Question:  Dear Greg,

            My uncle recently started looking at Scripture.  He asked me how Adam and Eve’s children populated the earth.  We told him, then he said he couldn’t accept the Bible because that’s incest.  What’s a good thing to say to that?

            Thank you,

            Steve

Answer:  Dear Steve,

            The Bible reports that Adam and Eve married each other.  They had no choice.  No one else was available.  Consequently, reason directs us to the conclusion that in order for the human race to multiply (Genesis 1:28 ) the first siblings would have had to marry each other.  Reason would also tell us that this circumstance would be an exception.  Why?  God is creator.  He chose to create humans and to fill the earth through one man and one woman. 

            The necessity of siblings being married, at the beginning, was thus a directive from God.  God is the law giver, the One who determines human morality.  If your uncle can’t accept the Bible “because of incest” perhaps he has a better way to explain creation and origins, and how humanity has populated the earth.  Perhaps he does not want to believe the Bible for other reasons and this is a convenient “out” for him.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht