Made In God’s Image

Posted on April 24, 2015 by KD Manes under Bible Study

Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So He created man in his own image, in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1:26-27

In these verses God shifts from third person, “And God said, ‘Let there be . . .” to first person, “Let us make man in our image.” Although it’s difficult to comprehend, we see the triune Godhead at work (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). One member is speaking to the other member(s).

It’s like God is holding a divine meeting on the sixth day of Creation and decides to “place the cherry (mankind) on top” of all He has created. After breathing life into them, He gives them charge over all the earth, fish, and animals.

“Man” is used here as a generic term, which includes female. (Genesis 2 details the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve.)

What Does “Made In God’s Image” Mean?

Although we probably can’t grasp the full significance of this truth now, we know that humans are the most complex and highly organized of all God’s earthly creatures. Besides physical bodies, other attributes that we don’t share with the animals include:

Moral consciousness
Understanding of emotion and beauty
Ability to think abstractly
The capacity to worship, fellowship, and love God. Henry M. Morris (The Genesis Record) writes, “This eternal and divine dimension of man’s being must be the essence of what is involved in the likeness of God.”

But if God is spirit (John 4:24) and omnipresent, how can we be made in His image?

Morris writes: “God designed and formed man’s body to enable it to function physically in ways in which He Himself could function, even without a body. God can see (Gen. 16:13), hear (Psalm 94:9), smell (Gen. 8:21), touch (Gen. 32:32), and speak (II Pt. 1:18), whether or not He has actual physical eyes, ears, nose, hands, mouth. Furthermore, whenever He has designed to appear visibly to men, He has done so in the form of a human body (Gen. 18:1-2).”

Christ Himself was the image of God (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4). Morris continues: “It does not seem too much to infer that God made man in the image of that body which He would Himself one day assume (Heb. 10:5; Luke.1:35; Phil. 2:7).”

Although we are marred by sin—and are not equal to God—His original, unique work of the human body manifests a part of God’s glory. When God redeems an individual, He begins to renew him/her in the original image of God. He creates a “new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). His redemption is made possible through faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior from the sin that separates us from Him (Eph. 2:8-9). We are made new creations—in the likeness of God—through Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

If—or when—you feel insignificant, remember: You are uniquely crafted by the Master Creator of the universe. He has put much thought and pleasure into designing you. Not only does He have a special purpose specifically for you, but He also declares His work “very good!”

*This article is also posted in the Gospel Blog by FEBC at http://blog.febc.org/made-in-gods-image/

A Young or Old Earth? (Genesis 1)

Posted on April 17, 2015 by KD Manes under Bible Study

From the beginning of creation, God ‘made them male and female.” Mark 10:6

The idea of God creating the earth 15 billion years before placing the first people on earth doesn’t add up. But it makes sense if He placed people on earth shortly after He created it.

When did God create our earth?

As summarized in The Foundations, by Ken Ham, the following two accounts of history are complete opposites:

Evolution/Millions of Years           Biblical Creation 
Big bang                              No big bang

Billions of years                     Thousands of years

Death has always been here            Death is an intrusion—it’s an enemy

Man and woman from ape-like creatures/Man from dust; woman from his side

No global flood                       Global flood

No purpose and meaning                Purpose and meaning

Strong Evidence for a Young Earth

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, teaches that the Bible clearly teaches a young earth and universe.

We have the preservation of God’s eyewitness account of the earth’s history along with Jesus Christ’s repeated endorsements during His earthly ministry.
Given God’s careful chronological details of the universe’s creation in six literal days, as well as the unbroken genealogies from Adam to Jesus, Ken writes: “We have absolutely no doubt that the earth is only around six thousand years old.”
Although there are hundreds of dating methods to age-date earth things, there are problems when it comes to dating our universe. For it to work one has to: 1) know something about how it started, and 2) how it has changed over time. The problem is, we weren’t there in the beginning, or there to check over all those years. Ken Ham writes: “Of all the dating methods you can use to age-date things on the earth, 90% of them actually contradict billions of years.”

Honestly, I haven’t always given this question much thought—whether the earth is billions of years old or new (4,000 – 10,000 years old). It was never an issue for me; it certainly isn’t a salvation issue. But After viewing Ken Ham’s The Foundations DVD series and beginning Henry Morris’ book, The Genesis Record, God is challenging me to sharpen my view of this account in His Word. . . . The following is what I find most disturbing.

Destroyed Foundations

Ken cites that the foundations of God’s authoritative Word in Western culture have been destroyed, beginning with one’s interpretation of Genesis 1-11. And that the hot social issues of today—abortion, moral relativism, gay marriage—are really symptoms of not adhering to God’s absolutes found in His Word.

The millions of years/evolution is the curriculum used in most of our public schools. The church at large has changed foundation by adopting man’s word into the Bible—adding millions of years/evolution—instead of using God’s Word as the starting point.

Two thirds of our young people leave the church when they reach college age. Why? A main reason is their view of the church’s hypocrisy. They see the church compromising God’s Word with the pagan religion of the age instead of taking God’s Word literally as the recorded six 24-hour days of Creation week, (and one day of rest).

Their reasoning: If the Bible can’t be trusted here—Genesis 1-11—then the remainder of the Bible can’t be trusted either. This not only undermines the very Word of God and turns people away from it, but also undermines the history foundational to all doctrine.

Secularists see this and are seizing the opportunity to win our young people’s hearts and minds.

Ken says, “Instead of watering down the Word and increasing entertainment programs, we need to teach our children to stand on the authority of Scripture and what God said He did.”

Links for further study: Searching for the “Magic Bullet”, Creation: Where’s the Proof?, Get Answers, Two Histories of Death, The Evolutionizing of a Culture

Creation Days (Genesis 1)

Posted on April 10, 2015 by KD Manes under Bible Study

How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all.” Psalm 104:24

God took great care to show us the chronology of His creation in six literal days.

