New Revelation distinguishes between men carrying the
spark of divine spirit, who are descended from Adam, and the "pre-Adamites" or primeval men (also called animal-men). According to the details given by Jakob Lorber, the human-like
animal-men (called hominids by scientists) existed for "many million years" before Adam. This is something scientists have only discovered a few years ago. Before that, the view was that hominids populated the earth from several hundred thousand years.
Lorber also reported quite correctly that the different types of
pre-Adamites were after very long periods of time replaced by slightly higher developed species.
Scientists have had to correct their views again and again
over the last hundred years, to such an extent that one feels inclined to say, "Errors are the most enduring thing in the
world." The remarkable thing is that scientific findings are gradually coming closer and closer to Jakob Lorber's disclosures. It has already been shown in an earlier chapter that this also applies in other fields of science.
At certain intervals, the public has in recent decades been informed by scientists that the "missing link" in the evolution of man from animals has been found.
When the first complete skeleton of a Neanderthal man was
found near La Chapelle sur Saints in the 1880's, the Director of the Institute of Human Palaeontology in Paris, Marcellin Boule, published a report saying that this was the missing link between ape and man. This strange item of information was even repeated in the textbooks, and the skeleton was gaped at
by the credulous public as it made its round of exhibitions on all continents.
In 1894, a similar sensation was caused by Eugène Dubois
when he published his Pithecanthropus Erectus, maintaining that a "humanoid transition form found in Java" was the real missing link. It appeared that the gap had been closed, and the theory of evolution could now be considered scientifically proven. Palaeanthropologists gifted with imagination even believed they could discern a capacity for speech from the conformation of the skull, though anatomy does not permit conclusions as to brain capacity. Again, the sensation was soon over. Dubois had to accept the view of other scientists that
Pithecanthropus - not, by the way, a suitable term - a skeleton approximately 500,000 years old, also was not the missing link they were looking for.
The next sensation come in 1911 and 1912, and this time the
evidence seemed convincing. The skull of a modern man was found in a ditch on Piltdown near Lewea in Sussex. The condition of the find suggested that it was several hundred thousand years old, and it also had dental features that were peculiar to a human skull. It took a long time for the truth to be discovered. In 1948, fluorine tests showed the "fossil" that had been such a puzzle to be a sophisticated forgery. "The lower jaw of a chimpanzee had been provided with human molars by filing off the eminences on the teeth, and made to appear as a fossil by treating it with some chemical such as potassium permanganate." 40 ... (This forgery was almost perfect; the forger ist still unknown.)
Later, it was for a long time thought that Homo sapiens descended from the australopithecines who had lived during the Ice Age which had lasted about a million years (recent researches have shown it to be much longer. Frank furter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19.8.1970). This assumption had to be abandoned some years ago in view of finds made by Leakey Jr. in Africa.
Heberer wrote: "... as to whether the pre-hominid Australopithecines of Africa indicate the area of transition from animal to man, the final chord to hominization, - this is a question that has not been answered." 41 "The australopithecines died out before they could establish the link." (Frank furter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 25, 1968)
Scientists were now forced to put the dichotomy (branching) event further and further back in the Tertiary system. "According to the latest discoveries in palaeontology, the line leading to the development of man, with Ramapithecus, probably branched off during the Oligocene, the middle epoch in the Tertiary system, more than 25 million years ago, from a root common to man and the apes. Pre-men therefore would have been widely distributed during the Miocene epoch in the Tertiary system, i.e., 10 to 25 million years ago." 42
Heberer had to admit that views were changing rapidly and all the time, adding: "A mere three years ago, the point where the human line became independent was placed in the Pliocene, 10 million years ago." (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 25.9.1968)
The further one goes back through the Tertiary epochs, the more vague are the statements. The following words written by Heberer show the extent to which evolutionists had now become uncertain. "If we consider the historical outline modern genetic anthropology has drawn for the evolution of hominids, it has to be stressed that this is always only the current view, based on the present state of knowledge" 43 In his book Homo (1968), Heberer was ten years later speaking merely of "theories" and "hypotheses" (pp. 15, 22, and 27). For decades before, experts had spoken out against the certainty shown by Heberer, and Gehlen had written to him: "The classical theory assumes a certainty quite out of keeping with the subject matter, and it needs a very careful look to see where uncertainty does show itself." 44
Opinions differ widely as to in which of the Tertiary epochs the ancien membre is to be sought, for it is all based on hypothesis. Heberer put the moment of dichotomy 25 million years back, but American anthropologists hold completely different views. Wilson and Sarich mentioned 4 or 5 million years, and C. O. Lovejoy (Kent State University) and A. H. Burstein and K. G. Heiple (Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland) are of the opinion that the dichotomy occurred about 14 million years ago. 45
A Swiss scientist, Johannes Huerzeler, goes four times as far back as the Americans. He assumes the common root to lie in the Eocene, 60 million years ago. 46
Another renowned expert, Koenigswald, finally spoke the truth in a German radio broadcast (ZDF) on January 28, 1970, saying: "When and where the dichotomy occurred is not known. All intermediate forms died out about 25 million years ago. We do not know the common ancestor."
