| CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE | January 2004 |
God and Creation—Part 5
In the Image of God
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“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” |
A REALIZATION OF THE truthfulness of this text is perhaps the strongest single argument there is against the theory of human evolution. Darwinists are adept at calling attention to the various ways in which the evolutionary ladder may have been climbed throughout the millions of years they claim there has been life on the earth, beginning with protoplasm. But not one has hazarded a guess at what rung in this ladder an ape, or a missing link, became conscious of right and wrong, and was able to reason the difference between the two. Nor have any of them been able to suggest a set of circumstances that would prod an ape into thinking on the human level.
IN GOD’S IMAGE
In high circles of professorship, in and out of the church, and among our government leaders from the president down, nearly all claim to believe that man was created in the image of God. In the free world it is this viewpoint that constitutes the basis for the dignity of man doctrine, and for the zealous fight to maintain the individual rights of man.
Let us remind ourselves that this viewpoint, which is the unequivocal teaching of the Bible, cannot be harmonized with the Darwin theory of human evolution. If man is a product of evolution, and not the direct creation of God, then there is no basis for the claim that he is the image of God. If God did not create man, and give him his law, then he has no Divine law to guide him in his behavior. It might be argued, that what we suppose to be a law against sin is only a mistakenly conceived repressive measure which in reality is keeping man back from the next great step in evolution.
Thank God for the realization that the plain statements of his Word express that sacred Truth which all right-thinking men and women instinctively espouse and declare, many of them despite their unproved theories of natural selection and evolution. The full beauty and grandeur of the Bible’s teaching on this subject stands out even more brilliantly when we note the detailed manner in which man is so completely set apart from the beasts; and further, when we become acquainted with the Creator’s designed eternal destiny for this human creature made in his own image.
MENTAL IMAGE
This, of course, is not a physical, but a moral and intellectual image. Man has the ability to know right from wrong, and he is able to think, to reason. He cannot think on the same high plane as his Creator. His thinking, rather, is confined to a realm in which he was created to live, that is, the earthly. Speaking to man, God said, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9) But man is able to reason with God on matters pertaining to his relationship with his Creator. God invites this, saying, “Come now, and let us reason together, … though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”—Isa. 1:18
Man’s ability to think, to reason out the ways and problems of life, rather than to be guided merely by instinct as are the lower animals, manifests itself in many ways. We see this from the very beginning of human experience. When our first parents disobeyed, they immediately felt a sense of guilt, and were afraid. (Gen. 3:7-10) Then, to cover their shame, they donned leaves. The lower animals in the garden would not have thought of putting on clothing to cover nakedness. God provided a protective covering for the lower animals, but man was left to provide his own.
MORAL IMAGE
The guilt expressed by Adam and Eve that led them to clothe themselves and caused them to be afraid, showed that man was created in the moral image of God. A principal problem with evolutionists is searching for the missing link, or bridging the gap between the animal kingdom and man. Animals are not able to reason concerning right or wrong, or to know the difference between the two. Nor have any of the animals been able to think on this human level.
Man soon began to make and use tools, which is something else the lower animals have never shown any inclination or ability to do. Monkeys have been known to pick up a stick and with it pry open a door. Elephants have been known to use a piece of brush to sweep something from an otherwise unreachable part of their body. But no animal has ever been known to attempt the fashioning or making of a tool. Here, again, man is set completely apart, and above, even the highest form of lower animals.
MAN, A TOOL DESIGNER
Archeological discoveries reveal that the earliest known man manufactured and used tools. Today this difference between man, who was created in the image of God, and the lower animals is more striking than ever. Think of the intricacy of tools and instruments of all sorts which are now in use, with even greater marvels in the making. In modes of travel, communication, and manufacture we are daily witnessing miracles.
Earlier in these lessons we drew a sharp distinction between the infinite wisdom and power of God and the limitations of man. This was to emphasize that with all man’s boasted wisdom he had only scratched the surface in his understanding of the mighty creative works of God. In this connection, we are reminded of a statement made by one of the most brilliant men of all time, Sir Isaac Newton. Well along in his life Newton wrote, “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
Probably most great scientists feel much as Newton did concerning their own accomplishments. Nevertheless, when we consider man’s ability to think, to plan, to invent, we recognize striking evidence of the fact that he was created in the image of God. God, for example, is a Creator, and man is endowed with the desire to create, and by the use of materials already created by God, can put together marvelous things.
At times we hear the comment made of an individual that he has a “creative mind.” However, we are inclined to limit the word create to the works of the Creator. All that man can do is to use the materials provided by the Creator and with them make things. Because he was created in the image of God, what marvelous things man can make! Let us remember that the metals, the gases, the oils, the electricity, the wood, and whatever else man may use in putting together the things he invents, have all been furnished by God. The fact that man, even in a limited way, can utilize the materials furnished by the Creator is one of the evidences that he was created in the image of God.
MAN AND MUSIC
Someone has written that monkeys have no music in their souls, and thus we are reminded of another wide gap between man and the highest species of the lower animals. Music is harmony of sound, and on earth apparently only the human ear can discern the difference between harmony and discord. In one respect, a dog has a keener sense of hearing than a human. Sound waves are measured by cycles, the more shrill the tone, the higher the number of cycles, whereas a dog’s ears respond to tones up to nearly thirty thousand cycles. Because of this, whistles can now be purchased which, when blown within hearing of a trained dog, can cause it to come running to its master; but the dog’s master, or others standing nearby, hear nothing.
However acute a dog’s hearing may be, it does not know the difference between harmony of sound, and discord or noise. But man, created in the image of God, finds one of his greatest delights in the field of music. In a wonderful promise to the Lord’s faithful people, the Prophet Zephaniah wrote, “He [the Lord] will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” (Zeph. 3:17) From this we learn that God at times expresses his joy and his love through singing. Because man was created in the image of God, he also finds joy in expressing his delights through the harmony of music.
Many times in the Bible reference is made to the joy experienced by man in singing praises to God, his Maker. And here is another way in which man is set apart from the lower animals—he instinctively looks up to a higher power in praise and worship. Because of man’s fall into sin and selfishness, his quality of worship has, in the case of many, become distorted—having deteriorated into base superstition in which God is seen as not much different than a demon. In others, the disposition to worship a higher power has been almost completely erased.
But even now, more than six thousand years after man’s creation and fall, the vast majority of the human race still possess, in varying degrees of strength, the desire to worship. Millions bow down before idols; others worship a multiplicity of gods. A few have confidence in the Bible and accept its teachings as the revelation of the one and only true God, the Creator of heaven and earth. A continued examination of his Word reveals that he is a God of wisdom, justice, love, and power; a God in whom we delight to trust, and whom we are glad to serve. We read, “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”—Jer. 9:23,24
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