Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-24


TIE most peculiar and distinctive feature
of tie religion Of the Zoarites is their firm
belief that Adam, the first father of Us all
was 4 woman, or, rather, that he was
dual being, combinin" il his single inti
viduahty both the male and female ele
ments OF generation. or, IS they delight t<
put II, Adam was masculine maiden =
They claim that tins mystical idea that
Adam was 4 dual being possessing both the
sexual clements. Is proved by the fact that
the book Of Genesis constantly speaks OF
him, before the creation Of Eve, IL the piu-
raj number Thus in Genesis, first chapter,
twenty-sixth and twenty-scventh yCrscS,
we find these words: And God said. let
US make man in our image after our like
| ness, and let them have dominion etc.
And again: $50 God created man in his
own image. in The image OF COD created he
him, male and female created he them. =
The Zoarites understand the word them
text long before the account or
the creation II Eye-aS apply
ing 10 the double nature. both male and
female, combined in Adam. They believe
Adam TO have been created in the exact
image of God, and in Il higher aud more
mystical sense than is commonly attached
to those words. Instead of continuing Adams
resemblance to God 70 mere moral likeness
in knowledge, righteousness and hCii.
ness they include in ii also SemblaucS
in form to the person of the God nan, o;
God-manifest, whose voice was heard
walking i'll the garden and whose visible
appearances are often referred TO in the
Old Testament.
They believe that the separation OF
Adams feminine nature from his masculine
one by the creation OF Eve was due to sim
full desire for such L separation on Adam )
part. They think that at the time when
God caused all the various ANIMALS 10 pass
before Adam in pairs, our first parent con-
ceived a desire for a similar separation and
companiOnship in his own case, thus pecOm-
ing disseminated with the coud ton in which
God had placed him, and abusing his free
dom of will by yielding to his lower animal
nature. They think that Adams feelings
on this occasion are well expressed by the
old song:
The fox and the hare, the badger and the bear,
And the birds in the greenwood tree:
And the pretty little rabbits. so engaging in
their habits
And they've all got mate but me
The irregular and sinful longing for the
separation of his feminine nature from him
self which Adam then experienced induced
Il reStleSSneSs and worry Of mind which
were the cause of the deep sleep that fell
upon him, during which God separated the
male and the female elements of his being,
and embodied the latter III the person of
Eve. The subsequent partaking together
by the man and woman of the forbidden
fruit was but the cons ummation and natural
consequence of the earlier incipient apos-
tasy. This view they believe to be- cor
roborated by the statement in Genesis IL,
Is, 1.-The Lord God said. it is not good that
man should be alone Now at the close Of
the six days work, as recorded in Genesis
l., 81. all things We're pronounced very
good but now there is something that 'is
not good" How could mans loneliness,
they ask, become an evil, while before it
was very good had he not already
brought himself into state OF restlessress
and dissatisfaction. which made it not
good" that he should be alone! God. there
fore. allowed Adams fall TO be complete BY
giving him ''hel p-neet for him in his
present deteriorated condition, just Us he
afterwards gave the Jews king when
they demanded one. Adam had conceived
an irregular desire toward the feminine
element of his nature while it was yet IL
part OF himself, and now that the woman
had become a separate being, she readily
completed the temptation by presenting to
him the forbidden fruit.
This fruit the ZoafiteS regard as an OBJ
iective reality, and as possessing some sort
of poisonous quality which introduced the
seeds OF disease and death into the human
frame and induced the sexual feeling.
When any one quotes against their former
practice of celibacy, the first commandment,
BE fruitful and multiply etc, Genesis,
i, est, they call attention to the fact that
this command was given before Adams
male and female natures had ever been
separated and they claim that if that sep
aration had never taken place the increase
of the race would have been brought about
in accordance with Gods original intention.
Just how this increase could have been
brought about they do not pretend To eX-
plain, but they believe that it would have
taken place in manner incomprehensib.e
TO US, by certain holy comminglIng of the
male and female elements of mans being
at particular tunes ana with Gods imme
date appreciation, so that new creature
would be in some way developed from
mans person without physical pain As
Bimeler. the founder of the Zoarites, has
expressed it in his writings, God having
gwen to Adam both faculties Of propagation,
and having thus created him real mas
culine maiden, intended that he
should reproduce his kind in magical
way-that is, through the imaginative
powers Of attraction and chaste euklndling
in the spirit of the word which he bore
within him. God intended that the union
of the fre-tincture aud the lght-tincture
should take place in Adam for the genera
ton of his race, and the new being produced
by this heavenly union would have come 10
light Immediately and in It's entire perfec-
ton, without having passed through the
many stages of development necessary u
the completion of every animal offspring
Thus, in brief, not from blood or from the
will Of he hesh, but in, through, and from
God AdaIn-the woman, man or man
woman--would have begotten all innumera-
bic posterity.
The Zoarites believe the person Of Jesus
TO have been physically the same as that OF
Adam prior to his fall; th.t IS, dual man
and woman combined in single individual.
ity. It was because they believed that
Adam sinned in repining because he was
cause God parted from his original .nten-
ton in separating the feminine part Of
Adams nature and creating Eve, that the
Zoarites originally opposed marriage and
exacted the. gid practice of cehbacy as q
sine qua nc u membership in their soci-
ETY.. II wal only after long fasting anu
prayer and The receipt OF a special revela-
ton from God that Bimeler ablldoned
celibacy and took a wife to pr ~erve his as
sociation from extinction by the cholera
epidemic in 1892, as already stated. Though
marriage has ever since been freely prac-
ticed by the Zoarites, yet the cling just as
tenaciously as ever to their original ideas
with regTrG 70 the conformation Of our hon
ored first male parent, and no old-time
jackson n rgcrat was ever more ready 10
argue :. ,lltly and fight vigorously in
defense ne principles advocated by
''Old Hickory than are the Zoarites in the
maintenance Of their pet theory that Adam
was woman.
The young people of the Zoarite commu-
nifty are devoutly thankful that the cholera
epidemic occurred. as, thanks to it. no more
restriction is placed upon their association