The Critics and Adam’s Penmanship

Today, I’m on my way to offer my condolences to a grieving family and to help bury a friend.  To all, he appeared to be in excellent health, yet, suddenly, he died.  Hebrews 9:27 reads:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Each of us has an appointment with death and it is an appointment we will all keep.  Ecclesiastes 8:8:

There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

What if today is your day?  Are you ready to meet your God?  Are your robes white and without spot or wrinkle?  Have you made your peace with your maker?  This place of unconditional peace requires an unconditional surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ—a place Jesus calls born again.  Make your decision for Christ today and when your appointment comes, you’ll be ready.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Exodus 17:14:

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:26-27:

26 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 the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

GOD SAID, Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

MAN SAID:  We have evolved from nothing.  Ultimately, I don’t know where I came from, why I’m here, or where I’m going, but follow me anyway! 

Now THE RECORD.  Why the constant criticism?  God’s inerrant Word has staked out all the pivotal issues of life.  He explains man’s original sinless and immortal state, the fall in the garden, and the way of escape from sin’s carnal bondage through the shed blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  He foretells the events leading up to this world’s end and describes the day of judgment when all, both small and great, stand before Him to give account.  All the answers, but man will have none of it.  Why all the angst and criticism?  Jesus answers in John 3:19-21:

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

That is the long and short of it. 

Until recently, skeptical academics rejected the idea that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible because they were certain Moses (whose ministry took place about 1400 BC) couldn’t write.  According to them, writing had yet to be discovered. 

Following are a few dates that are important to this discussion:

• According to Bishop Ussher and his Biblical record, the creation process begins in 4004 BC.
• Adam, at the age of 130, begets Seth, which according to Ussher’s 4004 beginning of creation pegs Seth’s birth year as 3874 BC. 
• According to archaeological discoveries, writing dates back to at least 3400 BC.  The following paragraphs are from the book, Evidence for the Bible:

Just as it is no longer possible to claim that the Genesis record does not fit the time in which it is set, so it can no longer be claimed that formal writing did not exist in the time of Abraham.

In 1975, some 20,000 fragments from 7,000 cuneiform tablets of commercial transactions, administrative texts, and royal decree were recovered from the tell (ruin mound) of the ancient city of the king of Ebla in north-west Syria.  These records are dated at the latest to 2250 BC when the city was destroyed.  This is earlier than the Mari texts and predates Abraham by at least a century.  Personal names similar to Abraham, Ishmael, and Israel have been found at Ebla, which is evidence of the names being used at the same general time as Genesis. 

For the first three thousand years of writing, there were only two major forms across the Ancient Near East:  Egyptian ‘hieroglyphics,’ meaning ‘sacred writing,’ and Mesopotamian ‘cuneiform,’ referring to its wedge-shaped form.  Which of the two came first is a matter of debate, but some of the earliest hieroglyphic writing is dated to 3400 BC. [End of quote]

Men could write at least 2,000 years before Moses.

This feature will attest that writing dates back to Seth, born 3874 BC and most likely back to Adam, 4004 BC. 

One of the most read of all ancient historians is Joseph ben-Matthias, more commonly known as Josephus.  He was born in 37 AD, just a few years after the crucifixion of our Lord.  He was present at the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.  He asked for the records and books in the temple and his request was granted.  In Book One of The Antiquities of the Jews, in chapter two, we find the following concerning Adam and Seth:

Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth, (for our discourse must now be about him,) after Abel was slain, and Cain fled away on account of his murder, was solicitous for posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two hundred and thirty years old; after which time he lived other seven hundred, and then died.  He had indeed many other children, but Seth in particular.  As for the rest, it would be tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavor to give an account of those that proceeded from Seth.  Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues.  All these proved to be of good dispositions.  They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died.  They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order.  And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone:  they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them.  Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.  [End of quote]

Seth’s father Adam, who was made in the image and likeness of God, would have been the sharpest and freshest of God’s handiwork.  Adam was created a fully mature male and preprogrammed with marvelous capabilities.  As a result of various problems, including detrimental mutations, today’s sons of Adam have fallen several rungs down the I.Q. ladder.  The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Dumb and Dumber and 6,000 Years:”

Now consider this headline from the May 2013 issue of Acts and Facts: “Is Mankind Getting Dumber?”  Several paragraphs written by science writer Brian Thomas follow:

Do today’s children have lower I.Q.’s than yesterday’s?  Yes, according to measurements of intellectual and emotional strength gathered from different countries and contexts.  The results show the same basic decline and resist the notion that public or other forms of education are to blame.  Could the cause instead lie within? 

