Sermon Tone Analysis

Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the Father.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins) (1Jn 1:9)

 

 

You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.

 

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth," (John 4:24)

 

 

 

The Origin of Human Life

 

 

       How DID HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?

How did the human race originate?

The question has kindled debate for centuries in the quest to solve the mystery.

Many scientists have promoted the hypothesis that life most likely started from molecules that formed DNA-like material which evolved into mankind.

Some believe chemical elements spontaneously combined to produce a spark of life.

Could life occur from a set of random circumstances where the mathematical probability of happening is actually nil?

And with such uncertainty emanating from the scientific hierarchy of our society, what should /you/ believe?

The complexity and harmony of nature, the incredible precision and sophistication of the human mind and body demand a Creator and Designer.

Design and order reveal a first cause for life, an Intelligence and Will behind the phenomenal process of the creation of all forms of biological life.

/       Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and Divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they (And or we) are without excuse.

/(Rom 1:20)

 

       The magnificence of creation clearly points to the unlimited power and awesome attributes of God as the Designer.

The Bible unequivocally states that God is the One who created not only “the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1) but all life on earth.

(Gen 1:11-12; Gen 1:20-31; Acts 17:24-30) Human life is the wonderment of God’s creation.

/       Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”/

(Gen 1:26)

 

       But controversy stirs around God’s creation.

God created the first man and woman, perfectly formed, without physical flaw or sin, placed them in ideal environment, and commanded them to “be fruitful and multiply.”

(Gen 1:27-28) Mankind was mandated to reproduce himself.

How was human life to be reproduced?

Did God provide the initial spark of life and then entrust the continuation of that life to mankind?

Or, does God still breathe the “breath of life” (Gen 2:7) into every human being?

If so, when does human life begin?

Orthodox Christian theology offers two schools of thought explaining the creation of human life subsequent to the original creation of Adam and the woman: Traducianism and Creationism.

Traducianism holds that the soul, the immaterial part of mankind, as well as the human body originate mediately by propagation, Creationism maintains that a new human soul is created by God immediately at conception, during pregnancy, or at the birth of every individual.

Both schools have precedence and support throughout Church history.

But which position more closely reflects the Biblical explanation of the origin of human life?

*THE CREATION OF THE FIRST HUMAN LIFE                                                                                 *THE ACTIVITY OF CREATION

 

       Genesis 1—2 contain four Hebrew verbs that depict God’s activity of creating the original human life.

 

       1.

/Barah/ means “to create,” to make something “from nothing,” /ex nihilo/ in Latin.

/Barah/ is found in three verses of Genesis 1.

Each usage reflects an essential creative act by God who generated inorganic matter from no previously existing material (Gen 1:1) and provided life to animals (Gen 1:21) and humans (Gen 1:27) where no life formerly existed.

/       And God created [Barah] man in His own image, in the image of God He created [Barah] him; male and female He created [Barah] them./

(Gen 1:27)

 

       2.

Although Adam’s human life was created from nothing, his body was /yatsar,/ “formed” from dust, an already existing material.

This second verb, found in, (Gen 2:7) refers to the Divine formation of the male body as a biologically living organism.

/Then the Lord God formed [Yatsar] man of dust from the ground.

[Biological life]/ (Gen 2:7)

 

       Biological life exists in all cells of the body and provides the functions necessary to sustain living material.

Biological life is material and does not include a human soul, which is immaterial.

Therefore, biological life by itself is not human life.

By comparison barah describes the life of humanity as a complete and unique creation which never before existed, “created...

In the image of God.”

 

       3.

/Asah/, used in, (Gen 1:26) means to “make” or manufacture something after a pattern.

/Then God said, “Let Us make [Asah] man in Our image according to Our likeness...” /(Gen 1:26)

 

       The pattern God followed in making man was Himself, “in Our image,”/ be tselem/, and “likeness.”

What is this image?

In Hebrew usage today image refers to a Spiritual rather than a bodily facsimile.

