PHYSICAL MAN

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GENESIS 1:26-31

Lesson #05

PHYSICAL MAN

• Memory verse: Gen 1:27
• To understand the rest of Genesis and in fact, the rest of the Bible, we need to understand what God created when He made man.
• Read Gen 1:26-31
  • Evolutionary Genetics and Biblical Answers:
    • Biological variation according to evolution:
      • Variation results when some descendents are superior to their parents thus developing new species.
      • Variation is unlimited.
      • New and better qualities are passed on by heredity to the following descendents, and these better qualities are gradually accumulated.
        • Scientific facts: Scientific experiments by Mendel show that limits in height are soon reached and from then on variation is no longer operative.
        • Biblical implications:
      • All possible variation was built into the species at creation by God.
      • Therefore, variation is not unlimited.
    • Mutation according to evolution:
      • Sudden random changes in the genetic system are responsible for some biological variation.
      • Scientific facts:
        • Penicillin experiments show that mutations are frequently sterile and not superior to the characteristics of the parents.
        • A good example is the horse, the donkey, and the mule.
        • If you breed a female horse with a male donkey, you get a mule.
        • However, the mule is always sterile.
        • Its characteristics can never be passed on to a succeeding generation.
      • Biblical implications:
        • The more complex the organism, the less chance for advantageous or beneficial mutations.
        • This is God’s way of preserving his original design.
    • Natural selection (survival of the fittest) according to evolution:
      • Those variations most beneficial to the individual are naturally selected to be passed on to the next generation because of the survival of the fittest.
      • Scientific facts:
        • Natural selection never originates a variation but only acts on characteristics parentally present.
        • In other words, no new gene is originally created that was not present in at least one of the parents.
      • Biblical implications:
        • Natural selection is a conservative process not crossable from one species to another.
        • This is why the Bible says, “each in its own kind.” (Gen 30:32-35)
  • Evolutionary Physical Anthropology and Biblical Answers:
    • The word anthropology means = the study of man.
    • This study of man is divided into two categories: the study of physical man and the study of cultural man. In the study of physical man, they observe the evidence of fossils.
    • Fossils are classified according to different types of information:
      • (1) The form of the skeleton
      • (2) The geologic layer of rock in which they find the fossil
      • (3) The scientific method of dating the rocks that surround the fossil or skeleton.
      • (4) The cultural remains (such as tools) that they find near the fossil or skeleton.
      • (5) The geographical location where the fossil or skeleton was found.
    • Creationist responses to fossil finds:
      • (1) The form of the skeleton
        • Complete skeletons are very rare and often very fragmentary. For example, an artist will draw an entire creature along with body hair and a stupefied look based on a fragment of a jaw bone.
        • Skeletal remains are often confused
      • Lions and tigers are so similar that they are often confused.
      • Dog skeletons are often so dissimilar that they are often confused with other animals.
      • Adults and children are often classified wrongly.
      • A large head size is presupposed to mean advanced intelligence.
      • There is not an absolute relationship of brain size to intelligence.
      • An evolutionary sequence of small to large brain does not fit the fossil record.
      • Any conclusion from fossil remains as to the possession of speech is simply a guess.
      • What some anthropologists think are human fossils, other anthropologists think are animal fossils. For example:
      • Sinanthropus (Peking Man) found in 1920’s.
      • All fragments have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
      • Observers say their skulls were pierced and crushed and may have been animals that were food for humans.
      • Piltdown man found in England in 1912 was a deliberate faked animal bone passed off as human and exposed as a fake in 1953.
      • Java man found in 1891 by Eugene Dubois who in 1936 decided that the bones were actually a giant extinct Gibbon (monkey).
      • Diet and disease alter bone structure
      • (2) The geologic layer of rock in which they find the fossil
        • Fossils classified as modern in form are sometimes found in the wrong sequence in the strata of rock..
        • Neanderthal man types are found scattered throughout the fossil record and seem to have degenerated into less modern types over time.
      • (3) The scientific method of dating the rocks that surround the fossil or skeleton. Sometimes dating of the fossil does not agree with the dating of the sedimentary layer where they find the fossil.
      • (4) The cultural remains (such as tools) that they find near the fossil or skeleton.
        • Man is the only cultural being associated with tools and the use of fire.
        • These cultural remains are often used to distinguish human bones from animal bones.
        • Most fragments of skeletons are not found along with tools or evidence of the use of fire.
        • When they do find fragments of bone near tools or weapons, it is sometimes hard to tell whether the bone fragment is the maker of the tool or the animal victim.
      • (5) The geographical location where the fossil or skeleton was found.
        • The Bible indicates that man comes from a single ancestor. A science article indicates that genetic studies prove all men came from a single ancestor.
        • The Bible indicates that the human race spread out from the Middle East after the flood of Noah. There is much archaeological evidence to support this Biblical truth.
        • Most of the “primitive” forms of man have been found in remote inaccessible areas of Western Europe, South Africa, and Southeast Asia.
        • Creationist conclusions:
        • Neanderthal was undoubtedly true man. He was intelligent, and possessed a spiritual nature because of their belief in an after-life. He was a physically degenerating type and died out.
        • The effect of sin and the curse was immediately degenerative and cumulative both spiritually and physically (Gen 3,4,6, Rom 8).
        • Cursed and rebellious peoples spread out rapidly in forced migration after the flood (Gen 10,11).
        • Crude living conditions and small population groups resulted in limited choices of mates (a limited gene pool) where rapid degeneration culturally and physically occurred. (Neanderthal Man)
        • Final extinction occurred in some cases while in other cases they continued and finally to produce modern man.
• Application:
  • We have discussed only physical man. However, man is more than just physical.
    • Gen 1:26 tells us that God made man in his image. Our God is not a physical God, although Jesus became physical flesh.
    • The Bible tells us that God is a Spirit. (Joh 4:24) since man was created in the image of a God, who is Spirit, we must also have a spirit. We will consider this aspect of man in our next lesson.

Homework

• Memory verse: Gen 1:27