Does GOD's image then include the disgrace and corruption of sin? Eccl.7:29 "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions..." When were you created upright but then went astray into many sins?
I was created upright in Adam; for I am one of his descendants.
1 Peter 2:25 For "you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. When did
you become His sheep and then go astray into sin to only return to your Shepherd at your conversion and repentance??? A sheep is in His image, right?, so a sheep gone astray is only a degraded image of Him, sinful and corrupt.
The condemned never cease to be in God's image either; this is why God can rightfully demand of them retribution for their sin.
Personally, in linear time; I went astray at the first sin I committed. I repented at the point in linear time at the time God appointed as my moment of regeneration. The entity that brought about that regeneration was the Holy Spirit.
There is no way the perfect GOD would or even could create HIS potential Bride as degraded and unable to fulfill HIS purpose in their creation:
Isaiah 43:7, 21
7 "whom I created for my glory"
21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.
...created in sin means to be created unable to fulfill HIS purpose of glorifying HIM, contrary to the import of this verse.
Are sinners redeemable?
What is of greater demonstration of God's love; IE brings glory to God? To create an entity that never sins; or to redeem one who is not worthy of His redeeming them?
Angels are people in the Image of GOD:
Nowhere in Scripture does it say angels are created in God's image.
Scripture is very specific: "Let us make MAN in our image...." (Genesis 1:26-27)
In the resurrection, man will be as the angels of God. Matt 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. In the resurrection, man is restored to the image of God in which he was created. The angels of God must, therefore, bear the image of God.
Again here, you take this passage out of context. What is the subject of the conversation that Jesus gives this response? The question is to whether or not there is marriage in the new heavens and new earth. The answer is "no"; angels don't marry or are given in marriage. So in the resurrection neither do humans marry or are given in marriage.
Now compare this to Luke 20:34-36. Jesus states that marriage is for the children of this world, because in the resurrection there is no death. From a worldly material standpoint; the byproduct of marriage is reproduction. Reproduction is necessary because of death. The eternal point of reproduction is that believers are commonly born to other believers. "I shall be God to you and your children."
The image of GOD? I think it means things like personhood that is, self awareness, intelligence, emotional ability, curiosity and creativity and the ability to make true free will decisions. Therefore any being that fits this description fits the image of GOD... It also means they are suitable as marriage partners for our GOD, part of those who make up HIS Bride who were elected to be conformed to HIS Son and to heaven.
What is the image of God? The image of God means that a human being is redeemable and understands their moral accountability to God for their sin.
Angels are not part of the redemption plan. Jesus did not die for angels. Jesus did not take on the nature of angels; though angels are sentient entities and know they will be condemned if they transgress. And what's different about angels is that they lose the ability to make morally right choices once they do transgress. This is why Scripture states that Satan is a liar and a murder from the beginning and there is "no truth in him". (John 8:44)
Men do not lose that ability. That is why humans "earn wages" for their sin. Two condemned individuals do not earn the same punishment for their sin because the punishment they receive is fitted to the level of sin they committed. The level of sin they committed was a matter of personal choice. That still is not "free will" though, because a will that is truly free is not encumbered by the fallen nature, or the sin that has already been committed.
All life possess some amount of "self awareness". "The creature groans and travails awaiting the revelation of the sons of God". And certainly animals who have the cerebral capacity to make decisions demonstrate intelligence, emotional ability, curiosity and creativity. If this was not the case, animals would not have the ability to learn.
Animals can be behaviorally trained by humans. And the amount of trainability depends on the cognitive capacity of the creature. This is why we have service dogs and not service alligators! Animals learn from each other. Even insects. Bees communicate to other bees in their hive (via what's called "waggle dance") where to find abundance of pollen sources. Thus people who have large flower gardens usually have a lot of bees. (Every summer my yard is "the bumble bee hang out". I have lots of flowering plants.)
Animals also learn how to use tools. Monkeys have learned from each other how to catch ants to eat by sticking blades of grass into ant hills.
Small city dwelling birds in Japan have developed a complex and interesting way of utilizing a certain kind of tree nut for food. Yet because the birds beaks are not strong enough to crack the nuts; this is what they do. They get the nuts from the trees and they sit by traffic lights. They throw the nuts in the road and wait for the traffic lights. When the light turn green, the cars run over the nuts and crack them open for the birds. The birds know that when the lights turn red, they can harvest the nuts without the cars running them over. And other birds will actually keep watch of the traffic going the other way, so when the traffic light turns yellow; they squawk a warning to the birds collecting the nuts in the road that the light is about to turn green, so those birds can fly away before the cars begin to move. Now, no one trained these birds to do this. They demonstrate ingenuity, intelligence and the fact that they are watching out for each other so they don't get killed. They developed this system because the other food sources they were using began to deplete enough to not be able to sustain their population numbers. They knew these seeds were edible by watching birds who had large enough beaks to crack the nuts eat them.
Other mammals are also capable of displaying behavior that we associate with moral concepts like gratitude and care for those who are not their own. There are plenty of examples of animals who have cared for infants of offspring that were not the same species. (Geese who've hatched and cared for duck eggs.) Friendships between domesticated pigs and dogs; cows and horses etc. Wild animals who are obviously happy to see the care givers that "raised" them, even years after they'd been placed in a wild life preserve. Dolphins who've saved the lives of people who were in danger of drowning. Even dolphins who've protected divers from shark attacks.
Testimony to the fact that God created an incredible amount of intelligent life on this planet!
Which reinforces my point that "the image of God" has nothing to do with emotions or intelligence. Being created in God's image involves the ability to be redeemed and the ability to understand one's accountability before God for their sin.
Pre-Conception Existence theology contends that EVERY PERSON was created in the image of GOD, that is, able to be HIS Bride. None were created with HIM knowing they would end in hell or as sinful, needing grace to become able to be HIS Bride.
This would mean that God lacks omniscience; which is one of the characteristics that makes God God.
But as true innocents we only had the potential for perfection, that is, we had to choose by our free will to accept GOD and HIS marriage for us in heaven to fulfill our potential to become perfect in righteousness. The fall of the elect into sin* delayed the fulfillment of their potential by making it impossible to fulfill without grace. Our redemption is a restoration to the potential and the new creation is the fully realized fulfillment in us of HIS purpose for our creation.
*The fall of the reprobate into demonism made their inclusion in the heavenly marriage to be eternally impossible so they were condemned on the spot to the outer darkness.
Issue #1 - The "fall of the reprobate into demonism" and "being condemned on the spot to outer darkness"; does not explain the presence of demons on this planet.
Where creatures reside who have the potential to be redeemed; by definition is not outer darkness, for only those who are paying for their sin are cast into outer darkness.
Issue #2 - Where redemption depends on man's action it's a works gospel.
Issue #3 - Let me humor you for a moment and assume your theory here is true. As your theory relates to your presence on this planet (evidenced by you communicating to me); the theory bears no relevance to you. Because you were "sown a human" you apparently are one of "the elect who went reprobate". And the evidence of this is that you have a mortal body that will die.
If you were an angel who'd appeared in human form to humans; you'd maintain the ability to "un-manifest" back into your angelic form. Clearly you can't do that.
Also, obviously you're not a "PCE" either because clearly you're on earth typing about this theory you have.
So even if it were true; (which it's not) it's of no relevance to you in your current circumstance. You're still a fallen sinner residing on planet earth!