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about 5500 B.C. While inferior to the Adamites, they already had powers distinct from those of
the animals. The later Adamic man was endowed with greater and nobler powers and probably
destined to bring the whole of the other existing humanity into allegiance to the Creator. He
failed to preserve his own allegiance to God, and therefore God provided for the coming of a
descendant who was human and yet far more than man, in order that He might accomplish
what the Adamic man failed to do. The view which Fleming has been led to hold is “that the
unquestionably Caucasian branch is alone the derivation by normal generation from the Adamic
race, namely, from the God-worshipping members of the Adamic race which survived the flood
— Noah and his sons and daughters.”[Cf. The Origin of Mankind, Chaps. VI and VII.] But these
theories, one and all, find no support in Scripture, and are contrary to Acts 17:26 and to all that
the Bible teaches concerning the apostasy and deliverance of man. Moreover, science presents
several arguments in favor of the unity of the human race, such as:
a. The argument from history.
The traditions of the race of men point decisively to a common
origin and ancestry in Central Asia. The history of the migrations of man tends to show that
there has been a distribution from a single center.
b. The argument from philology.
The study of the languages of mankind indicates a common
origin. The Indo-Germanic languages are traced to a common primitive tongue, an old remnant
of which still exists in the Sanskrit language. Moreover, there is evidence which goes to show
that the old Egyptian is the connecting link between the Indo-European and the Semitic tongue.
c. The argument from psychology.
The soul is the most important part of the constitutional
nature of man, and psychology clearly reveals the fact that the souls of all men, to whatever
tribes or nations they may belong, are essentially the same. They have in common the same
animal appetites, instincts, and passions, the same tendencies and capacities, and above all the
same higher qualities, the mental and moral characteristics that belong exclusively to man.
d. The argument from natural science or physiology.
It is now the common judgment of
comparative physiologists that the human race constitutes but a single species. The differences
that exist between the various families of mankind are regarded simply as varieties of this one
species. Science does not positively assert that the human race descended from a single pair,
but nevertheless demonstrates that this may have been the case and probably is.
QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY:
What can be said against the view that we have in Gen. 1
and 2 two different and more or less contradictory accounts of creation? Does it seem
reasonable to think that the world existed millions of years before man appeared on the scene?
Is the hypothesis of theistic evolution in harmony with the Scriptural account of the origin of
man? Is the notion that the body of man at least is derived from the animals tenable in the light