The Theology of Calvin . . . and Hobbes (Man’s Worth)

The Bible teaches that man is very much a “big scheming deal”! Made like God, we have tremendous potential to reflect our Creator in life. Alas, many live their lives entertaining themselves to death (as Norman Cousins says). Some entertainment is fine — but not to anesthetize our worth before the Creator!

 

The Theology of Calvin . . . and Hobbes (Creation)

The Bible teaches that we are made in the image and likeness of God. The Creator. So, of course, we want to create! But in all our creations, we need to be super vigilant that WE don’t receive the credit or think that WE should be praised and admired. HE gives us the ability to imitate Him in His creativeness. And the Triune God wanted to invite human beings into His circle of love which has always existed between Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

 

A Theological Check-Up: Do You Really Believe? Part 11: Man (Final Series Post)

Friends: I goofed. Somehow I forgot about the area of Christian theology that deals with human beings. Anthropology, the study of man, asks a variety of questions about man’s make-up: does man have an immortal soul? What does it mean to be made “in the image of God”? Should we believe in capital punishment [WHAT?! Where did that question come from?!], etc.

These posts were inspired by my thinking about the books from the late Paul Little who wrote Know WHAT You Believe and Know WHY You Believe. We’ve been asking not WHAT or WHY, but IF. Do we really believe what we say we believe?

When it comes to the issue of man, the Bible has much to say about this aspect of “the glory of God” (I Cor. 11:7). God made man “in His image,” a description found several times in the Scriptures. Here’s a brief chart I’ve put together:

Today’s Challenge: IF I believe that men and women are made in the image of God, I will treat them with respect. I will also pray for opportunities to share the gospel with others, recognizing that every person will spend eternity either in fellowship with God or separated from Him.

 

My Workshop “Five Certainties in the Light of Tragic Events” (for “Iron Sharpens Iron” conference) Part 4

In a few days I’ll be presenting several workshops at Emmaus Bible College’s leadership conference “Iron Sharpens Iron.” Registration (it’s not too late!) for the conference can be found here. We’ve been thinking about my first workshop entitled —

“Five Certainties in the Light of Tragic Events”

The first certainty we’ve noticed is: Man is fallen and capable of great evil. We’ve also seen the second certainty which is: God is holy and will judge rightly.  In our last post we focused on the fact that we must preach and teach that this life is brief– one must be ready to meet God!

The fourth certainty we must keep a grip on is that man is still made in the image of God and is capable of incredible acts of kindness and heroism. In several of the school shootings teachers lost their lives by standing between their students and the shooter.

Biblically, we would say that, although sin has infected man’s being made in the image of God, it has not obliterated it. Man is still able to do good things, but none of those good deeds can bring him salvation.

Sometimes Christians confuse the concepts of total depravity and utter depravity. Total depravity means that every aspect of the human being has been affected by sin. However, the human person is still made in the image of God and can do good, even heroic, things. Utter depravity is the concept that man can only sin, that the image has somehow been completely lost, that unsaved people are incapable of doing anything good.

But the Bible doesn’t teach that unsaved people are incapable of doing anything good. Jesus says, for example, in Luke 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We can (and should) compliment our unsaved friends when they are good parents, good neighbors, good friends.  But salvation is not a matter of our goodness, is it?  And that’s why they need Jesus.  As we did.

 

 

Psalms of the Salter: Some Thoughts on Really Living for the Lord (Psalm 8)

Psalm 8

For the director of music. According to gittith. A psalm of David.

¹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

Time for a Great Cartoon: Man’s Dignity and Worth

Why do we humans consider ourselves “such a big screaming deal”?  Caving in to the value-denying godless philosophy of evolutionary theory, more and more people no longer see themselves as made in the image of God.  And that’s sad.

Largeness does not equal significance.  Compared to our universe, we are microscopic specks on the face of reality.  But — and here’s where Christianity shines brightest — we are loved with an everlasting love by a God who gave His Son to pay our sin-debt.  We are of value to Him!

Loren Eiseley, an American anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer, penned the following about man:

“The thing that is you bears the still aching wounds of evolution in body and in brain. Your hands are made-over fins, your lungs come from a creature gasping in a swamp, your femur has been twisted upright. Your foot is a reworked climbing pad. You are a rag doll resewn from the skins of extinct animals. Long ago, 2,000,000 years perhaps, you were smaller, your brain was not large. We are not confident that you could speak. Seventy million years before that you were an even smaller climbing creature known as a tupaiid. You were the size of a rat. You ate insects. Now you fly to the Moon.” (The Cosmic Orphan)

Man’s worth and dignity is only accounted for by the fact that he has been made in the image and likeness of God!

Your thoughts?

 

Time for a Great Cartoon (Man as Creative)

Why does man create?  Could it be that because we are made in the image and likeness of God, we have a desire to produce things, make art, craft objects that express that truth?  We are not meaningless accidents formed in the primordial belch of the universe, but individuals who express our creatureliness, even when we are bored!

How do you express your creativity?