THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING


The World, the Word & You! Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan

"WHO WAS THE FIRST WOMAN? NO, IT WASN'T MARTHA WASHINGTON, NOR WAS IT SOME MITOCHONDRIAL PRIMATE. THE FIRST WOMAN IN HISTORY WAS A BEING NAMED ADAM."

I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World , the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about this puzzling but Biblical truth...

... Hello listening friends, and welcome to another broadcast edition of the World, the Word & You! Broadcast, featuring thirty minutes of biblical commentary and beautiful music for your listening enjoyment. I'm Dennis Finnan, your host and speaker thanking each one of you for tuning our way today. Yes, each week this program airs on this station and frequency, by the kind support and care of our friends and listeners. You see this is a listener-supported radio ministry that depends solely upon the love gifts of God's people to keep us on the air. We are grateful God has done this now for 20 straight years! To God be the glory, great things He has done.

Well, with that note of praise, I want to devote today's talk to a pure and exciting biblical exposition of one the most intriguing subjects of all time ¾ the very first woman! I'm sure all of us have read or heard the story of Adam and Eve. I've spoken to them often on previous broadcasts in one way or another, but today I want to focus my attention toward the very first woman who ever lived. A woman who holds the distinction and uniqueness to be the very first in a number of things. But before I get down to basics, let's pause at the onset of today's program and listen to this lovely musical moment…

… I fear there isn't a soul alive in our modern world, anywhere on the globe, who hasn't heard of "Adam & Eve." Jokes are made about them, merchandise is marketed around them, even movies have been made concerning them. Yet if one were to poll the modern world they would find that most believe that such beings never ever lived at all. Rather, they are just the figment of fairytales and ancient imagination. Of course, our godless merchants with their false philosophy of life called evolution, have long made inroads into the formative minds of the human race by teaching Adam and Eve are but a story from the fairytale Bible of Christians. They say such individuals as a first man and a first woman never existed. Instead, they claim the human race came from many differing species of evolving primates in the delusionary sea of evolution. However…. I've got some startling news for you and a good look at God's Book to find out some fascinating truths to ponder. But as I prepare to formulate my notes to share with you, let's take one more moment and listen to this…

… Back in 1996, I gave a radio talk entitled, "THE STORY OF EVE." In it, I shared with you about the fact that the evolutionist's idea of the human race coming forth from multiple sources of primates was scientifically proven false. You see…" eight or more years ago, Geneticists made a remarkable discovery. Scientists snooping about in our human gene pool and DNA structures, using some BBM's "Big Brain Machines", which are high tech computers, discovered that contrary to much popular opinion about our evolutionary origins, it appeared that the human race did not universally evolve from a myriad of sub human creatures. Rather, researchers were startled to find what they soon called, the "mother" of all humans, the proverbial Eve.

By specifically peeking into cells of several ethnic groups, they traced the family tree of modern humans back to a single, albeit theoretical, woman."(1) They named her "Mitochondrial Eve." This name was chosen for part of the cell passed from the mother, that has endured to all generations of the human race. However, not much more was said about it until…. another astounding find recorded in "NATURE," magazine's November 1995 issue and reported in a US NEWS ONLINE edition. The article stated: "It appears that lonesome Eve, the proverbial originator of all human life now has an Adam! In two reports researchers suggest that virtually all modern men - 99.9% of them, says one scientist - are closely related genetically and share genes which come from one male ancestor, dubbed "Y-chromosomes Adam." Unlike other chromosomes, Y's are passed strictly from father to son, thus enabling scientists to follow the human race patrilineally." Now each study has concluded differing dates as to this "Adam's" appearance. Some issued the findings that he appeared roughly 188,000 years ago. The other says even more recent than that, say about 49,000 years ago. However, both studies and findings stand in opposition to the current evolutionary belief that modern man is a product of differing evolutionary beginnings."[1]  

I quoted that from my previous broadcast, but you can see even evolution today cannot deny God's written account of the first man and woman. But today I want to talk about the FIRST WOMAN, the "Mother of All." What do we know about her? Well you'd be surprised what bible sleuthing can do to discover facts about the very first woman. Let's begin our journey…

In surveying the Bible, I discovered that only a few chapters contain information about mankind's first woman. We can find them in Genesis chapters two and three and in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 11:3; and 1 Timothy 2:13. Let's read them now.

