Re: The Trinity
Originally posted by JLB,
Do you believe that Eve was created in the image of God?
Originally posted by Randy,
God is shown as one who has a figure of what we would term "man". I also believe God the Father sits in bodily form on His throne like the Son. God created mankind. Hence we see a "Father figure". Jesus is seen as a male figure. That doesn't state God the Father was ever human or a man but shows our body form was crafted in Gods image. Head, hands etc...
- Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
God did not make (past tense) man in His image, but God is rather
MAKING man in His image. The
"first man Adam" (1 Corinthians 15:45) is simply the
first step in that creation process of
"creating man... in His image".
Considering the word
"make" - the grammar in Genesis 1:26 is in the
'imperfect tense.' Here is Webster's definition of the imperfect tense:
In grammar, the imperfect tense denotes an action in time past, then present,
but 'not finished'.
You can look this up for yourself:
- Genesis 1:26 "And God430 said559 [8799], Let us make6213 [8799] man120 in our image6754, after our likeness1823"
(The bracketed number [8799] stands for the 'imperfect tense.')
The Hebrew says:
- Genesis 1:26 And saying is the Elohim, 'Make will We humanity in Our image, and according to Our likeness, and sway shall they over the fish of the sea, and over the flyer of the heavens, and over the beast, and over all land life, and over every moving animal moving on the land.'
[*]Genesis 1:27 And creating is the Elohim humanity in His image. In the image of the Elohim He creates it. Male and female He creates them."
If this is not so, then Paul
erred when he said this:
- 1 Corinthians 15:44 "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:46 Howbeit that WAS NOT FIRST which is spiritual ["conformed to the image of His Son", Romans 8:29] , but that which is natural; and AFTERWARD that which is spiritual.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:47 The FIRST MAN IS OF THE EARTH, earthy: the SECOND MAN is the Lord from heaven.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
[*]1 Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood ["the first man Adam"] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."
- Romans 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE of his Son [the finished product], that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Adam is called
"the son of God" (Luke 3:38), but
not yet "conformed to the image of His Son".
"The first man Adam" was created out of the dusty clay of this earth, as the
"flesh and blood... old man" of scripture, which we are told
"cannot inherit the kingdom of God".
The
"first man Adam" is but the
first step to
"the image of the heavenly" which will indeed be
"conformed to the image of His Son", the finished product, truly
"in the image of God". God
is 'making' (in the process of making) mankind into His image, and the first part of that process is, by design,
"marred in the hand of The Potter" (Jeremiah 18:4).
- Jeremiah 18:4 "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
This is all for the purpose of bringing mankind to see his need for a Savior to save him from his
"naked... out of the ground... marred... dying" composition.
Here is what the scriptures tell us was all
"the first man Adam" was ever intended to be:
- Romans 5:14 "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is THE FIGURE of him that was to come."
The word
'figure' here is the Greek word
'tupos'.
"The first man Adam" was only intended to be a
'tupos', a
FIGURE (a type) of the finished product. Look at 1 Corinthians 45 & 46 again:
- 1 Corinthians 15:45 "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.'"
[*]1 Corinthians 15:46 Howbeit that WAS NOT FIRST which is spiritual ["conformed to the image of His Son", Romans 8:29] , but that which is natural; and AFTERWARD that which is spiritual.
If mankind had been made perfect to begin with by God, he would never have needed to be shown
his own nakedness. "Nakedness" is the Biblical
symbol for man's
marred, sinful condition,
right from the hand of The Potter:
- Jeremiah 18:4 "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it."
In the Hebrew, it is not
'He made it again', but rather, it is
'He IS MAKING it again' into a
"new man".
- Jeremiah 18:4 "And marred is the vessel that HE IS MAKING, as clay in the hand of the potter, and he has turned and he makes it another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make."
"He makes it another vessel". And what is the composition of this Biblical
"NEW MAN"?
- Colossians 3:10 "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the IMAGE of him that created him."
It is the
new man who being made into
"the LAST Adam... after the IMAGE OF HIM that created him" as a
"marred vessel" in the
"FIRST MAN Adam".
- Romans 8:20 "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope."
You and I are
"the creature". It was our Creator who
"made [the FIRST MAN Adam -- and us] subject to vanity"
