"Within the unity of the one God there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and these three share the same nature and attributes. In effect, the three persons are the one God...coequal in power, nature and eternity."

Luke 1:35 The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

Here's the "Holy Spirit," the "Most High"--that is, the Father--and the "Son of God," Jesus.

The Trinity is also seen in Jesus' baptism, in Matthew 3:16-17.

Matt. 3:16-17 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

The "Spirit of God"--the Holy Spirit--descends on Jesus and then comes a "voice from heaven," that is, the Father.

We may not fully understand it, but God is indeed triune in nature.

Image Of God
In verses 24 and 27 it says that we're made in the image of God. But what does that mean? And how can that be, since the Bible says that God is spirit and we're made of flesh?

What we can say is this: Humans have the unique capacity--unlike animals--to mirror and reflect the character of God. Like the Lord, we're moral agents and know right from wrong, and have a heart, a mind and a will. We also reflect His character in our love, patience, forgiveness and kindness.

Humans also have a special capacity--again, unlike animals or plants--to communicate using language and to have a relationship with God. Even though He's creator and we're His creation, we're like Him in many ways.

Finally, we have dignity and worth, and are the Lord's most precious creation. God considers each of us extremely valuable and unique. And as Christians, we have the most intimate and most desirable relationship with God that we can possibly have. Listen to Romans 8:15-17.

Rom. 8:15 ...you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, {"Abba,} Father."

Rom. 8:16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

Rom. 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs -heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,

Anyone who's depressed or suffers from low self-esteem should read and re-read Genesis 1:26-27. EACH of us in made in the very image of God! And each of us, as Christians, can call our heavenly Father Abba, which is like saying daddy or papa. If that doesn't make you feel better, I don't know what will.

This declaration that humans are made in the image of God contradicts evolutionary teaching. Evolutionists insist that humans evolved into complex beings, what we are today. But this passage refutes that teaching because there's no time gap between man's creation and man being made in the likeness of God. Instantly, right from the very beginning, man was made in the image of God. Adam didn't EVOLVE into the image of God, he was created right there on the spot, an infinitely complex and intricate human being.

Male And Female
Verse 27 says that God created a male and a female--Adam and Eve. We'll find out more about both of them in a little while. One of the things that we'll find out is that God created them as adults, not as babies or small children.

This frustrates evolutionists who believe that humans evolved from a one-cell organism over a period of millions and millions of years. That's not what the Bible says, however. God made man--not half men-half ape--He made humans just like humans here in the 20th century.

In fact, everyone who has lived since Adam and Eve are their ancestors. Listen to what appeared in the December 4, 1995 issue of U.S. News & World Report:

"We are finding that humans have very shallow genetic roots which go back very recently to one ancestor...that indicates that there was an origin in a specific location on the globe and then it spread out from there...researchers suggest that virtually all modern men, 99.9 percent of them, says one scientist--are closely related genetically and share genes with one male ancestor, dubbed Y-chromosome Adam."

Meanwhile, though, some evolutionists use obvious similarities between apes and humans and say "ah ha," that shows that the theory of evolution is valid. But creation scientists look at those similarities and say "Of course there are similarities--both apes and humans were created by the same designer, God!"

If I'm making cars and something works well in one model, naturally I'm going to use the same technology or a similar design in all the rest of the models. Whatever works best, I'm going to use it over and over again. That's common sense.

But evolutionary scientists will jump up at this point and claim that fossil evidence proves that human beings descended from ape-like creatures. But is the fossil evidence complete? Is it conclusive? Can it be trusted?

Listen to what John W. Klotz, who wrote the book Genes, Genesis and Evolution, says:

"There are few complete skulls and even fewer complete skeletons. Often the entire find is represented by a piece of the skull or by a jawbone. Certainly any reconstruction based upon such fragmentary remains is extremely precarious. Hooton calls attention to this by saying that when we recall the fragmentary condition of most of these fossil skulls and when we remember that the faces are usually missing, we can readily see that even the reconstruction of the facial skeletons leaves room for a great deal of doubt as to details. To attempt to reconstruct the soft parts, he points out, is an even more hazardous undertaking. The lips, the eyes, the ears and the nasal tip leave no clues on the underlying bony parts. Hooton says that you can model on a Neanderthal skull either the features of a chimpanzee or those of a philosopher. He concludes by saying that the alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little, if any, scientific value and are likely only to mislead the public."