The Meaning of Day

Yom—the Hebrew word for “day” in Genesis 1—is used both in the singular and plural form 2,301 times in the Old Testament. Although yom can have different meanings, similar to our English word “day”, the context in the Old Testament outside of Genesis 1 points to the literal 24-hour interpretation. Consider the following (Ken Ham, The Foundations):

The Hebrew word for day with a number [e.g., “. . . and the evening and the morning were the first day”] occurs 410 times, and always means an ordinary day.
The phrase “evening and morning” occurs 38 times, and always means an ordinary day.
The word “evening” with “day”, or “morning” with “day”, occurs 23 times, and always means ordinary day.
The word “night” with “day” occurs 52 times, and always means an ordinary day.
We also structure our week from God’s six 24-hour day creation week and seventh day of rest.

Creation Days

(source: AnswersinGenesis.org)
“For in six days God the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” – Exodus 20:11

Day One – Light (so there was light and darkness)
Day Two – Sky and water (waters separated)
Day Three – Land and seas (waters gathered); vegetation
Day Four – Sun, moon, and stars (to govern the day and the night and to mark seasons, days, and years)
Day Five – Fish and birds (to fill the waters and the sky
Day Six – Animals (to fill the earth), man and woman (to care for the earth and to commune with God)
Day Seven – God rested and declared all He had made to be very good

God’s Creativity and Power

God capped off His creation with Eve. (When Adam saw her, he whistled and said “Whoa! Man!”) 🙂 Instead of making her from the dust of the ground like Adam, He chose to sculpt her from Adam’s flesh and blood. This illustrates God’s intention of marriage between man and woman—beyond becoming best friends—to become one in unity and purpose. Marriage is also used to describe Christ and the church (Eph. 5:23, 32).

Of God’s other creation, Francis Chan, in Crazy Love, writes: “Why would God create more than 350,000,000 galaxies (and that is a conservative estimate) that generations of people never saw or even knew existed? Do you think maybe it was to make us say, “Wow, God is unfathomably big”? Or perhaps God wanted us to see these pictures so that our response would be, “Who do I think I am?”

Chan also reminds us of God’s detailed intricacy and diversity in His smaller creations:

A caterpillar has 228 separate and distinct muscles in its head.
The average elm tree has about 6 million leaves on it.
God made hundreds of different kinds of bananas; 3,000 different species of trees within one square mile in the Amazon jungle; and quite a variety of laughs—wheezes, snorts, silent, loud, obnoxious.

This list could go on and on. Chan has a great video called “Just Stop and Think”. When you have 15 minutes, I encourage you to see it below.

Do We Really Need a Savior? (Genesis 1-3)

Posted on April 3, 2015 by KD Manes under Bible Study

For young children, chocolate bunnies and colorful egg hunts mark Easter. But for many, Easter reminds us of the implications of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Questions arise as we sift through the facts, including:

Was Jesus’ death really necessary?
Why do people die in the first place?
And if God is so good and loving, why is there so much suffering in this world?

Genesis 1-3 brings clarity to these common questions, including our need for a Savior.

Summary of Genesis 1-3

God created a perfect creation in six ordinary days. There was no death. In fact, God looked at His creation and declared it, “very good”.

Then why did death enter the scene?

Our Great, Great, Great (many, many “Greats” . . . .) Grandparents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God’s command.

(irisheyes2490.deviantart.com)
As illustrated with the two trees in Genesis—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life—God repeatedly holds out two options for us throughout the Bible: life or death. Like our ancestors, Adam and Eve, it’s an individual decision.

Consequences of Sin

Knowing the consequence of their actions, Adam and Eve took the fruit and ate.

Enter painful childbearing (3:16).
Enter painful toil (3:17).
Enter thorns and thistles (3:18).
Enter death (3:19).

Alongside the good and beauty in this world exists suffering and pain. Sin, disobedience to God’s command(s), marred God’s good and perfect creation. And, “the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together until now” (Romans 8:22). But one day, God will restore His perfect creation, banishing all pain and suffering (Rev. 21:1).

Adam and Eve started this downward spiral of sin and decay. As their descendants, we’ve inherited their sin nature. But before we point our fingers at them, we need to examine our own lives. We are free to make our own choices. And our perfect, holy Creator God—who searches our hearts—has declared: “We, all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way,” (Isaiah 53:6). Every one of us has rebelled against God’s commands at one point or another (Romans 5:12).

Not one of us is worthy to join the Creator of the universe. Romans 3:23 says, “the wages of our sin is death.” This gets uglier, because this death refers to spiritual death: eternal separation from God in hell.

Our holy God will not, (can not), dwell with our rebellious, sinful nature for eternity.

Of the tempter, Satan the serpent, God declared: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel,” (3:15). “You will strike his heel” refers to Satan’s repeated attempts to defeat Jesus during His time on earth. Fortunately, Jesus didn’t waver. God foreshadowed Satan’s demise and salvation offer through Christ with: “He [Jesus] will crush your head”.

Life in the Blood

After the Fall, God killed an animal(s) to clothe Adam and Eve. But animal blood (bulls and goats) can’t take away our sin. The Israelites later sacrificed animals repeatedly. Why? God gave this picture to summarize what was to come in His Son, Jesus: the Last Adam and final sacrifice (Hebrews 10).

Although God owes us nothing, the sinless Jesus—both God and man—stepped down into history and took the death penalty we deserved for our sin. “The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6).

“For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive,” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).

Because of Jesus’ great sacrifice on the cross, God offers us His righteousness and new life through faith: “But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 6:23.

It’s free for the asking.