Section 2 - The Creation of Man

Eons and eons ago in a faraway kingdom of Light, a voice was heard that pierced the immensity of nothingness clothed in darkness, "Let there be light," [Genesis 1: 3] so God said and there was light. This does not refer to the creation of our star, we called sun, at the center of our solar system with twelve planets revolving around it; for like all things in the universe of matter, creation is an evolutionary process, eons in the making, as this was God’s preferred method of bringing forth his plan and as always for the benefit of man. He is the designated steward of creation, thus his task begins with investigating the laws that brought it about, as only in the understanding of the guiding principles of creation can he truly perform his duty. It is not a six-day wonder as recounted in the Book of Genesis, though this does not mean that an error was committed in the biblical story of creation, for the Bible is not a scientific paper but a spiritual document that teaches the truth, so necessary for humanity’s return journey to the everlasting realm of the Absolute Truth. Neither is the creation narrative a myth as some have surmised, for the biblical account runs parallel to the scientific theory of evolution, astonishing as this branch of knowledge came thousands of years after this book was written. Billions of years before the existence of our sun, God's work started with subatomic particles, the fusion of which led to the Big Bang event. The light from that said event can still be observed at the present, traveling through the unquantifiable space of the cosmos. The blue planet, our home, was not a magic hat trick, done in less than a week, for if it is, then man would be in a state of perpetual vexation, unable to figure out which can first, the egg or the hen. Rather, its existence, the only one in the whole universe capable of sustaining life from minute organisms to complex, multi-system creatures, was brought about by a series of cosmic events guided by the Supreme Being through billions of years, as nothing was unplanned or accidental for the crowning glory of creation that was to come. Fast forward to the fifth day in the creation narrative. "Then God said, 'Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures," [Genesis 1: 20] It is a fact that life in our planet started in the seas, from single-cell organisms, to swimming creatures, to the first amphibians to crawl out of the water, to the reptiles and eventually as God continued: "and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky. And so, it happened." [Genesis 1: 20] On the sixth day, came our class named Mammalia or loosely translated as 'milk-feeders' because of the nutritious secretion of their mammary glands. Then came the primates, the great apes, and a procession of human-like creatures, from the most primitive to something vaguely similar to us, the modern humans. But and this is important to state, not like us because of God's intervention, as it is written: "Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." [Genesis 1: 26] This intervention meant that man was an exemption to the general law that governed creation, for modern humans did not come from the sea, but from the heart of God, just as the divine heart is man’s forever home, for God created man for himself. This is man’s epic journey, spanning the whole of his lifetime and that is, to return from whence he came; one choice at a time, as each and every choice is a movement to or away from God. This is the power that comes with the gift of free-will—to say “yes” or “no” to the divine invitation, answerable in one’s whole lifetime. There is nothing that can mitigate, simplify, or abbreviate the grave task given to each one of us, for to live is to choose and there are only two choices laid before us. There is no such thing as a non-answer. Life-defining as it is, both now and the hereafter, man is not without aid, for God’s main preoccupation is to lead man back to him which He does by entrusting him all the necessary graces, ensuring his victory over trials and difficulties that life has to offer, as these can dim the light that leads to that faraway eternal kingdom where life began.

To begin with, there are important questions to be asked in our search of the truth about us, the creatures made in the image and likeness of God. The first point of inquiry has to do with the beginning of our race, the modern humans. When did we first appear? Are we the direct descendants of prehistoric beings, human-like in appearance, as science has proposed? Did science discover the 'missing link' to finally complete man’s evolutionary chain from the prehistoric human-like creatures to the modern-day variety? Did the many archeological discoveries offer sufficient and unquestionable proof of our genesis? Can we accept Darwin’s Theory of evolution, premised on the Theory of natural selection, as the guiding doctrine of our evolution? What are the implications of the statement-- man created in the image and likeness of God? Can we use this biblical revelation to explain the origin of our race? What is the meaning of the phrase "created for a little while lower than the angels?" [Hebrews 2: 9] Is this phrase intended for general use or only specific to a single person? If the former, could we use it in our effort to understand who we are?