The first Neanderthal bones were found in 1856 and were almost immediately touted as support for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Man evolved from animals. Ever since that time, we've been taught that Neanderthals were, as one writer put it, "beetle-browed, bowlegged, brutes: half ape and half man." In other words, a caveman.

Most people may not realize that many scientists have recently concluded that Neanderthals were actually humans. The reason for the change to the status of Homo Sapiens is because those scientists now believe that Neanderthals had larger brains than most modern men, as well as a fully developed language center.

Not only that, but Neanderthals are now also believed to have done things such as bury their dead, care for the sick, and enjoy music.

Have you ever heard of apes with bigger brains than us? Apes that bury their dead, care for the sick and play and appreciate music?!

There's growing belief that Neanderthal man's primitive appearance was actually due to nutritional deficiencies and pathological conditions.

Frank Sherwin, of the Institute for Creation Research, says this:

"From a creationist perspective, the Neanderthals were descendants of Noah--a language group that migrated away from Babel and found themselves in harsh "Ice Age" conditions with a meager lifestyle. Linguistic and geographic isolation may have produced a variant, but still human, genome. Whether they went extinct or interbred with others is not yet known, but from what we do know, they were as human as you and I."

It's apparent from these and other examples that scientists and non-scientists can be tricked or be victims of mistakes. Most important of all, the Bible, the only source of truth, says that humans were made in the image of God. No evolution, no millions of years, no missing links.

As we've talked about in past articles, no transitional fossils showing the evolution of man have ever been found. Over and over again, what's announced as the long-awaited breakthrough evidence turns out to be a huge disappointment. So why do evolutionists keep searching and hold fast to their theories and beliefs? Here's what Josh McDowell says.

"Why do evolutionists continue to insist that human beings developed from more primitive life forms and that humans and modern primates have common ancestors? They do not base their insistence on the evidence because...the evidence is sketchy at best and certainly open to divergent explanations. No, the evolution of humans from lower life forms is necessary if one holds certain presuppositions that are opposed to Scripture. Many modern scientists are convinced absolutely that God does not exist, and that the universe we see around us is a product of chance. Scientists with such presuppositions MUST, therefore, defend the evolution of humans from simple life forms. With their theory all framed, and the details all filled in, such scientists then look at the physical evidence around them--scrambling, if necessary, to support their beliefs."

If you think that conclusion is off base, listen to what Greg Kirby, an evolutionist says about his fellow scientists:

"If you were to spend your life picking up bones and finding little fragments of head and little fragments of jaw, there's a very strong desire there to exaggerate the importance of those fragments..."

Dominion
Looking back at our text, in verse 26 God tells the Earth's first humans to "rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." The King James Version tells them to have "dominion" over the Earth. This is God's first commands to human beings.

Ps. 8:6-8 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

As Dr. Vernon McGee points out, however, this doesn't mean that humans are supposed to be "glorified gardeners." The idea here is stewardship. We're God's representative in the world. Psalm 24:1 says that "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it." God didn't give us the Earth, but we ARE supposed to take good care of it.

That means we should be careful not to destroy plant and animal species that are on the brink of extinction, and that we should be wary of a potential greenhouse effect, and that we should avoid polluting the Earth. We're stewards of the earth and, like God, we're called on to treat it justly and with kindness. We share this planet with both plants and animals and we're all dependent upon one another.

We're not, however, supposed to worship the Earth as some radical environmentalists do.

