right in front of me, but, you know, the animal sacrifices are kind of reinstated. And I know, you know, I understand that in light of Ezekiel 37. I understand that in light of New Testament Scripture.

But this, it's just so detailed, and I don't understand it because Hebrews seems to fulfill it. Yeah. No, great. Okay. That helps me understand a little bit more where you're coming from. So, excellent question.

A couple of things. You know, back when I was in seminary studying the Bible, in particular studying the prophetic books, we would sometimes talk about what's called the prophetic idiom, the way in which the prophets speak, describing certain situations. You know, they're given these visions of redemptive history, of the future, of what we might call the eschatological kingdom.

And oftentimes they're just using the language, the terminology that they had at their disposal there. You know, pictured in these festivals, or pictured in long life, or pictured in an abundant feast. But if we interpret them too literalistically, I think we can get ourselves into trouble. Because like you said, according to the New Testament under the New Covenant, we don't have these animal sacrifices. What does Paul say to the Colossians about, you know, the various festivals which were a shadow of the things to come?

Now we have the reality. We have Jesus Christ. And so a really important, I think, principle of Bible interpretation is that we let the clearer passages of scripture interpret the less clear passages of scripture for us. And that doesn't mean that we just dismiss what the prophets are talking about.

Certainly not. But we have to understand it according to its context. In particular here, prophetic revelation. Now in Zechariah chapter 14, verses 16 and following, we read, Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, to keep the feast of Booth. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves then on them, there will be no rain. There shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of Booth. This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go to keep the feast of Booth.

Now there are a couple of ways, just in terms of a timeline, thinking about this. This could be a reference to the coming day of judgment and the nations gathering around Jerusalem for the great battle of Armageddon that's described in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 20, in particular verses 7 and following. And then after that great battle you have what we sometimes call the consummation of history, the eschatological, eternal state of glory, the new creation.

And then the question is, well, why are they keeping the feast of Booth there and all the nations are told that they need to go up? I would just appeal to, again, that prophetic idiom, the feast of Booth, or tabernacles, was one of the most joyous feasts in the Old Testament. And so it's this picture of celebration, it's this picture of joy, of festival, of death being destroyed. You get the same kind of picture painted for us by another prophet in Isaiah chapter 25, going up to the mountain of the Lord to keep this great feast, the feast with steak, with the bone in, and well-aged wine. It's oftentimes the picture that we get from the prophets, and that's just that prophetic idiom. So it's a picture of joy, of the nations flocking to Jerusalem, of God being glorified by the entire world, of ultimately what I would say is the new creation in glory there. And so I appreciate you bringing up this passage, and I know diving into the Minor Prophets, we don't have a ton of time on the broadcast, so we're getting into the weeds a little bit, but it is important, and I think one of the big takeaways is just that picture that we're often given in the Old Testament of that glorious state of the world in the new creation, a time of joyous feasting and celebration, and God being worshipped by all the nations. And so I appreciate your question again, Chad, and thanks for reaching out. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Love to hear from you. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can always email us at questions at corechristianity.com. Let's go to Linda calling in from Illinois. Linda, what's your question for Adriel?

Hi. Hi, Pastor. Pastor, I was calling about Adam and Eve. God created Eve for Adam, and we call her his wife, and I was just wondering why did they not have marital intimacy until after they had eaten from the tree and sin came into the world, and if she's his wife, why did they not have marital intimacy before then that we think that they didn't anyway?

Hey, Linda, thank you for that question. Yeah, what were they waiting for? We often wonder, I guess. It does seem like what this indicates, at least, is that the fall happened rather quickly. And so every inclination in the text seems to be that God created them, gave them this call to be fruitful and multiply.

That call is a part of the pre-fall state. So they are going to consummate this relationship, have children, eat, and extend the garden throughout the whole world. But before they get to it, all of a sudden sin enters the world.

Why? Because there's this temptation, there's this fall into sin. And so it seems like that happened very quickly. And so what I would say, one, is that it's not that Adam and Eve were just there hanging out in the garden for a long period of time, not consummating their marriage, and then they fall into sin. They get distracted or whatnot.

No, it seems like all of this is happening rather quickly. And the fact that they begin having children after the fall doesn't mean that they weren't going to have children or be intimate prior to the fall because that was the command that was given to them in the pre-fall state. They were called to be fruitful and to multiply and to have children and, again, to extend Eden throughout the world. And that same call is reiterated later in the book of Genesis for the people of God. It's what we sometimes refer to as the cultural mandate. And so I appreciate your question.

There's no reason to think, though, from that text that for whatever reason, intimacy was not supposed to be a part of the relationship between man and woman until after the fall. Appreciate your question. Thanks so much, Linda. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. One of the things we often get calls about here at the Core is spiritual warfare and demonic possession.

What's going on in the world? How much power does Satan have? We actually have a great resource for you on that topic. Yeah, the resource is called Can the Devil Read My Mind? And this is one of our most popular resources, especially because it gets into that really important topic of spiritual warfare, and you can access this over at corechristianity.com. It's a booklet, and it's just really helpful information about the evil one and what our call is as Christians in spiritual warfare. And so, again, the resource is called Can the Devil Read My Mind?

