Husband believes that Eve had sex with the serpent

Dear Pastor,

This is the first time I am writing to you and I need your advice and your counsel. I am a 25-year-old Christian lady. I am trying my best to serve the Lord.

I have one child with my husband. I attend church regularly, but my husband is not a Christian. When I was going with this man, I was attending university. I told my parents about him and they told me to make sure I finished university before I got married.

My father told me that he would like to meet him. So one weekend I took him to meet my parents. When my father asked him where he attended church, he told my father that he did not believe in going to church, but he is not anti-God. He told my father that he was a supporter of Emperor Haile Selassie. My father told him that Haile Selassie was a Christian; my father said that meant that he was a Rastafarian, but he said no. They laughed it off. The following day, my father asked me how I got involved with that man. He said he liked everything about him except his religion. My mother said she didn't like him at all.

When he was at our house that Saturday, my mother cooked soup, but he questioned me about what was in it. However he had some of it. We got married at a hotel, and soon after I became pregnant. When I wanted my baby to be blessed, he objected and said that was not necessary. However, I went ahead and had my son blessed, and had a little gathering at my parents' home after the blessing. He did not attend.

We are having heated arguments nowadays about the Bible. The recent one that has caused me to write to you is that he insists that Adam and Eve did not eat a fruit in the Garden of Eden. He said Eve had sex with the serpent and it was nice. She enjoyed it and offered herself to Adam after. She had sex for the first time with the serpent and that is why she and Adam were hiding from God; I should not believe that it was an apple that the serpent gave to Eve.

I want to know what you believe. Was it an apple that Adam and Eve ate that was forbidden? Do you believe that Eve had sex with the serpent? I am very eager to hear what you say.

O.D.

Dear O.D.,

In the first place, let me make it clear that the Bible does not say that it was an apple Adam and Eve ate while they lived in the Garden of Eden. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that.

The Bible says God told Adam and Eve that they should eat every fruit expect a particular fruit, and they disobeyed God. Many people have said that Eve had sex with the serpent and that was her first experience with sex. After disobeying God, she gave herself over to Adam and when they realised what they had done, they hid themselves. I emphasise that the Bible does not say it was apple.

I do not know the name of the fruit, but I know for sure they did not have sex. Why would God drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden while they had sex with each other? God told Adam and Eve to have sex. The Bible said that God blessed the union and said unto Adam and Eve 'be fruitful and multiply and perish the earth and subdue it'. The only way Adam and Eve could have produced children was to have sexual intercourse. So it was not because of sex that they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden.

Eve disobeyed the Lord. She ate a real fruit. And after doing so, she gave it to Adam, and by doing so they both disobeyed God. They were cast out of Eden and Satan, who had appeared in the form of a serpent, was cursed. That is what the Bible says, and that is what I believe.

It is unfortunate that your husband does not believe what the Bible says and that he has his own interpretation. But don't fight him over this matter. Many others understand the teaching of the Bible, and the creation story.

Pastor