L-R: Imam of Apo Mosque, Sheik Muhammed Khalid, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Dirctor-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr Mike Omeri, Primate of Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Nicholas Okoh and Executive Secretary, Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr John-Kennedy Opara, at the NOA’s conversation with religious leaders in Abuja, recently

And God said, let us make man in our own image,  likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Introduction:
The story of the Creation
of Man as contained in the Bible, continues to invoke thoughts among both the learned and unlearned in the society, and while some schools of thought accept the story hook line and sinker, others do not. The result of this divide has led to heated arguments, and thought provoking emotional debates from both sides. This is quite understandable due to the different orientations and religious backgrounds of the individuals or groups involved, and the heterogeneous nature of the society; thus bringing about a conflict of “Knowledge”. As a result, various theories have been propounded by intellectuals concerning the creation of Man; foremost
of which, is the Theory of Evolution as postulated by Charles Darwin. This theory posits that man has gradually evolved from a unicellular to a multicellular organism by means of natural and sexual selection. The Theory of Evolution, is an attempt
to negate the Bible story of the Creation of Man, with emphasis that man was not created, but has undergone a process of evolution, leading to the logical conclusion that man is not a direct creation of God as contained in the Bible. We are therefore confronted with two main viewpoints; the Religious and the Scientific.
The question is, which of these two views is correct; religion or science. It is this dicey situation that has prompted me to offer enlightenment on the subject matter. In truth, both Religion and Science are correct in their different perspectives. This is because while religion explains the creation story from a spiritual perspective, science makes its explanations from a physical
perspective. Thus, even though both explanations are correct, they cannot be the same.
The essence of this article is to harmonize the viewpoints of both Religion and Science, using the Laws of Creation as a foundation for all explanations.
In order to achieve our aim, we must first establish the fact that the Bible records Spiritual Happenings, while Science can only draw conclusions from physical occurrences. In other words, the account from the Bible is based on what can be seen with the spiritual eyes, 18
While religion explains the creation story from a spiritual perspective, science makes its expalanations from a physical perspective.  Thus, even though both explanations are correct, they cannot be the same.
All the accounts in the Bible are correct, and there is no contradiction, except in places where humans have supplemented what has been seen spiritually, with their intellectual knowledge. For example, the Bible when speaking about the creation of man, does not refer to man on earth alone, but to all Spiritual Beings, including man. The writers of the Bible, being guided by their intuition – which is  limited to time and space – were able to link up with the main power strearr and absorb as much as was possible for them given their maturity and spiritual development. Specific landmarks were given whenever there was a need for it. The domain of Divinity is widely different from the Spiritual.and the Spiritual also different from that of the Physical World of  Matter. In the order of hierarchy, Divinity is higher than Spirituality, and Spirituality, is also higher than the Physical World. And all this is duly represented in the story of the Creation of Man. Thus we have in Genesis 1:26-27 the following:
And God said, let us make Man in our own image, after our likeness: And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created Man in His own image, in the image of God created He  him; male and female created He them.     From the above reference, we are confronted with the following;
1. The Creation of Man was not a unilateral decision by God.
2 A wide consultation was made by God with other  persons who are part of His cabinet.
3. The form of Man i.e. what he should look like, was  jointly agreed between God and His cabinet members  whoever they may be.
4.       Man on earth is a likeness of the image of God.  In other words, Man is not an image of          God, but only a likeness of those who took after His image.
5.  From the beginning of Creation, God created Man and Woman together.  The implication of this statement is that man was not created before the woman.  They were both created male and female at the same time.
However, the Creation of Man takes a different dimension in Genesis 2:7 which records thus:
Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man out of it.  He breath into his nostrils and the man begin to live.
Again looking at the reference above, the Creation of Man is not similar to the first. This time.
1.Man was created alone, without a woman.
2.The Lord God had to personally come down to earth to gather the dust of the ground as his raw material for the creation of Man.
3.The molded form was not living until God breathed into his nostrils.
We certainly would agree to the fact that these were not the features of what we saw in Genesis1:26-27.
Nevertheless, a third reference from Genesis 2:18-23 read thus;
The Lord God said, it is not good for Man to live alone, I will give him a suitable companion to help him.  Then the Lord God made the man fall into deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. He formed a Woman out of the rib and brought her to him.  Then He said, at last, here is one of my kind-bone taken from my bone and flesh from my flesh.  Woman is her name because she was taken out of Man.
From the passage above, the following are obvious;
1.God had an afterthought that Man needed a companion in the person of a woman
2.God was short of raw material after creating man and so He had to put man into a deep sleep in order to take a rib from him to make woman.
3.This time God created man before creating woman, suggesting that they were not created at the same time.
Obviously, any unbiased reader would certainly say that the writers of the Bible are a bunch of confused human beings, and would conclude that the Bible is inconsistent and inaccurate.  However, if such a person is privileged to know where the writers were coming from, he will bow in shame at his lack of knowledge, and would immediately recognize that they were not out of their minds.  They gave to humanity accurate and very consistent spiritual accounts as best as they could, in view of the spiritual maturity of man at that time.  The problem of accuracy and consistency seems to be prevalent because man wants to measure spiritual matters by intellectual standards.  We must recognize that the Bible is a spiritual work and we can only understand its content with the intuitional brain, and not with the intellectual brain.
God Put Man into a Deep Sleep (Genesis 2:18-23).
The putting of man into a deep sleep as represented in the passage, does not refer to man on earth  but speaks of a Divine and spiritual happening today, through the Grail Message “In the light of truth”, we are permitted to know that the Divine Beings bear both positive and negative forms together, meaning they are neither male nor female.  They radiate the living cross of Truth from within them as an expression of Unity – completeness.  For this reason, they wear pinions expressing their lightness, in absolute loyalty to God the Father and selfless service, without a will of their own, but only swinging in the will of their Lord and King.  This being the case, we cannot  talk about, male and female beings in the Divine realm.

