There have been many a debate on the theories of evolution and creationism. Evolutionists have proclaimed that the evolutionary theory is no longer a theory but fact – even though evolution can not be reproduced in its entirety in a laboratory environment as the scientific method requires. This is likewise true for creationism.
Is it possible that both evolution and creationism can have elements of truth and can live side by side? This is not possible for evolutionists as they can not accept any creationist theories and the notion of some unnatural source of intelligence. The inverse is often true for creationists.
Nevertheless, it might be interesting for both evolutionists and creationists to explore potential alignments of the two theories. To do this we need to go way back in time – even prior to the time when Adam and Eve came on to the scene on the timeline. What was God doing prior to Adam and Eve?
To explore this Pre-Adamic world, we will need to first layout a few prerequisite understandings. Please note that this article is intended to be speculative and is written to spawn thought – these are Sunday Thoughts, after all.
Biblical Old Earth Creation
Biblical scholars have long debated “Old” and “New” Earth creation theories. “New” Earth creationism is hard to sync with modern-day science. It also may not even be scripturally accurate.
In the “Old” Earth creation theory, the notion is that the time between the first two verses of the Bible is undetermined. The verb in Genesis 1:2 is said to be more accurately translated as “became or had become” rather than as “was” – learn more here. See the time sequence steps below.
- Genesis 1:1: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
- The implied Satan’s catastrophic destructive war with God (unknown amount of time).
- Genesis 1:2: And the earth was [“became”] without form, and void, …
- The rest of the creation story of the world we see today.
In step two above, is an unknown amount of time – perhaps millions if not billions of years, giving plenty of time for the “Intelligent Design” or “evolution” theories to take place, depending on your belief.
Although we are only given small glimpses of the world prior to man, the Scriptures tell us that during this time Lucifer, one of the high-ranking angels serving before God’s throne, convinced a third of the angels to follow him in rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:13-16; Revelation 12:7-9).
Intelligent Design
A common Intelligent Design theory says that intelligent causes are necessary to explain the complex, information-rich structures of biology and that these causes are empirically detectable. Certain biological features defy the standard Darwinian random-chance explanation because they appear to have been designed. Since design logically necessitates an intelligent designer, the appearance of design is cited as evidence of a designer. There are three primary arguments in the Intelligent Design Theory: 1) irreducible complexity, 2) specified complexity, and 3) the anthropic principle.
However, like in Evolution, there are many variations of Intelligent Design, especially when getting into the details. The inset chart to the left provides a brief overview of how Intelligent Design could work.
a) Micro-evolution exists via mutations and natural selection, much like evolutionists describe. However, the mutations are adaptive to their environment and can not explain non-adaptive mutations that create more significant changes in speciation in the evolutionary timeline.
b) Macro-evolution can only occur with non-adaptive new genetic information from an outside intelligent source. Non-adaptive new genetic information must come via innovation and maybe metaphysical. Innovation is the creation of needs where the needs are not known.
While the Intelligent Design theory does not presume to identify the source of intelligence (whether it be God or UFOs or something else), the vast majority of Intelligent Design theorists are theists. The point with this view of Intelligent Design, along with “Old” Earth creation, the theory aligns well with the main evidence provided by evolution theories of common ancestry and the fossil record.
Pre-Adamic Suppositions
There is not a lot mentioned in the Bible of the events prior to the Adam and Eve story in Genesis. However, there are a few side passages that may give us clues on what may have happened in the Pre-Adamic world. Here are a few suppositions to consider.
- Lucifer Chief Intelligent Designer – Lucifer was one of three archangels mentioned Biblically and one of God’s creations. Two Biblical passages (Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19) allude to the angel Lucifer’s original position as a very exalted being and likely the highest ranking of all the angels. In other words, Lucifer at the time, still an archangel was the chief Intelligent Design engineer assigned to do God’s work on the Earth.
- The War Between God and Satan – As implied in the “Old” Earth creation theory, there was a war between God and Lucifer (who was later renamed Satan) prior to Adam and Eve. The war was catastrophic and destroyed the world as it was known at that time.
- Human Dietary Physiology – There does seem to be some Biblical evidence that originally God may have intended for humans to be herbivores and not carnivores. As indicated in Genesis 9:2-4, states, “Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything [the animals].” In other words, humans were potentially designed as herbivores before, but God later gave animals as food, making humans omnivores.
- God Knows the Capability of Evil – Having the agency of choice means a being can choose good or evil. This is described in Jeremiah 20:12, Ezekiel 11:5, and more here. This can be true whether a being is human or an Angel. Lucifer was created perfect, but being an entity that has agency, one can not predestinate what that choice may be. God knowing this, would need to integrate this into any plan he would conceive.
- God Sees Time Differently – Read the first three chapters of Ecclesiastes 1-3 and you get a sense of God’s perspective – very unlike the human perspective. Psalm 90:4 states (more references here), “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.“
- Plan of God – God has a plan to reproduce himself. Galatians 3:26 states (and other references), “So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith.” Just like Jesus is the son of God, one day we to have the opportunity to be a son (or daughter). But remember, each member of the God family has agency in how they behave. Today with only human power, but one-day God-like power. Imagine a world with all these people with that much power. If not managed, it could be a disaster. And it was, with the Angels. But, God knew this, and was all part of the plan.
Using modern-day science we can potentially postulate the dates on the historical timeline of the events implied in the Pre-Adamic world.
The Plan and the First Jurassic Park
So with some of these prerequisite understandings in place, we are ready to begin the story of the Pre-Adamic era and then bring it up to today and into the future. The story is laid out into seven simplified summary steps – obviously, each step could be broken down into much more detail. In the graphic below, an alignment of these steps has been provided on to the evolutionary and historical timeline.
