Xerox Image?

Given the complexity of God, I think that to try to come up with a single idea of what is meant by, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” (Gen 1:26 NIV) is impossible. So first, what is an image? An image is a semblance or likeness of something else. It brings thoughts of Xerox machines. With a copier, we can have an image of an original. The trouble with copies is that they are never as sharp or perfect as the original. I’m reminded of the movie “Multiplicity”, with Michael Keaton. He gets cloned and the clone is not as good as the original, and the clone of the clone (or copy of the copy) got even worse!

I know there is a lot of discussion as to whether man is a triune being or a biune being (yes, it is a word, you will find it in the obscure words dictionary). If we believe that God is a triune God, a Trinity, and we are made in a likeness of Him, why would we not believe foremost in ourselves as triune beings also? Man being made up of a body, mind and spirit (we’ll use these terms, but I know that some may argue for; Body, Soul and Spirit). Maybe we have God the Father as the mind (or soul), God the Son as the body and God the Spirit as the spirit or life force of it all. Just as our mind and our spirit would guide us, Jesus while here on earth said that He did what the Father told Him and the Spirit led him, our bodies really do not function on their own without the mind controlling the functions and the spirit being the life.

So, looking from that perspective, what form would God the “Body” have? I would assume that He has always looked like we do, since in reality, we look like Him if we are in His image. Remember, Jesus was around from the beginning of time. In Gen 3:8, we read that Adam and Eve, “heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (NIV). This gives us the impression that God was in a physical form as He showed up there. If God had been in the Garden in a spiritual form, first, they probably would not have heard anything and second they probably would not have thought they could hide from Him.

Another “image” that we should look at is one of authority. As God is ruler and has authority over everything, God also gave us authority over the earth. This authority surely is part of the image process as it is stated right afterwards. “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." (Gen 1:26 NIV) God gave no other creature this kind of authority, not even the angels. The only authority that Satan has is what was given over to him by us.

Last, and I believe most important is that “in His image”, contained righteousness in the beginning. Adam and Eve were formed without sin and so had a righteousness such as a copy of that righteousness that God is. When they sinned and fell, that righteousness was gone and therefore, the greatest part of our being created in God’s image. When that righteousness left, so did the authority and maybe all we have been left with is a vague physical, triune resemblance of our creator. The reason that I feel this way is pointed out to me in Colossians 3:1-10 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ (born again)….(9) since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (NIV) We are new creatures in Christ Jesus and are being renewed (to be changed into a new kind of life as opposed to the former corrupt state[1]) in knowledge (to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly[2]) in the image of our Creator. In other words, our new self in Christ is starting to know what the original creation was like as man was created with righteousness in the image of the righteous God and our righteousness is gained through the righteousness of Christ.

Pablito

(This post is a discussion board response of mine in Theology class at Liberty University, Copyright:Me)
[1] Thayer and Smith. "Greek Lexicon entry for Anakainoo". "The New Testament Greek Lexicon". .
[2] Thayer and Smith. "Greek Lexicon entry for Epiginosko". "The New Testament Greek Lexicon". .

A Story of Conviction

In Friday’s blog, I touched on the fact that people do not want God in the picture of their life because that makes them accountable for their actions. It brings about conviction for the way that we live. As I read in Acts, I came upon a great illustration of this. In Acts 24, the Apostle Paul was taken to Caesarea to stand trial before Governor Felix on baseless charges brought by the Sanhedrin. Felix listened to Paul as he spoke about faith in Jesus Christ. This is when we see what the truth does in our lives.

Acts 24:25 “As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come,” (NIV). I’m sure Paul’s “discourse” included some bits about our unrighteousness, our lack of self-control and the fact that we will all stand before God in judgment for these things. Whatever he said, it must have been quite an impressive and detailed “discourse” as we see the result in the next bit, “Felix was afraid and said, "That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you."” (NIV) When confronted with the reality of judgment for our unrighteousness, Felix, the Governor of Samaria, a man who controlled an army, a man who had the power to imprison, punish and even put people to death, was afraid! The Greek word used comes from the word “phobos”, which is where we get the word “phobia”.

Oh, to preach like the Apostle Paul and be able to bring that kind of conviction upon a soul! But alas, Paul preached to Felix for 2 years and we never hear of him accepting the truth that would save him from the very judgment that he so feared.

Salvation is available to everyone; it was even available to Felix. God supplied the salvation, but we still each have to accept it!

Pablito

The Idols of Evolution and Atheism

Something struck me differently the other night as I was reading Romans 1. Paul is talking in his letter about the wrath of God and what man has done to bring it upon himself. I talk online a lot to evolutionists and atheists about God, creation, etc. One thing I always notice is that they fail to ever see any awe and wonder in the universe. They look at it with such scientific eyes, that they fail to see the things of a God that is capable of creating such a magnificent place.

Paul addresses this in Romans starting in verse 20 and continuing to verse 23. “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (vs. 20 NIV). The problem is that man was not satisfied with this. They were not satisfied with having a God in the picture and so, they started to devise ways of explaining everything.

