Were We Really Made in the Image of God?
God is spirit and light and exists in the spiritual realm. He is the creator of the universe and all living things. We are flesh and bone, and Earth is our home. We have 98.4 percent of the same genes as chimpanzees, which indicates we are closely related (WGBH Educational Foundation and Clear Blue Sky Productions, Inc. 2001). Yet, the written Word of God informs us that we are made in God's image and after His likeness. God's Word is truth. There is no need for believers to worry that if they search deep enough or think long enough they will prove that God's Word is faulty.
We don't know how man first came to be because we don't know what kind of man God created on Day Six, nor do we know the nature of the man that He placed within the Garden of Eden. The reason we lack knowledge about the kind of man He created on Day Six and the kind of man He formed to be placed in the Garden of Eden is because we don't know the true nature of a creation day. This lack of knowledge concerning a creation day would disappear if we had a better understanding of the Trinity and if we understood that the Trinity was the pattern for the creation of each of the creation days.
On Day Six God created man in His image and after His likeness. You probably heard this statement a countless number of times. In fact, I used this statement many times in my book, but the fact is that this statement is not completely correct. Let's look again at what God really said.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: . . . (Genesis 1:26).
When it came to the making of man, it was a team effort that got the job completed. God the Father, God the Son or Word, and God the Holy Spirit all had their part in the creation of man. Leaving out the words "Let us" makes the statement easier to read and understand, but it also covers up an essential clue to how man was created.
In the second part of the first sentence in Genesis 1:26, it is written "in our image, after our likeness." Man was created in the image and after the likeness of God the Father, God the Son or Word, and God the Holy Spirit. It is much easier to say that man was created in His image and after His likeness rather than in their image and after their likeness, but in doing this we lose two more essential clues to the mystery of the creation of man.
On Day Six, God the Father, God the Word, and God the Holy Spirit created man in their image and after their likeness. At that time, man did not have 98.4 percent of the same genes as a chimpanzee, but man was created as a creation day, or spiritual law. As interesting as it is, creation of man on Day Six is only the first step of man's journey to his present-day condition. God's forming of living soul man of the Garden of Eden was the next step of man's journey, and then God's creating the son-of-man species here upon the earth was the last step. He did so by applying spirit from living soul man to the spirits of early physical men. Mankind is the product of God's spoken Word and God-based evolution.
Christians don't need to deny scientific facts; we only need to understand biblical truths. We need to open our Bibles and our minds and have the courage to seek understanding. I am not asking you to doubt the Bible because it is never wrong. It is our understanding of God's written Word that sometimes needs updating.
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Author: faithful777
Location: Asheville North Carolina USA
Gender: Male
Age: 61
Blog Entries: 8 (archive)
Blog Comments: 0
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about twenty years ago, i came to a crossroad in my life. deep inside, i needed to know if god was real or if he was only a crutch for weak-minded people. i started searching the bible for answers. i did not get very far in my quest to find...
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