In Genesis it states that "Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness"?

Genesis 1:26-28 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

I've never read or heard anything about Ken Ham so I have no comment to make on him or his views. But here is a recent sermon at our church, on what it means for humans to be created in God's image. It is not about genetics. It is a theology designed to enable us to understand how God views us.

This great pronouncement gives us our role in life. Prior to this, God has used the phrase Let there be. Such a phrase shows He alone has the authority and is in command. But now, in verse 26, the pronouncement changes to Let us make. This shows the measure of the importance of humanity. You and I are the outcome of divine reflection and consultation, issuing in a prescription mandated by the three Persons in the Godhead.

If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, then you must begin with this, and with God. We are here for His purpose and according to His plan and our identity is found in this Trinitarian mandate.

How does God describe us? We are made in His image and likeness. This is the mould that sets us and determines how our life should be lived. This image is derived. It is not just a copy of something else but is an image that bears the properties of that from which it was made, and Likeness qualifies the term, Image. We are not of the substance of God but of His likeness. Hence man is the created analogy of God Himself. In such a role, man is an image bearer, to give visibility to the invisible God. Those who are sanctified by God are required and enabled to give visible expression to the divine.

It is not the case that the image of God is in man. It is, rather, that man is made in the image of God. Man is not a container that has had some of God’s attributes deposited into him. Image is not about psychological or physiological traits. Essential elements of the nature of God, love, responsibility, freedom, rationality, creativity, spirituality – important though those qualities are – do not define what image of God means in Genesis 1:26. Those qualities are tools that serve humans in their image bearing role. Imagio dei, however, is what a person does - not what a person is. Imagio dei is functional. Image of God is not about what makes us human. It is about humanity’s unique role in being God’s representative in creation.

Adam was made to think as a prophet, feel as a priest, and act as a king. In understanding this, we understand the redemptive work of the second Adam, Jesus Christ, as prophet, priest and king. Partial recovery of this role was seen in Old Testament Israel. Full recovery is in Christ. He is the perfect prophet who most fully declared God’s words to us. He is the perfect high priest who offered the supreme sacrifice and brought His people near to God. He is the true and perfect king of the universe, who reigns righteously.

Those who belong to Christ are to bear His image in each of those roles. We have a prophetic role in proclaiming the gospel to the world and so bring God’s saving word to people. We are ‘a royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2:9). We are built into a spiritual temple to be a holy priesthood as well as ‘to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And we will, in subjection to God, reign with Christ over all creation. We are Kingdom builders too.

As bearer of the divine image, how do we respond to the needy? As God bearers, how do we speak to our friends, and how do we deal with our enemies? It is in this regard that Trinitarian theology has interpreted the image of God – as the imagio Christi – the image of Christ. What does the image of God look like? It looks like Christ. The image of Him is the image we must reflect: the second Adam as true prophet, priest and king. Christ is the fullest expression of what God intends humanity to be. He is the template which God has placed over the life of those who would be complete in Him. We do not want Jesus plus… anything. God will bend us, shape us and mould us on the anvil of life until we reflect and become, as Paul puts it, ‘conformed to the image of His own Son’ (1 Cor 11:1, 2 Cor 3:18, Eph 5:1-2).

This is our present goal in life. This conforming to His image is called holiness. It is not a con-created holiness, but a progressive holiness. God would have you to be Christ-shaped. Not a single hurt will be wasted. Not a single tear will be wasted, for God gathers all our tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8).

Trinitarian theology has also interpreted the image of God, not only as imagio Christi, but as imagio Trinitatis – the image of the trinity. When God said Let us make man in our image, He willed that man be created in the image of the Trinity. He created them in relationship, with Himself, and with each other, the man and the woman. It is not good for man to be alone. In the very Genesis of time, God designed man to shine as lights that display the glorious attributes of the triune God, what Augustine called Vestigia Trinitatis.

Creating us in the image of the Trinity means being created in the image of equality, diversity and community. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons yet are the same in substance, power and glory. And in creating us in that image of equality, God shows that every man, woman and child are all of equal worth.