The meaning of the ancient text of verse 26 is similar if not identical to modern usage.

/Be/ /tselem/ conveys not a physical, visible structure but a “shadow image.”

Mankind is not created as a duplication of God, a blasphemous thought, but in His shadow image.

Shadow image describes something invisible but real.

A three part being, body, soul and spirit God has bestowed on human beings an immaterial, invisible essence.

We are endowed with certain rational, moral, and relational capacities, which God empowers with the spark of life.

As the image of God, human beings are the only creatures who uniquely reflect God.

God the Father is the soul; God the Son is the body; and God the Holy Spirit is the spirit.

God has essence which is real but invisible.

As the shadow image of God our essence is also real but invisible.

And, like God, that essence can be defined only by its characteristics.

These characteristics include self-consciousness, mentality, volition, conscience, and emotion.

From a Theological viewpoint the soul is the real person, existing within a biologically living body.

The human soul is perfect in its creation, but now linked to the sin nature, it functions imperfectly.

Although this invisible essence is inferior to God’s perfect essence, the soul is the element that establishes man’s superiority over creatures.

Every individual has an identical essence of soul, but each person has a different personality reflecting the combination of the facets in the soul.

Let me explain.

If emotion supersedes and overshadows mentality and conscience, an unstable, maladjusted personality can emerge.

If mentality and conscience balance, guide, and direct the emotional life, a stable and well-adjusted personality can develop.

Heredity and environment also influence the various aspects of personality, but volition ultimately determines the priority of the facets of the soul.

/Asah/ in, (Gen 1:26) refers to the particular creation of soul life in human beings.

Since “make,” /asah/, and “create,” /barah/, are both connected with the phrase “in Our image [Image of God]” The human soul was “created,” /barah/, from nothing but was also “made,” /asah/, after a pattern, which was “the image of God.” Asah and /barah/, therefore, mark the creation of soul life, a life unique to mankind.

Of all God’s creatures no other is said to be made in His image.

4.

In contrast to /yatsar/, used to describe the creation of biological life in the male, (Gen 2:7) a fourth verb /banah,/ “to build,” depicts the, Divine construction of the female body.

/And the Lord God fashioned [Banah] into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man/.

(Gen 2:22)

 

       As with the formation of the male body, the construction of the female body included conveying biological life.

This biological life and soul life were given simultaneously, first to Adam and later to the woman.

These four Hebrew verbs are used to designate two of three categories of life.

THE PATTERN OF CREATION

 

       The pattern of initial creation is clearly seen in, (Gen 2:7).

/       Then the Lord God formed [Yatsar] man of dust from the-ground, [Biological life] and breathed [Naphach] into his nostrils the breath of life; [Neshamah hayyah, soul life] and man became a living being {nephesh hayyah, literally a soul having life, i.e. human life]./

(Gen 2:7)

 

       The verb /naphach/, translated “breathed into,” resulting in /neshamah hayyah/, “the breath of life,” paints a verbal picture of incorporeal soul life bestowed directly to a human being by God.

/Neshamah/ refers to the breath of God.

God Himself breathed into the first man /neshamah — /a spark of life.

(Isa 42:5; John 1:3; Col 1:16) This is the spark that generates human life.

Note the striking contrast between the tangible flesh, blood, and bone of biological life and the intangible essence of soul life.

Until God exhaled breath into the first human body, which was “formed” biologically alive, man could not be “a living soul.”

This is true for every human being born throughout history.

Therefore, the joining of soul life, depicted by the verbs /barah/ and /asah/, with biological life, depicted by the verbs /yatsar/ and /banah/, formed a third category, human life, /nephesh hayyah, /(Gen 2:7) in the first man and woman.

THE CATEGORIES OF LIFE

       CREATION BEFORE THE FALL

 

       God’s initial creation of mankind reveals three categories of life inherent in every human being.

First, God created biological life from the dust of the ground, the chemicals of the soil.