Listen to this story from a May 1991 issue of Time magazine that was quoted in Berit Kjos' book called Under the Spell of Mother Earth:

"To mark Earth Day, four women and two men stood on a hilltop outside Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, literally praying to Mother Earth. 'Sacred Earth Power, bring healing to Planet Earth,' intoned barefoot Selena Fox, priestess of Circle Sanctuary...similar nature worship was part of Earth Day festivals from Boston...to Berkeley...The ceremonies were part of a growing U.S. spiritual movement: Goddess worship, the effort to create a female-centered focus for spiritual expression."

As a final word on the idea of dominion, Berit Kjos says this:

"Christians should be models before the world of what it means to have proper rule over the remainder of God's creation. In fact, a good case could be made for the argument that this planet's environmental condition will not improve until Christians start acting as Christians should regarding the use of the earth. Unless we are arrogant enough to believe that only what pleases man pleases God, we had better think again about how we tread upon this hallowed ground. Dare we see all forests as timber, all prairies as crop land, all mountains of coal as fuel, and all lesser creatures as food or subjects for sport?"

If humans are supposed to take care of and have dominion over the Earth, it makes sense that we know as much as we can about it. We should never stop trying to find out more about the universe and where we live. While our number one goal is to pursue a strong relationship with the Lord, I believe that it's a good thing for Christians to become scientists and to be inquisitive and to find out more about what a wonderful thing life is.

One more thing about dominion. Notice that it doesn't say anything about humans having dominion over other humans, only rule over the Earth and other living creatures. This is before sin had entered the world, so there was no violence, or crime or lust for power. Humanity, while designed to have choices, were created to live in harmony with each other.

There was certainly no conflict between Adam and Eve and other life on Earth.

In verse 28, God tells Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." The command to reproduce themselves isn't anything new--we've seen the same capability for animals. The King James Version, though, says to "replenish" the earth instead of "fill the earth." The use of the word "replenish" isn't a very good translation since it implies that the Earth had been previously inhabited. That's not the case at all. Genesis tells us that what we've read is the very beginning of time, space and matter, including the history of the Earth. Don't be misled by that translation: the Earth had never been inhabited before.

It's interesting to note that God repeated His command to fill the Earth to Noah after the flood.

Gen. 9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth."

Scripture has never rescinded this command and we have to ask ourselves about the world's current obsession with population control.

Here's what Dr. Henry Morris, of the Institute for Creation Research, says on the subject:

"Even at the present level of man's technological knowledge, the earth could support a much larger population than it now holds. Obviously, it could not continue to grow indefinitely, without limit, but God no doubt has made adequate provision for such an eventuality."

The King James Version uses the word "meat" instead of "food," but the context is clear: there was no meat-eating by anybody, not people and not animals. God designed it so the Earth's inhabitants would be vegetarians.

There was plenty of herbs and fruits available for everybody. In fact, notice that verse 29 says there was ample food "on the face of the WHOLE earth," which seems to indicate that there weren't any deserts or ice caps or anything like that. The Earth was most likely full of lush vegetation at the time.

Scripture is pretty clear that human beings were not meat-eaters until God gave Noah and his family the go-ahead in Genesis 9:3.

Gen. 9:3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

It's unclear when and how animals began eating meat, but I believe that it probably happened at the same time, after the flood.

Dr. Morris says this:

"The question as to how or when some of the animals became carnivorous is not definitely answerable at this late date, since the Bible does not say. In the future kingdom age, there will again be no predation or struggle between animals or between animals and men."

Hosea 2:18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.

Isa. 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

Isa. 11:7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

Notice what that last verse says. The "lion will eat straw like the ox." When Jesus comes back, it looks like animals won't eat meat anymore. Scripture doesn't say, but I personally believe that humans won't eat meat anymore either.

Very Good
In verse 31, God doesn't say that it was good. He says that it was "very good." The word "very" literally means exceedingly. In other words, God was so pleased with His creation that He said it was EXCEEDINGLY good!

He was so pleased with His most important creation--human beings--that He said that is was EXCEEDINGLY good.