Diversity is shown in that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. They have distinctions of characteristics, personality and function. The Father begets. The Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds. We are to do justice to this diversity for though we are all equal, no one is the same. We all have different attributes and functions.

There is diversity in our unity, and unity in our diversity. The Church must recognise this and use this rich diversity to its advantage and for the spreading of the gospel effectively. What you are is God’s gift to you. What you do with yourself is your gift to God.

Thirdly, not only are we created in equality and diversity, we have been created in the image of community. This is how our diversity I made rich – by living a Christian life of community. Then our different functions and roles on the grand stage of life are realised and woven together into a rich tapestry of Christian service. The Godhead is a society of love as a unity of us-ness is in the very nature of God. In the triune life of God there is sociality, life in relationship, the Persons always towards each other, looking and loving each other. It is co-existence. So there is our mandate for living a life in community. It is a Trinitarian template that teaches us how to love and how to live with one another.

Church is a community. It has a plethora of experience. But remember that experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you. We are to use our experiences to help others. Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to someone else. When God puts someone in need right in front of you, he is giving you the opportunity to grow in servant-hood. This is the concept of Church. It is not about religion, it is about relationships. Church is a body, not a building. It is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. It is not an organisation but a living organism full of image bearing sinners, not only to bring people into heaven when they die, but to bring the a little bit of heaven while they are alive. This is image bearing. AiH

Why the plurality???

Because Jesus was alongside his father, Jehovah...but known as Michael...

prov 8: 22-31

(Proverbs 8:22-31) “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. 23 From time indefinite I was installed, from the start, from times earlier than the earth. 24 When there were no watery deeps I was brought forth as with labor pains, when there were no springs heavily charged with water. 25 Before the mountains themselves had been settled down, ahead of the hills, I was brought forth as with labor pains, 26 when as yet he had not made the earth and the open spaces and the first part of the dust masses of the productive land. 27 When he prepared the heavens I was there; when he decreed a circle upon the face of the watery deep, 28 when he made firm the cloud masses above, when he caused the fountains of the watery deep to be strong, 29 when he set for the sea his decree that the waters themselves should not pass beyond his order, when he decreed the foundations of the earth, 30 then I came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time, 31 being glad at the productive land of his earth, and the things I was fond of were with the sons of men.

Jesus existed in heaven before even the universe

The firstborn of creation

(Colossians 1:15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;

NOT Mary, but of creation...

The people who wrote Genesis wouldn't have had the scientific concepts we have today and wouldn't have known about genetics, so tried to explain why things are the way they are by using myth. The Genesis attempt at explaining how the world came into being, and why people have to work to survive and suffer illness and death, was a step on the road to reaching today's knowledge. And today's knowledge will be a step on the way to future understanding for which we may not have concepts today.

Genesis chapter 1 Verse 27 (New English Bible) says "So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them". So here he looks like a man. The writers of Genesis probably pictured the Elohim as manlike in appearance.

The Elohim are the sons of El in the Canaanite pantheon. They were ruled by El Elyon (God Most High), and later by Hadad the rain god, who is generally the god referred to by the title Baal (Lord). In Genesis 14:18-22, Abram is blessed by Melchizedek, the Canaanite High Priest of El Elyon and king of Salem, and Abram accepts the god as his.

The enemy of the Elohim is Yam (the sea), a chaos monster slain by Baal. This might have been derived from the Sumerian creation epic Enuma Elish, in which the god Marduk battles the great dragon Tiamat (the waters of chaos, and mother of the gods) and divides her body to create the heaven and the earth. In Genesis 1, God's Spirit moves upon the face of the waters (verse 2) and then divides them (verses 6-7). Marduk hangs up his bow after his victory over Tiamat, much as God does in Genesis 9:13 after the Flood.

Theologians sometimes take a more recent concept or construct and read it back into earlier scriptures. So they might then interpret earlier scriptures as referring to newer doctrines that the author never intended. So in Genesis 1, when it refers to God saying "Let us ...", they then re-interpret that as the Trinity talking to itself; the author had probably envisaged the Canaanite pantheon (Elohim, sons of the Most High God El Elyon).

