It is God who opens and closes wombs. It is God who blesses those of us with children, and the withholding of offspring is not a sign of His cursing. It is not for us to covet God’s decree at which women are given children and which ones He said “no” to for the time being. This is a painful topic and one that needs to be addressed with sincerity and tears. Weep with those who weep! But do not call sin by any other name or act as if Christians don’t have any biblical categories by which we can navigate this discussion.

Oh, you returned! If you haven’t already read part 1, I encourage you to do so, as this recap will be enough to get you pointed in the right direction, but can’t replace the sort of context you would get by just reading the earlier post. I set the stage by pointing out that creation is God’s purview, not man’s. We can procreate and we can take preexisting matter and fashion it into this or that, but creation belongs to God. This is a fact that both human and demonic forces have sought to overcome from the beginning as they coveted the rights of God for themselves. We ended up with me starting to weave a potential narrative of the “daughters of man” from Genesis 6 participating in the evil, coveting God’s rights for themselves, and resulting in the Nephilim, the last straw before the worldwide flood.
You are now caught up.
The symbolism of religion isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
All of religion is, by nature, symbolic. In a church service, we symbolically worship before the very throne of God. The Lord’s Supper is symbolic of His body and blood, as we remember his death and as He nurtures us until He returns. Baptism is symbolic of the life, death, and resurrection so that the one being baptized can say that they have participated in the very gospel and their standing before God is based on the work of Jesus rather than the failings of Adam and self. Baptism is literally the announcement that you are represented by the last Adam now, and not the first.
Pagan worship is also symbolic. And in the Bible, there are many examples of how the people of the time worshiped pagan deities through their symbolism. Perhaps it was by crafting and worshipping an idol. Maybe it was through a pinch of incense to Caeser. Sometimes it was feasting upon meat that had been sacrificed to demons. And sometimes worship occurred as one engaged in sexual acts with a temple prostitute. The random man would pay money to the priestess and then would have sex with her. That was his worship. The priestess would accept the money and apply it in the service of her god and then engage in the sexual act. That was her worship. I know there were variations of this in the Roman world that even a pervert of today would find to be disgusting, but that’s all I have to say about that.
Was this activity restricted to the Post-Flood years though? I have no reason to think that it was. I believe it is entirely possible that the same manner of temple prostitution was going on in the days of Noah just as it happened in the days of Moses (Rev 2:14), the days of Elijah, the days of Paul, and if we’re going to hit home, the days of today’s porn saturation. Temple prostitution has been a thriving business for the enemies of God from the earliest days. After all, hasn’t prostitution been defined as the oldest profession? And what is porn but prostitution that has been recorded for a wider audience?
So imagine with me a young prostitute whose intent has been nothing but evil (Gen 6:5). Oh, she thinks that she is doing a service to the men who frequent her but they have been layering condemnation upon themselves with every visit. Still, she is a pillar of the community! And she knows that the services that she has been providing have all been symbolic. The men have been engaging with her and she has been engaging with them as both parties have sought the approval of the benevolent demon behind it all.
Then one day the demon appears.
Oh, he isn’t red and he doesn’t have horns. As a matter of fact, he looks pretty good. He’s healthy, strong, well-spoken. He introduces himself and convinces her of who he truly is. He is everything she ever wanted. He is who she has been opening herself up to, both figuratively and literally. Then he has a proposition. She could bear him a son. This thing could go from the symbolic to reality in a flash. She knows this isn’t how things are really supposed to go, but this is an opportunity beyond anything she had imagined!
When I hear about the sons of God taking the daughters of man, this is the storyline that comes to mind. I don’t picture rapes or spiritual overshadowings such as how the Holy Spirit came upon Mary. Demons are limited in how they are able to interact with the world, and their attempts to simulate creation would surely require participation from an image-bearer of God. And that participation would make it all the sweeter to one destined for Hell.
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But what about us? We might not be calling evil good, but we do call what is good evil, do we not? For what is it when we call wine evil when God himself says it is a gift that gladdens the heart and is for us to enjoy? What is it when we sniff at people enjoying a nice meal in a restaurant to God’s glory when the Lord himself tells us food is his gift to us. Indeed, Jesus came eating and drinking and got called a glutton and a drunkard. Sounds rather like what many like to say about these things in the church today.

We had our annual church trip to Southport the other week. Despite all our warnings, there were still folks who had never been who were surprised that it was a seaside town where you can’t see the sea. There’s a lot of beach, but the sea is a long way out and is rarely seen very far in. We were there at high tide and even at the end of the pier, you still need binoculars to see the sea – the pier ends surrounded on all sides by sand. Admittedly, it sort of defeats the point of a pier – which was supposed to take you out to sea – but then it’s better than Wigan Pier, which isn’t anywhere near a beach or the sea!
We also had a good laugh when a dear sister came back with a big bag full of shells. We thought John Piper would be proud. As her pastor, I affirm it is absolutely fine for her to do so. She likes collecting shells and she did it to the glory of God. I am convinced she has not wasted her life, for it consists of more than shell collecting (even if she glorifies God as she does it).
We can be a bit gnostic about these sorts of things. “Spiritual” activities are not wasting our lives, non-spiritual things (whatever they are) might be. Collecting shells might be a bit frivolous and something of a waste, John Piper tells us. I don’t know what he would make of someone collecting shells and sharing the gospel with someone as they did it? Does it become valuable then? What if someone in your church loves collecting shells too, and you can go with them and disciple them while you do it? Have they wasted their lives or has the time been redeemed? These sorts of things get so confusing.
I am well schooled in this sort of thinking having grown up in a sabbatarian family and dealt with even stricter sabbatarians. Nowhere is the need to discern the spiritual from the profane more necessary than determining what activities may, or may not, be acceptable on Sunday. It can hardly be surprising that sabbatarianism pushes into a form of legalism so frequently because it roots itself literally in the Mosaic law. How can it end up being anything else?
But we push this gnostic thinking to all sorts of things. It’s fine to enjoy a walk in God’s creation but not enjoy his creation on a plate in a posh restaurant. We can enjoy reading the Bible, but if we read a novel that is profane. Watching a sermon on your smart TV is just about acceptable, but watching your favourite TV show is less acceptable.
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The fact that we are able to express the faith that justifies is only a consequence of the fact that we have been regenerated from spiritual death. The ordo salutis needs to shape our theological understanding of salvation. The emphasis on creation-new creation also highlights the sovereignty of God in salvation. It anchors and grounds the doctrine of predestination in Ephesians.

One of the things I had not noticed before in Ephesians is the importance of the creation-new creation dynamic. It comes at significant points in the letter. 
1v4 – God’s election of his people before the creation of the world 
2v9 – salvation (=from spiritual death to resurrection life) is new creation in Christ Jesus 
2v15 – unity of Jews and Gentiles in the church is the creation of a new humanity in Christ 
3v9 – God’s eternal plan to unite Jesus and Gentiles in Christ was from eternity before he created all things 
4v24 – the Christian life is a process of putting on the new self re-created to be in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness 
5v30 – the pattern for submission between husbands and wives is rooted in the original good creation and reflects God’s eternal purpose that the church as wife of Christ will submit to her loving husband 
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