Saturday, October 19, 2019

Genesis 2:4-7 comments: man became a living soul


2:4 ¶  These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5  And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 6  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
In verse 4 we have another use of the word day as a period of time rather than a 24-hour day. It is also used later in the Bible for the time of God’s judgment on a gentile nation or Israel.
Isaiah 34:8  For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
There are three heavens; the atmosphere, outer space, and, “the abode of God and the blessed dead,” as I once read it called. The account in Genesis, chapter 1, refers to the creation of the first two.
2Corinthians 12:2  I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
Of course the third heaven is not mentioned because it had to exist prior to the creation of things physical. The sons of God, spiritual beings who are represented by angels, rejoiced to see the creation of the earth.
Job 38:7  When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Genesis, chapter 1, presents literally a view of the creation of the physical universe and biological life.
Verse 5 is another example of how vastly different the earth was at the very beginning as God watered the seeds of what He created with a mist to water the ground and there was no rain.  There was no man to cultivate the earth yet. Plant life was created on the third day while man is not created until the sixth. The Bible seems to suggest that the water cycle we are used to did not exist at that time by the way the Flood will be talked about and with the introduction of the rainbow as a sign of God’s promise not to destroy the earth again with a Flood. Another argument can be made that just because something is not mentioned does not mean that it did not happen. The Bible is silent on many things and is written in a way that assumes the reader has some common sense and real-world experience. It is possible then that it did rain after man was created and that the rain of the Flood was noteworthy for its enormity and its catastrophic consequences rather than being the first appearance of rain. The rainbow after the Flood becoming a sign of the covenant made by God with the earth might not mean that there was no rainbows before that.
The first man was created from the dust of the ground. Perhaps we moderns can think of that as the elements of the earth. Man is a creature created from that which was already formed. This first man became a living soul when God breathed into him. These are first things, the original seeds of plants, before they grew, watered by the mist and man becoming alive when given breath. Some have used this to say that a baby isn’t alive until it breathes due to man not being a living soul until he breathed for the first time. But, like the mist that watered the ground the first man’s entry into the status of living was a one-time thing at the very beginning and can hardly be considered as a justification for abortion as awareness, the essence of a baby’s consciousness, or of God’s knowledge of the unborn’s condition, is present regarding the unborn child from then on.
Regarding the unborn John the Baptist;
Luke 1:44  For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
And the prophet, Jeremiah;
Jeremiah 1:4 ¶  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
At least since Darwin’s time science has grown to theorize that mankind descended, along with modern apes, from an ape-like creature, through stages of mutations that helped move him forward from the primitive ape to man in a process of evolution called natural selection. However, evolutionists also accept the contradictory evidence that man is vastly different from an ape. For instance, on the site, macroevolution.net, that postulates the idea that humans are hybrids, the result of matings between pigs and chimps, it is noted that one reason for that conjecture is the tremendous difference between man and primates. Many stark as well as subtle differences are listed on the website between man and primates.[1]
We have been bombarded in the popular culture with statements about how we share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees. However, scientists also say we share genes with the Swedish mudworm so does that mean we are descended from mudworms?[2] Years ago scientists argued that so-called Neanderthals differed from modern humans by so much that we could not be related, however, the point spread they noted from a genetic perspective was no more than that which existed between populations of chimpanzees and they were still chimpanzees. What lies under the surface is not the possession of similar building materials but that a bus stop, a tool shed, a house, and a civic center, while using similar materials are vastly different structures. So, with genes, it is not the possession of similar genes or the same genes but the expression of those genes.
In any event, evolution as the development of mankind from worms to ape-like creatures to Neanderthals to brain surgeons is a fairy tale for adults who are justifiably terrified of God’s judgment but just haven’t come to terms with their terror. Believe the Bible and your hold on truth is secure while modern man dances like a dervish around you into oblivion.
2Timothy 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Man was created directly by God on the sixth day of creation.


[1] Eugene M. McCarthy, PhD in Genetics, http://www.macroevolution.net/human-origins.html (accessed 5.17.2016).
[2] “Humans Related to Humble Mudworm,” BBC News, 21 Aug 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3170245.stm


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