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11
S
1W
"Your article on sex educa–
, _ tion ín the August/September
1977
Plain Truth
left me disturbad
and somewhat confused. On page
17
there is a large block of space
dealing with the 'reason given by
American girls age
15-19
for not
using contraception
{1971 ). '
Now
maybe in reading the article 1missed
something, but the questions did
arise in my mind: ls the writer (and
your church) suggesting that unmar–
ried girls from
15-19
should
use
contraceptivas? Could not this
amount of space have been put to
better use by stressing that absten–
tion and self-discipline are the best
forms of birth control? The Bible
speaks out strongly against fornica–
tion-why not your writers?"
T. D.,
Kelowna, British Columbia,
Ganada
11
The Plain Truth
and the au–
thor were in no way advocat–
ing immorality. Most assuredly no
one teaches more emphatically
than do the editors of
The Plain
Truth
that Christians must keep
God's commandments-including
the ones involving avoidance of all
forms of illicit sexual behavior.
Certainly abstinence is the best
form of birth control for the unmar–
ried. But we are living in a society
that is not really Christian and that
does not generally adhere to divine
standards of morality as repre–
sented and taught in the Bible. For
those who have already decided to
place themselves outside of such
standards, sorne secular authorities
have reasoned that it would be bet–
ter to use sorne method of birth
control than to add millions of un–
wanted chi ldren to an already
overcrowded world.
We are
not
advocating a per–
missive society in which fornication
32
is encouraged simply because
technology seems to have found
ways to avoid sorne of its physical
penalties.
l
r¡1
"Did Jesus Christ die twice–
K.i
once spiritually for our sins,
then physically because His work
was finished? 1 have been told that
lsaiah
53:9
prophesies
Chr~st's
deaths in the plural."
J.
A.,
Houston, Texas
n
lsaiah 53:9 , generally ac-
111
cepted to be a prophecy of
Christ, reads: " And they made his
grave with the wicked and with a
rich man in his death [margin,
"deaths"), although he had done
no violence, and there was no de–
ceit in his mouth. ·· The plural in
Hebrew is often used to intensify
the meaning of a word or to em–
phasize the importance of the per–
son or thing named. The form
gives the Hebrew word the same
sense that the English suffixes
-hood,
-ness, or
-ship
give to a
noun.
lsaiah 53:9 does not prophesy
two deaths for Christ. Had this
been the author's intent, it would
have been more appropriate
to
have used the Hebrew dual form
rather than the plural form which
implies three or more.
m
"Being female, 1hope you are
right when you say both male
and female were created in the im–
age of God. But the Bible says, 'In
the image of God created he
him'
(Genesis
1
:27). How do
yo
u explain
this?"
Margaret F.,
Putney, England
Genesis 2:22-24 reads: "And
the rib which the Lord God
-
A
11
sw
e
r s
had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to
the man. Then the man said, 'This
at last is bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh; she shall be
called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.' Therefore a
man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife,
and they become one flesh." So if
the woman was taken out of the
man, and created by God from
Adam's rib, and the two were
united together in marriage as one
flesh, then the woman is also cre–
ated in God's image.
Notice further in Genesis 5:3:
''When Adam had lived a hundred
and thirty years, he became the
father of a son in his own likeness,
after his image, and named him
Seth." So Adam himself begat and
thereby "created" a son in his own
image and likeness-one who
looked like him. Adam didn ' t do
this by himself-but only through
his wife, Eve.
Physically and genetically there
ís very little difference between
man and woman. Both are of the
same species , and the human
ovum or reproductiva cell is ca–
pable of becoming either male or
female depending on a single tiny
chromosome in the sperm cell
which impregnates it. And mature
human beings are differentiated
physically only by their reproduc–
tive functions and various secon–
dary sexual characteristics. 8oth
sexes are endowed with the same
basic overall human form, and God
accords both the same spiritual po–
tential.
As the New Testament affirms,
the man's and the woman's func–
tions are interdependent and com–
plementary: " Nevertheless, in the
Lord woman is not independent of
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1978