How was the earth populated after
Adam and Eve had their kids? Who did they mate with? Did God create other
people?
This is a
question that frequently comes up. Usually it’s framed something like this,
“Where did Cain get his wife.”
In
Genesis 4 the Bible tells us about the birth of Cain and Abel. And it tells us
about how Cain murdered his brother, and how God banished Cain, who went and
settled in the land of Nod. And then—seemingly out of
nowhere—it says, “Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch” (Gen.
4:17). And people think, “Whoa! Wait a minute! Where did she come from?” There is no prior mention of any other woman
besides Eve.
Critics
of the faith often say this is a contradiction that disproves the Bible.
Christians have sometimes wondered if maybe God had created some other people
besides Adam and Eve.
But the
Bible is very clear (and speaks about this in one way or another in several
places) that Adam was the first man and Eve the first woman and that everyone
who has ever lived is descended from them (Gen. 2:20; 3:20; Acts 17:26; Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:45).
And if
this is so, then Cain must have married one of his sisters. In Genesis 5:4 it
says “The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters.” He had other
children besides the three sons who are specifically mentioned (Cain, Abel, and
Seth), and he had daughters as well. It was one of these daughters of Adam and
Eve that Cain married.
It was
necessary in the first few generations for close relatives to marry, though
this was later forbidden in the law of Moses (Lev. 18-20).
How do you feel about the economic
crisis? Do you think it will result in another major depression? How should we
prepare for it?
Obviously
the crisis is very real and quite serious; but the troubling thing to me is the
fact that it was largely due to government policies in manipulating the
financial markets that led to the crisis in the first place. And now they’re
seeking to do more of the same. It’s like trying to put out a fire by pouring
gasoline on it. So I think situation’s likely to get worse before it gets
better.
The best
economists believe that the Great Depression wouldn’t have been so great—which
is to say it wouldn’t have been so deep, nor lasted so long—had the government
just stayed out of it and not tried to solve it. I think there can be little
doubt that FDR’s New Deal made matters worse and unnecessarily prolonged what
would have been a temporary market correction. It turned what might have been a
one and a half to two year down turn into a 10 year disaster. It looks to me
like we’re making some of the same mistakes again. I think the Fed’s monetary
policies are going to destroy the dollar in the next couple of years and we’re
going to see massive inflation.
Will this
crisis eventually become result in another major depression? I’m not able to
say; but government action at this point doesn’t bode will for the future.
Another
concern we should have is the way in which the economic downturn is being used
to justify a further expansion of federal power. It is often the case that
politicians exploit a crisis situation or a perceived
crisis situation in order to justify a grab of power for themselves. In times
of crisis people are more willing to cede power to the government—to trade
liberty for security.
How to
prepare? Well specifics depend on your own particular situation. But certainly
for most people it’s advisable to get out of debt as quickly as possible,
especially credit card debt, and begin to live within your means.