Gen 2:21-23 (NLT) "So the LORD God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took one of Adam’s ribs and closed up the place from which he had taken it. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam. 23 "At last!" Adam exclaimed. "She is part of my own flesh and bone! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of a man.""

Gen 3:1-6 (NLT) "Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made. "Really?" he asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?" 2 "Of course we may eat it," the woman told him. 3 "It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die." 4 "You won’t die!" the serpent hissed. 5 "God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil." 6 The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too."

2 Cor 11:3 (NLT) "But I fear that somehow you will be led away from your pure and simple devotion to Christ, just as Eve was deceived by the serpent."

1 Tim 2:13 (NLT) "For God made Adam first, and afterward he made Eve."

I opened the broadcast with what for some may have been a startling revelation. I said that the very first woman's name was "ADAM!" I suppose most of my audience has never heard that, but nonetheless, it is true. In the Bible there are three names given to the first woman created by God. First, she is called (1) "Woman," because she was taken out of the man ( Gen. 2:23). This of course, is more a generic designation than a name, and is associated with Eve's relation to Adam, a relation she was created to fulfill. Literally "woman" means "man-ess." But the second name given to Eve is (2) "Adam," for both Eve and her husband are so named. "Male and female created he them… and called their name, Adam."( Gen 5:2). You see in the beginning, God made both one man and one woman to be united together as an indissoluble unity. God made them "one flesh," ( Gen 2:24), and gave them one name! Now the most popular name of this first woman is of course (3) "EVE," but we must know this name was not given to her by God, rather by Adam after sin entered the world, and marred their very existence. Now what do we know about Eve that makes her unique? Let me give you a number of things. First,

#1 EVE WAS THE FIRST WOMAN TO EVER LIVE UPON THE EARTH - Of course this truth is first found in the bible, but as I related earlier, why even true science is coming to see the entire human race is of one origin, as God relates in the New Testament :

Acts 17:26 (NIV) "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."

Eve is the product of divine creation, there is no other explanation one can hold. When Eve appeared she was created perfect and whole. She never was a child, or a daughter, and she never had a mother. The first female born into the world was Eve's first daughter ( Gen 5:4). How many daughters did Eve have? We simply don't know but the Bible implies, many since Eve probably lived as long as Adam's 930 years (Gen. 5:5). Eve then was not born, she was created out of Adam, unique of all human beings ever to live. Well in addition to this there is a second distinction of this first woman…

#2 EVE WAS THE FIRST AND ONLY WOMAN BORN WITHOUT SIN - Now I know that Roman Catholicism desperately teaches that Mary the mother of Jesus, was somehow also born without sin. But such a doctrine and teaching called the Immaculate Conception and Perpetual Virginity, in Christianity is absolutely false and blasphemous. There is no biblical proof, no implication that anyone other than Jesus Christ was born without sin and preserved through live the same. However, "Eve," the mother of all living, wasn't born as we are, beginning in God's thoughts, she appeared on earth by the divine creative act of God, a perfect sinless human being. Yet, ever since Eve brought forth her first born, a son name Cain, the human race has been tainted by the curse of sin that fell on both Adam and Eve when they sinned in the Garden of Eden. As such, we her children, are all born as sinners, under the curse and judgment of God. We read in,

Eccl 7:20 (NLT) "There is not a single person in all the earth who is always good and never sins."

Rom 3:23 (NLT) "For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard."

Rom 6:23 (NLT) "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

I've quoted these verse often, and only because they are truth that every soul across the globe must hear and believe to be saved. Indeed, one must in a sense be "lost" before they can be saved. To know one is lost, will drive them to seek God's remedy for sin, as the very first man and woman needed to do when they sinned. Although Eve was the only woman created without sin, she still transgressed God's clear commandment. We read further in,

Gen 3:1-7 (NLT) "Now the serpent was the shrewdest of all the creatures the LORD God had made. "Really?" he asked the woman. "Did God really say you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden?" 2 "Of course we may eat it," the woman told him. 3 "It’s only the fruit from the tree at the center of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God says we must not eat it or even touch it, or we will die." 4 "You won’t die!" the serpent hissed. 5 "God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. You will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil." 6 The woman was convinced. The fruit looked so fresh and delicious, and it would make her so wise! So she ate some of the fruit. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her. Then he ate it, too. 7 At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they strung fig leaves together around their hips to cover themselves."

