The Sixth Day or Epoch

As the carbon-laden atmosphere became more pure, vegetation became less rank. The animals changed correspondingly. The heavy-boned Sloth and Mammoth gave place to less bony varieties of animals, common today.

The specialization in the case of man's creation is shown in his vast superiority over the lower animals. The first man, Adam, was an image of his Creator, the highest type of fleshly or animal being. That image of his Creator consisted in his moral and intellectual likeness. It is difficult to judge from present human conditions all that is meant by God's image, because we have no sample of perfect humanity for comparison. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" in which Adam was created. (Psalm 8:5.) Sin and Death have reigned and the Godlikeness has been lost. All need Restitution.

It was toward the close of the Sixth Day, or approximately forty-two thousand years from the time of beginning the ordering of Earth, that God created Man.

The image of God from this standpoint would mean a human being thoroughly in tune with the Infinite One, one that would have no unrighteousness nor iniquity in him. Adam's transgression was not the result of ignorance, nor of pure wilfulness. It was the result of temptation, which his limited knowledge accentuated. His responsibility was for the knowledge he possessed. He knew that he was disobeying God.

When thinking of man in the image of God, we instinctively look back to "The Man Christ Jesus," "holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners," and like the first Adam, whose penalty He came into the world to meet.--1 Cor.15:22.

"After Our likeness let him have dominion." Adam's dominion over the lower animals was like God's dominion over the Universe. Angels, although in God's image, do not have a Godlike dominion over creatures of a lower order. Man's dominion, overthrown by sin, is to be restored by Messiah's Kingdom.--Acts 3:19-21.