“And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness; So God created man in his image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
Hominid (man-like creature) evolution has produced three principal levels of morphological organization linked by intermediate stages. There are the australopithecines (literally “southern-apes,” in fact “ape men”) and pithecanthropines (literally “ape-men,” in fact “true-men”), and the sapients (literally “wise-men,” in fact “modern men”). The intermediate stages between these major groups and the relationship that exist between them are all the subject of much research at the present time. (Michael Day, The Fossil History of Man)
“We’re all just lucky to be here!” Steven J. Gould
As you can see when we start to talk about where humans came from, there is a wide range of ideas. The atheist evolutionist says that man is just a product of “lucky” accidents that have occurred on the way to us becoming, for now, the most intelligent form of life on the earth. The creationist says that we are the crowning event in the creation of the world, made in the likeness of God. These two viewpoints are worlds apart and each one when believed causes us to think and act in a particular manner. Let’s examine the end results of each of these viewpoints.
The evolutionist lists in the arrival of man at where we are now primitive primate, Proconsul, Ramapithecus, Australopithecus afarensis, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapien as our family tree. It begins with a very ape-like creature, walking on all fours, body covered by hair and ends with a modern human gazing at the stars and launching a space shuttle. It has taken some 60 million years and every step of the way happened by accident. Man, in this view, is just an intelligent animal with no future when this life ends. It tells of no results, no matter how we live or what we do while we are alive. It just makes us matter in motion.
The biblical view shows man as the planned product of a loving God in whose image we are created and in whose likeness we are to act. It assures us that we have a soul, the spiritual part of man that will continue after life here ends. It shows us that each individual will account for his actions and manner of life. It promises for those who live in accordance to the laws of the Creator a reward for the things we have done in this life, a return to be with that Creator. It also promises for those who live any way they please, punishment and separation forever from that Creator.
Does it matter which of these ideas is most popular? You bet it does! Pick up a newspaper, watch the evening news, listen to radio reports of the violence that man is bringing on other men: rape, murder, robbery, immorality, war and the list could go on and on. Our young people have now begun to respond to the lesson they have been taught in recent years. They have been taught, told and treated like animals, and NOW THEY ACT LIKE ANIMALS!
Let us live like we believe in our Creator. Let us have the courage to tell the truth about God our Creator. Let us spread the news that we cannot live any way we want. Let us train up a child in the way he should go. For only by doing this can we ever hope to salvage humanity from the depths of despair into which it has fallen.
Let’s proclaim that we are not a little higher than the monkeys, but rather a “little lower than the angels!” (Psalm 8:5).