I don't know about what Ken teaches.

In The Bible, the word translated into English in that verse as "God" is "elohiym", http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexico... which is God and His children, which is why He said "OUR". We were all with Him in our spirit bodies, after the katabole that ended the first earth age, as He made this second earth age where we all live in temporary flesh bodies. He made us look like we look there and He made Himself look like He looks there.

John 14:9 KJV Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Genesis 1:26 KJV 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*. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and REPLENISH the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Three earth ages Bible studies:

http://www.kjvbible.org/katabole.html

http://www.biblestudygames.com/biblestudies/threew...

http://levendwater.org/companion/append146.html

"was" or "became"?

(Genesis 1:2)

Gen 1:2 And the earth became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

"Some scholars also argue against translating hayah "became" instead of "was" in Genesis 1:2 because they assume this interpretation came about only recently, after geology revealed the strata of the earth to be very old. Thus they consider this explanation a desperate attempt to reconcile the Genesis account with modern geology. The explanation that there existed an indefinite period between the initial beautiful creation described in Genesis 1:1 and the earth becoming waste and void in verse 2 has been called, sometimes disparagingly, "the gap theory." The idea was attributed to Thomas Chalmers in the 19th century and to Cyrus Scofield in the 20th.

Yet the interpretation that the earth "became" waste and void has been discussed for close to 2,000 years:

• The earliest known recorded controversy on this point can be attributed to Jewish sages at the beginning of the second century. The Hebrew scholars who wrote the Targum of Onkelos, the earliest of the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament, translated Genesis 1:2 as "and the earth was laid waste." The original language led them to understand that something had occurred that had "laid waste" the earth, and they interpreted this as a destruction.

• The early Catholic theologian Origen (186-254), in his commentary De Principiis, explains regarding Genesis 1:2 that the original earth had been "cast downwards" (Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1917,

p. 342).

• In the Middle Ages the Flemish scholar Hugo St. Victor (1097-1141) wrote about Genesis 1:2: "Perhaps enough has already been debated about these matters thus far, if we add only this, 'how long did the world remain in this disorder before the regular re-ordering . . . of it was taken in hand?'" (De Sacramentis Christianae Fidei, Book 1, Part I, Chapter VI). Other medieval scholars, such as Dionysius Peavius and Pererius, also considered that there was an interval between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.

• According to The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, the Dutch scholar Simon Epíscopius (1583-1643) taught that the earth had originally been created before the six days of creation described in Genesis (1952, Vol. 3, p. 302). This was roughly 200 years before geology discovered evidence for the ancient origin of earth.

These numerous examples show us that the idea of an interval between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 has a long history. Any claim that it is of only recent origin-that it was invented simply as a desperate attempt to reconcile the Genesis account with geology-is groundless.

Perhaps the best treatment on both sides of this question is given by the late Arthur Custance in his book Without Form and Void: A Study of the Meaning of Genesis 1:2. Dr. Custance states, "To me, this issue is important, and after studying the problem for some thirty years and after reading everything I could lay my hands on pro and con and after accumulating in my own library some 300 commentaries on Genesis, the earliest being dated 1670, I am persuaded that there is, on the basis of the evidence, far more reason to translate Gen. 1:2 as 'But the earth had become a ruin and a desolation, etc.' than there is for any of the conventional translations in our modern versions" (1970, p. 7)."

its not a problem

our spirit is created in god's image not our physical body

god is a immortal spiritual being

god made us immortal spiritual beings

our spirit lives in mortal physical dwellings for now

genesis is to be taken literally

God's likeness means that man drowned everyone on earth if he saw two dudes kissing.

It's literal enough,. write the tetragrammon vertically going down - look at the image you get!

I think you should consult your book and if that dosnt help go to your tutor

hey - sorry if I caused a fight. it just bothers me when someone says anything mean to me....

humans all do look alike.