Hello everyone, and a most blessed Easter Sunday to everyone who is celebrating ✝️🙏 What an incredible day to be celebrating as we remember the reason for Jesus' Crucifixion, and what his resurrection means for all of us -- praise be to God! 🙏
(Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18FkqABV3f/)
As we take the time to honor Easter Sunday, I thought it would be a great time to make a quick post. I recently came across some information that not only completely blew my mind, but basically reaffirmed the validity of the Bible for me.
Adam and Eve were never declared as the first, or only, humans on earth; they were simply the first ones that God Himself had placed in the Garden of Eden.
And, with that, the Bible completely changed for me, yet again!
My biggest "grievance," for lack of better word, with the Bible had always been the Book of Genesis. I had no problems believing anything in the Bible, except for the Story of Creation, mainly because of how much science has "disproven" it.
Like, okay, I think we can all accept that the earth wasn't entirely formed in seven (technically six) days.
But then the biggest flaw was left staring me in the face: how did Adam and Eve account for the evolutionary process? And, by default, wouldn't it make all of humanity the result of incest?
Then, like I said, I came across a comment stating that Adam and Eve were never the only humans; they were the first Jewish ancestors. So I actually went to do the research for myself, and found that this took place on the sixth day:
"And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, ... and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He Him; male and female created He them.
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion ... over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'" (Genesis 1:26-28)
After this passage, the Bible states:
"This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground ... Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed." (Genesis 2:4-8)
(Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adam-and-Eve-biblical-literary-figures)
This indicates that, while Adam and Eve may have been created at the same time as other humans, they were the only ones directly placed by God into an area of land that He had specifically carved out for them: the Garden of Eden.
What's more, the existence of other humans is confirmed after Cain kills Abel; Cain is exiled to another city and fears being killed by others. Obviously a city could only be established by people.
"'Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.'
But the Lord said to him, 'Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.' Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden." (Genesis 4:14-16)
I really enjoy this perspective! My new theory is that the Gentiles emerged as a result of evolution, of God's creation taking on life of its own, while God continued to help shape us in His image. We were the ones that had been entirely left to our own devices. By the time the human species had reached the point of developing languages and writing, God finally decided to create specific human beings with the intention of making them His chosen people and revealing His powers to the rest of the world -- a world that did not yet know of His existence.
Then, bear in mind that the disciples believed that Jesus lived out the Scripture that welcomed the Gentiles into the faith, thereby allowing them a chance at eternal life as well:
"I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:23)
This is the message that I choose to remember this Easter: that anyone can have eternal life through Christ ✝️🙏💛
(Source: https://www.cruciformcoc.com/sermons/resurrection-brings-joy/)
