LITTLE GODS OF HAUGHTY HEARTS (PART IV)

“Made in the Image of God”

By Akin Ojumu

As pure as the driven snow, so is the purity of Scripture. It is free from error (i.e., inerrant) and devoid of any mistake (i.e., infallible). Every word is God-breathed, and every jot or tittle is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Since no prophecy, i.e., the Word of God, was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, there are no, and there cannot be any, contradictions in Scripture.

Bible text interprets Bible text, and difficult texts are explained by other clearer texts. Whenever we encounter what appears to be confusion or lack clarity in a particular Bible text, what we ought to do is to look for other Bible texts that provide clarity to clear the ambiguity.

Opinion is like an unwashed armpit; it stinks like hell. When it comes to the truth of Scripture and sound doctrine, no one is entitled to their own opinion. To properly understand a Bible text, it must be interpreted within its proper context. Misinterpretation of the Bible arises when people fail to adhere to the principles of sound exegesis (i.e., the process of discovering the original and intended meaning of a passage of Scripture).

Significantly contributing to the perversion of the Word of God that’s so prevalent in contemporary Christianity is the deep suspicion of scholarship and a highly spiritualized impassioned disdain for intellect. Instead of applying their mind with all diligence to the studying and understanding of God’s truth as revealed in the pages of the Bible, those professing to be teachers of God’s Word rely on esotericism and mysticism as sources of divine truth.

Disparate claims of personal revelations which go far beyond what’s written in Scripture echo loudly in the vast expanse of Bible illiteracy in the Church. Those who profess to have “prophetic” insights that blatantly contradict what’s explicitly written in the Bible are held in high esteem as powerful men and women of God.

This aversion for deep scholarship is what leads many down the rabbit hole of the little gods’ heresy. Failing to adequately engage their mind in the study of Scripture, when proponents of the false doctrine of divine humanity read where the Bible says man is made in the image and likeness of God, they erroneously conclude they themselves must be gods as well.

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26).

So that we don’t fall into the same trap of esotericism and useless speculations, let’s examine what this Bible text is really saying.

In traditional Christian thought, by which I mean what the early Christian Fathers believed and taught, imago Dei, i.e., made in the image of God, was never understood to mean a corporeal resemblance to God. To be made after the likeness of God was not thought of as a reference to some physical likeness. Since God is Spirit (John 4:24), it stands to reason that a Spirit does not have flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). This very fact, all by itself, should be sufficient to refute anyone who claims that when he looks at the mirror, the image reflected back at him is God.

The other thing to point out here is that the two phrases used in this text, “made in Our image” and “according to Our likeness,” are simply repetitive expressions that mean the exact same thing. The second phrase not only echoes the first, but it also intensifies it. Repetition, aka parallelism, a common literal tactic, is a defining feature of biblical Hebrew used for emphasis and not to create a contrast. Those who try to distinguish between the “image” and the “likeness” of God are simply making a distinction without a difference.

Furthermore, it’s important to point out that being made in the image and after the likeness of God is something unique and exclusive to the human race. It’s an incredibly high and lofty status that’s unattainable by any other creature. Nothing evolves into the image of God. The likeness of God is not achieved by some mutation in the DNA. Genetic engineering cannot produce a being in the image of God.

This unique status of being is what distinguishes humanity from other created animals. The human race is set apart from other creatures in the material universe because they are made in the image and likeness of God. Man’s special identity as an exact replica of God’s image is the catacomb of Darwin and his theory of evolution.

Say, for the sake of argument, that man being made in the image and likeness of God is with respect to the material or temporal features of man, then a legitimate case could be made that animals are also made in the image of God for the mere fact that both humans and animals share many similarities, anatomically, biologically and physiologically. Animals, like humans, have similar organs (heart, lungs, brain etc.) and organ systems (cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous systems etc.)

Howbeit, the fact that the image of God is the exclusive preserve of humanity, it must refer to some aspects and attributes of human nature that are not shared by other creatures in the universe. But what exactly are those distinguishing features and attributes?

Tune in next time to find out.