With no fossils of any significant value found for a period of 12 million years, one also cannot speak of a genealogical tree in any realistic sense. There has been such an increase in criticism of the theory of evolution, expressed by experts in the field, that evolutionists have grown wary also in their references to a geneaological tree. Heberer, for instance, was now speaking only of a "system of phylogenetic relations." Literally his words were: "The genealogical trees, better and more cautiously referred to as systems showing phylogenetic relationships... " 47
With anthropologists continuing to be speculative, it is not surprising that at a Chicago Congress in 1965, in which three hundred prominent anthropologists, biologists, zoologists and geneticists were taking part, no agreement could be reached on the many questions that still remain open. 48
There have also been other scientific findings that have severely embarrassed the theory. The classical view is that the line of man's evolution must gradually in time come closer and closer to modern man. This is a feature that logically should be inherent in evolution. Unfortunately the fossils refuse to
oblige scientists in this respect. The Swanscombe skull, 250,000 years old, is almost indistinguishable from that of modern man, whilst the skull of Spy Man, only about 40 or 50,000 years old -
the typical Neanderthal type-has a low forehead and a prominent brow ridge. 49
These findings simply do not fit into the evolutionist scheme,
as is openly stated in Der Mensch der Vorzeit (Early Man) (1971): The developmental trends observed on Neanderthal of this period were indeed puzzling. It had the appearance as though he had grown more 'primitive' rather than progressive. The latest fossils known from Europe are even more powerfully built and massive, with even more prominent brow ridges than their ancestors." 50
The glittering image of gradual transition proved to be unrealistic in its crucial aspect. The theory of tiny steps that was to support the monistic theory of evolutionism, in conjunction with
random chance recurring over and over again, had been shown to be useless as a prop. Heribert Nilsson realized this early: "We get no further with Lamarck, Darwin and de Vries." 51 And we now read in scientific works: "It is not only that suddenly no more Neanderthalers are to be found, but we just as suddenly come across men of our kind. There is no overlap, no gradual transition from one type to another. It seems as if modern people had come rushing in, driving away Neanderthal Man, and
indeed perhaps even killing him." 52
Gottfried Kurz says in the work edited by Heberer (1964): "In Europe, classical early men and the first classical modern men confront one another without any transition, sharply defined as
to morphology, and the subject of a genetic dichotomy finally has to be dropped" 53
Neanderthal Man was 35,000 years ago followed by Cromagnon Man. It is quite unknown where this race originated. It suddenly appeared. It even produced some individuals with artistic talents. Generally speaking, however, the achievements of Cro-Magnon are greatly overestimated. Some authors are
very much inclined to project their own inventions onto nature, like one scientist who assumes that Neanderthal Man must have "been on the verge of becoming an aesthete and a mystic. 55
Experts say of Cro-Magnon that "we have invented more talents for him than he really merits. This may explain why so many pictures and drawings attempting to reconstruct his daily life present the wrong image. He is only too often shown as a kindly, philosophical person with nothing but pure motives and
thoughts, who apent a great deal of time teaching bright-eyed youngsters how to make tools and do cave-paintings. But this no doubt is a false conclusion. We know absolutely nothing to indicate that Cro-Magnon Man was pure and noble. Quite the contrary, he undoubtedly was just as cruel, unreliable, emotional, restless and superstitious as most of the backward people of today and many who call themselves enlightened." 56
Some of the leg bones found among Cro-Magnon fossils had
been broken open, "as if someone had been after the marrow... " "That would suggest cannibalism... " 57
Until a few years ago, anthropologists were only able to make
guesses as to pre-man's ability to speak. "We know nothing about the way Cro-Magnon Man communicated with his peers, nor about the words he may have used. And this is something we never shall know." 58 The author may be wrong on this count. Professor Liebermann, University of Connecticut, stated at the Annual Meeting of the American Acoustics Society in Washington in 1971, that just like a newborn infant and an adult chimpanzee, Neanderthal Man lacked a pharungeal cavity and also
much of the part of the pharynx lies between mouth and larynx. His pharynx would not have been capable of producing normal articulated speech and it would have been impossible to teach him a language. 59
120 years ago, Jakob Lorber received verbal inspirations that led him to write many things about hominids that modern science has confirmed as correct. Regarding "speech", Lorber
