Man as a part of the living world: similarities and differences between human being and other beings

This is the first subject that teachers have to teach those who are in the fifth grade at their first lesson. And it is an important subject, especially when we were told Darwin’s Theory of Evolution for so many years, according to it, man is an animal that has been evolving until he became intelligent and social. I want to present a biblical perspective in this article, what is God’s point of view concerning similarities and differences between human beings and other beings.

Human beings and other living beings are God’s creation

This is an essential similarity. God made the earth and all things on it in six days of creation, and this He has made through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the agent of God’s creation, and through the Holy Spirit who was present there. Apostle John wrote in his Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. (The Gospel of John 1:1–3)(NASB)

God said about all His creation that it is good and the whole living world was made good, but after God created man, He said that it was “very good”. Another similarity is that every living being was blessed by God.

Only man was created in God’s image, according to His likeness

The Bible says that all beasts were made “after their kind”. Here is what it is written about this:

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind“; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:21–25)(NASB)

But here is what is written about man’s creation, that

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)(NASB)

What does this mean? Man was created to reflect God’s character. Man, unlike animals, is a spiritual, intelligent and moral being.

Man was created by God to rule over all that lives

Even before He created man…

God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26)(NASB)

And then God blessed man and woman and told them:

“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)(NASB)

To rule means not only to exploit, but to protect and to take care. This is people’s responsibility, to protect and to take care of God’s creation that was given them to rejoice at it. Let us take care of our country that God has given us and to keep it beautiful and clean, so that we may have it many years from now on.

Last year, our family went to the Park of Roses from Chisinau, where I and my wife used to go for a walk when we were students, but we hadn’t been there for a long time. I was very upset to see how dirty that park was and how many plastic bags, papers and all kind of other garbage was everywhere around. Being so upset, I decided what I could do to stop this evil. I went to a meeting with the instructors of Taekwon-Do National Federation and I invited them to go and clean the park. Some other young people from the Inductive Bible Study Institute, Youth Movement 2:22 came with us, and so we managed to clean the park in a Saturday afternoon. We were so encouraged by this, that the participants went and organized such activities in their localities.

Do you want to be the initiator of such an action now? This is our responsibility for all that lives. Let us rule with wisdom, to protect and to take care.

Translated by Felicia Djugostran