Why would they do that? It is simple I suppose; with God in the picture, man is accountable for what he does, but without God around, we are only accountable to each other and that really does not bother a lot of people. Paul continues, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (vs. 22 NIV). Any body see where this is going? In all the discussions and debates I have with these people, first and foremost, they attack the intelligence of the Christian. Any disagreement with them will bring onslaughts of verbal pounding and abuse about the ignorance of people who believe in God and creation. They also have a lot to say about the intelligence that they think that they have. The big one is, that science is what it is all about and if your degree is not in Biology or Earth Science, well, you must be brainless. Evidently, you just cannot beat some facts and a theory.

The next verse is what struck me different as I read it, “and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (vs. 23 NIV) Now, I know that Paul is talking about carved idols that the people where worshipping, but when I read this, all I saw was the “Idols of Evolution”. This sang out to me that it is the same thing! These people worship the images (bones and fossils) that they find. What do they look for? They search high and low for “Ape-men” (anthroópou), birds (peteinoón), four-footed animals (tetrapódoon) and reptiles (herpetoón). I put the Greek words Paul used in parenthesis, just because they sound like names the paleontologists would use. These are the creatures of evolution and have become the idols of the “religions of Evolution and Atheism”.

Paul sums it up in verse 25, “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and [they] worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.” (NIV) King Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “there is nothing new under the sun.” (NIV). Man is still worshipping idols, some carved from stone and wood and some just dug up from the ground. Man will do anything rather than face the one true God while here on earth. The sad part is, everyone will face God one day and account for who or what they worshipped.

Pablito

Internet Problems Continue!

Sorry, our Internet problems are continuing. Just when we think they are fixed, it goes down again. Sometimes it can take up to 5 minutes to load a page. To top it all off, I find out today that many of my e-mails I have been sending out never reached their intended victims, I meant recipients. I was starting to think some people were ignoring me, but that was only a few, the rest just didn't get the mail!

We hope that it is fixed completely soon. Meanwhile, it does make going to school online interesting!

Internet Problems

Well, you would think when you have two different Internet services, you would have (hopefully) at least one working at all times. Such is NOT the case. We had a power outage down here that evidently fried something at the phone company, that in turn took out both Internet providers! I guess it still beats putting messages in a bottle and chucking them into the sea! We did manage to get back up and running earlier today, so it has been catch up time for school work.

The Internet outage came just as I was posting my quiz answers the other night. Thankfully the understanding professor reset everything and I was able to take the test again today.

On another note, there has been significant headway on the funding for the wind power project. I wish I could say that I had something to do with it, but I didn't. There is (supposedly) grant money from the government and a third world economic development bank that is interested in funding it. So, we press on with the particulars of the equipment, etc.

Are We All Guilty of Thinking This Way?

I was reading in Acts tonight when I came upon a passage that I have read many times, but something in it never hit me until tonight. I always thought, "What caring friends Paul (the Apostle) had!

The Apostle Paul is concluding his third missionary journey and in Acts 20:22, Paul tells his companions (one of whom was Luke, the author) "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there...." (NIV) When they had reached Caesarea, they went to the house of Philip the evangelist. While they are there, a prophet prophesies over Paul in Acts 21:10-11 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, 'In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" (NIV)

This basically bums everybody out and here is where we pick up our key text in this discussion.
This is Luke, the author talking. (Acts 21:12-14) 12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Nobody wants their companion, their buddy, their mentor and their teacher to go and get in trouble. Here is the part that struck me as we finish up in verse 14 "When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done." (NIV)

They heard a well known prophet, give a prophecy from the Holy Spirit and what do they do? They try to talk Paul out of going! Then we have that kicker line, "When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, "The Lord's will be done." (NIV) When they couldn't talk Paul out of going, they finally gave in and said "OK, fine go ahead and do what the Lord wants then!"

Are we all guilty of thinking this way sometime? Do we try to talk others out of doing what the Lord wants them to do? Do we try to talk ourselves out of doing what the Lord wants us to do? Do we finally give in only in frustration and say OK, fine?

Many have tried to dodge what it is that God has for them to do, but believe me, if God wants you to do it or go through it, you eventually will! (Jonah comes to mind as an example!) The Apostle Paul should be our example of a disciple of Christ. In Acts 20:23 Paul says, "I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me." (NIV) He knew that bad things would await him at every turn in his ministry, yet he never shirked his duty. Paul always knew that whatever the cost, serving his Lord and God was worth it all! Shouldn't we do the same? Remember, God never promised us following Him would be easy.

Pablo (the other one)

How Frustrating

I sit on this island with an almost constant 10-15mph breeze blowing and wonder why I am having so much trouble getting anyone in the "real world" interested in helping us get a wind generator system installed here. Everybody thinks it's a great idea, they just don't want any part of helping with it or financing it. What's $2 million between friends?

The benefits would be tremendous! Besides the savings that would be given back to the people who can barely afford the electricity anyway, there is the fact of saving the burning of some where around 200-250 thousand gallons of diesel fuel every year! Think how long that will run a Hummer! That in itself should be worth something! And the worst part is, it's not like any one is asking for a hand out, the company can pay the money back! They just don't have the money to lay out for it now. And don't even consider the banks down here. Their interest rates make credit card companies look like saints! So where are the people who need to step up to the plate?

I'm here, and waiting.