wrote: "They do not have speech of the kind now common among people, but their sounds, signs and gestures are better articulated than those of even the most highly developed animals and they are able to communicate what they desire to communicate." (Gr VIII 72)
Until just a few years ago, scientists believed that hominids
had existed only some hundred thousand years ago. Lorber wrote in his day that the pre-Adamites populated the earth for "many million years." (Gr VIII 72)
In the last twenty years, the ancestral line has been changed again and again, whenever hominid fossils from an earlier time were found. Homo habilis (Skilful Man) gave way to Sinanthropus who was slightly older, at 1.7 million years. In 1972, Richard Leakey discovered the skull of a hominid at Lake Rudolf in Kenya that is dated 2.6 million years back. 60 In 1974, Dr. Carl Johanson, an anthropologist from Cleveland University reported a new find in Ethiopia said to be 3 million years old. 61 Portmann finally holds the view, like many others, that hominid forms existed no less than 10 or 12 million years ago. 62
In this particular case, therefore, the disclosures made by the prophet Jakob Lorber have come true. All the theories that later were to prove untenable found their adherents, believers in science, who apparently never even noticed the frequent changes. Yet the statement made in the Bible, that God created animals and man, has come to be disbelieved more and more. The declaration that such an interpretation is unscientific has almost the same magical effect today as when medieval monks said, "It says so in the Bible."
There even are certain intellectual circles among Catholics where reference to God in scientiiic literature appears to be no longer acceptable. This is indicated at least by certain omissions. "In the sixth edition of the eleven-volumed Staatslexikon published by the Catholic Goerres Society, for example, it says: "... Catholic theology expressly speaks of justifiable 'methodological atheism' in individual sciences which within their area of competence no longer require God as hypothesis, factor or result" (1st Supplement). 63
Evolutionism denies that Adam was created by the hand of God. Yet there is one fact carrying the greatest logical conviction which militates against this. Archaeologists have shown, and it is the agreed view, that about 6000 years ago there was a very sudden upsurge of spirit in man, and the effects of this have found reflection in a wide variety of cultural documents. "The first beginnings of recordable human history occurred about 6200 years ago in the Nile Valley", Dobzhansky has written. Within just a few centuries there was a cultural awakening in many different areas." 64 "No other discovery," P J. Wiseman stated, "had caused more surprise than that of the suddenness with which civilization arose in the world. It was the exact opposite of what had originally been assumed." 65
This fact completely annihilates the theory of gradual transition. But on the other hand there also is no macro-evolution, as Heberer and other evolutionists admit. He has expressly stated that the transition from the subhuman to the "human" phase, i.e., the appearance of a man who now also had the "conditio humana", the mental qualities of man, does not admit of any "abrupt major change" according to the laws of evolution theory. That, he declared, would not be in accord with phylogenetic probability.66 What happened about 4000 B.C. was not evolution, but without doubt a new creation. Random chance, that evolutionist stopgap, has had its day. Common sense points to the one road left open - to God.
Let us take a closer look at conditions on earth at the time of Adam's creation. Suddenly there was an end to the vegetating life of the pre-Adamites who in millions of years had not produced anything capable of changing the earth. New Revelation established this at a time when scientists had not yet come to speak of hominids. "Although the fifth pre-evolutionary period of earth continued for many millions of years, no progressive culture of any kind was to be found among these (pre-)humans, and they continued to live their monotonous nomadic lives. (Gr VII 72)
The moment of new creation as given in New Revelation agrees exactly with that determined by archaeologists. In Gr V 72 it says that Adam, who received a spark of the divine spirit and was endowed with a high degree of intelligence, was created about 6000 years ago. "Like every other creature, man was put into the material world complete and perfect by Me, at the same time being endowed with the ability to procreate that was to come later... " (Gr XI p. 253)
The sudden light of human intellect, a power quite unknown until then, was something utterly new and exciting. Within a short time, cities and kingdoms arose. Literacy developed, and law and justice were invented, temples and pyramids built. Soon they succeeded in smelting metals. The oldest metallic artefacts found in the Caucasus are about 5000 years old. Archaeologists have assigned them to the Copper Age. 67 Seafaring and trade also developed.
