The Three Eternal Questions

The three eternal questions that everyone asks at some point in their life are:

1. Where did we come from?

2. Why are we here?

3. Where are we going?

We must get the correct answer to the first question before having any hope of getting the correct answers to the second and third.  For any endeavor to be classified as “science” i.e. systematized knowledge, it must be observable, repeatable, refutable and predictable. Both the doctrines of Creation and Evolution fail all criteria. For example, God makes the point in Job 38:4 that there was no human observer in the beginning thus both accounts of our origins are simply ideas with the difference that evolution is based upon human reason whereas Creation is based upon the written account of the One who claims to be not only observer but Creator.

Concerning the first question: Where did we come from? There are at least six origins that the theory of evolution is reluctant to address: 1. The origin of life 2. The origin of sex. 3. The origin of language. 4. The origin of consciousness. 5.The origin of the human need to worship 6. The origin of skin color and blood types. Can the written account by the Creator in the Book of Genesis provide answers to these questions? God tells us He created Adam from the dust of the ground and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Gen. 2:7). Both the breath and the spirit of life divided within the body to give life to his body and life to his soul.

From God’s viewpoint Adam was created as an eternal soul clothed in an eternal body and destined to live eternally in a perfect material environment. God’s Creation was initially perfect with no disease.or death. Is there any evidence for this? While evolution claims progression of life over millions of years all the evidences indicate regression of life from large to small, from strong to weak, from intelligent to less intelligent. How smart was Adam? We have two modern examples: In 1960 George Koltanowsky played against 56 world chess champions, won 50 matches, drew 6 taking 10 seconds per move with total time 9 hours – he was blind-folded the entire time. Prof. Alexander Aitken could mutiply 9-figure numbers in his head taking only 30 seconds. The genius and the autistic savant are living evidence of Man’s continuing regression from a perfect origin. God asked Adam to name all the animals (Gen. 2:19) and we recall that nouns are the first requirement for any language.

Concerning the second question, Why Are We Here?: Adam was given seven simple mandates (Gen. 1:28 & 2:17): 1. To be fruitful. 2. To multiply. 3. To fill the Earth.   4. To subdue the earth. 5. To tend the Garden and keep it. 6. To have dominion over every living thing. 7. Not to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil. Mandate #7 was the only negative and here both Adam and Eve fell for the lie of the serpent that the fruit of this tree would provide them with wisdom. The implication here was that: they would no longer need to go to God for wisdom.

We are given no details about the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; all we do know is that Adam and Eve failed the test and, when confronted by God and given the opportunity to repent, each refused. They were sent out of the garden and we are their descendants born with the inherited guilt of pride and unrepentance. However, God has kindly offered each of us the same opportunity He offered to Adam. Following their “Fall” God cursed the ground thus causing Adam to be more occupied with obtaining food and leave him with less time to be idle. Food grown in the cursed ground now caused Adam’s body (but not his soul) and every other living thing to change, cell by living cell, from eternal to mortal, that is, subject to death. God commanded that Adam’s dead body be returned to the ground (Gen. 3:19) and finally showed Adam the principle of atonement for sin (Gen 3:21). This consisted of sacrificing an innocent  life (a lamb) for a guilty life thus restoring innocence to the guilty. But, the animals were not of Man and God provided a more perfect offering

As Adam’s family multiplied, they chose to seek wisdom from the serpent rather than from God and they became obsessed with evil. Finally, God had to destroy all except Noah and his family by the Genesis Flood. Prior to the Flood people lived for over 900 years and if the genius of today is any indication of their intelligence, their capability for evil would have been horrifying! Following the Flood, Man again chose to go his own way and God then gave Moses the Ten Commandments. All these commandments and mandates were given for Man’s own good but even as Christians we continue to break them. Let us see how we justify breaking just the first seven mandates given to Adam and listed previously in paragraph four (page 1).

“To be fruitful” is the first mandate and it means to have children but this has always been opposed by abortion, by contraception and, in this recent generation, the “pill,” the vascetomy and now same-sex marriage. Childless marriage by choice, even among Christians, has brought us to an average of 1.75 children per family in the US. (2.1 are needed to maintain population). “To multiply” means to have three or more children since having two is only replacement. The justification to limit the number of children on scientific grounds began in 1798 when Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) published his Essay on the Principle of Population. Malthus was concerned with the disparity between the geometrical rate at which populations increase and the arithmetic rate at which arable land to support them can increase. For example, populations increase: 2, 4, 8, 16 etc whereas arable land increases: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. On paper this looks like a good argument but in practice it does not work out this way. In the early 1900’s organized opposition to population growth began with Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), a feminist, promoter of the condom and sexual license. Planned Parenthood Federation is the outcome of her work and is the broad umbrella-group, publically funded and embracing over 200 similar organizations promoting the idea that the world is over-populated. This myth has become the justification for murder by abortion and eventually euthanasia of the old. Two population distribution curves, one for Brazil (a Catholic country) and the other for Canada show our shrinking population and tax-base caused by aborted and never-conceived children. Today, those losses would have been tax-payers and customers and some beginning to go into retirement. In the meantime, governments struggle with immigration policies to maintain the tax-base.

