— Made in God’s Image, a 10-Part Bible Study Series —
What exactly does being made in God’s image mean? What are some of the practical implications?
An overview of this Bible study series is available here.
This article introduces part 1.
A teaching plan for part 1 is available here.
I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.
—Wernher von Braun—
[T]he existence of God is provable in the same way a building is positive proof that there was a builder.
—Ray Comfort—
Christianity is not just involved with “salvation,” but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has a value because he is made in the image of God.
—Francis Schaeffer—
Overview: Although the Christian worldview has many components, two that are especially significant are that the God of the Bible exists and that He has created human beings in His image. We can’t overstate the importance of these two truths, the implications of which are profound, eternal, and far-reaching. This article — included in part 1 of our series on what it means to be made in God’s image — explores the first principle. Part 2 of the series examines the second truth directly, and parts 3 though 10 explore the implications of the reality that God made human beings in His image.
A college freshman made his way home from school to talk to his pastor about how tough it had been to keep his faith on campus. During his first semester, Alan Wilson experienced an all-out assault on his Christian beliefs. In fact, his faith even was shaken a bit. He wanted to know how he could be certain God is real and the Bible is true.
In particular, Alan saw his fellow students act as if no one ever can know the difference between right and wrong. Right and wrong don’t even exist, Alan! Today everybody makes up his own truth! He’d heard those lines quite a few times, for sure.
Free sex, LGBTQ pride, abortion, and numerous other attitudes and practices pervaded the culture of the campus. Moreover, a great deal of what Alan heard in the classroom justified this “liberated” approach to life. This included theories of origins that said life on earth came into being as a result of random forces wielding their influence over millions of years. As a member of a family who regularly had attended church since before he was born, Alan had been brought up to believe that many of the things he’d seen on campus were immoral and wrong.
Hey, Alan! Come on, man! You’re your own man now! Live it up! Yes, the temptations were strong, but so were Alan’s reservations. If right and wrong don’t exist, Alan wondered, can God really exist? After all, He’s the one who gave us the Ten Commandments!
Alan and his pastor, Matt Thomas, had a long conversation1 Alan found to be extremely helpful. Among other things, Pastor Matt helped Alan see the big picture of moral truth and right and wrong. They talked a lot about relativism, “the belief that truth, knowledge, or morality is relative to [and therefore is or can be determined by] the individual, society, or historical context.”2 Relativism is assumed and touted regularly in society today, especially on college and university campuses. This ideology teaches that each individual can make up his or her own truth. Yet, as we soon will see, self-proclaimed relativists don’t live by the dogma they claim to believe.
Element One: The God of the Bible Exists
After Alan shared with Matt the ideas that were assaulting his faith, Pastor Matt responded by advising him to make sure that in assessing his situation he didn’t see issues simply in terms of bits and pieces. “In other words,” Matt said, “the conflict you’re experiencing isn’t merely a clash of differing perspectives on a lot of separate things like homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex, cohabitation, or whatever. You’re witnessing a clash of two very different belief systems.
The conflict Alan was experiencing wasn’t merely a clash of differing perspectives on a lot of separate things like homosexuality, abortion, premarital sex, cohabitation, or whatever. He was witnessing a clash of two very different belief systems.
“Sometimes we call a belief system a worldview. It’s the lens through which a person sees life and reaches conclusions about it. On one side you’re encountering a worldview that assumes God doesn’t exist, and on the other is the one your upbringing has encouraged you to embrace. That one assumes God is real—that He
-
- does exist,
- is personal,
- is the source of absolute truth, including an unchanging standard of right and wrong, and
- will hold people accountable for how they live.”
Matt continued, “It’s important to understand that a worldview can’t be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, even though for objective observers, the evidence will support one perspective over the other. Ultimately, however, worldviews require faith. An individual may think he is really throwing his weight around when he asks you how anyone can be certain a particular lifestyle choice or action is wrong, but on what authority does he base his conclusion that no one can speak with such certainty? His belief that no objective or absolute standard of right and wrong exists rests on his assumption that God doesn’t exist — or at least on his adherence to a belief system that assumes God’s nonexistence. Sure, he may say he believes in God, but think about it—the God in which he believes permits people to do whatever they feel like doing. That doesn’t sound like much of a God, does it?” Alan nodded, indicating to Matt that what he was saying made a great deal of sense.
Matt continued, setting the stage to poke even more holes in the secular, materialistic worldview. “While a belief in absolute truth has theistic implications, a belief that absolute truth does not exist has atheistic implications. Both theism and atheism are presuppositions. Neither can be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. The question is, Based on the evidence, which belief is reasonable?
