We humans must be much different from what one would expect from the Theory of Evolution. Far from being one more product of random evolution high in the food chain, primitive humans today and our ancestors yesteryear were very much food for larger and stronger animals. And even if we have triumphed today through our superior culture, we are still very vulnerable to microbes and viruses that survive by feeding on us. They take a heavy toll of humans even today.
What is the purpose of our lives if we are here today for a few decades and gone tomorrow with no obvious value to our individual lives other than to promote the continuation of our species? Actually, what is the purpose for our species if it becomes extinct? Many species have already become extinct, and almost all individuals within each species, including our own, merely pass from a brief existence and leave no lasting memory other than surviving long enough to pass genes on to succeeding generations.
I write this because of an altogether different impression, coming from the Christian community, which claims that God created us and somehow our ancestors failed the purpose for which God created them leaving us, their succeeding generations, lost in sin. Then God became a human being to lead us, not merely the species, but every individual member of the species, back to God. Here’s where my dilemma lies: Jesus Christ, even though he is God, was willing to endure unimaginable frustration and suffering, even an atrocious execution, to, as Christianity explains it, to save my soul.
Wait a minute! If God became human and endured that much grief just to save my soul—I must be much more that just another evolved life form. There must be something special about me that God does not want lost. What could that be? Christianity never claimed that I simply evolved through random mutations. Christianity claims that God created me in his image and likeness and destined me to know God, love God, serve God, and honor him forever. And God endowed me with the ability to willing accept what he offers or to reject it and rebel against God’s rule.
However, whatever I choose, there are consequences to my choices. Why is that? I think this boils down to what God knows he gave me. I think he created me as real person with immense influence on many other things he created. If I choose incorrectly, I disrupt the harmony and happiness that God wanted others, as well as me, to experience. That disruption could compromise the happiness and security of others, could even bring sin into their relationship with God.
This must not be! God could stop my rebellion in an instant through any number of means available to God, but God chose to become human and endure what he experienced to convince me, already having chosen incorrectly, to change my direction and choose him. I think God is doing this to preserve what he gave me, especially my ability to choose for myself. If I turn away from incorrect choices and, of my own initiative, choose him, what an amazing relationship I would have with God. I would still be a free person, coming of my own free choice, to know God, to love him and, of my own free will, to serve him. This dignity that God gave me is worth preserving, even if it entails God becoming human and to endure everything he experienced to preserve this freedom.
Maurice A. Williams
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