Apollos D. Dikibo

King David was a good man. He had a deep love for God a yearning for justice, and an affection for the lowly. Yet, this same good king committed adultery with the wife of one of his trusted men. And after David discovered that the wife Bathsheba, was pregnant by him he ultimately orchestrated the murder of her husband. He then married Bathsheba in an attempt to cover his crimes.-2 Samuel 11:1-27.

It is evident that humans have the capacity for doing much good. Why, then, are they responsible for so much evil? The Bible identifies several fundamental reasons. It also reveals how God by means of Christ Jesus will remove evil once and for all.

An Inclination Toward Badness

King David himself identified one cause of evil acts. After his crimes were exposed, he accepted full responsibility for his actions. He then remorsefully wrote:

“Look! With error I was brought forth with birth pains, and in sin my mother conceive children who would sin. However, when Eve and then Adam chose to rebel against God, they lost the ability to produce sinless children. (Romans 5: 12). As the imperfect human race increased in number, it became evident that “the inclination of the heart of man is bad from his youth up.” -Genesis 8:2 I.

If left unchecked, this inclination toward badness results in “fornication, … enmities, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, contentions, divisions, sects, envies,” and other de­structive behaviour that the Bible describes as “works of the flesh. II (Galatians 5:19­21). In the case of King David, he gave in to fleshy weakness and committed fornication, which resulted in strife.

(2 Samuel 12: 1-12) He could have resisted his immoral inclination. Instead, by dwelling on his desire for Bathsheba, David followed the pattern later described by the disciple James: “Each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin; in turn, sin, when it has been accomplished, brings forth death.” -James 1: 14, 15.

Evil Feeds on Ignorance The Apostle Paul’s experience highlights a second reason why people do evil things. By the time he died, Paul had gained a reputation as a gentle, affectionate man.

He had expended himself unselfishly in the service of his Christian brothers and sisters. (I Thessalonians 2:7­9. Earlier in his life, though, when he was known by the name Saul, he was “breathing threat and murder against this very same group. (Acts ‘9:1,2) Why did Paul condone and participate in the evil acts perpetrated against the early Christians? “Because I was ignorant; he says. 1 Timothy I: 13) Yes, Paul formerly had “a zeal for God; but  not according to accurate knowledge. II-Romans 10:2.

Like Paul, many sincere people have engaged in evil acts because of a lack of accurate knowledge of God’s will. For example, Jesus  warned his followers: “The hour is coming when everyone that kills you will image he has rendered a sacred service to God.1 I (John 16:2)  Jehovah’s present-day witnesses experience the truth of Jesus’ words. In many lands, they have been persecuted and even murdered by people claiming to serve God. Obviously, such misguided zeal does not please the true God.- I Thessalonians 1:6.

The Originator of Evil Jesus identified the principal reason for the existence of evil. Addressing the religious leaders who were intent on killing him, he said: “You are from your father the devil”.

Saul condoned evil acts because he lacked accurate knowledge

Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began.” (John 8:44) It was Satan who for selfish reasons enticed Adam and Eve into rebelling against God. That rebellion introduced sin and thus death to all mankind.

Satan’s murderous disposition was further exposed in the way in which he dealt with Job. When Jehovah granted him permission to test Job’s integrity, Satan was not content with stripping Job of his possessions. He also caused the death of his ten children. (Job 1: 9-19) In recent decades, mankind has experienced a surge in evil because of human imperfec­tion and ignorance and also as a result of Satan’s increased meddling in human affairs. The Bible reveals that the Devil was “hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.” That same prophecy accurately foretold [hat Satan’s confinement would produce unprecedented “woe for the earth.” While Satan cannot force people to do evil things, he is a master at “misleading the entire inhabited earth.” ­Revelation 12:9,12.

Culled from Awake.

How should the people of God use the spiritual weapons of prayer and faith to pull down the strongholds of pride and other evils in the lives of corrupt political and church leaders? First, Christians need to believe that God will answer such prayers because he has commanded them to prayer this way. This will enable them to pray strong prayers of faith which will have the effect of moving mountains of problems (Mk. 11:22-24). Their prayers should be based on the promises and commandments of the word of God (another spiritual weapon). Such prayers will be used by God to cause His will to be done in that government. This is exactly what God wants to accomplish through the prayers of his people.

