The Origin of Man: Created by God

(By Pastor Mark Fontecchio)

The battle for the souls of men continues to rage on earth. The weapons of Satan that are forged against men are many. One of the chief tactics that he employs is to convince men that there is no God. He often does this by undermining the truth of Scripture about the origin of man. Fortunately, as believers we can see through his veiled strategy to lead the souls of men astray.

Once we peel back the layers of Satan’s deception and the theories of unredeemed men, the evidence for literal creationism is overwhelming. There are three general lines of reasoning that demonstrate the clear truth of a literal creation from the Word of God.

The first argument is the undisputable certainty from Scripture that God directly created man. We read in Genesis, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Gen. 1:27). More detail is given of how the first man was created, “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 being” (Gen. 2:7). We observe:

In the creation of Adam the contrast is striking: against the background of a time when there was no life, no growth, no rain, no one to till the ground, God took great care in forming man. … Thus Israel would know that her Lord had created everything, and that He had formed mankind by special design (Walvoord 1983, 30).

This is a significant point that should not be missed. The original intent of Genesis 2 was to instruct the nation of Israel about the great care that God took in creating man. If the evolution of man is correct, the people of Israel could have never understood this from the instruction given by God in His Word. The Jews, and Christians throughout most of Church history, would have been completely helpless to understand the origins of man.

The creation of man by God is the consistent testimony of God’s Word. This can be witnessed in numerous passages throughout the Word of God, including:

• Genesis 3:19, 23
• Genesis 5:1
• Deuteronomy 4:32
• Psalm 100:3
• Psalm 139:14-15
• 1 Corinthians 15:47

Furthermore, we see in the New Testament that Christ affirmed the creation account. When asked by the Pharisees about divorce Jesus responded by saying, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matt. 19:4-5). Jesus quoted from Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, demonstrating that these passages are not separate contradictory creation accounts. The Lord understood them to be complimentary passages that should be taken as a literal account of creation. All of these passages stand or fall together as a testimony of a literal creation. The belief in evolution is simply inconsistent with a biblical worldview.

A second testimony from Scripture regarding a literal creation is found once again in the opening words of Genesis. We have already witnessed the words of Genesis 1:27 which teach, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Yet again, this strikes at the heart battle. Evolution teaches that gender is a result of the process of evolution. However, Genesis 1:27 could not be more clear. God directly created mankind as male and female, which means that evolution cannot be true.

A third and powerful argument from Scripture for a literal creation account surrounds the identification of the meaning of a day. In verse 5 we read, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). We must seek the original intent of this text, “The evening comes first, because in Jewish reckoning the day begins with the evening. The day is from sundown to sundown, from sunset to sunset. This phraseology ‘evening and morning’ simply does not allow for anything but a twenty-four hour period” (Fruchtenbaum 2008, 46). Further, the first chapter of Genesis repeatedly uses the word day to mark the timeline of events during the creation week. We learn:

God created in six twenty-four-hour days. There are several indicators in the creation account to validate this thesis. (a) The Hebrew word day (yom) with a numeral always designates a twenty-four-hour day. (b) The phrase “evening and morning” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) emphasizes a twenty-four-hour day. To suggest any form of a day-age concept involves denying the normal meaning of these words (Enns 1997, 303-304).

It should also be noted that Exodus 20:9-11 emphasizes a literal twenty-four creation, with the command for man to work six days and rest on the seventh after the pattern of the Creator.

The effects of the teaching of evolution are profound. If mankind truly evolved, we are mere animals with no accountability to God. The Word of God, “presents man as a moral creature, accountable to God. Man also is a soul and thus eternal (Gen. 2:7); moreover, he is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26), hardly a statement applicable to one who is the product of any form of evolution” (Enns 1997, 304).

Attempts to fit the scientific theories of unredeemed men into the Word of God can have a dramatic effect on our faith. Atheistic Evolution, Theistic Evolution, the Day-Age Theory, and the Gap Theory all undermine the consistent testimony of Scripture. In addition to the Scripture passages already mentioned, consider some further evidence from the Word of God:

• Genesis 1:1 - God created the heavens and the earth
• Job 38:4-11 - God educated Job about His act of creation
• Psalm 33:6-9 - God spoke creation into existence
• Psalm 104 - God laid the foundations of the earth
• Isaiah 42:5 - God created the heavens
• Isaiah 40:26 - God created and sustains the stars
• Isaiah 40:28 - God created the ends of the earth
• Isaiah 45:7 - God is the Creator of light
• John 1:1-5 - All things were made through Christ
• Colossians 1:16-17 - All things were created through Christ and for Him
• Hebrews 2:5-8 - God is the Creator of man

This brief survey of the Scriptures demonstrates the united testimony of the Word of God. Any other belief system, other than faith in a literal creation by God, undermines the totality of Scripture. Once we start rejecting part of the Word of God, where do we stop? Failure to trust what God has plainly revealed to us opens the door to rejecting vast sections of Scripture. It is the sinful pride of men that leads created beings to sit in judgment of the Creator’s written Word, as they pick and choose what they want to believe.

Unbelievers and believers alike are presented with a clear choice. Either we believe the theories of sinful men, or we choose to believe by faith what our Creator has told us throughout His Word. Let us choose to trust God over fallen men!

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Bibliography

The Holy Bible: The New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Enns, Paul P. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1989.

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. Ariel's Bible Commentary: The Book of Genesis. 1st ed. San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2008.

Walvoord, John F., Roy B. Zuck, and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.