Here begins the tragic legacy of man's painful and ruinous journey to the grave. Although Adam and Eve didn't immediately die, they did die instantaneously to the life of God. Their spirits died upon sinning, and what was left was simply going to run out and in the end face judgment. What's more, all the children who would be born of this first man and woman would inherit their sin nature they both received by disobeying and rebelling against God. Since that time, the entire human race is born sinful and needs to be saved from the coming eternal judgment God decreed upon the whole human race.

Now this brings us to a third consideration of Eve's uniqueness for,

#3 EVE WAS THE FIRT TO RECEIVE THE DIVINE PROPHECY & PROMISE OF THE GOSPEL - What a black day it was when in the Garden after sinning, and both their eyes were opened, that they saw themselves naked. Now this term naked (Gen 3:7,10-11), is a reference of course to their physical condition, for we are told they attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves. However, its implications go much further. Their nakedness also represented the life of God, gone out of them. The glory and brightness of God no longer "clothed" them with the shining pure light of God. We read in another portion of Scripture,

Psa 104:2 (NIV) "He [Creator God] wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent"

Exo 34:29 (NLT) "When Moses came down the mountain carrying the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face glowed because he had spoken to the LORD face to face."

In both of these verses, we are told that God is shrouded in the light of His purity and holiness. Moses was the recipient of it just because he stood in God's presence. The "Shikineh" glory is referred to actually have covered Moses' face. It was so bright they could not see him. Could this be the actual covering Adam and Eve had before physical clothing replaced it? I am of that opinion. However once sin entered the world, now things changed. It is here we are introduced to the first woman's third name ¾ "EVE." We read that after God pronounced the curse of sin and death upon them and all creatures, both of them I'm sure lost all hope. They were doomed. As they saw the serpent who was before a most beautiful creature able to stand upon legs, now slithered away in the grass. I'm sure both of them were horrified to think what was to be their fate. Yet God we know spoke to them in kindness and with softness. They too would eventually die, but then God offered them HOPE ¾ the GOOD NEWS GOSPEL which first appeared in embryo form at that very moment of despair! We read this exciting truth in,

Gen 3:15 (NASB) "And I will put enmity Between you [Satan] and the woman [Eve], And between your [Satan's] seed and her [Eve's] seed; He [Satan] shall bruise you on the head, And you [The woman's child] shall bruise him on the heel.""

Much has been written about this first gospel, or good news message. It is here Adam, a man with extreme brilliance and intrinsic intelligence far out reaching any human being today, created perfect with perfect knowledge knew what God was saying. We understand here, that God was prophesying that a day would come in human history, when those who followed Satan would attempt and carry out the most wicked plan to kill the human race and consign them all to Hell for eternity. But God made a promise here only understood in the light of further revelation that from the seed of the first woman, would come a Deliverer, who would SAVE them all from their sins and purchase for them the forgiveness they wanted desperately to receive. Paul the great apostle of the New Testament comments on this by saying,

Rom 16:20 (NIV) "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you."

Heb 2:14-15 (NIV) "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

When God spoke those words, it was the birth of hope and faith. Both Adam and his wife looked forward longingly, to an offspring born of them who would be "the Deliverer!" In is in this light and the dawning of God's grace in their hearts that Adam took it upon himself to rename his wife.

He gave her the name ¾ 3) EVE. This is the name given after their transgression and in the hope and faith of God's grace offered that day. The name "Eve" means "mother of all living," or "life".

Gen 3:20 (NLT) "Then Adam named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all people everywhere."

This by the way, was Adam's profession of faith in God's Word and promise. Now they were in the state of dying, and the sentence of death, physical and eternal was upon them, but "by faith" Adam declared that through EVE would come God's promised deliverer, a Savior of the world!

