Genesis One
Key To Understanding God's Purpose For Life
"The 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.'. . .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. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. . . .Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. . . .And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.' . . .And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. . .the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman. . ."
(Gen. 1:28, 2:7, 8, 15, 18, 21, 22).
Genesis and its creation model gives meaning to life. God created Adam and Eve with purpose. Their mission was to "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. . ." (Gen. 1:29). Man was also commissioned to keep and tend to that paradisiacal garden which God had planted for him to live in. Eve's purpose and therefore woman's foundational reason for living since creation was to be a "helper" for the man. God created Adam and Eve to live, reproduce, work and worship. Indeed, God's purpose for life gives life purpose! Man violates his fundamental purpose when he is lazy and ceases to work, when he ceases to worship and lead his family as a man of God (cf. Eph. 5:23-6:4; Is. 38:19; 1 Tim. 2:8; etc.). He also violates his purpose in creation when he ceases to live by choosing death over life. Woman also violates her purpose in creation when she harms rather than helps man in his spiritual and physical work (i.e., Jezebel 1 Kin. 21:25). Perhaps Paul says it best when he appeals to the God of creation saying, "God who made the world and everything in it. . .And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. . .so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being. . ." (Acts 17:24, 26-28).
Creation gives life purpose! Because God created us, our individual purpose in life is to seek Him and find Him. But if we displace the creation foundation with an evolutionary foundation, then life is expendable and without purpose. It really does make a difference of who or what is in our ancestry. If Adam is in our ancestry, then that means that God sets the rules and there are absolutes. However, if ape is in our ancestry, then man sets the rules and morality is relative; abortion is simply a choice being neither right nor wrong, euthanasia is simply one's right or prerogative. If ape is in our ancestry, then why not buy into the philosophy of "survival of the fittest" and destroy those who are least likely to survive, the unborn, the very young, the aged, the sick, the lame. As someone once said, "You kill spare cats, why not cut up unwanted children?" If ape is our ancestor, our existence is merely a product of chance and random processes over long ages of time. Human life should not be viewed any more special than the life of cats, dogs, birds, pigs, etc., for they too are simply products of chance. Even viruses should be viewed more equally, perhaps as a distant cousin if ape is in our ancestry. If there is no God, then all that anyone does is merely one's opinion and choice. The opinion that condemns would be considered no greater than the opinion that commits, but then again, that would just be considered my opinion! But if Adam is in your ancestry and Jehovah is Creator, then life is designed and given by God and should therefore be respected (cf. Gen. 9:4-7). Human life, unlike animal, bears the image of God. The choices that we make are based upon what God has said, rather than what man thinks. Where evolution is about vast amounts of death and enormous amounts of time trickled in with chance; creation is all about life and design! What viewpoint gives your life meaning? "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all" (Eccl. 12:13). - Steven J. Wallace
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