Stanford University professor Gerald Crabtree thinks so.  He published a pair of essays in the journal Trends in Genetics, citing new discoveries that show why the human intellect is “surprisingly fragile.”  This Biblical, creation-friendly notion didn’t sit well with the authors of a rebuttal paper, who countered that the human intellect is “robust.”  What lies at the heart of this disagreement—bad science or bad assumptions? 

Crabtree identified two fundamental processes as the main culprits.  First, human intelligence uses neurons, and these cells can only function properly if their genes stay in top shape.  Second, these genes are susceptible to degradation.  This loss of organization occurs continually as mutations slowly, irreversibly garble genes, and the resulting errors pile up and are not corrected. 

Each generation accrues about 60 new mutations to the gene-coding DNA regions of the human genome.  Crabtree applied this rate to calculate that “every 20-50 generations we should sustain a mutation in one copy of one of our many ID genes.”  As a result, “in the past 3000 years then (~120 generations), each of us should have accumulated at the very least 2.5-6 mutations in ID genes.”  Accordingly, the human intellect “perhaps reached a peak 2000-6000 years ago.” 

This appears to confirm three lessons that can be drawn from the Bible.  First, Adam and Eve’s brains were originally “very good.”  Second, we had our best brains about 6,000 years ago.  Third, humanity has suffered genetic degradation since then under the Curse.  [End of quotes]

Adam spoke from his inception.  He didn’t have to learn to speak.  He was preprogrammed to speak.  His conversation was sophisticated and grammatically correct.  He named all of God’s creature as well as his wife.  He was preprogrammed to speak and there is no reason to believe that he wasn’t also preprogrammed to write, perform mathematical equations, and more. 

The August 2014 issue of Scientific American published a six-page feature titled, “Accidental Genius.”  In the article, research addressed the concept of acquired savantism.  Through an accidental blow to the head or a traumatic experience of some kind, people have been known to emerge from that experience with unearthly, and unlearned, savant-like skills in music, math, or other subjects and still retain normalcy.  Following are a few excerpts from that feature:

Discovery of this unusual phenomenon raises the possibility that dormant potential in some artistic or intellectual realm—an “inner savant”—resides in each of us.  If so, perhaps a way can be found to tap these buried abilities in the absence of disease or injury. 

One plausible explanation for the hidden talents that emerge in savant syndrome—whether early in life or induced by injury—is that these reservoirs of skill and knowledge must be inherited in some way.  We do not start life with a blank slate that subsequently gets inscribed through education and other life experiences.  The brain may come loaded with a set of innate predispositions for processing what it sees or for understanding the “rules” of music, art, or mathematics.  Savants can tap into that inherited knowledge far better than the average person can.  [End of quotes]

Adam was the most capable of all and was preprogrammed by God with amazing abilities.  I think it would stretch credulity to suggest Adam couldn’t write. 

Seth, his son, could write and left a record.  And, of course, Moses could write and wrote the first five books of the Bible. 

The skeptics continue to criticize, but God’s Word remains true and righteous altogether.  God’s Word is the place to build a life that will last forever. 

GOD SAID, Exodus 17:14:

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:26-27:

26 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 the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

GOD SAID, Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

MAN SAID:  We have evolved from nothing.  Ultimately, I don’t know where I came from, why I’m here, or where I’m going, but follow me anyway! 

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

GodSaidManSaid, “Dumb and Dumber and 6,000 Years”

Flavius, J., The Complete Works, Porter and Coates, 14^th printing, 1977

Treffert, D., “Accidental Genius,” Scientific American, August 2014

• Go Further With Christ
• Email To a Friend
• Comments or Questions?