People are sweet.
People are sour.
Humans are capable of great acts of love, can create majestic works of art, and can even enter into a relationship with an infinite God; yet they are equally capable of horrific evil and cruelty and share many features in common with other animals. In the end, despite all their efforts to resist it, they die, and most are quickly forgotten. Scripture compares us to a mist 'that appears for a little while and then vanishes' (James 4:14). No wonder the psalmist marvels in amazement that God is mindful of us (Psalm 8:3-4).And it is amazing that God is mindful of us, and even created us, knowing how sinful and rebellious we would be. But we do see special attention given to man in the Bible starting with the creation account.
(John S. Hammet, A Theology for the Church, p340)
There is a change in language used in Genesis 1 from "let there be" to "let us make" when God is making man. This shows that in some way the act of creating man is special and deserves special attention. The creation of man is described in much greater detail than any other act of creation. Animals and plants are mentioned in large groups, we don't even see the creation of the angels and the universe, galaxies, and planets are mentioned in just a few words.
So, what is man that God is mindful of him? Why did God bother creating us?
When people create or invent it is usually to fill a need, for convenience or for happiness. But God did not need to create us. It certainly didn't make things more convenient for him, so why did he create us?
4 Reasons God Created Man
1. God created man that man may glorify God (Isaiah 43:7)
2. God created man that God may delight in man (Isaiah 62:3-5; Zephaniah 3:17)
3. God created man that man may delight in God (Psalm 16:11; Psalm 27:4; Psalm 73:25-26; Psalm 84:1-2)
4. God created man that God may share life with man (John 10:10)
But when God created did he really just start with one man and one woman, Adam and Eve?
The Hebrew word "adam" actually means "dust, man, or mankind" and the Hebrew word for eve, or "hawwa" means "living one". These generic terms have led some to translate Genesis 1 & 2 as "mankind" and "human race" instead of the specific people Adam and Eve.
Does this mean that Adam and Eve are just metaphorical representations of all men and women? Are the two people that we know as Adam and Eve actually historical or did God create the whole human race at one point in time?
Paul (in Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15 and Acts 17) certainly taught that Adam and Ever were actual people and the belief in Adam and Eve as real people provide an important foundation for other doctrines, beliefs and traditions. If we lose the foundation of Adam and Eve the actual historical beginning of the human race then an tower of beliefs crumble around it.
If Adam and Eve are not the historical beginning of the human race then...
...Traditional marriage collapses (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6; Mark 10:6-9)
Jesus points back to Adam and Eve as the starting point of marriage. God institutes marriage immediately after creating eve from Adam. Without Adam and Eve marriage dissolves.
...Racist ideals are strengthened (Acts 17:26)
If God created Adam and Eve first then the rest of us are descended from the same family line. This is part of Paul's argument in Athens. There are no races, only the human race. We are one big family. No one color is better than another because we all come from the same gene pool. Without Adam and Eve racism explodes.
...The universal sinfulness of mankind and the need for a savior disappear (Romans 5:12, 19; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22)
Paul points back to Adam as the source of all sinfulness and the need for Jesus. Without Adam and Eve there is no universal sin or need for a savior.
The creation of Adam and Eve as real people, and the first people through which the rest of mankind came, is foundational to important social concerns and eternal truths. We have seen the crumbling of marriage and family, the strengthening of racial tension and the loss of personal responsibility and understanding of sin. Much of this can be tied to a loss of the belief in the historical Adam and Eve which then turns into a rejection of the rest of God's revelation to man: the Bible and Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment