Getting It Straight

Scripture References: Psalm 33:6, 139:13; Acts 17:26

In his book The Genesis Mystery, anthropologist Jeffrey Goodman surmises that humanity emerged from apelike ancestors by intelligent intervention of an outside source. The gradual changes necessary in an evolutionary development aren’t in the fossil records, he notes. Goodman said he favors some kind of intervention because it both fits the facts better and accounts for the high view of human purpose the race has always held. Since beliefs about our origin determine present behavior and future life, he said, we need to discover our origins.

How true. Human purpose can be understood only as we understand human origins. Only then do we find ourselves as more than bundles of electrical impulses, nerve endings, and chemical reactions—the conclusion reached by “The Astonishing Hypothesis.” That all of these are the parts is beyond doubt, but something else is the catalyst, charging them into life when it comes and leaving a corpse when it is gone. Sooner or later we have to come back to morality, character, and spiritual nature. The biblical answer never fails to satisfy on all points. It sees us in all our dimensions and relationships, but always from the perspective of our first dimension and relationship—formed bodily of dust but suffused with God’s image.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.