The World at the Creation of Man

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Now we must examine the creation of man and what God said about His “product” after it was finished.

Genesis is the book of beginnings. Its 50 chapters describe a period of over 2,000 years. Therefore, it is not written to show detail. Rather, it represents a look at the most important high points of human history. The creation week and the time immediately following it are described in the first three chapters.

Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God”—but who is the One speaking, calling Himself God? Moses recorded the first five books of the Old Testament in the Hebrew language. We saw that the Hebrew word translated “God” is Elohim, a word similar to team, group, family, or church. God is one Family—one God—composed of TWO Beings.

God and Christ enjoy complete harmony and agreement. They reflect perfect outgoing love, concern, and cooperation. The Father is the supreme leader of a Family that both Persons chose to expand. First, God created the angels and then the entire physical universe, including Earth. Next came man.

Remember, God said, “Let US [more than one] make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness” (Gen. 1:26). As seen, there was clearly more than one person involved in the creation of man.

Gen 1:25 shows that each animal was made after “his kind.” Notice: “And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:25).

Gen 1:27 continues, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them” (Gen. 1:27). This verse is a key to understanding that God’s very purpose is to reproduce Himself. The human family and human reproduction is a type of this plan. Gen 1:28 begins with an important statement: “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Gen. 1:28).

The next two verses explain that God entrusted the entirety of His creation (animals, plants, etc.) to man’s dominion—his overall control. Genesis 2:19 describes how God brought all the animals to Adam “to see what he would call them.”

The Genesis 1:1-31 account concludes with vitally important Gen 1:31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

In chapter 2, God presented Adam and Eve with the choice that they would face (chapter 3) between the Tree of Life and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” In this choice, they would be offered the opportunity to decide between God’s “divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4)—building and developing His character—or taking on Satan’s sinful nature.

If Adam would have been willing to obey God’s instruction, he could have qualified to replace Satan and restore the government of God on Earth. We will see that Satan had rebelled and overthrown God’s government on the earth.

Is God’s Creative Power Limited?

We might ask, with the seemingly unlimited capacity of His creative genius, is there anything that even God Himself could not create immediately? Has God any limits? Is there a single item—of any kind—that is beyond His ability to create instantly?

Yes—one thing!

And it is ALL-IMPORTANT.

God cannot create the perfect, holy, righteous character possessed by both the Father and Jesus Christ. Before continuing, get this enormously vital piece of understanding clear in your mind. God cannot impart perfect character overnight—by divine fiat. And yet this most important quality must be present in a human being for God to achieve His ultimate creative purpose.

This kind of character is the ability to choose, to do and to live the right way, even against the pulls and temptations of self-desire. It is a complete yielding, on the part of a free moral agent, to God and His perfect way of life—voluntarily and unconditionally. It is submitting to God’s government and God’s Law.

This quality of mind—CHARACTER—cannot be built overnight. It is a lifelong process. Character must be developed through repeatedly choosing (with God’s help) to live and do what is right. God cannot automatically in still this into anyone. It is built through tests and trials of every sort. Free moral agents must continually yield to God and choose to do right, over and over again, until it is part of their fundamental, intrinsic CHARACTER!

The importance of this knowledge—this truly crucial understanding—cannot be overstated.

The angels were created with free moral agency. They were given minds capable of making choices, decisions. They were capable of reasoning and thinking through problems and of setting their will. God revealed His true way of life to these free moral agents. And He allowed them to choose which way they would go.

Jude 6-7 reveals that God placed the angels on Earth as their “first estate … their own habitation.” His intention was that they use the earth as a testing ground—a proving ground—to build character.

The pre-Adamic world was populated by giant “prehistoric” creatures. This was a time of prehistory, as far as man is concerned. Men were created later, after the time that Satan and his demons ruled the earth as Lucifer and his one-third of the angels—and after the time of their change in nature.

Obviously, the potential that once belonged to angels now belongs to human beings.

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