Dick Fischer wrote: Since you want the "image" to start before Adam, you must
say where that begins. Any date you pick would be arbitrary - 4 million
years ago, 100,000 years ago, 10,000 years ago. You can guess, but you don't
know.
Dick, this raises a question I had hoped to get your opinion on. Regardless
of whether Gen. 1:26, 27 is referring to God's creation of the human race
prior to His creation of Adam and Eve or to His creation of Adam and Eve, I
would like to know how and when you and others on this list believe God first
created the human race? As you say, all we can do is guess as to the "when."
The "how" may also be a matter of some disagreement here.
I'll volunteer to go first.
I believe God "created" man by making highly evolved primates into "spirit"
people. A "spirit person" is a person who has a spirit unlike that of
animals, a spirit which returns to God upon our death. (Eccl. 3:21; 12:7)
Being a "spirit person" also means having the ability to comprehend
"spiritual" concepts. Concepts such as eternity, morality, justice and God. I
believe at some point during the physical evolution of our species God
intervened and gave mankind the ability to comprehend such "spiritual"
concepts. I believe God also then began giving us eternal spirits. I believe
these were the creative acts spoken of in Gen. 1:27.
I believe our ability to think "spiritual" thoughts has, since that time,
been inherited from our parents. However, the eternal spirits all human
beings have since possessed may be individual gifts which God gives to all
human beings at their births, at the time we take our first breath. This may
have been what was pictured by God breathing the breath of life into Adam.
(The Hebrew word "neshamah" which is used in Gen. 2:7 can mean both "breath"
and "spirit.") If this is so, I believe it can truthfully be said that all
human beings, before and after Adam, have been individually "created" in the
same way that Adam was. (Adam was created from preexisting organic material,
the dust of the earth, and had a spirit breathed into him directly by God.)
I suspect God created the human race in this way about 100,000 years ago, at
the time scientists tell us people just like ourselves first appeared on
earth.
I would much appreciate reading the thoughts on this subject of others on
this list.
How and when did God create man?
Mike
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