Does Mankind have the Image of God?
As most of us may know, Adam was created in the image of God. However, what most Christians failed to realize is that he lost that image as soon as he sinned against God. Most people seem to think that we are all the same concerning our creation in God’s image. However, as we study God’s word we realize that the image of God is only given to those who have been saved through Christ Jesus and have acquired the spiritual nature because of it. Properly dividing the word of truth or scripture will help you know the differences between a lot of God’s promises and physical dealings with the people in the Old Testament and the Church.
Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Genesis 5:3: “And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:”
We notice that in the first verse, man is made in the image of God. The second verse, however, does not state this, rather a man’s son is begotten in his father’s image; a man. This means that the image of God was lost before Adam begat Seth, meaning that everyone after Adam, including us today, has the likeness of Adam, not God’s image. This is why God is no longer our father, in the sense of all mankind, because we are all dead in spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:47 :”The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
“The first man is of the earth,”
This is Adam.
“..the second man is the Lord from heaven.”
This is Jesus Christ.
“As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.”
The earthy are Adam and his descendants while Jesus is heavenly as well as His descendants.
“And as we have borne the image of the earthy,”
We have Adam’s image.
“we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”
This shows that not everyone has the image of God but we all do carry Adam’s image. It isn’t until we receive Jesus for our salvation that we now have the image of God and we see this in the following verse.
2 Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Jesus Christ himself is the image of God so those who receive Him receive God’s image. This is why giving the gospel to the lost world is important, our spiritual nature is made alive but theirs is still dead. This is why spiritual dealings in the Old Testament are rare because their spiritual nature was dead. (More on this in the article ‘Four Dispensationalism Camps and Edenic Covenant’).
God’s Dealings with Israel and Church are Different
God deals with the nation of Israel in a physical way (physical kingdom, promises, and blessings) because of their dead spiritual nature but He deals with those in the New Testament in spiritual ways because of their renewed spiritual nature. This, again, highlights the importance of dispensationalism.
That being said, this completely debunks Replacement Theology; that we are a replacement of Physical Israel. People who believe in Replacement Theology quote NT verses used by Paul to argue that Christians are the nation of Israel. What they don’t realize is that we are not a physical Israel but a spiritual one and thus we cannot claim the physical promises of the physical nation of Israel. We have not replaced Israel in any way, God’s dealings with them will continue in the Tribulation.
Satan Tries to Destroy or Taint Man’s Seed
Genesis 4:8: “And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.”
Cain kills his brother, Abel. Now recall one of the terms of the Adamic covenant: God promised Adam a seed that would triumph over Satan. Now, the verse above shows us that Satan immediately tried to ruin man’s seed and succeded in doing so through Cain.
1 John 3:12 :”Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.”
As a result, Cain was the first of Satan’s seed. But Satan was not content with just killing mankind, he wanted to taint man’s seed and create his own seed by intermingling man with the fallen angels.
Genesis 6:1: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.“
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them.”
Men’s offspring, specifically daughters, are mentioned here.
“That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
A distinction between the sons of God and the daughters of men is made; the former are angelic beings, specifically the fallen angels while the latter are human women.
“And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”
God is grieved by what is happening in the world between the fallen angels and human women.
“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Satan was trying to ruin man’s seed through intermingling.
Now, as stated in the article ‘Four Dispensationalism Camps and Edenic Covenant‘, the theme of the Adamic covenant is conscience. Thus, God was judging men’s salvation based on their conscience, not by faith, because Jesus had yet to die for mankind on the cross. It wasn’t until Abraham that God gave out His promises for salvation, which explains why those during the Adamic covenant were dependent on their conscience for their salvation and not by belief in Jesus as Christians do.
Adamic Covenant Salvation Depends on Conscience
Now that we have established that those during the Adamic covenant’s salvation depends on their conscience, let’s look at some examples.
Genesis 6:5-8 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Men’s conscience was so messed up, and they were lost in sin. That’s why God wanted to damn all of them to hell via the flood.
“And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
God is going to judge the earth’s inhabitants by drowning them out with the flood.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
However, Noah was the exception because he followed his conscience and found grace (something you don’t deserve but get anyways) in the eyes of the Lord.
