Hi Mike, you wrote previously:
>I think it is just as easy for us to explain that the creating of man in
>God's image involved giving highly evolved primates moral consciences,
>minds that were able to understand spiritual things, and most importantly,
>eternal spirits.
>
>You responded: Moral conscience, I don't think so. We learn our moral system
>from our culture.
>
>I think the apostle Paul would disagree with you. In his letter to the
>Romans, chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 he wrote, "When Gentiles, who do not have
>the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for
>themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the
>requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also
>bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them."
Far be it from me to disagree with a prophet or an apostle. Saints
like yourself
are fair game.
Now we are in the era of accountability. Even Christ has died for
our sins, and
is the means of salvation for Jews and gentiles alike. Paul is
writing to the redeemed
of the church. These Romans were members of the church Paul planted there,
and were gentiles. The law of which he spoke was the Jewish code of law.
>You continued: Eternal spirit? Why waste an immortal soul on a creature
>without giving him a means to redeem it?
>
>This one really threw me for a loop. I thought I had heard you imply such a
>thing before, but I brushed it off. Are you saying that you believe that all
>men prior to Adam, and all men since Adam who have not been exposed to God's
>provisions for their salvation, have not possessed eternal souls? Are you
>saying that people are only given eternal souls after they are exposed to a
>knowledge of salvation?
No. First of all, I don't pretend to know when God decided to give man a
spirit capable of redemption or condemnation. My point was that if all mankind
from let's say 1 million years ago had this spirit, it would seem pointless to
wait until only 6,000 years ago to give them any means of redemption.
Now there was a time God "winked at" those sins, but to contend that every
mammalian biped with an opposable thumb and a cranial capacity of 1400 -
1600 CCs was given a mortal soul certainly is without scriptural support.
If we wish to establish a time when all mankind were possessed with "souls,"
any time selected is purely arbitrary. If we can agree that Adam was the
first of God's attempts to bring mankind into accountability, and we both
agree on an approximate date, the only question as far as "souls" is
concerned is when man had them.
I presume man at 7,000 to 6,000 years ago were so possessed. If not Adam
would have been wasted on them. Why offer them a glimmer of the hope
of salvation if they had nothing to save?
So I would say two things would not make sense to me. I don't believe
God would send Adam into a world where men and animals were no different.
And I don't think God would condemn to hell or welcome into His heavenly
kingdom all the hominids from hundreds of thousands of years who lived
prior to the time of Adam, which is what your methodology seems to imply.
Yours in Christ,
Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
"The answer we should have known about 150 years ago"
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