Been reading this for the past two days. This is great stuff and has started a flood of thoughts in me.
Disclaimer:
Pardon me while I think out loud. I tend to do this a lot. But no one's required to respond or even read what I'm about to say. I always pray before I post and while I'm posting that I don't throw anyone off course with the things I say.
Arbitrarily (adverb) - Princeton's WordNetrandomly, indiscriminately, haphazardly, willy-nilly, arbitrarily, at random, every which way, in a random manner
"the houses were randomly scattered"; "bullets were fired into the crowd at random"God
only operates all after the counsel (or law, as Ray said) of His Own will. (Eph 1:11)
He definitely didn't do things "arbitrarily," or willy-nilly. That's an idea straight out of the theory of evolution. But I know what you mean, Bob.
So God's counsel/wisdom dictates that He do things AND that He do them in a specific manner/process/order and on a specific timeline.
To everything there is a season. Ecc 3:1
Okay here are my personal thoughts on this thread, based on what I've read and believe:
There's a huge gap of "silence" between the times of the cavemen and the first Adam.
And there's a huge gap of "silence" between the end of the OT and the beginning of the NT. It's like Jesus just appeared on the scene much like the sun appears in the morning after a long, dark night.
And just like there's a HUGE gap between the first Adam and the Second Adam -- spiritually speaking. We are eons apart as far as spiritual wisdom is concerned. You can't compare the two.
There's no evolution, anywhere, not in "cavemen" evolving into the first Adam, or in the First Adam evolving into the Second Adam. I don't see it happening that way. It's
out with the old and in with the new. We are being regenerated, completely reworked. Not simply evolving.
I believe that whoever was before the First Adam is symbolical of who we are before Christ shines out of the darkness and straight into our hearts and minds.
As far as the (cave)man--yeah, he got around alright. I imagine, like our old man, he probably thought he knew a lot too, because after all, he could hunt and kill with tools and whatnot and he was able to eat and survive for a time but not for long.
But whatever tools he was using are becoming increasingly useless to us now as our knowledge grows. Just like our old man absolutely cannot be weaved, by the process of "evolution," into our new life in Christ -- out with the old, in with the new.
There's no place for any of what we used to be or use.
Rev. 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it [God sits on the throne of our hearts], from whose face the
earth and the
heaven [of our own mind] fled away;
and there was found no place for them.
It'd be like putting an new patch on an old garment; new wine into old wine skins.
The physical (in this case -- the "cavemen" and then the first "Adam"), speaks to something spiritual: the "old" caveman and our new Man.
Old man has to go - every bit of it, otherwise, when our spirit's put into glorious Spiritual bodies, our spiritual body would ultimately be destroyed.
As far as our life spans being shortened -- why did God purpose that Christ only be alive for 33-1/2 years on this earth? That's half the life span of what Moses said a human lives on average. Does it matter? I don't know. Just a thought.