7 Billion on Earth

Reflecting back on mankind as we reach the 7 Billionth earthly inhabitant, forces me to ask the questions, how and why so long? God, the Father created man a very long time ago over a period of time measured as one of God's days (Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 2:7-23). On this day, God created man, all the creatures of the earth, Adam named all the creatures, God created Woman and God warned of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now that was a day!!

I don't know how long one of God, the Father's days is, but it seems to be very long as measured by man's 24 hour day/night cycle. Is it 1,000 years (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8) or longer? It is enough to know that He created us in His time and not get caught up in things we can not know.

I do believe that man has been on earth a very long time, but had never reached even the first billion people until 1804. This is long before immunizations, indoor plumbing and all of the other modern inventions said to allow for this growth. Even now, the vast majority of people live in undeveloped ares that still do not have plumbing, clean water, immunizations or any other modern inventions.

Man has been killing each other by the millions, diseases have killed millions over the years - but still we grow. How did we reach the first billion, not to mention 7 billion?

In a phrase - God, the Father quit annihilating us. Over a very long period of time, the Father destroyed the wicked, whom He had created. I think that we sometimes forget that God, the Father created all life and men. Mankind has chosen sin over the Father from the very beginning (Genesis 3:11). God, the Father has destroyed the wicked, His creations, in numerous ways - Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25); the Flood (Genesis 7:23); Egypt's firstborn (Exodus12:29); His own chosen people (Exodus 32:27); and several other examples in the Old Testament.

God, the Father created man in God, the Son's image and fully expected them to follow His will. It seems clear to me, that the Father was unexpectedly disappointed with man from the very beginning (Genesis 3:11-13). God, the Father knows all things, all past. all present, and all future. He knows all of the possibilities from every decision man makes, every second of every day. However, because He gave man choice, He does not know which way each individual decision will actually be made. God the Father knows all of our potential destinies, just not which one we will choose.

Because of man's choices and wickedness, the Father has destroyed us many times in many ways, in vast numbers. This all stopped when God, the Son came down to Earth, was born as man, took the appearance of an average middle eastern jewish male named Jesus, sacrificed himself, by his own choice, became sin, then overcame all sin, was resurrected, resumed his Heavenly appearance (Luke 24:38-40) keeping his humanly scars intact, then finally ascended back up to heaven.

To summarize, God, the Father routinely destroyed the wicked, whom he had created for relationship with Him. After God, the Son came down and became fully human as Jesus Christ, became sin, then overcame it - the Father then began to see the Son in all men and stopped destroying us. Thus, we welcome the 7 billionth human today. All men created by God, the Father, are able to choose the Son, hence the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20)

In Christ,
Reverend Doctor Douglas Stephenson