The woman's offspring would crush the head of Satan. Satan would be forever destroyed by a child Eve would bring forth. Thus they waited. We are told God then after the fall opened Eve's womb and she became pregnant.

Gen 4:1 (NIV) "Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.""

Both Adam and Eve, the mother of all living, named their firstborn, "CAIN," which means "brought forth or acquired." In colloquial language we would say, "I've got him, here he is!" actually Eve's words were like Adam's in renaming her Eve, a testimony of her faith and hope in God's Good News gospel promise to bring forth a redeemer. Mistakenly Eve and Adam thought this firstborn son, acquired from God, as her offspring, was THE deliverer! Apparently Satan thought so too, so he immediately worked to possess this man. Many scholars who've examined this Hebrew phraseology of Eve's words say, her exclamation can also be translated: "I've brought forth a man, even Jehovah[the Redeemer]." Although, how wrong they were, Eve's testimony upon the birth showed they both believed God. Yes, they believed God in grace and undeserved mercy would save them. They believed God that they were sinners and the judgment for sin, the curse upon the universes was justified. They believed that by no works of righteousness on their own could they ever merit God's forgiveness. The skins of the animals God slew in the Garden to re-clothe them in place of the man-made fig leaves was symbolic of their faith in the need for the shedding of blood and death of another to cover their sin. Indeed, the theology of the garden of Even, the doctrinal beliefs of this first man and woman are the same as those who believe historic Christianity today, and Both ADAM & EVE were staking their lies upon it!

Yes, although the first woman had the status of being unique among women, she also was nothing more than a sinner like you and me. But the difference between her and millions of her children is she BELIEVED GOD and was SAVED FROM HER SINS!

How about you? Do you believe in that promise in the Garden to your ancient grandparents? Do you believe you are born a sinner because you are a child of the human race? Do you believe the whole race is under a judgment of sin and eternal death? Do you believe that God fulfilled His promise to Adam and Eve by finally sending forth His own son as the Bible says,

Gal 4:4 (NIV) "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,"

Do you believe that this God/Man Jesus Christ died for your sins and God the Creator accepted His death on behalf of Adam and Eve and all their children ever to be born of them? If so I must ask: Have you put your full and final trust in Christ alone for that salvation, forgiveness and promise of eternal life? If so, you are truly a child of Adam & Eve, and more a child of God. The Bible says,

John 1:11-12 (NIV) "He {Jesus Christ, the Redeemer] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—"

This same message that began in the Garden of Eden is still with us, God's created children who came forth from our very first parents whose name was "Adam." May God grant you eyes to see, and ears to hear God's calling to you to come and receive Him,

Mat 11:28-29 (NIV) ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." That message still stands, the question is of whose "seed" are you? All who are of the spiritual "seed," of Eve, will find life eternal through Jesus Christ the Lord!

CLOSING SONG ___________________________________________________________

Eve, the mother of all, is one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible. Most of all, it is a true, historical and accurately filled with much truth for you to comprehend and accept. I trust you've done that or will do that today without delay. Well our times, gone so I'll close….

Thanks for listening today friend, we hope you enjoyed another broadcast of the World, the Word & You! Our program is designed with you in mind. In that light we offer a free cassette or printed copy of today message just for writing. Anywhere in the world we'll send it free of charge. Here's where to write. Address your letter of request to the World, the Word & You! Broadcast Post Office Box 575, St. Charles, MN 55972 USA. Meanwhile most of our broadcasts are heard on the weekend, so we invite you to attend a local bible believing church fellowship of your choice. Then be sure to tune us in again next week for another look at our world, God's Word & its' relationship to busy thinking people like you. This is Dennis Finnan, your host and commentator wishing you God's very best till we meet again, and praying for all who know not Christ to today call upon His worthy name for the salvation of their soul. God bless, have a wonderful day, good by for now.

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[1] "THE STORY OF EVE," by Dennis Finnan, a radio talk published on the website of "The World, the Word & You! Broadcast, ( http://www.wwy.org/wwy3296.html). Po Box 575. St. Charles, MN 55972

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 18 years, and serves as General Director.

These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(wwy@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.wwy.org/