The Creation Story

For many, the conversation around homosexuality, gender and marriage is not about Paul’s letters or Old Testament law. For many, it’s founded in the story of creation in Genesis as a divine blueprint.

• God made the first two people heterosexual. Does this establish a divinely ordained standard for human orientation for all time?

• God made the first two humans to align fully to be male and female. Does this establish that every person after should align all gender markers at birth?

• God presented the first marriage as male and female. Does this automatically deem it a command for a permanent blueprint for all future unions?

A Bible Interpretation Principle

Analogia Scripturae is a principle in Bible interpretation that beliefs must be supported by the broader witness of the Bible, not isolated texts. When we seek to faithfully interpret a message God has for us, we shouldn’t build entire doctrines and teachings on isolated verses or stories. A consistent biblical theology emerges not from one passage, but from themes that are reinforced across Scripture.

If a particular story—like creation in Genesis—is going to be treated as a binding blueprint, we must ask: is it confirmed, commanded, and carried forward throughout the rest of the Bible? Without any affirmation elsewhere, we must be cautious not to elevate one narrative detail into a universal law. This is especially true when Jesus and the apostles don’t treat it as such.

Hence the purpose of this website. What does the Bible have to say as a whole about this issue. We go into detail and we also back up and see what it says in context. We look at both.

This page, though, is to look only at the passage of creation and see how much weight it holds on it’s own. The sections that follow take a closer look at what Genesis reveals about marriage.

First Design

What was the first partner created for? What was God’s Design for the first couple? What was the purpose for creating Eve?

Let’s go back to creation. The creation design.

It turns out that second person was designed for companionship. Genesis 2:18 says: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” Man was lonely. Loneliness: the first time in the creation narrative that something is declared not good. Up until this point, God repeatedly says creation is “good.” So this moment stands out. It highlights that human beings are made for relationship, not isolation. The core issue is aloneness, not lack of reproduction. Something essential is missing: relational connection. Eve was created because aloneness was “not good.”

What is the problem? Loneliness. What does he do to fix the problem? He makes Adam a “Helper” as his partner (Hebrew: ezer kenegdo). Ezer (“helper”) does not imply subordination or being a baby maker. In fact, this word is most often used of God as Israel’s helper/support (e.g., Psalm 121:1–2). Ezer is a strong, active word. God is our helper. Then there is Kenegdo, which means “corresponding to him” or “suitable for him”—an equal counterpart. Together, the phrase implies someone who is strong, equal, and relationally fitting—a companion, not a servant or assistant. God creates Eve, not because Adam needed someone to make babies with, but for companionship – because humans are relational beings made in the image of a relational God (Genesis 1:26–27).

But we forcing aloneness: There is a whole part of humanity that cannot have sex with the opposite gender. By adding rules that are assumed, we are forcing them to loneliness and celibacy. Prohibiting marriage. Genesis 2 emphasizes that humans are made for mutual relationship, reflecting the communal nature of God. We assume prohibitions and commands from a creation narrative. 1 Timothy 4:1–3 says “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith…who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

Female Reproduction Ability: It is true that Eve could reproduce. It wasn’t until they left Eden, that God says… “go fill the earth“. For most people around the world, that is translated as a “village command”, not for every single person. Some are good teachers, aunts, uncles, …. but to command every person to have babies is reading into that sentence something that is simply not there. Pharisees added 1500 rules to the 613 Levitical Law. Let us not add where we shouldn’t. Also, getting pregnant is not “a Christian thing to do”, and definitely not a hard thing to do for most people. Most people can easily get pregnant. We don’t need to be command to get pregnant. Was her body designed for procreation? Yes, but just because she could have babies, doesn’t mean that every woman and man after that should have babies in order to not sin.

Genesis is Descriptive

The creation story tells us how humanity began—not what every future relationship must look like. Adam and Eve are the first people. This doesn’t automatically command a template for all human pairings. The text describes what happened, not what must always happen. To turn this narrative into a rigid rule about gender, marriage, or sexuality is to go beyond what the text actually says. The story reveals God’s provision of relationship and connection, not a blueprint for limiting who qualifies for love, partnership, or covenant. For further commands, we must go elsewhere in Scripture.