Jesus taught his disciple to pray, ‘your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Mt. 6:10). Why would Christians be taught to pray for God’s will to be done on earth if it was not God’s intention to answer such prayers? Christians should therefore pray something such as the following for their government: ‘God, cause your will to be done through this government as it is done in heaven – whatever it takes to make that happen’. It is so important that we pray for government leaders and official that God does not leave it up to us to think of this. He commands us to do it (Tim. 2:1-2). What would happen in a country if the people of every local church in that country were to devote one whole day each month to fasting and prayer for their government official? It is hard to predict exactly what would happen, but it is unquestionable that something very good for the people of that country would take place. Concerning prayer, the apostle James tells us, ‘you do not receive, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motive, that you may spend what you get on your pleasure’ (Jas. 4:2-3). The point is this. If the people of God learned to pray for the right things, with the right motives, they would see God do unbelievable things in response to their prayers. One of the great secrets of the Bible which the devil does not want Christians to understand is that God really will cause His will to be done on earth in response to their prayers.

As an example of this, God has commanded us to make disciple of all nations (Mt. 28:19) This commandment shows us one part of the will of God. But to make disciples, people must go to other people with the gospel. Hence we are commanded by Christ to pray for people to do this. Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field’ (Matthew 9:37-38). If we will obediently pray for such workers, God will raise up people to carry out the great commission and this part of God’s will can be done.         In another example, God had already revealed through the prophet Jeremiah that the Hebrew people would return from Babylonian captivity 70 years after their captivity had begun (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10). Yet, when the time of captivity came to an end, God moved the man Daniel to pray that the Hebrews would indeed be restored to the holy city of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:2-3). In other words, God caused His will to be done in response to prayer even though God had already said that it would be done.

How do we discover God’s will in other matters so that we will know how to pray for the will of God to be done?  By reading the word of God. The Bible reveals the will of God to us for every part of life. The Bible will not give us an answer to every specific question we may have such as, should I travel to such – and – such a city today? Instead, the Bible gives us principles and examples through stories of how the will of God applies to different parts of life. By following these principles and the examples of godly peoples, we will understand the will of God. In this way we will know how to pray about most situations. Even when we don’t know how to pray for a particular situation we have the following amazing promise from God. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, put the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Rom. 8:26-27)

It is the clearly revealed will of God that Christians should pray for their leaders. If we will pray for them, we can have faith that God will answer our prayers (1Jn. 5:14-15). If we will obediently pray for government and church leaders as we are commanded to do and if our hearts are free from known sin when we pray (Isa. 59:1-2), God will do something to answer our prayers in spite of how corrupt such leader may be. He may change the hearts or attitudes of such leaders, or he may bring judgment upon them for their evil doing, or he may remove them completely, but he will respond to our prayers in some way because he has promised to do so (Jn. 15:7; 16:23-24). As much as possible, it is helpful to be specific when praying for government or church leaders. It is good to pray that they will be effective leaders. It is even better to pray that they will be given the wisdom of God and the willingness to act on this wisdom, in order to care for the specific needs and problems in their administration. African governments have enormous problems in matters such as poverty, inadequate health care, unemployment, injustice and other things. In response to prayer, God can give leaders the wisdom to known how to deal with such problem and, most important, the will to act in the right way. Leaders often know what to do but they do not have the will to do it because of their sinful desires. The Holy Spirit can give them the motivation to do what is right in response to the church’s prayers. The Bible says, ‘for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (Phil. 2:13).

In one African country recently, earnest prayer was made to God for the government to find a way to ease the problem of unemployment. After a few weeks, the government came out with an unusual policy which encouraged wealthy nationals who had left the country to return for the purpose of making investment and setting up new business. The policy offered such attractive financial advantages to do this that many nationals who had left the country began to return to set up businesses. This in turn had left effect of creating jobs for people and easing the burden of unemployment and poverty. It is also good to ask God to restrain government and church officials from evil tendencies and corrupt practices and, if necessary, to punish them if they persist in their evil doing. If we fail to pray as we have been commanded, we will only have ourselves to blame for increasingly evil and oppressive practices by such officials. When we do pray for government officials, God choose to answer our prayers in a way we did not expect. We may, however, pray with confidence that God will answer in his way and in his own time, since we are praying according to the specific command of Scripture.

In the case of corrupt church leaders, it may be necessary and right at certain times for church members to join together and remove such leaders if they refuse to repent of their corrupt practices. Leaders in the church of Jesus Christ are appointed by God to be servants, not to be kings. The apostle Peter wrote the following words to church leaders, “Be shepherds of God flock that is under your care, serving as overseers – not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but being examples to the flock.” (1Pet. 5:2-3). When church leaders begin to use their position for selfish purposes rather than for serving God’s people, such leaders need to be disciplined or removed. The church should not tolerate corrupt church leadership.