What The Bible Teaches
Unit 2
Who Am I?

Lesson 7
Where Did I Come From?

With today’s lesson, we leave the doctrine of God and commence a three week study on man, the doctrine of anthropology.  We will address the basic question, Who Am I, by looking at three other questions:

Where Did I Come From?

Am I Basically Good or Bad?

Where Am I Headed?

We discovered in our study of God that as Creator, God made all things from nothing, creation ex nihilo.  The creation account comes from Genesis 1.  Genesis 2 goes back to the general account of the creation of mankind and fills in the details.  Genesis 1 sets the stage.

Genesis 1:27 (NKJV)
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Getting Attention

The attention getters suggested by the lesson plan are the same two questions asked by the title of the section and the lesson.  Why should thoughtful people ask Who Am I? and Where Did I Come From?  Generally speaking, these are questions we all ask at some point in time.  The world provides a variety of philosophical answers, none of which satisfy the soul.

Knowing and Understanding the Bible

I. Creation of Man By God

The General Account: Genesis 1:26-27

Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV)
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The general account of the creation of mankind shows that mankind is unique amongst God’s creation, for mankind is the only part of creation made in the image of God.  Mankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation.  Both men and women are made in the image of God (male and female).  Further, mankind is to have dominion over the creation and to be fruitful and multiply, filling the earth.  This gives mankind a special place in creation and a personal relationship with God.

The Detailed Account: Genesis 2:7-25

A crucial statement

Genesis 2:7 (NKJV)
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

This verse sets for the beginning of the detailed account of the creation of mankind.  The verse provides two important elements, first that mankind is not created ex nihilo (“out of nothing”), rather mankind is made from the dust of the ground, that is, from materials present in creation by the third day.  The special place of mankind in God’s creation is also found in this verse where it states that God breathed life into mankind.

Man’s Material Part

The material part of man is but a lifeless mold of the creation materials.  It took the breadth of life to create man’s soul, . . .

Man’s Immaterial Part

Thus, mankind is a combination of material and immaterial, of body and soul.  For example, Jesus gives up His soul or spirit, but not His body from the Cross.

Matthew 27:50 (NKJV)
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

This should not be taken as a statement that man is comprised of only two parts (dichotomy – body and soul/spirit) as opposed to three parts (trichotomy – body, soul, and spirit).  This is not the purpose of the Genesis statements.  The Genesis account shows us that there exists a material body and an immaterial “life” in mankind, and that both parts arise in God’s grace.  This reinforces the special position of mankind.

A Special Relationship

God created a special relationship with Adam in the Garden, a relationship that continues after the Fall with mankind, even though mankind exists in a sinful state.

Calling

First God called Adam to a task – to a job of tending and caring for the Garden – Gen 2:15.  Adam was made not only to be someone but to do something.

Command

Second, God gave Adam a command – Adam was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — Gen 2:16, 17.  This single command defines mankind’s freedom of choice – a choice to choose for God or against God.  God does not desire that any of us, including Adam, experience evil or sin.  However, God’s demands that we have this freedom of choice.

Companion

Third, God provided Adam with a companion, Eve.  Note that while most of Genesis 2 involves the creation of Eve, the Calling and the Command come before the Companion.  God is more important in our lives than companions and things.  God’s calling upon us takes first place at all times. 

God’s gift of Eve shows forth the two important truths God provided mankind.  First, . . .

Adam should not be alone

And Second, . . .

Eve was to be a helper

The fact that Eve is to be a helper establishes the basis of the family unit (Gen 2;18).  Man is to be the leader of the family and the wife is to be his assistant in his calling before God.  This submission of the wife is not a punishment for Eve’s sin.  This submission and structure came from God before the Fall.  This is God’s Will in Creation.

Ephesians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.

1 Peter 3:1-6 (NKJV)
1 Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. 3 Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— 4 rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 5 For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.

1 Timothy 2:11-14 (NKJV)
11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. 12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Notice the importance of Eve.  It was not good for Adam to be alone.  As we have seen, God is a personal being, a being who desires relationships.  If mankind is created in the image of God, mankind is a personal being and desires relationships as well.  Thus, Adam needed Eve to complete his being. 

God reveals this need to Adam by bringing all of the animals to Adam to name.  Adam can recognize his loneliness as he fails to find a suitable a companion (Gen 2:20). 

Eve does not come from separate dust but from the rib of Adam (Gen 2:21-22).  She stands side-by-side with Adam before God (Gen 2:23).  The last two verses demonstrate the need for the public marriage of a couple and their relationship to each other – they should be one before God and man and without shame between each other.  As Matthew Henry puts it:

That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness (for, doubtless, the flesh was closed without a scar); but in lieu thereof he had a help meet for him, which abundantly made up his loss: what God takes away from his people he will, one way or other, restore with advantage. [1]

II.  Problems with Evolution

The theory of evolution arises from the studies of Charles Darwin in the mid-1800s.  While today’s theory is different from that of Darwin, the basics remain, the natural change of materials beings by the process of ‘evolution” based upon the vague notions of survival of the fittest. 

Darwin’s special theory of evolution probably should not be objectionable to Christians.  It states that horizontal or microevolution occur naturally without man’s intervention creating new “breeds” of plants and animals from time to time.  These new breeds are defined by such changes of bird’s beaks shape.  They are not new species of animals, merely modifications to existing species.  This is similar to animal breeding done by farmers and virus mutations that allow viruses to fight antibiotics.

However, the general theory of revolution goes far beyond such minor changes.  It suggests that mankind arose by such evolutionary changes to lower forms of animal life to produce higher life forms.

Contradictions with the Bible

The theory of evolution has several contradictions with Scripture.  It is unlikely that you will be able to cover these in any detail unless you focus your entire lesson just on this section.

The major thrust or contradiction arises with the conflict between evolution and Genesis 1:27, which clearly states God made man in His image.  There is no evolution involved in the Scriptural story.  This point comes into further light when one reviews the detailed account of man’s creation in Genesis 2. 

In addition, notice that the Genesis account places man in charge of the animals, separating him from them at some level.  Man is not one of the animals, as evolution appears to make him. 

Eve came from Adam, but if evolution is correct, either man had to come from woman who miraculously gave birth or else two humans, male and female, had to evolve at the same approximate time. 

God made man on the sixth day, not at the end of millions of years of evolution.

Problems with evolution

The problems of evolution should be visible from the contradictions of this theory with the creation account.

First, evolution does not account for the emergence of life from nonlife.  If one starts with evolution’s “primal ooze,” there must at some point be a step from nonlife to life.  How does one explain this?

Second, evolution does not account for personality emerging from nonpersonality.  God created man as a personal being.  There is no explanation within the evolutionary cycle that demonstrates how personality emerged from inanimate objects.  What shaped mind, will, and emotions unless it is God?

Third, evolutionism appears, in its ultimate structure, to be racist.  Ultimately the concept of the survival of the fittest calls for humans to evolve into a singe strain whereby the fittest become the sole race of humans.  This is almost a scientific justification for the actions of Hitler.

Majesty of man

The Scriptures provide mankind a special place in creation.  Who is man?  Is he important?  Evolutionary theory says “no.”  God says “yes!”  Men and women are not scientific accidents.  They are God’s creation.

Psalm 8:3-6 (NKJV)
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? 5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

Applying and Practicing the Bible

Who are you?  How do you feel about yourself?  Are you special?  What advantages arise from you being created in the image of God?

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[1]Henry, M. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991. Ge 2:21.