By the way, God would never have said the Earth was "very good" if, like evolutionists believe, it had already existed for millions or billions of years, and if it had already been the place of death and suffering. The Bible is very clear: death and suffering only came about AFTER Adam and Eve sinned, not before. Listen to Romans 5:12-14.

Rom. 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned -

Rom. 5:13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

Rom. 5:14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

Rom. 6:23 ...the wages of sin is death...

Rom. 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Before Adam and Eve's sin, the Earth and everything in it--the universe, for that matter--was EXCEEDINGLY good.

Adam & Eve
Before God pronounced everything as good, however, Scripture tells us that He first said that it was "not good for the man to be alone" in Genesis 2. Let's turn to Genesis 2 before we finish looking at the sixth day. We can learn much more about what actually happened that day from this chapter.

As we've talked about before, Genesis 2 is an in-depth look at the most important part of the creation week: the creation of human beings. It's almost as if God anticipates that humans would speculate about their origin and He wants to make sure we know the truth about what happened. Genesis 2 doesn't contradict the Genesis 1 account, it gives us more details.

Gen. 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

"From the dust of the ground" tells us that the composition of our bodies isn't anything very special.

1Cor. 15:47 The first man was of the dust of the earth...

It's God's design and "breath of life" that makes humans different from everything else in His creation. The word "breath" can also be translated spirit.

Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Zech. 12:1 ...The LORD...forms the spirit of man within him

Ps. 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Now let's skip down to verses 18-24. Remember, only Adam is around so far.

Gen. 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
Gen. 2:19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
Gen. 2:20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
Gen. 2:21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
Gen. 2:22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
Gen. 2:23 The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."
Gen. 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

The passage that we just read might give the impression that God only decided to create a woman, Eve, after Adam had seen all of the creatures on Earth and decided there was no help mate for him. But that's not the case at all. God was far from done and He knew what He would eventually do, but I believe it was important for Adam to see for HIMSELF that he needed a companion, someone like him, someone that he could love.

1Tim. 2:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

1Cor. 11:8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man;

Adam wasn't complete without Eve. Humans need companionship. Man needed a helper or a help mate.

So God performed divine surgery on Adam, by removing a rib--your translation may say side. And He took that rib, that side, and made Eve. By the way, males and females have the same number of ribs. This surgery only affected Adam the way I would be affected if my spleen was taken out. My kids would still have their spleens.

For those of you who may find this creation of the first woman hard to believe, remember what we said in a past article: If you can believe the first verse of the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," then everything after that is easy to believe, including this passage. If God has made everything from absolutely nothing up until this point, surely He can do what's described here in verses 21 and 22.

Unlike Adam, who was made from the dust of the earth, Eve was made from Adam's flesh. "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." Of course, every male since Adam has come from a woman.

By the way, this passage doesn't mean that men are superior to women in any way, although Scripture is very clear that each sex has its own roles. Having said that, BOTH are made in the image of God and BOTH have tremendous worth in God's eyes.

Dr. McGee says this:

"Dr. Matthew Henry said that God didn't take her from the head to be his superior, or from his foot to be his inferior, but He took her from his side to be equal with him, to be along with him. That is exactly the purpose: she is to be the other half of man."

Marriage
By making Eve from Adam God made them--and all humans after them--dependent on one other. That's how God designed men and women, to not be complete without one another. To search out the mate that God has made for us and to be married. While I believe Scripture teaches that some people are "gifted" to be single--that's what 1 Corinthians 7:7 says--most of us are designed to marry.

Mark 10:6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'

Mark 10:7 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,

Mark 10:8 and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one.

Most of us are designed to seek out someone of the opposite sex and to be married, to be one flesh. I believe that becoming one flesh is much more than coming together physically.I believe that I'm not complete without my wife and that she's not complete without me. In some way that I can't put into words, we're one.

Notice the obvious from this passage. God made a male and a female and made it clear that they are to be together. That's the most basic organizational and functional unit in all of humanity: a family. And while we don't have time to get into an in-depth discussion about marriage and divorce, Scripture's clear that God wants married couples to be faithful to one another and to literally, "death do us part."

