Let Us Make Man In Our Image

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

The first three chapters of Genesis are absolutely foundational to the Christian faith. But for the past 160 years or so they have been under increasing attack and denial. These chapters are so critical and important that every Christian should make a serious study of them in order to be fully convinced in his or her mind. But convinced of what is the question. Convinced of the truth. Genesis 1 posits the belief that God made all things—everything that exists came from God. The entire universe was made by God. All animals, all plant life, and all humanity find their origin in God as their Creator and Sustainer. On Day 6, God created man (Gen. 1:26–29). He is called Adam. God also created Eve and gave her to Adam; she became his wife (Gen 2:23–25). Adam was given dominion over all animal and plant life (1:29, 30; 2:19, 20). He was to work the garden in which he was placed and was forbidden to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (2:15, 16). When God had completed his creation he exclaimed that it was very good (1:31). These are the bare facts of the Genesis record (1:1–2:25).

However, evolutionary theory has posited that the origin of all life is not from God, thus effectively denying the Scripture record. Therefore, this denial becomes an assault on the truth of God’s revelation and God’s own authority. Ever since Darwin published his On the Origin of the Species in 1859, these attacks have ascended in vitriol. The scientific community now believes evolutionary theory (still a theory) as scientific. This is designed to discredit the Christian faith. In fact, according to evolutionists, there is no connection between science and faith. Evolutionist Daniel Dennett states clearly that people of faith are like drunk drivers. They are not only a danger to themselves but also to everyone else. They are, therefore, culpable, not only of this danger, but also because they have allowed religion to cloud their rational thinking. In other words, being a Christian (or believing something else) makes a person irrational. So any faith becomes a threat to religion and evolution.

At the outset I think it is important to define faith. Faith is not just a body of truth (among other truths). No, it is the only truth, and more importantly, faith is a sovereign supernatural work of God in the human soul. This cannot be measured scientifically but is always measured in Scripture by its outworking (what it produces). One does not just decide to change a faith. Being a Christian is by regeneration (being born again by the Spirit). And even more importantly, God’s Word is the truth, and Christ himself is the only truth (John 14:6).

A scientist may change his belief in scientific facts, but this is not what a Christian does. We believe God’s Word because we believe what that Word says about God. God has revealed himself and that revelation is truth and, therefore, trustworthy. If God is true and his Word is truth, then both God and the Scriptures cannot be incompatible with true science. Richard Dawkins makes the point in his book The God Delusion that science and faith are completely incompatible. I agree: evolutionary science and faith are incompatible, but not science and faith. Every time the Bible might address a scientific issue, it does not go against true science.

Many people like to use the phrase Intelligent Design as an alternative to evolution, but it seems to me that this is an accommodation to try and fit in scientifically with the scientific community. Creation is more than intelligent design—it is divine design. We could also posit that scientific evidence is at odds with evolutionary theory. There are true facts (which the Bible would not disagree with) versus evolutionary theory.

Why are Genesis 1–3 so important? They teach unequivocally that there is a unity in the human race; that all human beings are unique among all other creatures, and that Adam and Eve were created specifically in God’s image. The Bible also reveals the representative parallel between Adam’s condemnation and Christ’s salvation. Genesis 1–3 teach us that God’s original creation was very good, and that all suffering and death can be directly attributed to sin and were not part of God’s original creation. These are the foundational aspects of creation. Evolution seeks to undermine at every point those truths. The great problem with all of this is that today we have those who claim to be Christian and believe in evolution. This is always how false doctrine works. All false doctrine strives for accommodation or outright attack. The problem with theistic evolution is that ultimately the unbeliever will conclude that God means nothing. If all living things are derived from some kind of matter and evolution and nothing else, as the evolutionist states, or if all living things according to the theistic evolutionist are derived from matter, evolution, and God, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist long to figure out that God, therefore, equals nothing. So what does a theistic evolutionist gain? Maybe he can keep his tenure.

Darwin posited that all organisms adapt under the mechanism of mutation to environment. This was his theory of natural selection. Ultimately this natural selection developed in such a way from a common ancestor that we humans evolved along a seemingly timeless scale (they always change the time frame) into who and what we are today. Evolutionary theory also means that we are still evolving and, therefore, we can become anything. This means we can only get better and greater than we supposedly are now. This is all theory, of course. There is no proof for any of this. So what does the theistic evolutionist have? He has nothing. He wants not only to have his cake, but also to eat it. Sorry, no can do. The cake of the theistic evolutionist is empty. God cannot be there no matter how you try and put him in. If natural selection rules, what need for God? If natural selection rules, what is sin? If natural selection rules then the only accountability is to the survival of the fittest. Thus, God is eliminated. The evolutionist wants nothing to do with God. His theory works for him. Man is autonomous and truth, or morality, is relative. The same goes for the theistic evolutionist, but in a far worse way. He wants to add God to the picture. All idolatry is the adding of something or someone to God. Genesis 1–3 makes no accommodation at all to evolutionary theory, so where does the theistic evolutionist get his authority? Not from the Bible, but from the evolutionist! Something is very wrong with that picture, isn’t it?

Evolutionary theory rests in the fossil record. Fossils are the mineralized imprints embedded in sedimentary rock. It is from the fossil record that evolutionists seek to reconstruct the past. If you assume that evolution is true, then you will interpret the record as supporting your theory. Evolution has no written revelation or authority prior to Darwin. Man has always interpreted his origins in terms of religion. He has always done this naturally, and the biblical reason for this is that sin has so damaged us that now we make up our own gods. Sin is religious. Sin has distorted the image of God in man. The gospel is about the recovery of God’s image by the Image of God himself—Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). Jesus is not merely a reflection, but the visible subsistence of the invisible God. The image of God in man explains all that is right and wrong. Sin is always moral rebellion and not a natural selection. Salvation is divine in origin and not a natural selection. If you eliminate Genesis 1–3, or try to accommodate it, you have nothing left except an aimless existence that you won’t be able to explain. Evolutionists keep trying to explain but cannot.