1) Big Bang, Plan Establishment – Why God desires to share his glory and have a plan to do so is something worthy of discussion. Genesis 1:26 gives a clue to God’s purpose, it states, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness …” In other words, God is reproducing himself, similar to we mere humans that have a desire to reproduce ourselves in a greater family.
Having the power to create a universe would be astounding. To have family members who would have similar power to the father of the family is no small feat. As said before, if one gets it wrong it would a catastrophic hellish nightmare. Having the knowledge of what entities with agency can do, needs to be thought through before one creates any stars, moons, or a planet teaming with life.
When God did this planning would be unknown, but most likely before any “big bang” or other events that started at the birth of our known universe.
2) God Creates the Angels – Many perhaps think that God snaps his fingers and “stuff” happens without design or thinking through to its implementation. God may have used a team to assist him in the creation (Intelligent Design) – hence the reason Angels were created. Regardless of which “day” the angels were created, Biblical text affirms that Angels have been present since creation and throughout the Biblical timeline.
But what does the Bible say about those spiritual beings called Angels? The indication is that Angels are immortal and have great power in the service to God. See more details here and here.
Keep in mind that any entity that has agency can possibly do evil or good. God knew that eventually, the true colors of this agency would appear. There is a clear reference that 1/3 of the Angels, even with all their power and knowledge fell prey to evil – see here the many passages that indicate this.
3) Lucifer Discovers the Plan – Via Intelligent Design, over time God began building the natural world. First with simple organisms, then over time more complex. As explained above, Angels with Lucifer as the lead entity was critical in this process. In a sense, the world became the first Jurassic Park.
There began to be a split on the nature of nature. Lucifer began to implement a more predatory approach to the nature of nature. There seems to be evidence that God, as seen in his human dietary physiology approach, did not approve of this approach to nature. Of all the present-day animals in one study surveyed, 63% were carnivores, 32% were herbivores, and 3% were omnivores (the rest were ambiguous). This approach can be seen in humans as well.
During the Cambrian period and the explosion of carnivores, especially in mammals, one could potentially see evidence of this – learn more here. This difference in the nature of nature may have been the source of a coming conflict between God and a group of Angels led by Lucifer.
Lucifer began to understand that Angels (including himself) were not going to be part of the God family and would only become assistants in the process. Humans were the end goal of the Intelligent Design process. A human being is a mechanism to have a temporary vessel to judge character prior to giving eternal life (“born again”) to the said character.
Hebrews 2:7-9 indicates that humans are of lower ranking than Angels. However, once “born again” humans would attain eternal life and become part of the God family and then no longer be lower than Angels, but rather be over Angels at that point. One can see the obvious jealousies that would develop by some Angels concerning their lot in life relative to humans and their potential.
4) Lucifer’s War with God – The inevitable conflict became a reality. The postulation is that this war may have taken place some 66 million years before the time of Adam and Eve when dinosaurs roamed the earth and were subsequently destroyed in Lucifer’s war with God.
As indicated in the “Old” Earth creation theory, the designs of the previous millions of years were still available and a recreation could occur. Final human development was completed, making way for the first modern-day humans, Adam and Eve.
5) Adam and Eve and the 6000 Year Age of Man – Reluctantly for Lucifer, now called Satan, the plan continues with the implementation of humans and the modern, world we see today. Satan knows that man will eventually become part of the God family and not Angels and certainly not fallen Angels. He will do everything in his allowed power to thwart the plan.
Though largely predictable, the rejection of God by Adam and Eve begins a 6000-year period where mankind is left to pursue whatever ideology it desires – with little interference from God. The Post-Adamic world is a history, stained with the sorrows of mankind. These sorrows, if left unchecked will eventually destroy mankind. A necessary step in the understanding of the nature of mankind.
6) The Apocalypse and 1000 Year Age of God – If we were to put a mark, “You Are Here,” this is close to where we are today. Many believe that the end of the age of man is nigh – learn more here. Much has already been written about Revelations, the Apocalypse, the second coming of Christ, and the millennial reign that follows. We will leave the details of this sub-story for another time.
7) Ultimate Human Potential – Population of the Universe – Not much is said beyond becoming part of the God family in a resurrection. But does the story stop here? What is the ultimate human potential? The modus operandi of God doesn’t seem to be stagnant – steady and sure productive growth.
Perhaps the next story on the timeline is for each in the God family to go out and populate the universe. Is this not what families do? The offspring go on to create their own families in an expanding greater society that spans the entire universe one day. Perhaps our God today is already part of a greater timeline, as he is not the first in a series. Everybody wants to rule the world – maybe one day you will get the chance.
Yes, perhaps a bit much of a story to swallow in one dinner setting. Many before have also tried to explain the story of the Pre-Adamic World and the overall plan of God. Perhaps you have your own story to tell concerning this subject. Or maybe you haven’t given it much thought. The point here is to give one potential story so that you can begin to make your own study.
One may ask – so how does any of this make any relevance to me today? If it is just a story – it has no relevance. However, if any of these postulations are true, you may think differently about your life. You also have a lot of work to do if you wish to participate in the plan. What? You thought you were going to heaven to play harps on billowy white clouds and be fed grapes by Angels?
If you are a believer, and upon Christ’s return, will he find you working hard, becoming not only a better person but participating in society to actively make it better? Or perhaps these ideas scare you into disbelief, engulfed with the cares of this world, becoming apathetic to what is about to happen to our world.
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