While a belief in absolute truth has theistic implications, a belief that absolute truth does not exist has atheistic implications. Both theism and atheism are presuppositions. Neither can be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. The question is, Based on the evidence, which belief is reasonable?
Evolution: An Atheistic Religion that Doesn’t Fit the Real World
Matt pointed out that assertions evolution is based solely on science are misleading. “Evolutionists may claim that evolution is pure science and that all objections to it are totally religious and therefore invalid—but many of them cling to their belief in Darwinism with religious fervor. Just as theism is a religious belief, so is atheism.”
Matt went on to expose a pervasive inconsistency among secularists. He noted that those who say they don’t believe in a universal right and wrong actually don’t live that way. They may say they believe absolute truth doesn’t exist, but if someone steals from them, they will be the first ones to appeal to a standard, and on the basis of that standard, object. “All people,” said Pastor Matt, “appeal to various values and standards, even if they never realize they are doing so. Innately, each person has a standard of fairness he or she is quick to advocate. Objective or absolute standards are moral principles that apply to all people, at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. Mark it down! Appeals to ‘fairness’ reveal an underlying sense of awareness of an absolute standard of right and wrong. Therefore, the idea that everyone makes up his or her own truth really is a myth. The actions of those who say they don’t believe in objective truth demonstrate they really do!”
The idea that everyone makes up his or her own truth really is a myth. The actions of those who say they don’t believe in objective truth demonstrate they really do!
Pastor Matt continued. “There’s more! Whenever you hear a self-proclaimed atheist declare, ‘I can’t believe in the God of the Bible because if God did exist, He never would allow all the evil we see in the world,’ you need to understand that the person’s references to ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are very significant. If God doesn’t exist, from where do moral values, including assessments of some things as ‘good’ and other things as ‘evil,’ come? Moral values are immaterial, and the atheist is hard-pressed to explain how things like moral tenets and judgments arose from matter only. On the other hand, Christians can confidently point to the innate understanding human beings have that some things as morally good (right) and other things are morally evil (wrong) as evidence of God’s existence. We might even say that ‘God left His fingerprints all over humanity.’ Put another way, material forces alone cannot account for morality and ethics.”
So, while the biblical worldview acknowledges God and points to Him as the reason for morality and ethics (immaterial values that undeniably are real), a secular worldview denies God’s existence and sees the world and everything in it as having resulted from matter and material forces only. Secular, materialistic assumptions necessarily discount the possibility of objective moral truth, despite evidence to the contrary.
Polar Opposites
Alan’s conversation with his pastor highlights numerous differences between
- the materialistic worldview that pervades our culture today (especially at college and university campuses) and
- the biblical perspective on life and the rest of reality.
First, as we’ve noted already, the two belief systems espouse contradictory ideas about God’s existence. Secularism believes God isn’t, and the biblical worldview states that God is.3
Significantly, it isn’t just the Bible that testifies to God’s existence. All of creation does as well. In a letter to his employees, Christian businessman Robert A. Laidlaw (1885-1971) explained why he believed in the God of the Bible. He wrote in part,
Every thoughtful person believes in a series of causes and effects in nature, each effect becoming the cause of some other effect. Now the acceptance of this as fact logically compels one to admit that there must be a beginning to any series—that is, there could never have been a first effect if there had not been a First Cause. This First Cause to me is Deity, and “I cannot tell where God came from” is not a satisfactory reason for denying that He exists, else I might as well deny the existence of the millionth effect which, for the sake of argument, might happen to be this world. You see, if I admit one cause as ever having existed, I am bound eventually by induction to arrive at the First Cause.
Although men have discovered many of the laws that govern it, the greatest scientists cannot really define electricity. Then why do we believe it exists? Because we see the manifestation of its existence in our homes and our factories and our streets. Though I do not know where God came from, I must believe He exists, because I see the manifestations of Him everywhere around me.
Though I do not know where God came from, I must believe He exists, because I see the manifestations of Him everywhere around me.
—Robert A. Laidlaw—
Evidence for God’s existence is everywhere around us, and it is more than emotionally compelling. It’s also reasonable!
Second, without God, absolute truth cannot exist. As we have indicated already, random material forces alone never could have given rise to immaterial, intangible moral values. However, if God is real, He clearly is the source of these tenets. As we have seen, people have an innate awareness of objective moral and ethical truth. Scripture says the law of God is “written in their [in people’s] hearts.”
