In His Image

INTRO:

We have two overarching views of teh origin of life on earth:

God created us

It is all a cosmic accident brought about through random forces in evolution.

Evolution is not a reasonable explanation for the universe or life on earth in any sense whatsoever.

It is scientifically impossible

it is biblically rejected.

We looked closely at the issue of Genesis 1 in creation. We find no evidence of evolution whatsoever in the text of the Scripture, nor is there any indication, by any kind of reasonable science that any form of evolution, from species to species could at all take place.

In spite of that:

· The British writer by the name of Andy Macintosh has written a book called, Genesis for Today and in it, he says this, "In recent years, a somewhat strange trend has developed in Christian circles. While some secular authors have begun to doubt the traditional evolutionary thinking of Darwin, Huxley and others who first made popular such views, some evangelical Christians have been developing the concept that God used evolution to make the world, the view, which is termed theistic evolution. Such an idea is, of course, by no means new but it now becoming more fashionable among evangelicals who supposedly hold to the infallibility of Scripture, as well as to liberals who do not. Some notable recent books by evangelical writers doubting the straightforward creationist position on Genesis are..." and he names Master Planby Roy Clements.

The Ethics and religious liberty Committee of the SBC:

But much can and should be said. The fact that human beings are created in God’s image shapes the Christian worldview and affects how we see God, the world and one another. It informs how we understand the rest of the Bible’s story and provides a theological foundation for ethics and engagement. In short, a proper understanding of the image of God should animate everything we do, ERLC

Genesis 1:26–31 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

So what we're going to find in chapter two is the details of the creation of man.

1. The creation of man

Genesis 2:5–7 ESV

When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Different method than the rest of creation.

How did God bring forth the other kinds of life?

“Let there be..”

What was unique about the creation of mankind?

He formed us from the dust

He breathed life into us

2. The location of man in the Garden of Eden

Genesis 2:8–15 ESV

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

This is a major consideration that needs to be taken into account.

The worldwide, catastrophic Flood of Noah’s day would have destroyed the surface of the earth. If most of the sedimentary strata over the earth’s surface (many thousands of feet thick in places) is the result of this global catastrophe as creationists believe, then we would have no idea where the Garden of Eden was originally located—the earth’s surface totally changed as a result of the Flood.

Not only this, but underneath the region where the present Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are located there exists hundreds of feet of sedimentary strata—a significant amount of which is fossiliferous. Such fossil-bearing strata had to be laid down at the time of the Flood.

Therefore, no one can logically suggest that the area where the present Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are today is the location of the Garden of Eden, for this area is sitting on Flood strata containing billions of dead things (fossils). The perfect Garden of Eden can’t be sitting on billions of dead things before sin entered the world!

This begs the question: Why is there a Tigris and Euphrates today?

Many geographic areas have similar names US & Eng:

Thames in Conececticut

Severn river in Maryland

Trent RIver in North Carolinea

Australia and England have many names of towns in common

Noah and his sons came out the ark in the Middle East and began using names they were used to before the flood.

Garden of Eden

Eden was good, but not fully glorious

Abundant but wasn’t yet expansive

Completely good but not completely secure

Rhythm of work and rest, but not unending rest

3. The vocation of man.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:18–20 ESV

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

Work and Purpose existed before the fall.

Adam was put in the Garden to work it and keep it.

To glorify God in the Garden

Then, as well as now, God displayed His grace and glory through Adam

Adam named creatures

Jewish teachings:

Lest one think that this was an easy and simple endeavor, in the midrash our sages expound, “…brought each creature before the angels and asked them, ‘This creature, what is its name?’ But they did not know. Then He brought the creatures before Adam and asked him, ‘This creature, what is its name?’ To which Adam responded, ‘This is shor[Hebrew for ox], this is chamor [donkey]...’4

This of course brings us to the question of why? What was so special about naming the animals that only man could do it?

Every single creation, even a single blade of grass, has its own unique energy source in the spiritual realms. 5

4. The probation of man,

Genesis 2:16–17 ESV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

What he was not to do

At that time there was only 1 commandment, what was it?>

don’t eat the fruit of the tree

It doesn’t matter if it is a fruit we now have or a special tree.

In eating it, thus rebelling and sinning, Adam and Eve would know good from evil

tragically, once done, it could not be undone.

5. The relation of man

when God gave him woman.

Genesis 2:21–25 ESV

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Adam was incomplete alone.

No animal was his equal and compatible.

God made Eve

unique like Adam

handmade by God

God’s purpose: a family

two were to become one

Husband and wife.

6. The innocence of Man

Genesis 2:25 ESV

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Because they were pure and before sin, lust was not an issue.

They lived in complete harmony with GOD and had no shame for any reason.

Conclusion: