The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By ScienceAckland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Religion
The Story of Creation as Told By Theology and By Science
Ackland, T. S. (Thomas Suter)
Bible and science; Creation; Religion and science
The terms in which the Creation of man is spoken of are such as to
challenge particular attention and to induce us to expect
something very different from what occurred on any previous
occasion. In the first place, more agents than one are introduced
by the use of the plural form of the verb, and thus at the very
commencement of man's career there is an intimation of that
mysterious fact of the Trinity in Unity which was to have so
important an influence upon his future destiny. Then we are told
that man was to be formed in the Image of God, a statement which
probably is of very wide import. It has been variously interpreted
as having reference to the spiritual, moral, and intellectual
nature of man; to the fact that the nature of man was afterwards
to be assumed by the Second Person of the Trinity; to the
delegated empire of this world which man was to hold. There are
two expressions of St. Paul: that "man is the image and glory of
God" (1 Cor. xi. 7), and that "the invisible things of Him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made, even His eternal Power and Godhead"
(Rom. i. 20), which seem to indicate that this record has a
significance which as yet we can only partially understand. Then
the story of man's creation is repeated in the second chapter, and
while the other events recorded in the first chapter are very
briefly summarized, that of man is very much amplified. This does
riot necessarily indicate an independent account, as is sometimes
asserted; at the fourth verse of the second chapter a distinct
portion of revelation commences--the special dealing of God with
man, and this could not be intelligible without an amount of
detail with reference to man's origin, which would have been out
of place in the short account of the origin of the world by which
it is preceded. In this account the creation of Adam and Eve is
recorded as two separate events, the latter of which is described
in terms of deep mystery, of which all that we can say is that
they point to that still deeper mystery--the birth of the Bride--
the Lamb's Wife from the pierced side of the Lamb. But in the case
of Adam there is a remarkable difference from anything that has
gone before. Two distinct acts of creation are recorded; one of
which places man before us in his physical relation to the lower
animals, while the other treats of him in his spiritual relation
to his Maker. "The Lord God formed man (the Adam) dust from the
ground (adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
lives; and man became a soul of life." The inspiration of the
"breath of lives" distinguishes the creation of man from that of
all other creatures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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