A Story of Opposites

The phrase “male and female” is a Hebrew merism, a figure of speech using extremes to express a whole—like “heaven and earth”, “wet and dry”, “animals that fly and animals that crawl”, “animals in the ocean and animals on land” or “night and day.” It emphasizes the fullness of God’s creation, not a binary restriction. There are in-betweens in all of these. What about animals that both fly and walk on land? The poem does not erase the existence of the in-betweens.

The Mandate of Procreation

Procreation was the mandate for the first couple. Does that mean it’s a mandate for all couples? Nowhere is procreation ever again a mandate for couples. If procreation were essential to marriage, infertile couples would not qualify. Yet Scripture honors barren marriages (like Abraham and Sarah, or Zechariah and Elizabeth). Marriage is about union, love, companionship, and covenantal faithfulness—not just reproduction. The “one flesh” language is about intimacy and mutuality, not just physical or reproductive capacity. For more on this see our section on Purpose of Marriage.

Post-Creation Differences = Sin?

If something is different after creation, is it a sin? People born after the first couple have looked different (hair color, eye color, skin color, likes, dislikes). These differences do not mean that those people are abnormal, outside of God’s created order or an abomination. This does not mean that everything after creation is good. But what it does mean, is that we cannot assume that what is different is bad.

In our faithfulness to Scripture, we cannot use the creation story as a prohibition or command, because there are no prohibition or commands tied to the creation of male and female or to marriage within the story, so we need to look elsewhere in Scripture for these rules.

We cannot deem anything that is different to how it was in creation, to be sin, unless the Bible tells us it’s a sin. We must be careful to not add rules that are not there. More came after Eden. And what came after wasn’t automatically sinful. To call something sin, we must find it clearly spoken against in Scripture—or understand it as violating Jesus’ two great commands: Love God, and love people.

Jesus Quoted Creation

Jesus quoted a verse from the Torah regarding the creation of the first union. Does this reference equal a command for all unions? Let’s look at it.

His reference to the creation couple in Matthew 19 was to answer the Pharisee question about divorce – to teach about faithfulness. The question was not about gender, and neither was Jesus’ answer. His answer goes back to the creation narrative because that is what the Pharisees were questioning. Jesus is answering a question about divorce, speaking to God’s design of faithfulness for a marriage. His concern is covenantal faithfulness, not gender pairings. The point was that marriage is sacred and meant to reflect enduring commitment—not to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.

Jesus’ Warning

The Pharisees were deeply devoted to the letter of the law—but often missed its heart. Not only did they cling to the written commands, they built layers of additional rules on top, focusing on external behavior, ritual purity, and religious performance. In their hands, the law became a burden. Jesus didn’t rebuke them for loving Scripture. He rebuked them for misusing it.

• “You tithe mint, dill, and cumin, but you have neglected the weightier matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23)
  
• “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.” (Mark 7:9)

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day weaponized the law in ways that crushed the vulnerable. Today, the same thing is often done with Genesis. A story meant to reveal dignity, beauty, and human connection has been turned into a gatekeeping tool—used to exclude those whose lives don’t match the template.

Creation Was the Beginning – Not The End

Creation was a launch point, not a locked pattern. The first chapters of Genesis describe a good world, but not a complete one. Throughout Scripture, God continues to shape, redeem, and expand what was begun in Eden. Jesus didn’t treat deviations from creation—like singleness, infertility, or disability—as moral failures. In fact, he celebrated faith, love, and mercy above biological function or conformity to social expectations. The New Testament calls us to bear fruit—not biologically, but spiritually (Galatians 5:22–23). Human diversity—whether in gender, orientation, or embodiment—doesn’t mean rebellion. It can simply mean complexity. The image of God is found in all of us, not just in binary pairs or reproductive capacity. To deem any divergence from the first man and woman as sin is to confuse description with prescription. What matters most in God’s eyes is not whether our lives fit a Genesis 2 mold, but whether our lives reflect the heart of Christ—marked by love, faithfulness, and justice.”

But creation isn’t a cage—it’s a canvas.
It’s not a rulebook. It’s an origin story.
It’s not the end of God’s work—it’s the beginning.

In Genesis, we see a God who delights in creating diversity. The sun and the moon. Land and sea. Birds and fish. Male and female gender markers. Genesis 1 speaks in broad poetic categories, not restrictive boxes. It celebrates creation’s richness, not its limitations.

Genesis doesn’t stand alone. It’s the opening movement of a much larger story—a story that culminates in the person of Jesus. A story that expands to include outsiders, breaks down dividing walls, and redefines who belongs in the family of God.