Now, many people will use this verse to prove that Noah was saved by grace just as Christians are. Part of this is true, in fact, God’s grace is carried from the beginning till the end because realistically speaking, none of us deserve it. That has always been a constant throughout time periods; you either work for it or you stand alone on faith. However, notice the particular grace that God gives to Noah, which is expounded upon in verse 9.
God’s Grace on Noah was Conditional
Genesis 6:9: “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”
Notice that God’s grace on Noah was conditional. Noah had to walk with God and to do that, he followed his conscience. Everyone during that time that failed to follow their conscience was drowned out in the flood, died, and went to hell. If Noah would have done the same he would have shared the same fate. This is why he found grace in God’s eyes; Noah was living rightly when compared to those around him.
We have established that God judges people by their conscience and this is apparent in Romans 2. This does not change even when a person has not heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ because they will be judged by their conscience. When they do hear the gospel, their conscience knows that and it is up to that person to follow it and get saved. Take Cornelius in the New Testament for example. He followed his conscience so God led him in the direction of someone that would give him the gospel. This is why no one has a good excuse to get out of hell when we all have a conscience that guides us in the direction of what is good and true.
Romans 2:13-14 “(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:”
“(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
Men are justified before God if they would do and follow the Law.
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
Lost people do not have the law, however, they are still able to follow it because the law is still found in their conscience and their hearts.
” In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”
This is why God can judge them for salvation, based on their conscience that contains the law (what is right and wrong). But once you know the gospel, God is going to judge you accordingly.
Noahic Covenant
As a recap of the first two covenants, the first covenant or the Edenic covenant was a works-based covenant while the second covenant of the Adamic covenant was faith and works to preserve one’s salvation.
Now, let’s go into the third covenant or the Noahic covenant and its terms.
First term: Men are no longer vegetarians
Genesis 9:3: “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”
The first term is that men are no longer vegetarians, they can eat meat now as well. Seventh-day Adventists will argue for a vegetarian diet, however, this first term of the Noahic covenant goes against that. Therefore, eating meat is permissible and not a sin. This is why understanding the different covenants as well as applying dispensationalism is important; it gets rid of wrong doctrine. As with the first two covenants, there are changes that have taken place whenever a new covenant between man and God is made.
Second term: Capital punishment
Genesis 9:5 “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.“
Capital punishment is introduced as the second term: you take a life, God will require your life.
Third and fourth terms: Be fruitful and refill the earth
Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
God blesses Noah’s 3 sons which start 3 different races and they are commanded to replenish the earth. Recall that God flooded the earth and drowned out the previous inhabitants because they failed to follow their conscience. Thus, the third and fourth terms are to be fruitful and to refill the earth.
Fifth term: Fear between man and animals
Genesis 9:2 “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.“
The fear between man and animal is put in place as the fifth term. God wants to separate man and animal from each other when previously, they got along just fine. But, because the covenant between man and God changed, the terms also had to change. We are only in the first 9 chapters of the Bible and yet so many changes have been implemented. That being said, imagine all of the changes that occurred in each new covenant throughout the Bible, thus it is unwise to say that nothing changed from Genesis to Revelation in terms of one’s salvation.
Sixth term: Rainbow symbolizes that God will never drown the earth again
Genesis 9:11 “And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:”
God promises that He will never drown out the earth again and symbolizes this with a rainbow. This is the sixth term of the Noahic covenant.
The theme of this covenant is government
God realized that if man relied solely on conscience, they would fail miserably as they did before the flood, so He had to apply some form of law in a governmental system. We know this because of verse 4.
Genesis 9:4 :”But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”
You see here that God starts implementing rules to man where there were none before. In this particular case, man shall not eat blood and avoid murder. Now we are seeing the beginnings of a system of human government.
Genesis 6:4:“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Intermingling between Sons of God (Fallen Angels) and Daughters of Men
As previously mentioned, we see the intermingling between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Now, Satan was using humans to intermingle with one another, with the same sex, and with fallen angels to create a unified mess. This is how we get homosexuality, beastiality, and other kinds of sexual perversions and is why some of the myths and fossils of mixed parts of human beings and animals being found make sense, because the sons of God were intermingling with God knows what.
