 | Reverend Terry G. Fox is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. He is Chairman of the North American Mission Board, member of its Executive Committee and the FamilyNet Broadcast Communications Committee, as well as numerous other subcommittees. He's listed on the Who's Who Among Outstanding Corporate Executives. He is a sought after speaker and has traveled and ministered in many places in the United States, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Rev. Fox and his wife Barbara have three children. You may contact him at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 South Topeka, Wichita, Kansas, 67211; phone (316) 262-1452; or Fax (316) 262-4704. |
***image1:left***QUESTION: The Bible says God made Adam by breathing life into a handful of clay; then He made Eve by taking a rib from Adam's side. Are these the only two people He made in this fashion? If so, did all mankind evolve from sons and daughters of Adam and Eve?
ANSWER: Well, it doesn't exactly say "a handful of clay”. It says, “fashioned from the dust of the earth". But the idea is the same.
And you are right: Only Adam and Eve were made that way and all other people are descendants of this flawed pair.
But I suspect that this is not the end of your questions. Were you also wondering how so many people could result so quickly from only one pair, and how they could be so diverse? Of course, If you reject the idea of miracles totally you will find direct creation of a man by God to be "unscientific" and unacceptable. Or were you worried about the incestuous reproductions for the first few generations?
The reason for avoiding marriage with close relatives is that this increases the likelihood of genetic birth defects.
They occur because we all carry genetic flaws, most of which are recessive are only occur if both parents are carriers. These flaws have occurred, probably due to mutation damage, during hundreds of years. They would not have been present in the first few generations, so the problem of intermarriage would not exist.
I can't answer all of your possible questions, but let me mention some ideas that might be helpful.
"Fashioned from the dust of the earth" may mean literally 180 lbs. of dirt and water containing the required chemicals which were made, atom-by-atom, into a trillion-celled human male.
Could all of our "races" have derived from a single pair? We know that there is a great deal of genetic variety in each person and certain physical features are more suited to a given environment, and the fittest survive. The numbering system of the ancient Hebrew language is difficult to evaluate with confidence. They used letters to represent numbers, and didn't have the decimal system... so some of the numbers are questioned. But it is clear that life-spans of early man described in Genesis were very long. What would be the results? Very many children per mother? Great technical advances during one "generation"?
Read Genesis 1 to 11 carefully. If a worldwide flood due to the destruction of both the cloud-shroud above and the great aquifers below produced continent-wide geological changes, and permitted cosmic rays to damage the living cells and thus reduce life-spans and then....well...there are still lots of things we don't know about our planet's past.
But it is easy to believe that humans are a special creation because we are so different from animals. Try making a list of things which are true of humans alone:
1. We wear clothes, and therefore can live all over the planet.
2. We use fire; every animal fears fire.
3. We invent tools and weapons.
4. We bury our dead and think of a life after death.
5. We use symbols; thus can record knowledge for later generations.
6. We have languages of great complexity and subtlety .
7. We build shelters of many types for living places.
8. We make transportation systems: boats/sails, wagons, skis, etc.
9. We paint pictures and make music which is not instinctual.
You can add many more... one of which is a sense of "spirituality"... having a conscience... feelings of guilt... needing to have a purpose and to devise a religion and knowing our Maker.
The Garden of Eden story contains the first promise of God to provide for our redemption from the evil Adam and Eve brought into our race. In Genesis 3:15, after they had disobeyed, God told Adam and Eve of their punishment and then spoke to the Devil:
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike His heel." Christ, the offspring of a woman, destroyed the Devil’s authority and Himself suffered a bodily wound on the cross..
John 3:16 gives the New Testament description:
"God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that whoever trusts in Him shall not perish but will have eternal life."