07. Man
MAN What is the testimony of Scripture to show that man is the direct creation of God?
There is no slightest intimation in the Bible that man is the product of evolution. Man was created by God and not evolved out of the mud. To those who bow to the authority of the Scriptures there is no doubt concerning this proposition. The revealed facts are thus outlined by Dr. Scofield:
1. Man was created, not evolved. This is (a) expressly declared, and the declaration is confirmed by Christ (Matthew 19:4; Mark 10:6) (b) ‘an enormous gulf, a divergence practically infinite’ (Harley) between the lowest man and the highest beast, confirms it; (c) the highest beast has no trace of God-consciousness the religious nature; (d) science and discovery have done nothing to bridge that ‘gulf.’
2. That man was made in the ‘image and likeness’ of God. This ‘image’ is found chiefly in man’s tri-unity, and in his moral nature. Man is ‘spirit and soul and body’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23). ‘Spirit’ is that part of man which ‘knows’ (1 Corinthians 2:11), and which allies him to the spiritual creation and gives him God-consciousness. ‘Soul’ in itself implies self-conscious life, as distinguished from plants, which have unconscious life. In that sense animals also have ‘souls’ (Genesis 1:24). But the ‘soul’ of man has a vaster content than ‘soul’ as applied to beast life. It is the seat of his emotions, desires, affections (Psalms 42:1-6). The ‘heart’ is, in Scripture usage, nearly synonymous with ‘soul.’ Because the natural man is, characteristically, the soulual or psychical man, ‘soul’ is often used as synonymous with the individual, for example, Genesis 12:5. The body, separable from spirit and soul, and susceptible to death, is nevertheless an integral part of man, as the resurrection shows (John 5:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:47-50; Revelation 20:11-13). It is the seat of the senses (the means by which the spirit and soul have world-consciousness) and of the fallen Adamic nature (Romans 7:23-24).” Can you give the names of any recognized scientists who discredit the theory of evolution?
Yes. Prof. William Bateson of England, perhaps the leading biologist of his day, has recently said that “while forty years ago the Darwinian theory was accepted without question, today scientists have come to a point where they are unable to offer any explanation for the genesis of species. There is no evidence of any one species acquiring new faculties but there are plenty of examples of species losing faculties. Species lose things but do not add to their possessions. Variations of many kinds, often considerable, we daily witness, but no origin of species.”
Prof. N. S. Shaler, Harvard geologist, says: “It begins to be evident to naturalists that the Darwinian hypothesis is still essentially unverified.” The late Prof. Virchow, described as “the foremost chemist on the globe,” said of evolution: “It is all nonsense. It cannot be proved by science that man descended from the ape or from any other animal; all real scientific knowledge has proceeded in the opposite direction. The attempt to find the transition from animal to man has ended in total failure. The middle link has not been found and never will be. It has been proved beyond doubt that during the past five thousand years there has been no noticeable change in mankind.” The Canadian geologist, Sir William Dawson, says: ‘The record of the rocks is decidedly against Evolutionists especially in the abrupt appearance of new forms. Every grade of life was in its highest and best estate when first introduced. Nothing is known about the origin of man.”
Prof. Agassiz, one of the greatest of scientists, said: ‘The theory of the transmutation of species is a scientific mistake, mischievous in its tendency.”
Lord Kelvin, greatest of modern scientists, says: “I marvel at the undue haste with which teachers in our universities and preachers in our pulpits are restating truth in the terms of evolution while evolution remains an unproven hypothesis.”
Dr. Etheridge, the British Museum’s famous expert in fossilology, says: “Nine-tenths of the talk of evolutionists is sheer nonsense. This museum is full of proofs of the utter falsity of their views.”
There are many others, but these may suffice to show that the evolutionary theory is untrue. Dr. Marion McH. Hull declares that the theory of evolution is destructive to the inspiration of the Bible, the fall of man, the deity and virgin birth of Christ, the atonement and regeneration, and continues: “Since the theory of evolution has been shown to be only a theory, since it has been shown to be discredited by scientists of highest repute, since it has been shown to be an unprovable theory, and since it has been shown to be destructive to the Word of God and the great doctrines of the Bible, why should we let it have a place in our thinking any more? Let us get back to the safe and sane position of a simple faith in the plain truth as expressed in the God-breathed Book, every letter of which is God-breathed, written by men who were inspired by God to set forth the truth without any error whatever. As for me and my house, we shall stand flat-footed on the Book, and accept it at its face value without question.”