Genesis, Creation and Evolution.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XVI, Issue 8, 1 February 1926, Page 2

Genesis, Creation and Evolution.

(Continued). (7) CREATION THROUGH 'EVOLUTION;

If! we accept the decision of modern scholars that the story of the Fall m Qen. 3 is not history but allegory, and if we accept the theory that man has reached his present state by a process of Evolution, how are we to understand the story of the Fall m Gen. 3?

Before, we think about it, it is necessary to remember that the theory of Evolution is only a theory. As we have scrapped the scaffolding of special creation so our children may scrap the scaffolding of Evolution. If you hold the theory of Evolution rather than that of special creation it only means that you have discarded a theory which. does not fit the facts we" know, m favor of a theory which expresses what the facts tell as far as we know them. . More facts may alter that theory, but at present it expresses as accurately as possible how far human knowledge has gone. Suppose you are moving an encyclopedia from one book-case to another with someone to help you. He passes you three fat volumes and as you take hold your muscles adapt themselves to the weight. "You say I can take more than $hat," and he puts four more fat volumes on top. of the ones, you already hold. Your muscles tighten and take the weight, they adapt themselves to fit the need. Weil your muscles are like, the theory and the heavy books are the facts. As more facts are added the theory changes to fit, it depends on the facts. With the books added your muscles change the tension, .your hands perhaps change the angle and lean the books against your body, .a new support besides the arms. has come into play. You have made. a. new theory to carry them.. You might change your theory altogether and bring a clothes basket and pile the books m it and both carry the basket. Your new theory is the expression of your determination to deal with the books (or facts) as they come. Changing your, theory has not changed the house or the rooms or the books or your mind to move them. . Have I, made it clear? The theory is the thing you get to carry the facts r-that is all. The theory we are concerned with now is this: That God's Creation of man: was the creation of a beginning (no one knows what), which had m it the : most r amazing germ of development, a power in' that beginning driving ( it on and up. Whether that beginning was a single cell of life, or soineth^og/whieliwe; to lwk7at, would.

have said was only an animal, or something 1 , we could recognise as primitive humanity we do not know. It could: not have been "only an animal" unless we must alter all our ideas about animals. Scientists explore and arrange and theorise, but I believe none would venture to say what that beginning was. The beginning grew and developed and resulted m man. Somewhere m that development, whether at the beginning or later on no one can tell, occurred something which the writer of Gen. 2.7 expresses m these words: "God • breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul." The words express a thing we arie familiar with, our human consciousness. We can interpret those words only by the light of what knowledge we have. We take them to mean the immortal human soul of a being with reason and free will— MAN. Peering back into the dim mists of the immeasurable past, among the strange prehistoric animals, the gigantic growth of primeval forests, the dusk before the dawn of history, we have a glimpse of something and we cry ' ' There is Manr— the being who has become a living soul, into whom God has breathed deathless life. Our facts lead us to think that from that which the first glimpse shows us, has developed man as we know him. Take him at his best. The brain of Kelvin, the self-sacrifice of Damien, the character of Edith Cavell, the pure spirituality of Francis of Assisi, the poetry of Rupert Brooke, the purity and tenderness of a million mothers. That is the result already of that Divine life breathed into man. Stand them there, those glorious figures embodying what man can do and be and dare and, stand • among them the most undeveloped Australian black you can find as a representative of primitive man. The essence of what we mean by creation of man is that divinely given force of development which has brought these from that. We try to understand what man is, not by his dimly seen beginnings, but by -what he has become. It is easier to examine and understand a thing when it is unfolded, not when it is still all folded ixp. We understand a rose better when it has come to its full bloom than m the first small beginnings of the bud; we know more of all that man means when we study the adult than when Aye study the newly-born baby. To understand this force, this inbreathing of God which has driven man up to the best he has reached we will study the end rather than thie beginning, and our minds will reach forward from the apparent end we can, see now, to further progress yet unseen, to the real end which is the

fulfilment of God's purpj|s£ii& Creation. : ; v^

With our minds in.%iarajk|.tu i 4e > we are stirred to ask^*a^^a^as|-^^r idea, what was Hi^hopje" - :^^Ty^ot What was there wiihki ftigttls? that he wanted mah^o^eßofepif^ :'}' We are conscious-: of; o ; Ursel^s^a|td of God, we 1 are conscious of^ghitjl^d wrong, of the higher^'andl:^^,. to^er thing to do, and "of GJilrvfio^er ' |o choose.

