Although science claims that humans descended from apes, the Bible claims that God created Adam. What is accurate?
Image of God
According to Genesis 1, God created the universe and all living things, including humans. The fact that he made both man and woman in his likeness (Genesis 1:27) distinguishes humans from other animals. Humanity resembles God in some aspects because it was made in his image. such as the capacity for moral judgment, reasoning, language use, and creativity. It also implies that they are in charge of creation as God’s delegates. “[Be fruitful and multiply]; populate and subdue the earth. Rule over all living things that move on the earth, including fish in the water, birds in the sky, and humans (Genesis 1:28).
A special relationship
What makes men and women really stand out from animals is the ability to have a relationship with their Maker. God asked from Adam and Eve to obey Him, by not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16,17). The animals did not receive such a command to obey God, because they did and do not have a relationship with Him the way humans do. When Adam and Eve stumbled and sinned, their relationship with God was affected and the whole of creation too. From which we can clearly see how important the relationship between man and God has been from the very beginning (Genesis 3:16-19). It took the sacrificial death of God’s only Son to reconcile mankind to himself, (John 3:16; Romans 5:10), and not only mankind but the whole of creation (Colossians 1:20).
God is creator, Christ is the center
The fact that God is the Creator of everything, makes mankind accountable to Him (Romans 3:19). Evolutionism that does not take God as Creator into account, denies this. Man is answerable to no one for his deeds but to himself. It puts man at the center of everything, with no place in his heart for a higher authority. This is in stark contrast to the message of the Bible which firmly places Christ in the center. “All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16). When man believes that he has just come to be in existence through endless steps of evolution, he thinks he can do with his life whatever he wants. The deep reverence for human life as bearing the image of God will be undermined. Ultimately, the reverence for all created life will crumble under the weight of the assumption that it is not created life, but evolved life.
Fundamental distinction
Many, including Christians, think that evolution has been demonstrated by science. On some level, there is unquestionably evidence for evolution. Some Christians even believe that evolution played a role in the development of humans. But we must never lose sight of the fact that there is a fundamental, not evolutionary, difference between apes and humans. For God to create Adam and Eve, the first humans, in his likeness, a unique act of creation was required. Christians continue to debate the extent to which God utilized evolution prior to that time to create the various species. We all profess, like the church throughout history, that we believe in God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, regardless of our stance on that.