Jude 1:6-7: “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
The angels came down to intermingle with humans and this we know because of Genesis 6.
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Notice the phrase ‘even as’, which means ‘in like manner’ or ‘following the example’. This lets us know that the fallen angels behaved as those living in Sodom and Gomorrah, partaking in homosexuality, fornication, and going after strange flesh with ‘strange’ meaning ‘other’. Throughout the Bible, ‘flesh’ refers to humans so ‘strange flesh’ refers to something that is not human, which is animal. This is why it makes sense that God put fear between man and animal, as to not repeat beastiality.
God Placed Segregations Among People
Now as a disclaimer, we are not supporters of the Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan, or any other movement in support of treating people like subhumans based on their race/color of skin. However, what you have to understand is that God placed a sort of segregation between peoples, and as you may have seen thus far with all of the other terms He put into place, He most likely had a very good reason for doing so. The reason for this sort of segregation of peoples was because of their unity; recall that when humankind unites, it creates a mess. On another note, this is why the Antichrist is most likely to appear in a time period where the people are united as one under a single religion, government, etc. But back to the point at hand, God knew that humans would follow a devil system if they are united (take Genesis 6 for example) so He made a way to separate them from one another, via different languages as you will see in the following verses.
Genesis 11:1-4,6-8: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
God already knew that man was doomed to repeat Genesis 6 by following the imaginations of their hearts, which ultimately brought forth wickedness. So to combat this, God decided to split the people into different languages. This split was considered a physical dealing. Spiritually speaking, it is good to be united present-day as a Church because we are all considered one under Jesus. This is coupled with the fact that God is dealing spiritually with us now through the gospel, not physically. However, when God did this separation physically during this time, He did it so that humans could find Him through their conscience.
“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.”
Now, if God had not separated these people from each other, it is very possible that the one-world government would have been put into place where Nimrod could have been the Antichrist.
The following verses are used to prove human integration but actually proved the segregation of physical nations. Looking back at history you see examples of cultures, people, religions, etc. uniting and because of it, we now have the mess that is modern civilization. An example of this is the African slaves. When they were brought to America, they brought their drum beats from their voodoo culture and combined them with European music to form jazz. From jazz, we got other types of music, namely heavy metal, which we know is bad. This is why most contemporary music today is contaminated because it has its roots in African voodoo drum beats. Such is an example of why God does not approve of the mixing of cultures, people, religions, and ideas because a unified mess is always the end result. The same is said with religion as most people follow a rendition or their own version of a specific religion (Catholicism, Buddism, Islam, Judaism, etc.). Often times the original has been messed up because of the unification of cultures. The same can, unfortunately, be said about Christianity where some try to incorporate yoga and other eastern practices, contemporary music, and other such compromises.
Now let us see what God says about human integration.
Acts 17:26-27: “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”
“And hath made of one blood all nations of men”
This is the part that supposedly proves the unity of man because we have one blood. This is true, we do have one blood because we are all humans. However, look at the next part of the verse.
“for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”
This mentions that we are divided from one another’s habitation, meaning that we should each be in our own place: segregation. Why?
“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:”
So that we humans find God through conscience. This brings everything together: why God gave humans a conscience to live and judge by and why there was segregation of peoples. What unity does is that it numbs your conscience so that you are only focused on the standards of the modern world and not on God. An example of this is when homosexuality is perceived harmless when it is not.
Deuteronomy 32:8: “When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”
“When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam“
God divided people even in Adam’s time despite humans sharing the same blood (human).
“he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.”
From a physical point of view, it makes sense why God segregated people from each other; because when physical nations come together, chaos ensues and they forget God. This is why the unity between races can never be physical. Spiritual integration, however, is another story. But because the spiritual nature of these people was dead during this particular covenant, God decided it was better to physically scatter them out, given that He was dealing with them physically. By today’s standards, a lot of God’s workings will be considered extreme and unnecessary. Because humanity has a physical mindset we fail to understand the mind of a spiritual and infinite God that knows human nature and how it affects the past, present, and future.