It is assumed that a large majority of our readers already have faith in the existence of an intelligent Creator, or at least would like to exercise such a faith if it could be based upon reason. On this point it is interesting to note that eminent scientists of today are becoming more and more convinced of the existence of a divine Intelligence, and some of them have gone on record before their colleagues to that effect. We recall, for example, the words of Dr. Michael I. Pupin, who at one time was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Albert Wiggam, scientific writer, in an interview with Dr. Pupin, quotes him as saying: “Wherever science has explored the universe it has found it to be a manifestation of a coordinating principle, and that coordinating, directing principle I call divine Intelligence. It leaves us no escape from the conclusion that back of everything there is a definite guiding principle that leads from chaos to cosmos.
“We are faced with two alternatives. We can either believe that cosmos, beautiful law and order, is simply the result of haphazard happenings; or, that it is the result of definite intelligence. Personally, I choose to believe in the coordinating principle, the divine Intelligence. Why? Because it is simpler. It is intelligent. It harmonizes with my whole experience.
“The theory that intelligent beings like ourselves, or intelligent processes like the movement of the stars, are the outcome of unintelligent happenings, is beyond my understanding. And why should I accept such a theory, when I observe the evidence of a directing intelligence everyday? When you see the stars, each moving in its own pathway, or see a seed grow up after a definite plan into a tree, or see a baby develop into a full grown, self-directing human individual, can you conceive of all that taking place as the result of haphazard happenings? Well, I cannot.
“Why should I deny a directing intelligence of all cosmic phenomena? To me as a scientist it is obvious. It was obvious to the prophets over three thousand years ago. From the crudest savage to the highest prophet it has always seemed obvious that there is a definite Intelligence back of everything. There is nothing that science has ever found that contradicts this. Indeed, the more deeply science penetrates into the laws of the universe, the more it leads us to believe in an Intelligent divinity.” Amen!
The main question, then, for us to examine is that of how, and to what extent, this Intelligent Creator has revealed his purposes to man—particularly his plan concerning man himself. The Bible purports to be such a revelation, and our theme will be developed upon this basis.
Today there is a growing tendency to doubt the inspiration of the Bible. But Christianity is so inseparably connected with the Bible—both the Old and New Testaments—that if we repudiate it, or take the position that it is not reliable, we may as well give up Christianity itself. We hold, however, that there is both internal and external evidence that the Bible is the Word of God.
It is admitted even by skeptics that wherever, and to whatever extent, the influence of the Bible has been felt, its moralizing force has made the world better. For this reason it has been called the torch of civilization. There would be no world crisis today if the laws of the Bible had been faithfully followed by the ruling classes and the masses in the various nations.
A book, then, that has been such a power for good, and which has influenced the course of so large a part of the world for good during so many centuries, is surely worthy of being given more than a mere, casual reading before it is discarded. Besides, no other satisfactory explanation of the origin and destiny of man, apart from that suggested in the Bible, has ever been offered, evolutionists to the contrary notwithstanding.
THE GENESIS ACCOUNT OF CREATION
The Bible account of Creation, and the Garden of Eden story of man’s fall, have come in for the greatest amount of criticism on the part of evolutionists. But in recent years many scientists show a tendency to reverse their position in regard to these points. Professor Rene Thevenin, of France, in a series of syndicated articles published in America on the age of the human race, said: “Before science gets through poking in caves and sea bottoms it may prove that there is considerable truth hidden in that fall-of-man legend.”
The fall-of-man teaching of the Bible is, we believe, more than a legend. It is based on the fact that man was originally created perfect and given a perfect home—“eastward in Eden.” (Gen. 2:8) It is from this standpoint that our investigation will be conducted.
According to the Bible, the human race started with just two specially created persons—Adam and Eve. Is it reasonable to suppose that this is true? Yes, the present population of the earth suggests it. Everyone knows that the human race has been steadily increasing in numbers during the entire period of known history. Think of what the population of Europe would be today, had not America been discovered five centuries ago!
Now, it doesn’t take any extraordinary intelligence, or faith either, to determine that if we begin with the present ratio of increase in population, and inversely figure the constant decrease back through the centuries, we eventually shall reach the point where there will be found but a single pair—at just about the time when history dawns, and when man, according to the Bible, was created. This, together with the fact that recent archaeological discoveries are revealing that man, at the dawn of history, had a higher civilization than in later times, constitutes good circumstantial evidence in favor of the Garden of Eden story of Genesis.
Space will not here permit a detailed scientific analysis of the subject, but we trust that those interested, and especially those who may have doubts along this line, will take the trouble to search out the facts from the scientific standpoint, rather than endeavor to substantiate the unsupported guesses of evolutionists.*
Is it so very hard to believe that the same great power and intelligence that brought into being the mighty universe about which scientists tell us so much, could also have brought that first human pair into existence by a special act of creation? If man and all other forms of life are not the result of creative power exercised by a Supreme Intelligent Being, let the scientists explain the phenomenon of life in some other way! Reason suggests that it is far better to take the Bible account of Creation, and from that basis endeavor to discover the Creator’s design for the human race.
A ROMANTIC PROCEDURE
That simple Genesis story of Creation tells us that man was first created; but no helpmate was found for him. Then Eve was brought forth. And is the method unthinkable? Has the most ingenious novelist in the world ever conceived of a more romantic way of finding a bride for his hero than that which is given in connection with the story of the creation of mother Eve? If God had the power to create Adam (and where did man come from, if God did not create him?), surely the details of removing one of his ribs, and from it producing a woman, would be an easy task for such a Creator if he chose to adopt such a procedure.
And then there was that wonderful garden home that God provided for his perfect human creation! Surely there is nothing unreasonable in supposing that God, after creating man, would provide a suitable home for him. Why should anyone make light of such a story, which tells us only that which anyone must admit would have been the logical thing to do under the circumstances? The Book of Genesis reveals that God created human beings to live right here on the earth—not in heaven, hell, or purgatory. Their commission was to obey the Creator’s law, and to multiply and fill the earth. Nothing was said to Adam and Eve about preparing for heaven.
In an endeavor to get back to foundation facts, let us suppose, for the time being, that the divine purpose to have the earth filled and subdued by man had been accomplished just as God commanded. To what would this have led? It would simply mean that the human family, gradually increasing in number in harmony with the divine command, would soon find that the originally provided garden home was too small, and that it would become necessary to begin the work of extending its borders.
The divine command was to fill the earth, not to overfill it. Surely divine wisdom and power will be able, when sufficient numbers have been born to adequately populate the earth, to cause the further propagation of the race to cease. Would there have been anything illogical or wrong with a program of this kind? Isn’t it reasonable, and exactly what we would expect of a wise and loving Creator? But to visualize the grandeur of it all, it is necessary to rid our minds of all the terrible pictures of suffering and want that now loom up before us. Selfishness of fallen man has produced all the suffering that is in the world today. Such suffering would have been unknown had man remained in harmony with his Creator.
And death! That, too, would have been an experience unknown to the human race. Modern science admits that living cells might be able to reproduce themselves indefinitely if given a perfect environment. Death came as a result of sin; and with death came suffering, sickness, and sorrow. Try to visualize a perfect human race, free from all selfishness, sickness, and death! Wouldn’t that just about suit everybody, everywhere? But, you say, why waste time thinking about something which, if it ever were a possibility, is now gone forever? But is such a possibility forever gone? The Scriptures answer, No! The divine program of redemption and restoration through Christ guarantees that which might have been, is yet to be.