“To fill the earth” means to move out to un-populated parts but historically it has usually been famine, plague and persecution that has driven God’s people out from the comfort of old Europe. Persecution of Christians by the French Huguenots in 1572 and starvation by the Irish potato famine in 1845-6 are two examples.

“To Subdue the earth” really means to understand the way nature works and co-operate with it. Irresponsible greed by Man has consistently disturbed the ecological order. For example, crop rotation was commanded in Leviticus 25:1-7 but this is now rarely practiced and over-fertilization is the rule. Jeremiah 9:12-13 warns of the consequences while figures show that about 6 inches of top soil are now lost every 40 years. Often overlooked is the warning that God has given us in Scriptures such as Isaiah 24:5-6 and Hosea 4:1-3 that the land is defiled by blood (murder), blasphemy and adultery and when these practices reach a certain limit, He will bring about a famine. Morality in North America has been declining since the 1960’s and it is not unreasonable to think that a famine may be long overdue!

To “Tend the Garden” i.e. to maintain the ecological order. This also provided an opportunity for Adam to exercise his creativity and make it beautiful. Our high-rise cities are an eye-sore compared with some cities built in the 1800’s.

“To have dominion over the animals.” After the Genesis Flood God put the fear of Man into every beast, bird and fish thus Man lost dominion over them (Gen 9:2).

“Not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was explained in paragraph 4. By adopting the world’s wisdom rather than God’s wisdom, our  world- view is now dominated by the foolishness of the theory of evolution.

Concerning the third question: Where are we going? Scripture is virtually silent about the destiny of those who never accepted Christ thus the following remarks apply to Christians. This brief existence we call life is a period of probation for each individual to chose to love God and be obedient. Those offered the opportunity for martyrdom and have passed the ultimate test go immediately to heaven (Hebrews 11:35). The others will present themselves at the final Judgment. Those who, like the fallen angels rejected God, will finish in the Lake of Fire. On the other hand, those who had chosen to love God, to learn from Him and to obey His commandments will be accepted for immortal life in heaven.

Brief but consistent answers have been provided for those three eternal questions given at the beginning of this paper. When we consider all the other commandments God was required to provide for our own good, we can see that collectively we have broken the lot! The Ten Commandments, for example, tell us to worship God only and forbids obsessions (the worship of other gods – this might include time wasted with TV and computer games), blasphemy (using the Lord’s name when swearing), a six-day work week plus one day for rest, disrespect for mother and father, murder of other humans, adultery, stealing, lying against our neighbor etc, etc. Science cannot give adequate answers to those three questions because they involve moral issues. If we are honest to ourselves we have to admit that we have broken the rules and often have never thought to ask God for forgiveness. In His great love for us and His wisdom God forsaw this problem two thousand years ago and came down to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ, to literally show us how to live.  Moreover, He became the perfect atonement sacrifice for us. Recall that in paragraph four God showed Adam  how to regain innocence following guilt by sacrificing a perfect lamb. However, Man (Adam and Eve) was made in the image of God and it was Man who was disobedient and unrepentant; all the creatures, especially perhaps the lambs, were innocent but not made in the image of God. Jesus was God’s lamb made in the image of Man; He had no inherited sin. He is refered to in Scripture as “the Lamb of God” and was the perfect sacrifice. Jesus told Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and one of His followers, that to be saved from condemnation at the Judgment and enter the Kingdom of God, that is, heaven, we must chose to believe in Him, be born-again then born of water and of the Spirit (John 3:1-21). History is really the conflict between those who have done this simple life-changing act sincerely and those who have refused to do so. The first step to take is simply to come before God believing that He will hear our prayer and acknowledge that we have broken more of His rules than we even knew about ! You may even want to tell Him of those secret sins that have bothered you. God knows about them anyway while confession is good for the soul. Asking sincerely for God’s forgiveness is what Adam should have done but he refused. The next step is to invite God’s Holy Spirit into your life to be your Teacher and Guide and to invite Jesus to be your Master. He wants to teach you His truth through the words of the Bible. Joining a believing church will not only be obedient to His leading but will help to answer the many questions you will have. New Christians find that God’s rules are “common sense” and not difficult to live by while many have found that they really do lead to a healthier and happier life style.

By Ian Taylor

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