Nature of Man

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.”

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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...

Women Teachers in the Church – Are They Permitted

At least since Augustine, most male church leaders have insisted that women have no place in leadership or teaching among the saints. Some believe women are to say nothing, to “keep silent” in the congregation, and that women have nothing to say. Those who believe women have at least some role are the minority to be sure, but biblical truth is not a voting matter.

When Scripture demonstrates women leading Israel, Paul affirming that women may pray or prophesy in the Christian congregation – requiring that they speak and the latter necessarily putting them in a leading role – when Joel clearly states that the women and maidens would receive the Spirit of God and prophesy, and when the original language of the New Testament letters uses the feminine form of the Greek words translated as “eld...

Characteristics of Man as the Image of God

CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN AS THE IMAGE OF GOD

Genesis 1:26-27 And God said, ‘Let Us make humanity 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 creeps upon the earth.’

So God created humanity in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.”

Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Nu 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent …”

What does it mean that humanity is created in the image of God? Such an image that, if an anyone kills a man, they must die for killing God’s imag...

Mankind Created in the Image of God

God's purpose for mankind is to bear His image in His creation. Adam's sin tarnished that image, but through salvation and the Holy Spirit's work in the life of a Christian, God restores the image of Christ in us as we await the fulfilment of our eternal restoration.Read More

Are Babies Born Totally Depraved?

Jesus told the Pharisees that, “If you were blind, you would not ever have sin. But now you say, ‘We see’, then your sin remains.” John 9:41

In other words, if any of His hearers had been incapable of seeing, they would not have been guilty of sin. Jesus is not referring to physical eyesight, but the ability to perceive and comprehend what sin is. Without that ability, a person does not have sin.

An infant is born completely incapable of such perception and comprehension, and lives a significant time before possessing those abilities. Consequently, an infant does NOT have sin at birth, nor does a child, until that time when they are capable of seeing, and comprehending what they see...

The Nature Of Man

Man’s nature did not change when Adam sinned. The same nature in Adam that inclined him to disobey God inclines each of us to do likewise. The same nature that allowed Eve to question what God had said continues among millions today who question God’s Word. As soon as anyone entertains the possibility that God might have been wrong, he has demoted God in his own mind from Sovereign Deity. [1] If God is neither sovereign nor divine, the requirement to submit to Him does not exist. He has neither absolute authority nor the power to exercise ultimate authority; men are free to judge for themselves and follow their own thinking.

Adam and Eve were clearly shown to be able to doubt God’s word, God’s right and ability to judgement and pronouncement, and even to doubt God’s motives in sett...

Man’s Sin Nature

The Bible does not teach that man’s nature has changed since the fall, despite the concept of man’s sin nature becoming widely accepted due to its propagation through certain theological systems. Some modern English versions of the Bible, including the NIV, have erroneously used the English phrase “sin nature” or “sinful nature” for the Greek word sarx , which is correctly translated ‘flesh’, imposing a sense that does not exist in the text itself.

Man’s nature had always included the capacity to sin, yet at creation God declared his creation to be ‘very good’.[1] Adam’s original sin therefore was not a result of his nature except to the extent of his ability to commit it...

Soul vs Spirit

The main purpose of posting these articles is to encourage the brethren to greater knowledge of the Scriptures, through which only may we know the Lord as He reveals Himself to men. When we know the word of God, we know the Lord Himself better, we know ourselves better, and we are better equipped to endure the attacks against the Truth as well as the trials we will face in this life.

Many times, well-meaning folk come to false conclusions about spiritual matters as a consequence of failing to use the rules of language properly when reading the Bible. Another problem occurs when people don’t really know what a word means, and either accept a meaning someone has communicated to them, or assume a meaning they feel fits what they believe the Bible to be saying...

Temptation

That’s what temptation is: struggle against the urges and desires that are by nature wicked, or by circumstance detrimental. And that’s why so many people fail; because they won’t struggle. When temptation comes – and it will always come – the voice of “I want” is allowed to drown out the objections, and the urge to satisfy every tugging desire over-rules any sense of what is right, best, or helpful.

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