I hope you get a hold of this offer today. Great resource that will help you really get a clear picture of what spiritual warfare is all about and how we as believers in Christ who have trusted in him are protected from that. So please go check that out at corechristianity.com forward slash radio. We do receive emails here at Core Christianity.

And here's an email from one of our listeners named Amelia. She says, How do I approach my husband about reading God's word? He was raised Catholic and we were married in the Catholic Church. We've been married for 10 years now. Last year, God delivered me from drug addiction.

And before that, I tried to take my own life. I'm born again and saved only by God's grace. I'm not sure if my husband understands any of this and I don't want to shove it on him. There is a division in our home and he says he's saved. And that's between God and him. But how do I talk to my husband about reading God's word and not frustrate things further? I've been praying for God to help my husband. And I know this is in his timing.

Yeah. Let's join you in prayer, Amelia, for you and for your husband. And I'm just asking for God's mercy and wisdom to be poured out upon you. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the great work that you've done in Amelia's life, in delivering her from addiction, in forgiving all of her sins and giving her a hunger for your word and to grow in grace. And I pray, Lord Jesus, that that hunger would continue to grow, that her love for you and her love for your word would continue to grow.

And not just reading your word, but following you by the grace of the Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that as she does that, that her husband would notice, would see, would be encouraged, would be convicted even, Lord. Not that he would feel a sense of condemnation or being less than, but that he too would long to know the God who has transformed his wife so wonderfully. And so would you be with her? Would you give her wisdom? Would you give her much grace?

And would you be with him? Would you open his heart to receive your truth, to know you on a deeper level, Lord, and would you create in him also a hunger for your word? In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. Well, the two passages of scripture come to mind, sister. And the first one is the exhortation that Peter gave in 1 Peter 3 to wives, where he said, Wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see you're respectful in pure conduct. And so saying, I think, for you, saying, Lord, help me to exhibit by your grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to exhibit that fruit of the Holy Spirit, that love, joy, peace, patience.

Patience with my husband. When I'm frustrated that he's not as excited about the Bible as I am, patience with him. And would that, O Lord, cause him to see your great work in my life and draw him to you? That doesn't mean that you can't have important conversations about the word of God and why he should want to study scripture.

But just saying, Lord, help me to be a good example of someone who is following Jesus, and would he long for that for himself as well. Now, with regard to how do I get him to be passionate about the Bible or want to read the Bible, let me recommend one resource that we have. I think the name is How to Read the Bible. It's a 10-week Bible study.

I'm looking at my producer right now to see if that's the one. How to Read the Bible. It's a 10-week Bible study that might be a helpful resource for you. A lot of times when people approach scripture, they're just intimidated. Especially, I know for many people who were raised Roman Catholic, they didn't really study scripture a lot in Bible studies or don't remember hearing a lot of expositional sermons, going verse by verse through a passage of scripture.

There can be this sense of, well, I don't even know where to begin. And so maybe for yourself, going through a resource like that and seeing if there's an openness on his part to go through a resource like that to really sort of get a handle on what the Bible teaches. At the end of the day, the reason we study the Bible is because it's God's word. Think about what the apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. And so when we study the Bible, it's God's speech to us.

God-breathed is what we sometimes say. It's being close to his word, and that's why we study it, but so many people don't understand that. And so praying that your husband comes to see this as the word of God, not to be intimidated by it, but to be curious and open to hear what God has to say to him, because God has a lot to say to him, and God has a lot to say to you and to each one of us. And so with humility, we should open up the scriptures and say, God, give me understanding and help me to grow in this.

And like I said, that resource, I think, can help you, and I hope that you get a hold of it. Great counsel. Thanks for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners.

This is Terry. I had a question for Pastor. He said that God was invisible. He was just a spirit. I'm curious how he showed his back to Moses if he doesn't have a form and that he can't be seen, because Moses saw his back and we are made in his image. So I was just curious about that, clarifying that he is invisible. Yeah.

Hey, great question. Yeah, we do confess that God is invisible. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. But the Bible is very clear about that, God being a spirit.

Do you think of what Jesus said in John chapter 4, speaking to the woman at the well? God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. It wasn't until the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, assumed humanity, that he took a body to himself. And so God, I mean this is one of the attributes, but he's invisible, he can't be seen. The apostle Paul talks about this as well. Okay, well then how was it that people in the Old Testament like Moses or others had these encounters with God where they say, I've seen the Lord? Think of Jacob also, for example, in Genesis. You see a lot of this in Genesis, but you also have Moses there seeing God's backside as God passes by to reveal his glory. So what we would say is, no one can see God as he is in his essence, but God has condescended himself to us so that we might understand who he is, what he's like. He's given us these revelations. And so when Moses or others experienced the divine glory, it was this condescension, it was God revealing his glory to them, not such that they saw the divine essence. They're creatures, we're creatures, we can't do that and not die, which is why they're like, man, what's going to happen to me?

I'm terrified. But we can have this encounter with God as he condescends to us, as he reveals himself to us, and he does that in all sorts of ways. He does that through creation, he does that through his word, he did that in the Old Testament through the various types and shadows, those miraculous visions also that the people of God experienced. You think of the burning bush, you think of the angel of the Lord. And so there's no contradiction. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

But the God who is spirit has revealed himself to us, ultimately through his son, Jesus Christ, and so we worship him. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.