Third, without God, personal accountability to God cannot exist. With God, and with God as the source of life, personal accountability to God not only makes sense, but is expected. The Bible teaches that God exists and that He is the Creator of all things, including His highest creation, humanity, whom He made, and makes, in His image. Accordingly, each individual is accountable to Him for how he lives and how he responds to God’s revelation of Himself and His overtures inviting him (or her) into a relationship with Him.
Fourth, let’s not miss the implications of these worldviews regarding the intrinsic value of human beings. The biblical worldview sees men and women, boys and girls, not only as having been created by God, but created by Him in His image, a theme we will explore directly in part 2. For now, realize that because God makes people in His image, they are intrinsically valuable — genuinely priceless.
By contrast, the secular worldview, or secularism, views and treats human life with indifference. This clearly is evident in the ideas and policies its adherents believe in and promote. Secularism teaches that life has resulted from random, materialistic forces. It offers no basis for saying a human life is any more valuable than the life of an animal or plant — or even a lifeless rock.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”…Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.
—Genesis 1:26-28,31—
Fifth, God created people for a special purpose, and they find meaning in fulfilling it. The Lord could have set up statues of Himself as monuments to His existence, but instead He created living human beings who bear His image to testify, by their very presence, that God is real. Interestingly, God forbade the creation of statues to represent Him.4 We might think God took a great risk when He created men and women in His image when they could distort and misrepresent the truth about Him through their words and actions. Yet, even atheists give evidence that He is real, simply because God stamped them with His image.
You see, God is sovereign, and He created human beings to also be sovereign—to be free moral agents, to act according to their wills, desires, and preferences. Obviously, people aren’t sovereign in the same way God is sovereign, for God is sovereign in the absolute sense, and morally perfect. Yet in ways lifeless material elements in the world and plants and animals cannot, human beings have the capacity to reason, make moral judgments, and take decisive actions. These aspects of humanity and the human experience reflect God’s image in human beings. As we indicated earlier, we’ll explore this more thoroughly in part 2.
Sixth, God doesn’t just exist, but is involved directly in the lives of people. His actions include holding people accountable and working to benefit them and rescue them from peril, even at great cost to Himself. Despite the risks and enormous costs involved, the Lord chose to rescue human beings from eternal peril and to involve men, women, boys, and girls, including the citizens of the nation of Israel, in His plan of redemption. Apologist Jeff Myers puts it this way: God
relates with these image bearers, even walking with them in the garden (Gen. 3:8) Throughout Genesis and the rest of the Bible, we learn that this sovereign creator-king chooses human beings over the rest of creation, and Israel over the other nations of the world, through which to initiate his plan of redemption. He is not removed from his creation but, having established a special relationship with them, serves with them as a partner.
Recognizing how God is wise and knowledgable and patiently instructs, chastens, delivers, and restores his people; how he is faithful to his promises; and how he protects his people against their enemies even while also using them to bring discipline and restoration provides a strong counterpoint to the common impression that God is brooding, grumpy, mean, and distant.5
In fact, human beings were, and are, the very ones God implemented His plan of redemption to save. Every rescue operation is messy — and this one was especially so. There was no “Plan B.” God unveiled His plan gradually, foreshadowing it in the Old Testament and fulfilling it ultimately in the New Testament in His Son Jesus Christ, the one who always represents God with complete faithfulness. Jesus was and is “full of grace and truth.” People can take no credit for this plan, but God honored them nonetheless as He worked to save them and then involved those He’d rescued in making the way of salvation known and understood among those who hadn’t yet heard about the peril they were in and how they could escape it.
We’ll stop here for now. There are a lot of exciting insights to discover, and we’re just getting started!
Stay tuned!
A Bible study plan for leading part 1 is available here.
This article has been adapted from “Two Distinctive Elements of the Christian Worldview, Part 1: God Exists.” The article originally was published on August 4, 2018 and is available here.
Copyright © 2024 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.
top image: Photo by Calvin Craig on Unsplash
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages have been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Notes:
1Alan Wilson’s situation and the interchange between him and his pastor has been adapted from Adult Leader Guide, KJV Family Bible Study, Spring 2005, (Nashville: LifeWay Christian Resources, 2004), 125-126.
2Jeff Myers and David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times: A Survey of Competing Worldviews, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2015), 493.
3Noting that the biblical worldview says God is and that the secular worldview contends God isn’t, Dr. James Dobson summarizes the primary difference between these worldviews. He does so on pages 20-21 of a book he co-authored with Gary Bauer: Children at Risk: The Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Our Kids, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1990).
4Jeff Myers, Understanding the Faith: A Survey of Christian Apologetics, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2016), 119.
5Ibid.
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