Category Bible Studies

Implications of the Possession of the Image of God in Humans For Adam’s Choice to Disobey God in the Garden

God gave Adam and Eve everything they required for a happy, healthy, and upright life.

God gave Adam the necessary knowledge and abilities to pursue that happy, healthy, and upright life.

God maintained a close relationship with Adam, so that Adam would always know God, have no reason to forget either Who God was or what God had done and provided for him.

God provided a world and life completely free of corruption, and insulated from corrupting influences, as well as a warning against considering the engagement with a corrupting desire, should it arise. “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you shall eat of it, dying you shall die.”

Th...

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The Image of God in Humanity

God has no physical aspect, therefore Adam and Eve were not created to “look like” God in the flesh. (As Hebrews explains, when Christ came, God entered into a body “prepared for Me” that was created after the image of man. (Phil 2:6-8; Jn 1:14; Heb 2:17-18) Prior to Christ’s incarnation, God had no physical aspect whatsoever.)

Moreover, the writer stated: “So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” Genesis 1:27. God created humanity as an whole, in the image of God. Male and female humanity is created in the image of God; the entirety of the species, in the maleness and femaleness as an whole, is created “in the image of God”, making a physical context of that image impossible...

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What characteristics do you see in God as the creation account unfolds?

Attributes of God revealed in the Creation Account in Genesis

God pre-exists all material things: “In the beginning, God created…”

The universe did not exist; it had a beginning. “The heaven” refers to sky, outer space and beyond. “The earth” refers to the world.

The universe consists of all time, space, matter, and natural energy. All of these elements had a beginning; they did not and are unable to, exist eternally. They necessarily “came into being” at some point in past history.

God is necessarily personal. God necessarily thinks, feels, desires, knows, has abilities, values, plans, purposes, foresight, understanding, etc.

God is necessarily external to (outside of) the universe.

Therefore, God do...

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Why is the God of the Old Testament so Different From the Message of Jesus in the New Testament?

Study texts:

Genesis 1 – 6

References to Jesus’ speaking about hell and about judgment, in their respective contexts

The letter to the Hebrews

Revelation 1 – 3; 11; 15-16; 19-20; 22 (read the whole book, but pay attention to the relevant content of these chapters vis a vis the proposition.)

References to Jesus speaking about hell:

Mt 5:22    But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Mt 5:29    And if thy right eye off...

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Study Question:      Why is the God of the OT so different from the “message of Jesus” in the New?

“Why is the God of the OT so different than Jesus’ message in the NT? Is Jesus’ father the God of the OT? With all the revenge and blood sacrifice stuff?”

What is the main premise?

The God of the Old Testament is different from Jesus’ message in the New Testament.

What is the conflict driving the premise?

That the God of the Old Testament is guilty of revenge and requiring of blood sacrifice, which are implied to be unrighteous in some manner.

What questions must be answered in order to answer the question above?

1. Is God in the Old Testament different from Jesus’ message in the New?
2. Who is God and what is God’s nature...

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Beloved, doing all diligence to be writing to you concerning the common salvation, I have had necessity to write to you entreating to be contending for the faith once being given to the saints." Jude was pressed also, that urging them to “contend earnestly” for that faith was imperative.Read More

Why do so many preachers make Jesus’ “sermon on the mount” so difficult when it is so basic and simple. There are no hidden meanings among Christ’s statements of contrast between two aspects of things which characterised the culture and generation in which He spoke, and which continue to characterise our own, if we choose to pay attention.

The very first statement tends to elicit a lengthy, counter-textual explanation of what has no bearing on what Christ said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

All manner of linguistic contortions are used to explain what it means to be “poor in spirit”; in fact, some modern Bible renditions, and many modern teachers, rephrase this to read “happy are those who are spiritually poor …” Some take further licens...

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The letter written by the apostle Paul to the Romans is a rich treatise on the grace and goodness of God towards men. As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul had not met those to whom this letter was sent. He begins by identifying himself and his intended audience, and clarifying the nature and purpose of his ministry, that of a servant under His Master, Jesus Christ, sent out as Christ’s ambassador with the proclamation of God’s good news pertaining to Christ.

The primary concerns addressed in Paul’s  letter to the Romans were: the fact of salvation being an award of grace rather than the reward of works; the inability of the Law of Moses to justify sinful men to a holy God; the equal condition of both Jews and Gentiles before God, due to the universality of the sin-guiltiness of all men fro...

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Romans 1:1          “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God …”

Looking at the vocabulary:

Called – κλητος – kletos: invited, appointed (as opposed to ‘named’) (present participle as adjectival)

Apostle – αποστολος  apostolos – a compound of:

i) apo -> preposition: of, from, out of, off, etc

1) of separation (locomotion, location, association, of time or place

2) of origin; ie: where something / one is from; where it is, happens, is taken      

2b) origin of cause (conceptual)

ii) Stello -> avoid, withdraw (one’s) self.

1) to set in place, arrange, prepare, equip, make provision for  –  or

2)  to bring together, contract, shorten, reduce, check, cause to cease, remove one’s self, to abstain...

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“Paul a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

2        which He had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,

3        concerning his Son, Who was made (the one becoming out) of the seed of David according to the flesh

4        and declared (the one being designated) the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness (holy togetherness), by the resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord,

5        through Whom we have received (obtained) grace and apostleship into obedience of faith among all the nations, for (the sake of) His name

6        among whom are you also called (adj., nom) of Jesus Christ;

7         to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called (adj; dative) saints (holy o...

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