The Creation of Man by R. F. Cottrell

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Oct 27, 1863

The Creation of Man.

By R. F. Cottrell

If man has an immortal soul, it would be reasonable to look for some information concerning it in the account given of his creation. We could not think that the most important part of man—that without which man would not be man—should be left entirely out of that account. Then let us read the record.

"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." Gen. ii, 7.

Perhaps there is no argument more relied on to prove the immortality of the soul (for the Bible nowhere asserts it), than that which is drawn from its immateriality. It is held that that which is, properly speaking, the man, is immaterial, that is, composed of nothing, and that that which is immaterial cannot die, therefore man is immortal. Where did they get this so valuable information? From what source did they learn that immateriality could not die? Not from the Bible, for it says nothing about it. Do you say, Reason teaches it? How did human reason discover that that which is immaterial can live, but cannot die? that God has created beings material and immaterial, that he can destroy one class, but cannot destroy the other, because it is immaterial?

But if the real man, the soul, is immaterial, only dwelling in a material house, the author of the text above quoted made a great mistake; for he says, God formed man of the dust of the ground. And he further declares that the man thus formed of dust, when the breath of life was added, became (not an immaterial and

immortal, but) a living soul. If the man proper is immaterial, this is a very improper account of him; for it not only neglects to tell us that he was immaterial, but, on the contrary, states the material of which he was formed. And instead of telling us that an immaterial soul was put into this dust, it declares that the man thus formed of dust, became a living soul when life was given. The soul was the man, and the man was the soul; and the man was formed of the dust.

God knows the end from the beginning. And the reason he inspired Moses to write this account of the formation of man, was, doubtless, that he foresaw that men would be deceived with this doctrine of immateriality, and flattered with the idea of his natural immortality, and thus be prepared for the seductions of the Devil, and led on, through spiritualism, to reject the word of God and the hope of the gospel—immortality through Christ. The inspired account of man's creation puts an everlasting veto on this doctrine of immateriality, with those who believe, with full assurance, the word of the Lord. O, that man would believe! It would save them from being puffed up with the idea that they are naturally immortal, warn them of the awful whirlpool of spiritualism which threatens to engulf them, and make them willing to accept of immortality through Jesus Christ, the only name given under heaven whereby they can be saved.

R. F. Cottrell.