Mankind

From the time of Adam to God's calling of Abraham in Genesis 12 God dealt with the entire human race. God made no distinction among peoples. This period of time exhibited the following characteristics:

Perfect relationship with God
The beginning of sin and death (The Fall)
The beginning of salvation
The beginning of civilization
Common language/The beginning of languages
No nations/The beginning of nations
Long life/The shortening of life
God's destruction of the world/God's promise not to destroy the world (Noahic Covenant)
Institution of capital punishment
Repopulation of the world--Noah
The beginning of false religion--Cain/Nimrod
The call of Abraham

When God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, they enjoyed a perfect, unhindered relationship with God. We do not know how long this happy state lasted. We read that Eve was beguiled by the Serpent (Satan) into disobeying God's command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan seduced her into believing that she "could be like God, knowing good and evil". Eve thought she was doing a good thing in eating the fruit but was deceived into thinking that God was withholding some good thing from her. Adam, however, was not deceived. He knew what he was doing and ate in rebellion to God's command. Because of his willful disobedience and because Eve came from Adam, the Bible blames Adam, not Eve for sin. We are told "in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15.22). God had promised that the day they ate, they would die (Gen.2.16-17). They did not die immediately physically but they did die spiritually. And so did we (1 Cor. 15.22 cf. Rom. 5.12). In theology, this is known as the "Fall". The fact that all of us "died" "in Adam" is known in theology as original sin. It was once taught in our schools: "By Adam's fall, we sinned all". Eating from the tree of life (which reappears in the book of Revelation (Rev. 2.7; Rev. 22.1-2, 14-19) would have given man the potential to live forever. But God in his grace drove Adam and Eve from the Garden to insure that they might not live forever under the tyranny of sin. Life, which had been an innocent paradise, now became onerous, spoiled, and filled with sin.

In the Genesis record, we quickly see the effect of sin. Cain murdered his brother. With Cain (Gen. 4.3-11) we see also the first glimpse of false religion. Cain thought he could be accepted by God by means of his own choosing. God had revealed that the acceptable means to approach him was a blood sacrifice. False religion maintains that man is able to approach God and have a relationship with him apart from faith in YHVH as God was revealed in the Old Testament) or Jesus (as God was revealed in the New Testament). Jesus declared that he was the YHVH of the Old Testament. Cain wished to be accepted by God by the agricultural offering he brought. Abel's offering was an animal sacrifice. He believed and obeyed God. Throughout Scripture two truths remain constant no matter what age or economy. They are the following:

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin (Heb. 9.22).
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11.6).

God gave Cain every opportunity to change his mind about the proper way to approach God. He refused to obey (trust God), however, and thought that the way he had chosen was acceptable to God. Today is no different. The Scriptures clearly declare that salvation is through Jesus alone and that salvation is impossible except by trusting in the finished work of Christ (Jn. 14.6, Acts 4.12, 1 Tim. 2.3-6). Tragically, most people, like Cain, believe that they can come to God through ways that seem reasonable and good to them. Most often, this is the false belief that God will accept a person if the person is "good" or "sincere" in his belief. Jesus warned (Matt. 7.13-14) against this error as did his apostles (Gal. 1.6-9). These warnings are echoes of the Old Testament (Prov. 14.12). God's only means of acceptance of a person today is through a person's trusting in the accomplished work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection.

In the early chapters of Genesis we read about a sophisticated civilization and long life spans for mankind. We are also introduced in Genesis 6 to the story of cohabitation between fallen angels, "sons of God" (Heb. MyhIlo)e: yn"b:) and women. The offspring of these unions were giants, the Nephilim. As strange as it may seem, we know that these cohabitations were between angels and humans because the term, "sons of God" is only used of angels in the Old Testament. All of the rabbis interpreted this passage in this way. From these unions and offspring come the myths of the gods of ancient people. The myths of the Greeks are most familiar to us but these myths are predated by gods and myths much older, e.g. Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian. These unions were Satan's attempt to pollute the human line. According to Genesis, the earth became completely corrupt and "every intent of the thoughts of his [man] heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6.11-17). When this corruption reached a terminal point, God determined to destroy the world. He found one righteous man, Noah, and his immediate family to spare. God caused a flood to come upon the world which destroyed all the ancient civilizations and all of mankind. Following this flood, God began the human race again with Noah, his sons Shem, Japheth, and Ham, and their wives.

