(Genesis) Genesis 2:7 — J. Vernon McGee

From Inorganic Matter to Life

You see, we come now actually again to the method of man's creation, beginning here in verse 7. We have seen in chapter 1 that there was from nothing to inorganic matter, nothing, and then the inorganic came into existence.

That's in Genesis 1, 1 in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then from the inorganic to the organic, that is to life, and we saw that in chapter 1, in verse 21, where it says God created great whales, and then from then on all plant life and animal life.

But he created animal life. Somebody says, well, didn't he create plant life? Apparently the plant life had not been destroyed. The seed was apparently already in the earth. I would not want to be dogmatic about that, but that would be the implication here.

The Gap Between Organic Life and Humanity

As we've said, God's told us very little. And then now we have from the organic to man, and there is no natural transition, and evolution cannot bridge the gap. That brings us to the appearance of Homo sapiens upon the earth.

The Creation of Man from the Dust

Now, the earth was prepared for the coming of man. Verse 7, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now this is the method of the creation of man.

And again, we're limited in what God has told us. Physically, God took man out of the ground. It's quite interesting that our bodies are made up of about 15 or 16 chemical elements. Those same chemical elements are in the ground.

Man was taken out of the dust of the ground physically. And if they would take you or me and boil us down and separate us into the separate chemical elements that we are, there was a time that it was worth $2 .98.

I'm told now we are worth about $3 .38. You see, we're going up all the time. Now that's what you were worth, because we were taken physically out of the dust of the ground. But you see, man is more than dust.

Humanity’s Spiritual Nature and Capacity for God

Physically, dust he is, and to the dust he'll return. But his spirit's going to God. Why? Because God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Now what did God breathe into him?

Well, the breath of life. God gave man, at this time, life that is physical. That's psychological, by the way. And then he gave him life that is spiritual. And in other words, man now is brought into a marvelous relationship with his Creator.

He has a capacity for God. He has that in his being. And by the way, that separates him from all other creatures that you find in God's universe as far as we know. Now, of course, there are the angels, and believe me, we know very little about them.

Theistic Evolution and the Uniqueness of Human Faculties

Now we find, as we move along in this section, that this man now that God has created, that the theistic evolutionists, you know, they say it was evolution up to here, and then God took this product of evolution, and this creation crowd also take that position.

But may I say to you, any form of evolution cannot account for human speech. It cannot account for human conscience, and it cannot account for human individuality. These are three things that evolution just has a little difficulty with.

It's mighty easy to take the bones of a man and compare them to the bones of some anthropoid, probably an ape, or to a horse, and there's striking similarity, I'm sure. And yet there's wide divergence there, I'm told.

But nevertheless, I would expect a certain similarity because these creatures are to move in the same environment that we move in as human beings. And naturally, the chasis would have to be the same. Now, there is a very striking similarity between the chasis of a Ford automobile and a Chevrolet automobile.

The Ford and Chevrolet Analogy

May I say, there is a definite similarity. But you better not tell that to your local automobile dealer, and certainly not to the Ford Motor Car Company or General Motors. They're going to tell you that there's a wide difference between the two.

But there is a very striking similarity. When you see the chasis, you've got to have something fixed where you can have four wheels and put one at each corner. It has to be square to a certain extent, and that is the thing.

Why? Because the Ford and the Chevrolet are both going to get stuck on the freeway five o 'clock in the afternoon, and they have to be able to balance and have a motor in them, and so you'd have a similarity.

But that doesn't mean they came out of the same factory. I feel today that there's been such an exaggeration made. Man is a different creature. God breathed into his breathing places the breath of life.

The Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Human Being

Man became a living cell. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made, by the way, and that is something that we need to keep in mind.