Homosexuality
Needless to say, a Biblical family consists of a man and a woman--and later children. It doesn't consist of a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.

While homosexuality is a sin that can be forgiven, it's not the way God designed it, it's not the way He wants it, and, frankly, it's not normal. It's a perversion of God's design and intent. We can see that from Genesis 1 and 2. He made them male and female for a reason. Homosexuality is a sin and is not acceptable in God's eyes.

Day 7: Completed
Now let's go back and look at the seventh and final day. Genesis 2:1-3.

Gen. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

Gen. 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Gen. 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Notice that God says that the "heavens and the earth were completed." That statement contradicts evolutionary teaching which says that natural processes are still creating, still making changes, still making things better. God says no to that theory. God says here that the Earth and the universe are complete. Remember Genesis 1:31. It was "very good." It was just the way He wanted.

By saying that all creating was completed means that the First Law of Thermodynamics is correct. Creation is complete and it's being conserved, not added to.

Day 7: Example For Our Week
But why did God take six days to do all of this?

Dr. Morris says this:

"The reasons for taking six days apparently were, first, to stress the orderly and logical relationships between the different components of the creation and, second, to provide a divine pattern for man's six-day work week. A regular day of rest and special fellowship with God would be essential for man's good, and God's example would be the best pattern and incentive for man to keep such a day."

Mark 6:31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

Mark 6:32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

While this passage doesn't illustrate the Lord taking a day off or sleeping, it shows that Jesus needed rest like all of us.

As we saw in a previous article, the nation Israel was commanded by God to keep the Sabbath Day in Exodus 20:11. The word Sabbath literally means rest. Since the resurrection of Christ, however, Christian's have identified their day of rest on Sunday. While there's some disagreement which day should be recognized, my personal conviction is that we need to rest on one day--regardless of which day it is--and focus on the Lord.

By the way, God isn't still resting as some people believe. The passage says "he rested," past tense, not that He's resting even today. God isn't an elderly grandfather dozing off, leaving us on our own down here on Earth.

Conclusion
In fact, God has been with you as you've read this article. Isaiah 55:10-11 says this:

Isa. 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

Isa. 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

That means that whenever God's Word is read, like we've done here, the Lord successfully communicates with us.

Make no mistake about it. God has accomplished His purpose in this article. He's communicated with us.

His purpose was to say that humans have a responsibility to take good care of the Earth. Not to be radical environmentalists, but to be good stewards of something that He made and intrusted to our care.

His purpose was to say that most men and women are supposed to get married and have children. Families are extremely important to God's design.

God's most important purpose of all in this article was to state clearly and decisively that humans are made in His image, not in the image of ape-like creatures.

Looking back at the last six articles on Genesis and creationism, God has had one over-riding message, a message that we've heard over and over again.

If you remember only one thing, please remember these seven words:

    The theory of evolution is a lie.

You may remember reading about a three-year old St. Louis-area girl that had been abused for several months by her mother.

Prosecutors said that the girl had been beaten with electrical cords, burned with cigarettes, hit with blunt objects and even mutilated by a pair of needle nose pliers. They said that parts of her lip and ears were missing. The paramedic who first treated the girl broke down and started crying as soon as he saw how badly mutilated she was. He said it was the worst case of child abuse he had ever seen.

Everybody who hears about things like that say the same thing: "How can people do that?" "How can something like that happen?"

I'm probably overstating things, but here's what I think. Why do people do such horrible and grotesque things to one another? Why is sexual immorality so rampant? Why is our world so messed up?

The answer is really pretty simple. We tell ourselves--we tell our children--that we're really nothing but animals. We're not special, we're descended from apes for goodness sakes! Why should we be surprised, then, when we start acting like animals? If we keep telling ourselves that we're a bunch of animals then sooner or later we're going to act like animals. That's what a world that doesn't believe in God does for us.

Anything goes. And why? Because when it gets right down to it, we're nothing but a bunch of animals!