Let me start.
"men is created in the image of God"
This statement certainly doesnt imply any phsycal likeness to God.
Scripture teaches that God is a spirit and doesnt have physical
parts like a man(John 4:24) The bible uses anthropomorphic
expressions, such as"the hand of God" only to accommodate our human
incapacity to think in any other terms. The strong prohibitation
against man's representing God by graven image was given becauseno
one had ever seen God; therefore, no one could know wad he looks
like. Nothing on earth can represent his spirit(deut 4:15-23)
The image of God in man has to do, rather, with personality.
According to D.M. edwards, ""Man has a free, self consious,
rational personality like that of God. A nature, capable of
distinguishing right and wrong, and of ascending to the hights of
spiritual attainment and communication with God""
The feeling qualities of feeling, sorrow, communicateing and desire
for relationship are part of His personality
--The original man was
intelligent. he could give names to all the animals when
they were presented to him(gen2:19-20). He had the power of
reasoning and thought, as displayed by SIS. In speaking, he could
connect words and ideas. he could and did commune with God.
--Moral and spiritual
qualities differenciated humankind from all other creatures. God's
image gave then an awareness, a sense of right and wrong(gen.
3)This 'knowing' from God means that God's people love love and
hate evil and differenciate between the two options. This is not an
optional software! the new testament calls this 'conscience'.
--Individual seperateness
distinguishes the God and mankind from each other-each beinghis own
person. All people are endowed with God's image and seperate form
all other ppl. Obviously,I am not you and you r not me and neither
of us is God.
The significance of this seperatenessis that it clarifies our
understanding of God as an approchable individual. He is not an
amorphous blob, a genie, a pgost, or even 'the force'. We can
communicate person-to-person and understand each other.
above is 100% had typed, so pls read seriously.thx
Got this thing from the book. Christians here, any questions?
