I have a mechanical mind. Things are right/wrong, black/white, good/bad, etc. White lies were still black lies. Life was simple and I was a happy camper! Then I went off to college in a strange land.. I went to Kettering University (at that time GMI) in Flint, Michigan. Attending there were mechanical minded people of the same bias with only different accents in speech. All was well! Soon I was to take some non-engineering electives. One was "American Political Science". It was there that I was astounded; actually befuddled! Yes, I was confused!
The professor said, and I quote "Man is no more than a tree or a frog"! Surely he was jesting because all men know that humans are special. This was his way of saying "I believe in evolution." because evolution makes no distinction between mankind and the animal kingdom, and as far as he was concerned, man arose from the same primordial pond as lily pads. That's evolution. That's what educated people believe because it comes easy. It allows people to be unaccountable for bad behavior because there will be no eternal consequences for evil. Mankind can then do "what is right in his own eyes" without fear of eternal consequences.
When God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26) he made a distinction between man and animals!
When God said "let us make man" that defined his body. That was the same as the creation of all the other animals. "In our image" and "after our likeness" are extra ingredients. With all the other animals God made all of them "after their own kind". Their "kind" was not man's kind! Man was not made after his own kind, but "in our image" and "after our likeness". Those specifications are our endowment. Animals didn't get supranatural natures. Man did. We have things inside which are beyond direct measure. Our bodies have mass, the mass can be divided into elements and both the weight and composition can be measured.
Animals have a degree of intelligence. They somehow make decisions and react to communication. They "talk" with each other. In other words, they have a mind which is capable of cognition. Like us, they have instincts which make them hunters, fear being hunted, able to mate and nourish their offspring. Sometimes I think their behavior and instincts are more noble than ours! Animals sometimes kill their own offspring, but it's not for convenience. Animals do not have same-sex attraction. Because mankind sinned, we have a propensity to do wrong. Animals just do what they need to do to survive. We do things because we have selfish motives and to magnify our own pleasures. There is a difference between men and animals.. Trees cannot even be compared. Prof. Shwartzburg just had it wrong and I was astounded that he believed a lie! Up until then I thought that we all had the same basic beliefs.
In addition, mankind had other aspects. He was created in "our image". Let's look at who "our" refers to. There was evil and dark forces; all angels who had rebelled earlier in another kingdom. They were not part of "our image" because they rebelled. They were "them". We weren't created in the image of "them". We are like "them" now because we too rebelled against God, although we weren't created that way. When mankind sinned, Satan adopted us. We became his illegitimate children.
"Our" can include angels, certainly the Creator himself, God's Holy Spirit and "The Word". As such we not only have "mind" because we have cognition and wisdom; but we have a spirit as well. The "cup" for the spirit is the soul. It was full of the Holy Spirit when Adam was created and because he "died" his cup was emptied. He still had a soul and very quickly evil spirits moved in. That is a result of "original sin" and the soul of everyone born has that sin residing in their soul (Romans 3:23).
When we are "born-again" a new creation, the old person dies, his soul is emptied with divine cleansing and a new person receives a clean and Holy Spirit. Animals can't be born again. They are mortal creatures and can never have eternal life. An ingredient missing from animals is "hope". They fail to even have despair because they aren't afraid of eternal damnation. Man is not like a frog! We are so much more and only a fool would deny the difference. How many frogs teach political science? Apparently only one lost frog: Prof. Swartzburg!
The common thing that man has with animals is a material presence. It's the "body". It can be detected by all of our senses because it is ordinary in a worldly sense, but extraordinary in a divine sense. The bodies of creatures all function basically the same, but man's body is a special edition. Animals were created without a pattern. Adam was created with a pattern. Since all the animal kingdom has substance we are all made essentially from the dust to which the body will return. Animals will eternally remain "dust", but man will again arise from the dust:
1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:"This is our "hope" as Christians! Animals aren't included in the "hope" category. We live so that we can die then to live forever. It's imperative that we believe that Jesus was resurrected to have faith that we too can be restored from the dead and have eternal life. Because Jesus did it, we can too! It was in the image of Jesus that our bodies were made. Jesus had the same substance which we have!
Jesus was not made in "our image" we were made in his. When we were made, Jesus was not in our form. He could be and could appear however he wanted to appear, but until the word was made flesh, he was supranatural. With the advent of Jesus incarnate, his form was identical to ours!
Because God has foreknowledge he knew how he was going to create Jesus. He had a plan from day one and in the plan was a divine sketch of Jesus. God drew him in his divine mind. Jesus's image stayed there in that plan until God was ready to build him. At that time, God's Spirit came on Mary and a man with flesh was born who had a "cup" filled with God himself! Jesus was born just like Adam was born only years after. John the Baptist said that "the one who came after me was before me"! Adam was created after the likeness of Jesus. God used the plan he had "drawn" for Jesus and used it to "draw" man in that same image!
To think that Jesus was created in our image would be prideful! It is essential that we credit Jesus as the pattern for us. Indeed he is to be our pattern for our livs. We are to be Christlike. Jesus was never to be Manlike!
Yes, Prof. Swartzburg, man is more than a tree or a frog! I am proof of that because I have hope! My "cup" is filled with an ingredient trees nor frogs don't have. That is the Holy Spirit and even those who have never been born again have a cup of evil which animals do not have! Maybe it is you who was befuddled! The cure for "befuddledness" is faith. Hold that prideful nose and let it flow in. It's living water which is the anecdote to those confused!
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