Following the Flood, God established a covenant with Noah that he would never again destroy all of mankind with a flood. The sign of the covenant was the rainbow (Gen. 8.21-22; 9.8-17). Also at this time God also instituted capital punishment (Gen. 9.6-7). While some Christians oppose capital punishment, this is not a biblical position. Jesus affirmed it (Matt. 26.52) as did Paul (Rom. 13.4). The reason for capital punishment, as the verses above in Genesis explain, is that man is made in the image of God. Murder is such a heinous crime in God's sight that the punishment is the loss of one's own life. The intent of the penalty of capital unishment is to raise the consciousness of the sacredness and value of human life.

God had commanded Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth". He repeated this command to Noah after the Flood (Gen. 1.28; 8.15-17; 9.1,7). Instead of obeying God, the people chose to unify on the plain in the land of Shiner. God's intent was for the human race to spread out and form nations. Why? Nations are a check on evil. Nations form competing power structures which help to eliminate concentration of power. At this time, everyone spoke one language. By concentrating in one area as one people there was great potential to concentrate power and do evil. To remedy this situation, God confused the world's language and in effect forced the creation of nations (Gen. 11.1-9). God has established nationalism to restrain evil and preserve freedom for man. World government is contrary to the plan of God and threatens human freedom.

The operation these people began was to build a city and a tower that would reach into heaven. The city was Babel (the Greek spelling is "Babylon"), which means "gate of god". Genesis intends an obvious pun on the name by referring to "Babel" (Heb. lbebf) as "confusion" (Heb. llabf). The significance of Babylon in the Scriptures is that it is the fount and symbol of false religion. It manifests itself as man's attempts to reach and know God by his own efforts and understanding. The religious system that came out of Babylon--Marduk or Merodach (also known as Bel and known to the Cannanites as Baal) opposed the true God, YHVH, and led Israel into idolatry. John refers to Babylon as the "mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17.5). Babylon's introduction in the Bible shows man's theological and societal rebellion against God after the Flood. The postdiluvian civilization's desire was to unite and achieve peace and greatness apart from the true God (YHVH). Notably, it is the last event recorded before God's call of Abram.

The significance of God's call of Abram is the institution of a new divine program. Prior to Abram's call God had dealt with all mankind. As we have seen during this period, man had rebelled against God--"every intent of the thoughts of his [man's] heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6.5). God's response to man is stated as "the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart" (Gen. 6.5). To preserve and redeem the human race, God destroyed all but one family (Noah) and began the human race again. Sadly, however, it did not take long for failure to occur again. This was epitomized by Babel. In light of the failures in dealing with all mankind (and because he had promised not to destroy the world again), God created a new program. He selected one man, Abram, who became Abraham, through whom God began to reveal himself. It was a new beginning. Like he had begun again with Noah, he began anew with Abram. Abram became the father of a new race--the Jews. To them and through them God began to reveal himself. They were elected to be lights to the nations (Gentiles). Thus, the call of Abram is a watershed event in the plan of God.

Until the time of Paul, God dealt with the human race almost exclusively through the Jews. When the Jews rejected the witness of John the Baptizer and Jesus as the Messiah and the witness of Peter and Stephan to the nation that Jesus was the Messiah, God appointed Paul to be the "apostle to the Gentiles" (Rom. 11.13). Through Paul God revealed a new "mystery" creation--the Church--the body of Christ. With the body of Christ the distinctions of Jew and Gentile were erased. This was the next watershed event in God's revelatory plan.

tw~| a)gapw~nti h(ma~j kai\ lu/santi h(ma~j e)k tw~n a(martiw~n h(mw~n e)n tw|~ a(i/mati au)tou~.

�1998 Don Samdahl. Anyone is free to reproduce this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold.

Updated Thursday, November 04, 2004