Since this work is spiritual in nature, the main point of reference in our quest for answer, is the Word of God, preeminently are the revelations made by Jesus but with science playing a secondary role. The truth about us that this treatise hopes to uncover is arrived at by following Jesus’ words, as He is the revelation of the truth, for He is the Word, through whom creation came to be, which was through the scientific method, except humans who are not the end result of evolution. Jesus said in Luke 11: 51: "Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to account for it. Their guilt stretches from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah." He emphatically referred to Abel’s murder, the second son of Adam and Eve and the younger brother of Cain. It was written in Genesis 4: 2 that "Abel became a keeper of the flock, and Cain a tiller of the soil." This is significant in our quest for it means that agriculture was already being practiced at the time of Adam and Eve's creation. Agriculture is the domestication of plants and the cultivation of the soil for growing crops. This also includes the domestication of animals for human consumption. Hunting to meet the protein requirement of the diet was no longer the primary occupation. Games and they must had been plentiful just offered a variety of flavor and a desired break from the usual fare. After their eviction from Eden, Adam and Eve, and eventually their sons were consumers of lamb, mutton and goat meat. They were also milk drinkers, meaning lactose tolerant. They had wool and hide for clothing as well as for shelter. It is written in the Book of Genesis that: "For the man and his wife the Lord God made leather garments, with which he clothed them." [Genesis 3: 21] Agriculture, even in its infancy, implied an advanced culture because it required a stable domestic life. The act of settling down, as opposed to a nomadic lifestyle, directly resulted in the formation of extensive family ties and socio-economic networks. One thing more, if agriculture had to prosper as the economic bedrock of life for the first humans, a stable and moderate climate like our present-day climes had to be the norm, though said with caution, as ours is now exhibiting extreme weather events brought about by climate change, which in turn creates immeasurable hardship to those affected by these destructive events. It is noteworthy that when the first man and woman were created, they were naked, as stated in the Book of Genesis, which further reinforced the idea that the world had a mild climate and not subject to erratic variations in temperature. A conducive climate was necessary to growing crops and maintaining herds of domesticated animals. All of these pointed to one truth about the beginning of our race and that is, that the creation of the first man happened much later in terms of the geological age of our planet. The farmer Cain and the animal husbandry guy Abel were remarkably like us, anatomically, physiologically, and even psychologically. They were the two sons of the first modern man and woman, Adam and Eve. Their mental development was similar to ours, as they possessed an awareness of the Supreme Being whom they worshipped. Scripture has it: "In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock." [Genesis 4: 3- 4] If this was not so, how could Jesus declare that Abel was the first saint, a 'martyr' of the faith. Having noted the emergence of the first modern man as stated in Genesis, which can be approximated to be 10,000 years ago, as that was the point when agriculture started, could science claim that Adam and Eve were the end-result of the evolutionary process and that Lucy, one of the named prehistoric creatures, was our distant ancestor, separated by three million years? And that the great apes were part of our evolutionary tree? The answer undoubtedly lies in how we are created, as the very definition of modern man is solely based on this most exclusive quality. Again, Jesus provided the answer when he said: "Do not fear those who deprive the body of life but cannot destroy the soul." [Matthew 10: 28] There it is, plain and simple, as stated by the Word of God. Any being that ascends to the name Man has to have a dual nature, body and soul. The Supreme Being is spirit, without beginning or end, and those created in his image and likeness must also possess an undying spirit at the time of their creation. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians wrote: "If he sows in the field of the flesh, he will reap a harvest of corruption; but if his seed-ground is the spirit, he will reap everlasting life." [Galatians 6: 8] The flesh or mortal body is subject to corruption whereas the soul or spirit can live forever. This is unique to our race, Homo sapiens sapiens, as no one else is created in this manner. None of the flora and fauna that ever lived or are living in our finite world, from the simplest organism to the most complex including the pseudo-human creatures, have dual nature. This is only reserved for this new order of being whose existence came much later than science has proposed. God had to wait for the planet's environmental conditions to be just right before crowning creation of its reason for existence, even more challenging because of man’s hybrid nature plus the gift of a brilliant and analytical mind that on its own sets him over and above the other creatures that share his biosphere. No wonder that man is the apex of creation, as his three gifts-- body, mind and soul that correspond to his three levels of being, makes him the unmatched marvel of creation, the being set apart from the rest by virtue of his divine origin, his most unique design, which was divinely patented and his singular role in God’s plan for his kingdom. There was a lot resting on the shoulder of this hybrid creature, so much so that the Supreme Being created a magnificent realm, albeit temporal, for it must answer the complex and specialized needs of one who came by another route, infinitely superior to evolution, which was the common path taken by the rest. The body had to have the optimum conditions for life as its task was to procreate and fill earth. The mind had to have the challenges that could motivate it to unravel the mystery of creation, beginning with himself, as its task was to know and understand the world around him, both visible and invisible. The soul, which gives life to the lower part of man, must be nurtured by the wonderment that suffuses it, lifting it to heights unknown, as it had the supreme task of living out its reason for being, which is none other than to love. These three levels of being moving, working as one, and united as an integral whole, without divisions or compartmentation, is the truest measure of what it means to be a fully realized being-- a hybrid of mortality and immortality but with a consciousness experienced as one, as it is free of internal conflict arising from any dissension of its members—body, mind and soul.  