Answer
The saying, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” is frequently employed in arguments against homosexuality. While the statement is absolutely true (see Genesis chapter 2), is it, in reality, a good line of reasoning against homosexuality?
Saying, “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve,” is an argument against homosexuality based on the purpose evident in God’s original design of humanity. A similar argument, phrased something like “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Eve and Julie and Teresa,” has been used to contest advocates of polygamy.
Harking back to an original design has some merit in any argument. In interpreting the Constitution, for example, it’s helpful to consider what the ratifiers of the Constitution had in mind when they signed the document—what was the original design of the Bill of Rights? In teaching against divorce, Jesus argued that “it was not this way from the beginning” (Matthew 19:8). When Paul instituted the rule that men are to hold the teaching positions in a local church, he also pointed back to God’s original design in creation: “For Adam was formed first, then Eve” (1 Timothy 2:13).
Pointing out that God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, similarly draws on God’s original design to imply a conclusion. God’s first recorded command to Adam and Eve was to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28), and the fulfillment of this command, of course, required a male and a female. For humanity to reproduce and propagate the species, God had to begin with a male and a female—Adam and Eve.
God could not have started the world with an “Adam and Steve”; to do so would have forever limited the population of humanity to two. With that said, there is a possible weakness in the “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” argument: it could be argued that, once humanity’s population was significantly greater than two, there would be nothing to proscribe “Adam and Steve” and “Adell and Eve” relationships, original design and later commands notwithstanding.
While the “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” argument is a pithy one, based on God’s original design, there are stronger biblical arguments against homosexuality. The Bible consistently identifies homosexuality as sinful (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). It is these passages, not the creation of Adam and Eve per se, that make the clear biblical case that homosexuality is immoral and unnatural. God indeed created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, and that fact supplements the Bible’s other, more overt arguments for why homosexuality is against God’s will.