Adam was put on this earth at a time when climatic conditions had become favorable, compared to earlier times. Professor H. E. Wright, Director of the Center of Limnological Research at the University of Minnesota has used the reliable method of pollen analysis and according to Science found the following: About 11,000 years ago, the Zagros Mountains (Kabir Kuh) in the highlands of Iran and Anatolia were still a cold steppe at altitudes between 600 and 2000 meters. It was only after this time that the percentage of tree pollen - from oaks as well as pistachios - began to grow steadily. The climate was gradually getting warmer, providing the right conditions for a savanna of oaks and pistachios. For 8000 years, the proportion of oak pollen has been steadily rising in pollen samples taken from Lake Seribar and Mirabad. Precipitations increased until 5500 years ago, and by that time, mixed oak woods covered between 50 and 70 percent of that countryside, as they do to this day. Then, new wild cereal grasses made their appearance, and a beginning could be made with the domestication of animals and of grains. 68
Recent studies indicate that domestication of animals started about 8000 B.C., with the keeping of goats in Iran and Palestine. Later sheep and dogs were also tamed. Pig keeping has been established in Thessaly and northern Iraq since 7000 B.C. 69 Lorber also says that the hominids, i.e., men living on earth before Adam, kept animals. "They (the pre-Adamitea) continued in the lowlands until Adam came." (More high-lying ground was steppe in those days - as stated above.) Shortly before Adam was created, "the whole pre-Adamite race we have described perished almost completely, with its domestic animals." (Gr VIII 72)
There have been occasional reports of settlement in towns dating earlier than 4000 B.C. by the radio-carbon method. Such statements are rather doubtful, for experts have described the method as unreliable. "Errors in radio-carbon dating of marine deposits may be of the order of magnitude of several thousand years" (Science, 16 August 1963). Elsewhere this highly regarded journal speaks of the unreliable nature of this method, citing the work done in dating the prehistoric village called Jarom in the northeast of Iraq. Eleven dating procedures indicated that it was inhabited for 6000 years. All the archaeological evidence, however, shows that it was at most inhabited for 500 years. 70
At a conference held in Heidelberg in 1968, German scientists
also drew attention to the unreliability of carbon dating (C14). According to Professors Milojcic (Heidelberg) and Willkommen (Kiel), doubt arose because it was known that the atmosphere contained much higher carbon levels in earlier millennia than today. According to Professor Milojcic, the C14 method, which is very difficult to handle, has misled scientists. 71
Adamite Man is not in the least comparable with pre-Man, whom Lorber also aptly named animal-Man. There is a deep gulf between them. "Every human being born onto the earth receives a spirit out of Me and is able, according to the given ordinance, to attain to fully being a Child of God." (EM 53) "It was only Adamite Man who received the sensitivity of feeling, of being aware, of a power that stirs the soul to recognize and seek its Creator." (Gr XI p. 25)
This is the indescribably great difference between Adam and Cro-Magnon Man as well as all other hominids.
Dacqué refers to the faculty possessed by the hominids as "having natural vision", being "naturally somnambulant". What they lacked, and what distinguishes Adam, is the ability of abstract thought and of spiritual freedom and therefore free will. Only spirit-gifted man was able to produce a high level of civilization out of nothing within a few centuries, with no example before him. The time given for man's origin in Adam in New Revelation, about 4000 B.C., agrees exactly with the sudden, explosive development of advanced civilization.
The evolutionists refuse to accept the difference between man and animal. As they are not prepared to acknowledge the existence of a divine spirit, they consider the human body to have evolved from the animal body, despite the fact that it has proved impossible to substantiate this theory and that everything points to creation by a divine power and wisdom. As animals also have intelligence, they hold that the difference in nature between man and animal is merely one of degree. Yet, as Rothacker has stated quite rightly, the difference is not merely quantitative but very much also qualitative. "A gradual enhancement of animal intelligence could in no way lead to human intelligence." 72 "Man is capable of transcendence, the animal absolutely not.'' 73