To be fully human is to be fully alive, which can only come about if all three levels have been actualized, as a dysfunction in one could hinder the others. Man cannot be ‘all body’ or ‘all mind’ or ‘all soul’, as to fall into this error is to demean the meaning of life. The body, which alone is gifted with the power to procreate, must conform its actions to the other two, as without inputs from the mind and soul, it is left to subsists on the animal level, for encrypted in its genome are all the primal instincts of a beast whose needs are survival and multiplication through the sexual act. A person  cannot be ‘all mind’ as he was created, not as a solitary unit but a social being whose primary task is to form a functioning society that can best answer the need for survival, as there is strength in number. In so doing, he is to flourish, thrive and fill the earth with his descendants, thus outliving his finite existence. Neither can man be ‘all-soul’ as he was not created as a disembodied spirit that only answers to his spiritual needs, for in truth, the fulfillment of his spiritual aspirations is deeply rooted on his neighbors, regardless of physical differences and mental abilities; as all are created equal because of the gift of the  immortal soul, in the likeness of the Creator. The spirit cannot be disjointed from the other two, as to fall into this error is nothing more than the abstraction of life itself. It is as if life is reduced to a sublime concept but remained unlived and unexplored. On the experiential level, it is like professing love, which it alone can do by the gift of free-will, but without an object, as if love is best relished when barricaded from any form of human contact that can challenge it or worse deny reciprocity. The soul alone is incapable of fulfilling man’s reason for being, as the other two, body and mind, anchor the soul on the passing splendor, daring it to embrace and celebrate the finite with its many imperfections but at the same time, abiding with its true essence, which is supernatural and thus eternal. God set a high bar by creating his human likeness, for the good earth and everything on it must nourish man on his three levels of being, as only these three working with one accord, and  functioning as a unit, can man truly witness to the Triune God who as a community of Three Persons, with one will, created him for the eternal paradise. Man, fully realized, fully alive in his three levels of being is the perfect representation of his one-of-a-kind incorporation by the Holy Trinity. The body with the power of procreation could rightly correspond to the Father, the Creator. The mind with the power to unravel the mystery of creation both seen, and unseen could correspond to the Second Person, the Word through whom everything came to be, visible and invisible. The mind with the gift of intelligence and imagination and with the inventive use of natural resources is the power through which creation continues to move forward, as it is a dynamic process that needs a powerful mind to keep the engine going. In so doing, it upholds the work of the Son, for without him nothing can find realization, more so as everything the mind utilizes came into existence through the Word of God. The soul with the gift of free-will, is the one that carries on the movement of love through its union with the Holy Spirit, the Third Person borne from the Father and the Son, as He is the force who binds the Three Persons into One God. In the same way, the soul whose supreme task is to love is the force that unites the three levels of being into one cohesive unit. Thus, the soul could rightly correspond to the Holy Spirit. To live fully is to nourish these three levels of being with the end of triumphantly abiding with his divine appointment as a partner in the miracle of creation, which ultimately fulfills the divine plan. And this is nothing less than the multiplication of the specie in order to fill-up the world, which in turn will fill-up heaven to perfection, as man is the designated heir of the eternal paradise. It is at this point that a caveat has to be introduced. The discussion of the body, mind and soul above should not infer that the three are on equal footing, for they are not. The soul, being the immortal entity, supersedes the others for two reasons. First, it alone possesses the gift of life which it imparts to the body, for as stated before, death comes when the soul departs from the body. Second, it is endowed with the gift of free-will which is the primary impetus of all actions, a power it shares with the mind which in turn moves the body to act. The peaceful and balanced interdependence of these three entities, which are not on equal terms, empowered man to fulfill his reason for being, giving him the freedom to be what the Creator-God intended him to be, as he was judged to be very good when he first came into being. Man is the perfect specimen, not in the absolute sense but relative to his place in an imperfect world, as he is the linchpin that perfectly answers to the divine plan. His particular design point to a supernatural intervention, for he is gifted with three levels of being, body, mind and soul, that can utilize to the max the natural wonder around him. Only he has the power to steward creation in a manner that witness to the divine Creator; as only he possesses the three levels of being that mirrors the Triune God who gave him life.  Only he has been appointed to fill-up heaven with his descendants, numerous as the stars. It is noteworthy that this ideal state of harmony, within and without, suffered a most egregious breach when man disobeyed God, laying waste his perfect state that mirrored perfectly his divine genesis. Only under the New Covenant, many thousands of years later, would he be offered a way of reclaiming this lost state. Jesus said, “If you seek perfection, go sell your possessions, and give to the poor. Afterward, come back and follow me.”  (Matthew 19: 21) Moving on to the next topic. What is the body and what is the soul, as both elements are the essentialities of being human? It can be argued by the non-believers that the body is the product of evolution but how about the invisible, immortal soul, which is supernatural, as it does not have the physical properties of matter. Finally, does the soul have faculties like the body? Invisible as it is, could it be comprehended?