Doctrine of Man (Part I)

Introduction

‘All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

Then, the whining school-boy with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like a snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then, a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice,

In fair round belly, with a good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws, and modern instances,

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.’

— Shakespeare, As You Like It

‘A walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.’

— Shakespeare, Macbeth

Psalm 8:4 KJV 1900

4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man, that thou visitest him?

Body

The Psalmist answers the question by continuing.

Psalm 8:5–8 KJV 1900

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

However because of the fall, we see this added to the text in Hebrews after the writer quotes this verse.

Hebrews 2:8–9 KJV 1900

8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

So, because of the fall, all things are not yet put under our feet, but they will be

They are presently put under Jesus’ feet

Man is a created being

Genesis 1:26–27 KJV 1900

26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Mankind was created by God. We did NOT evolve from a lower life form

All living matter is basically alike; a single atom differentiates animal blood from plant chlorophyll. Yet the body senses infinitesimal differences with an unfailing scent; it knows its hundred trillion cells by name … To complicate the process of identity, the composite of Paul Brand—bone cells, fat cells, blood cells, muscle cells—differs entirely from my components ten years ago. All cells have been replaced by new cells (except for nerve cells and brain cells, which are never replaced). Thus, my body is more like a fountain than a sculpture: maintaining its shape, but constantly being renewed. Somehow my body knows the new cells belong, and they are welcomed. What moves the cells to work together?… The secret to membership lies locked away inside each cell nucleus, chemically coiled in a strand of DNA. Once the egg and sperm share their inheritance, the DNA chemical ladder splits down the center of every gene much as the teeth of a zipper pull apart. DNA reforms itself each time the cell divides: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 cells, each with the identical DNA. Along the way cells specialize, but each carries the entire instruction book of one hundred thousand genes. DNA is estimated to contain instructions that, if written out, would fill a thousand, six hundred-page books … (The DNA is so narrow and compacted that all the genes in all my body’s cells would fit into an ice cube; yet if DNA were unwound and joined together end to end, the strand could stretch from earth to the sun and back more than four hundred times) … A nerve cell may operate according to instructions from volume four and a kidney cell from volume twenty-five, but both carry the whole compendium. It provides each cell’s sealed credential of membership in the body. Every cell possesses a genetic code so complete that the entire body could be reassembled from the information in any one of the body’s cells … The Designer of DNA went on to challenge the human race to a new and higher purpose: membership in His own Body … In reality, I become genetically like Christ Himself because I belong to His body.

— Dr. Paul Brand, Chief of the Rehabilitation Branch of the U.S. Public Health Service, and a Professor of Surgery speaking about the genes’ chemical code DNA, specifically how the DNA maintains how everything propagates after its kind according to Genesis chapter one, and preventing the evolution of any kind into another.

Later, evolutionists came up with the hypothesis of evolution by mutations, popularly called “neo-darwinsim.”

This hypothesis is also replete with scientific and logical problems of its own.

Mutations are almost universally detrimental to life

Mutations are ALWAYS the result of a loss of information, not a gain. We need more information to get higher life forms, not less!

We were created unique from the rest of God’s created order

Three Hebrew words are used in Genesis 1 and 2 to describe our creation:

Bara - “the production or effectuation of something new, rare, and wonderful.”

Asah - “To form, to construct, to prepare, to build.”

Yatzar - “to form or shape (as a potter forming vessels)

So we read the scripture text as follows:

Genesis 1:27 - Let us MAKE man (asah)

God constructed Man in conformity with His own image

Genesis 1:27 - So God CREATED man (bara);

God created Man as something new and wonderful in His purpose

Genesis 2:7 - And the Lord God FORMED man (yatzar).

He forms man using the earth as a potter forms a vessel out of clay

Man is made out of the earth, but is infused with God’s Breath

Man is of the earth, but is created for fellowship with God

We are the result of Divine Purpose

The immutable council of God

We were not created like any other creature

Every other creature was simply spoken into existence

We were formed by His Hands, made in His Image, and God breathed something of Himself into us

This demonstrates that man was intended to be special to God above every other created being

Isaiah 43:7 KJV 1900

7 Even every one that is called by my name: For I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

Genesis 1:26 KJV 1900

26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

God takes council with Himself to create man, and give to him a purpose

To have fellowship with our creator

To give God glory

To have dominion over His creation

God’s creative purpose

Paul refers to the council and purpose of God

Ephesians 1:4–5 KJV 1900

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

2 Timothy 1:9 KJV 1900

9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Titus 1:2 KJV 1900

2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

John 17:24 KJV 1900

24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

We see here referenced by the Apostle the idea that God had this planned out before the creation week.

Explain “predestinated”

So now we understand the following:

Man is created by God

Man, of all God’s created beings, received the Breath of God

Man is formed in God’s image

Man is created for God’s glory

Man was planned and designed in council with Himself

Redemption for all of mankind was planned from the very beginning

We know, even if we cannot understand, that Mankind, created in God’s image would, even though fallen and in need of redemption by Jesus Christ, fulfill the plan and purpose of God.

Created in the Image of God

Not a Physical image

God is a Spirit with no physical body

He is invisible

Israel was expressly forbidden to form any physical representation of God

Why this particular body shape then?

A Personal image

God is a personal God

God has an intellect; He plans communicates, wills, designs, and creates

God has emotions; He gets angry, disappointed, loves, hates, feels sorrow and joy

Mankind is the only creature in all God’s creation that can think abstractly, can reason, can feel emotion, has free will

God desires to communicate with mankind

God desires for us to choose to love and worship Him

We were created to represent God to this world in our actions, our decisions, particularly our choice to serve God with our lives, and our subsequent actions in following through with that choice.

A Moral image

God’s inherent character is the basis of all morality

As created beings created in His image, we also possess an inherent sense of right and wrong, i.e., morality

Mankind has a faculty we call “Conscience”

It was present all the way back to the time Adam sinned and they sought to hide and to cover themselves.

It is present today

We failed God in the garden, we failed to listen to our conscience resulting in the flood, we failed to obey the Old Testament Law.

In all this however, we are still moral creatures with an inherent understanding of right and wrong, as broken and as distorted as that understanding may be.

We were created to represent God to this world, and that includes morally.

A Social image

God created us so we could have fellowship with Him

God created in us a need for social interaction, both with him and with others

God immediately gave Adam a wife

Six of the ten commandments covered how we are to deal with our fellow man

We are to have communion with God, our family, and with our neighbors

Communion with God is the most important aspect

When our communication with God breaks down, all other areas of social engagement break down

When we maintain and grow a relationship with Jesus Christ, love will be our overarching motive

When we separate ourselves from God and from God’s people, love is replaced by the works of the flesh