God created man in God's image?

[Suttonsue]

At what point in evolution please? We are hearing about homo sapiens deriving from homo erectus and scientific proof of age that this was happening. I have tried to search on the forum as I assume it has been asked before but can't find it.

 

[Mallon]

At what point in evolution please? We are hearing about homo sapiens deriving from homo erectus and scientific proof of age that this was happening. I have tried to search on the forum as I assume it has been asked before but can't find it.

What do you consider to be God's image? Would it fossilize? If not, would we have any way of knowing?

 

[Suttonsue]

The implication is that God's image is replicated in modern mankind, but that is my query. Why do you bring in fossilisation? God is eternal.

 

[Assyrian]

Maybe its not finished yet
2Cor 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Phil 3:12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
1John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

 

[Mallon]

My point is that, unless we have some objective means of recognizing what "God's image" is, we cannot know at what point it appeared in the evolution of man.

 

[Notedstrangeperson]

My point is that, unless we have some objective means of recognizing what "God's image" is, we cannot know at what point it appeared in the evolution of man.

I think OP's question is a philosophy one rather than a historical one. I doubt many of us here think that God actually looks like a human being (complete with long white beard), so a modern human skeleton wouldn't tell us any more about 'God's image' than skeleton of australopithecus.

I think she's asking at what point humans gained their divinity - a sense of morality, stewardship of the Earth, an obligation to do something meaningful with their lives etc.

 

[Mick116]

If "God's image" means things like creativity, morality, spirituality, or if it is in any way correlated with intelligence, then signs such as the creation of sophisticated tools, increases in brain size, the use of weapons in intra-species conflict (i.e. evidence of wars etc.), burial of the dead, creation of fire, domestication of crops and animals, and the creation of artworks such as cave paintings could give us clues to the beginnings of what the ancient Hebrews recognised as "God's image". I suspect these kinds of clues are able to be preserved in the fossil record.

 

[Research1]

The implication is that God's image is replicated in modern mankind, but that is my query. Why do you bring in fossilisation? God is eternal.

Adam was made in the image and likeness of God and was made in the middle-east around 15,000 years ago. Though most other creationists favor a figure around 6,000 - 10, 000 years. I push this figure back slightly as recent archeological findings have come to light in Syria.

Obviously there were Hominids and primitive peoples prior to Adam, however the Adamites do not descend from those stock.

 

[Mallon]

I think she's asking at what point humans gained their divinity - a sense of morality, stewardship of the Earth, an obligation to do something meaningful with their lives etc.

Right. But morality doesn't fossilize, so I'm saying that there's no way of knowing when we acquired it.

 

[juvenissun]

My point is that, unless we have some objective means of recognizing what "God's image" is, we cannot know at what point it appeared in the evolution of man.

If you can see the difference in this image, then "God's image" is defined. Otherwise, you simply have no idea on what God's image is. Then there is no point for further discussion.

 

[juvenissun]

I think OP's question is a philosophy one rather than a historical one. I doubt many of us here think that God actually looks like a human being (complete with long white beard), so a modern human skeleton wouldn't tell us any more about 'God's image' than skeleton of australopithecus.

I think she's asking at what point humans gained their divinity - a sense of morality, stewardship of the Earth, an obligation to do something meaningful with their lives etc.

Somehow I do.

God the Son exists at the beginning. The Son should look like a human. The critical thing is that we will see the Son face to face in the future. He does look like a human.

 

[BrendanMark]

God the logos (word, logic, reason etc) was in no way human until Incarnation.

A human being is the animal with logos, with the word/reason and creative free will.

It is notable that Origen and Athanasius, and the other Fathers discussed in the study, did not support their picture of God as Father either by drawing on the biological nor the psychological and sociological dimensions of human fatherhood. Contemporary ideas about the family and about adoption play no role in their discussions of the divine being or of the Father’s relation to us.
Widdicome, Peter – The Fatherhood of God From Origen to Athanasius [Oxford Theological Monographs, 1994, 2004, p. 256]

 

[Mallon]

If you can see the difference in this image, then "God's image" is defined. Otherwise, you simply have no idea on what God's image is. Then there is no point for further discussion.

The problem is that the anatomical differences between human and chimp are blurred when we look at the fossil record:

 

[Suttonsue]

My question related to the physical image not the divine image, though that has given me something else to think about. According to the Scriptures Adam was made in God's likeness. But surely science is gradually proving that human form has descended from the primitive people/hominids. Perhaps we have to look at it in the context of morality/spirituality rather than the physical. As I have only recently been drawn back to reading the Scriptures after many, many years, I am still looking at it in a literal way. Thanks for your input.

 

[Suttonsue]

Juvennison, would you mind looking at my other post on Christian Scriptures forum regarding prophecy on the second coming of Christ if you have any answers on that post please, thanks

 

[Willtor]

I think the image of God has to do with the ability to have fellowship with God through faith. This probably didn't happen until our ancestors had large enough brains to reflect on relationships. Even then, receiving the image of God might have been something that God did through revelation. I couldn't speculate as to whether this happened once, to an individual (Adam), or whether it happened to a community, or whether it happened to many communities at the same time, or over the course of generations.

Philo of Alexandria thought that all creatures bore the image of God, but that the creation account intended to teach us that humanity had it in greater degree. I don't know of any of the early Church Fathers who held that view, but it might be interesting to revisit that possibility in light of evolution.

 

[Assyrian]

I'd have thought Native Americans would be ahead of us there.

 

[EveryTongueConfess]

At what point in evolution please? We are hearing about homo sapiens deriving from homo erectus and scientific proof of age that this was happening. I have tried to search on the forum as I assume it has been asked before but can't find it.

I believe God created in His image as figurative. He didn't create us physically in His image, as He is a spirit and then the arguement of which "race" or characteristics of humans is the most "godly" or "pure".

I personally just believe He created us in His image meaning that we have free will. We get to choose whether to follow Him - essentially that we have/are a soul, unlike animals.

If you were asking when along the lines did humans differentiate from our ape-like ancestor I would say I don't know.

I don't know when the first "human" (by my standards meaning the first being with a soul and free will) was created but I am certain we did not evolve it.

 

[laconicstudent]

Men are created in God's image, and therefore we are all icons of God. That is why, during the services, the priest will cense the people just as he censes the icons.

 

[juvenissun]

The problem is that the anatomical differences between human and chimp are blurred when we look at the fossil record:

Fossil is a study of bones (don't argue with trace fossils), not a study of full life. God's image is not only made of bones. That is why no bones of Jesus left for us to worship.