Somewhere m the story of development that consciousness dawns like a sun coming up above the horizon, somewhere there stood a man and a woman, or a tribe of men and women who realised,, m some real sense^ moral responsibility and' their power to choose. The moment came when man had to begin to take his own share m his creation > and. he chose the wrong, he used • his degraded power against' ■ the power, that had brought him to that point, he spoilt the plan, he deflected the straight path of his, de-r velopment. That is the- Fall. That is, so far the basket that seems to hold the books, so far as I know. It gives. us a suggestion. \nth which we may. turn to study the story m (Jen! 111. (8) GENESIS m. What is the religious teaching of the 3rd Chapter of Genesis? It offers to . us a spiritual interpretation of the fact of the Fall. We may be very conscious of the fact that; man has fallen from the high estate which was God's desire and plan for him, but we need very much its spiritual meaning, we want to know the inner nature of it. Think of the Characters m the Story.. • ■ , ;"< The story shows us God as good and absolutely opposed to evil, but He does not abolish evil, He does riot kill the serpent. God has, made: man and delights m his company- cares for his happiness and provides everything possible to ensure it. The man and woman are sinless as a baby is sinless, there is no suggestion that they are perfect. They know God but very slightly, they have realised neither His nature nor His power, they- have the haziest idea of their true. relation to Him, but Eve has an instinctive loyalty and gratitude which immediately denies the suggestion of evil, a natural appreciation of goodness. The serpent is the embodiment of evil, of lies and clever distorting suggestion, at enmity with God. There is no suggestion as to where the serpent came from or how he got there. The story does not touch the problem of the origin of evil. All the garden is before Adam and Eve. Trees offer their fruit and every tree is *a tree of the knowledge ■ of good,, the beauty, the flavor,, t£e_

, n^iupishinjßnt of each |s ft revelation of Gfod's ; goodness to; thtemj all that man has' before him o£;iife ; %d experience and interest ;f or a f nil' and happy life ,is : there. ; : But . there is ; one tree that God wains them is a ;tree ,of death, the ■tree of the Knowledge of Good and ,EviL We iknowiit top. It broadens your experience to try some evil too, to try it. and see. what happens and .what you learn. Not of course to sfceep son^iOit but to^eeilife^frpm all sides, you? miss -a lot of experience if you do only what you are sure is right. Curiosity urges us to try what is within -reach. Oh y'es-^-we know it. The story tells us that God said '^Doh^t eat it because: it is death."

The serpent spoke to Eve, "So God has put you here but He won't let you eat the : fruit"— -you are shut off from all 'the' experience which this wbnderf ul life m you* offers. And Eye repliedy "No, we can eat all the fruit, there is only one tree we must not eat because there is death m it-^-God told us;"

And the serpent said, "Don't you believe it, it won't do you any harm. It will opehyouir eyes to a lot of things. You don't know what life offers. It is jiist that God doesn't want you to know tob much. You are easier to manage as you are. Wake up and come to life, Live your life." It isn't only the story '■■ of a thing that happened once, long ago, is it ? This story is a study m temptation and this point of the temptation is the only one at which it can be beaten. When the temptation says— -"It is all right, never mind what God says, He is only trying to frighten you, " unless that insult to God is immediately spurned the battle is over and we have been defeated.

Eve lost; she. did not reject the suggestion, she looked at the tree and saw it good for food, pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired to make one wise. That contemplative look, weighing iip what sin has to offer always means the battle is lost. You can picture her standing by the tree, she looks at the fruit, she wonders what it feels like, she hasn't been told not to look at it or not to touch it, only not to eat it. So she puts out her : hand and feels it and at the touch the stalk breaks and there it is m her hand. Perhaps the serpent says, M Just, try a small bite, you need ndt eat it; have a small bite and throw the rest away."

Well, we know , the story, don 't we ? Because she had not repudiated the assault on God, because she had not been true to that first instinctive loyalty to good, because 'she had stopped to consider the attractiveness of evil it is certain that she will eat the fruit and then the very next thing she does is to get someone to share it.

It would be uncomfortable, if Adam were not m the same box, and Adam, poor fool, cptnes readily eiiough. It is an up-to-date story, isn't it, and a most amazing masterpiece 1 ? Simplicity itself, and yet so deep:tliat one could spend a life time trying to fathom it. The springs of : , human conduct laid bare for us'to learn from.

That was the battle fought and lost m the course of mail's development, fought and lost also to-day, again and again. It meant leaving the Garden, and starting' again outside to make another garden.' They are out of the .Garden' but they are not cut off from God. Through bitter knowledge of evil man's hunger for goodness, which must be. satisfied before he can find peace, drives him m the sweat of his brow to make a garden to which God can come. (To be Continued).