Jim,
My position on this is a cross between that of Glenn's and Dick's.
I believe Adam was a historical person who was created by God and inserted
into an already populated world. I believe Bible chronology dates this event
to 4,000 years before the birth of Christ. However, I do not believe that
Adam was the first man who was created "in God's image." I do not believe
that Adam differed in any way "spiritually" from the indigenous populations
which surrounded Eden, other than being put under "law" by God. (Romans 5:13)
I believe God simply used Adam, as a representative of the human race, to
illustrate the fact that no human being is worthy of eternal life. His
inability to obey one simple command demonstrated that fact and brought
condemnation upon all men. His actions served to provethe fact that the human
race had long been unworthy of eternal life and had thus been deserving of
the deaths they had long been suffering.
It seems that some here feel that Adam must have been the first man created
in God's image because Gen. 5 seems to connect the "man" of Gen. 1:26,27 with
the "Adam" of Gen. 2. However, I think this is not necessarily the case.
Especially when we consider the fact that in Gen. 9:6 God says that it is
wrong to shed "man's blood" because "in God's image he made man." God is not
here forbidding the shedding of Adam's blood. Adam was then no longer living.
Those who take your position must maintain that when this verse uses the
Hebrew word "adam" for "man" God was then only condemning the killing of
Adam's descendants. I don't buy it. If that's what God had meant I think
that's what He would have said. I think the context of this verse makes it
clear that God was saying that ALL human life was sacred to Him since all men
were created in His image.
I also have to agree with Glenn that animal sacrifice is animal sacrifice.
How did Adam and his descendants sacrificing the lives of domesticated
animals show that they had "God's image" any more so than those who
sacrificed the lives of bears and other animals to God in earlier times? I
don't understand this at all. Maybe you can explain it to me.
Mike
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