Pastor Terry Goerz,
High Prairie Redeemer Lutheran Church

One of the great deceptions fostered by Satan and his cohorts concerns the origins of man. They would have us believe that man evolved alongside of apes from a common ancestor.

Among the scientific community there is widespread consensus that those who believe in creation are religious right wing radicals who are blinded by a strict interpretation of Scripture. They were often heard to say “there is no credible scientist who accepts creation”.

However, those Christians who accept creation without compromise know that while they are in the minority, there are a great many very credible scientists who accept the creation of man by God.

There are also a rapidly growing number of scientists who accept a compromised version of pure creation called intelligent design, i.e. perhaps we were brought into existence by intelligent aliens, or perhaps a “god”. Proponents of intelligent design readily acknowledge that there are many serious scientific problems with evolution. They often state that if Darwin knew what is known today he would have never proposed his theory of evolution.

Christian creationists do not deny evolution; they deny evolution from one species to another. The deception of evolution from Satan has shipwrecked the faith of many young Christians, especially in higher education. There is a tremendous amount of energy being expended by proponents of both the creation and the evolution viewpoints with a worldwide debate that rages on.

If you put creation vs evolution in your web browser you will get an enormous number of hits. The debate for the most part misses the main point about the creation of man. We are more than just flesh and blood. We are spiritual beings.

“Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness.” [Genesis 1:26]

God is a spirit. He has a spiritual body that does not consist of flesh and blood. He is a spiritual being that possesses will, intellect and emotions.

Man was made in God’s likeness, so we can assume man physically looks like God. Man was made in God’s image; he had a spirit that was the image of God’s Spirit. Man’s spirit possessed a will, intellect and emotions that were like God’s.

It is important to dwell on this. So often we think of our will, intellect and emotions as solely a brain function; a function of our physical body. God does not have a physical brain, yet He possesses will, intellect and emotions. All spiritual beings [God, angels, Satan, demons] can think and communicate without a physical brain. The attributes that make up what we call our mind or consciousness are a function of our spirit in combination with our brain and they define us as human beings. It is this will, intellect and emotions that are a function of both our brain and our spirit that separated Adam from the animals. He was an order of creation above animals, not evolved from them.

Animals also have will, intellect and emotions, but it is limited to a function of their brain. We generally call this level of functioning instinct. It is not an accident that no animal has man’s mental capabilities or intelligence.

Genesis 2:7 – The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Job 33:4 – The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

The breath of life breathed into Adam was the Spirit of God. Adam was created as a combination of flesh and blood, and a spirit. For Christians it is this image of God that defines what we are as Christians and human beings. While we are alive as humans this spiritual part of us is not separate from us, nor does it exist alongside of us. It is a coexisting part of us. It is with us from our mother’s womb. The Bible indicates that God creates our spirit and knits us together in our mother’s womb.

Psalms 139: 13 & 14 – For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

The fact that we are spiritual beings is the truth that Satan is working so hard to hide from us with the elaborate lie called evolution. Like all of Satan’s deceptions, it is based on some truth. Evolution of animals within species is true. Dogs evolve into different dogs, horses into different horses, but one species does not evolve into another species. Man did not evolve from monkeys or apes! This was the original claim of evolutionists.

Be confident of this truth. Adam was created in the image of God as a spiritual being. A combination of flesh and blood and a spirit. We all have a spirit that possesses will, intellect and emotions that works in combination with our brains. It is having a coexisting spirit within us with will, intellect and emotions that makes us different from animals.

As spiritual beings we are an order of creation above animals. This spirit within us guides and influences the thinking of all humans. At our death our body dies and decays, but our spirit with all that makes us what we are [will, intellect and emotions] lives on. All humans are spiritual beings with an eternal existence!