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What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/4/2009 7:40:51 PM
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schtumpy
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Genesis 1:27 says we were created in God's image.
What does this mean?
Is God corporeal?
Does He have arms, legs, a bowel and a liver?
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I deplore what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
- attributed to Voltaire
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/4/2009 7:48:34 PM
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ctpruitt
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No...Scripture says in a few places that God is spirit...not a physical being as we are. The best interpretation I have ever heard came from a teacher of mine years ago:
"God gave man a spirit...like His own along with intelligence and other attributes."
The statement "in the image of God" relates more to spiritual realm than the physical. But there are parts of both in it.
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/4/2009 9:51:25 PM
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LCannon
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Since Jehovah, Eternal God is spirit, His Son, the God of Redemption is with the Father after a short sojourn on the earth and the God of Conviction, the Holy Spirit is in every redeemed soul "In God's Image" is consistent with His character as in His spirit.
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'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' (Joshua 1:5)
''Let the very worst thing come to pass[and]even there,
especially there; His hand will hold.' -Elisabeth Elliot-
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/4/2009 9:56:54 PM
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agapist
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God is love. To be made in the image of God means that love is the "I am" both of God and man. Being who we were meant to be is to love God and man with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
""Without love you have nothing...you are nothing."
Being fully human is to reflect the image of God, as Christ did. His original intention for us: partakers of the divine nature.
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/5/2009 6:41:16 PM
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lkspringer
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Looking at the context in Genesis 1:26ff, I would say the image of God also has something to do with delegated rulership: "subdue it and have dominion" (v. 28).
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Church: We are peopled through our connection with the Triune God, having an essential communal nature with a structure and practices shaped by that communal nature.
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/6/2009 9:45:04 AM
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Szaftoo
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Verse 26 says "let US" make man "in OUR" image which refers to the Trinity so it likely refers to reason, intellect, personality or all the characterestics of God, Son and Holy Spirit.
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/6/2009 11:27:59 AM
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drmark
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quote:
Genesis 1:27 says we were created in God's image.
What does this mean? Lots of possibilities here, but I think Szaftoo is heading in the right direction. Human beings are also triune in nature, inseparably consisting of body, spirit, and soul. We are the only created beings who possess this triune image of God. In addition, humans have moral agency, personal sentience, and reasoning capacity far more like God than any animal He created. We are truly unique in the world!
quote:
Is God corporeal?
Does He have arms, legs, a bowel and a liver? Absolutely! God the Son had a normal physical body including arms, legs, (upper and lower) bowel, and a liver. I am really not sure what internal organs we will possess in our glorified bodies, but I suspect they will appear physically similar to what we have now.
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Jeremiah 31:31-34. The time is NOW, fellow saints!
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/6/2009 7:48:48 PM
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HardWorkAndPrayer
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quote:
Genesis 1:27 says we were created in God's image.
What does this mean?
Is God corporeal?
Does He have arms, legs, a bowel and a liver?
I believe stating that man was made in God’s image by the Genesis narrator is significant to the Hebrews and is significant to contemporary readers. Most religions or cults in the Near East had a different view of God. God was something to be feared, and something with distinct attributes compared to man. Men were thought of as slaves to the gods. The god’s had unique appearances and men did not resemble them at all in appearance or in mind or thought. Men, to the gods, were incapable of governing themselves and men did not have free will but were subject to rulers who they thought were gods. Moses, if we accept this to be the author, is letting us know that humans are not slaves to God, but rather God’s agents endowed with dignity and responsibility. Men are not unintelligent and incapable of governing themselves, but men have great intelligence and are capable of loving each other like their Creator loves them. Men are also equal in the sense that they are all created by the same Creator. All are created in the image of God whether they are rich, poor, powerful or powerless.
God took on a corporeal existence in the form of Jesus. Jesus was the image of the invisible God. God’s nature is also spirit. There are things about God that we can never fully grasp because God transcends humans in all phases. What we do learn from Jesus is how to be obedient to God’s will; obedient in the face of suffering.
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/10/2009 1:39:44 PM
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Ross.Lang
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Based on the Hebrew, it seems to mean that people are a sort of image or nexus that directs the worship of creation upwards to God.
-Ross
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/10/2009 11:33:34 PM
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Intrepidus
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"The scope of God's image in man is not defined in Genesis 1:26-27, but the context makes it clear. Genesis 1:1-25 sets forth God as personal, rational (having intelligence and will, able to form plans and execute them), creative, competent to control the world he has made, and morally admirable, in that all he creates is good. Verses 28-30 show God blessing newly created humans (that must mean telling them their privilege and destiny) and setting them to rule creation as his representatives and deputies. The human capacity for communication and relationship with both God and other humans, and the God-given dominion over the lower creation (highlighted in Ps. 8 as the answer to the question, What is man?), thus appear as further facets of the image." -- J. I. Packer, Concise Theology, pp. 71-72
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RE: What does "In God's Image" mean? - 10/11/2009 12:56:30 AM
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agapist
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I like the point that hardworkandprayer pointed out, how Genesis differed from the prevailing ancient view. Nice insight.
I have issue with the slave of the gods notion; it was more like puppets.
Paul said we are slaves to Christ.
Then there is the idea of governing ourselves, which is not our relationship with God, so I cannot see that as an "attribute."
We are always quick to say the difference between us and all other creatures is the gift of Reason. There is a greater gift: love.
As God is love, reason is but a feature of love; it serves the purposes of love. Reason was never meant to control our thinking or actions.
Going on what Paul said, "Without love, we have nothing...we are nothing," that if we have the gifts of tongues and prophecy, if we can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, if we have a faith that can move mountains, if we give all to the poor--all this is as nothing without love.
Seeing this for what it says, Love is the I AM both of God and man. Love is the perfect reflection of God.
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