3212.— The Two Creations
By Editor
Will you kindly explain the two creations that are recorded in the first and second chapters of Genesis? In the first chapter it is said God made man in His image, and in the second chapter from the dust of the earth. Why only were there two creatures? E. M. There are not two creations mentioned in Genesis 1 and 2. It is simply two accounts of one creation. The fact that it is said that man is made in God's image, in the first chapter, is not in any wise contradictory to saying that he was made from the dust of the earth. If the two were put together we would read that he was made from the dust of the earth, in God's image; and the fact that woman was created out of the man would not indicate that she was not included in that creation, because she was of the same substance of man and formed after the fashion of man. In fact the term "man" in Genesis 1 and sometimes elsewhere in the Scripture includes both male and female. Throughout all the latter Scriptures we find reference to the creation without any question whatever as to any contradiction in the accounts of God as given. Our Lord Himself emphatically endorsed Moses, as you will see by numerous quotations which He made from his writings. Three times over when He met the temptations of the enemy on the mount, as recorded in Matthew 4, He quoted from the writings of Moses to meet them. When the Pharisees came to Jesus in their unbelief, He told them to search the Scriptures, because they testified of Him; and still further, "Think not that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" And the account of creation is admittedly among the writings of Moses. He may have taken the story which had been handed down through generations; he may have had access to writings which other prophets and children of God had written before, like Abraham. This to our mind is immaterial. Moved by the Spirit of God, he has given us these records. There is no contradiction between the records, and the record is affirmed by our Lord. The first chapter tells of creation in general; the second chapter of the human pair in particular, and the center of their home in which they were placed. God may have had various reasons for starting the various species of creatures from pairs. In the first place He wanted them of special kinds. There was one constant lesson in the law of their procreation and growth, that like produces like. In man we can see additional reasons for this. The whole human family would forever be bound together as one, all descending from the same head, all looking to the first man Adam as the origin of the race. There would be no quarrels over family trees, no feeling of superiority over this race or that race. All these things have been wrought by sin. God designed that His earth family of children should be one. And that will be true when God's plan is finished; for what failed in Adam will not fail in Christ, if all will look to Christ, earth's King, as their Father.