Listen: 71 Question 2

Over the years, there have been some that expounded the thought that the Lord created a race of people before He created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Supposedly, this race of people died out and the Lord then created Adam.

I don’t think that it is profitable to explore the different elements of this false teaching, but I do want to give one example that is used as a foundation to the teaching that there was another race of man before Adam.  Let’s read Genesis 1:27-28, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”  Much has been made about the word ‘replenish’ in verse 27.  Some have taught that there must have been people previously on the earth, and Adam’s command was to re-populate the earth.  This is not the argument of a scholar at all.  This is the argument of someone that is very shallow.  A quick look at a concordance shows us that the Hebrew word for ‘replenish’ is male’ (maw lay), which literally means to fill.  It is often translated that way in the Old Testament.  One good example of that is found in Genesis 1:21-22 which says, “And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul that moves with which the waters swarm, after their kind, and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply on the earth.”  The word translated ‘fill’ in verse 22, is that same one that is translated ‘replenish’ in Genesis 1:27.  So, we see that the commandment of the Lord to Adam was to multiply and fill the earth.  To try to prove that man existed before Adam by using this argument is neither logical nor intelligent.  It is a mis-use of the Word of God.

Let’s look at a few Bible verses that show clearly that no man, or race, existed before Adam.  Romans 5:12-14 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.”  This shows us that there was no death until Adam’s transgression in the Garden of Eden when he and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.  There is no possibility that another race could have lived and died off before Adam was created.  Death came through Adam’s sin of disobedience.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47 also tells us very plainly, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”  Could it be any clearer than that?  Adam was the first man!  No other man lived before he did.  Scripture is so clear and simple regarding the first man and how that death came through his sin.  We should simply trust what the Lord says as to the origin of man.  Genesis 5:1-2 says, “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”  I don’t know who you heard this from, but we can stand upon the authority of the scripture and declare that Adam was the first man and before him, there was no other.