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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Isn't the main point volition | Gen 3:1 | Lionstrong | 154030 | ||
Hi Bob, Please excuse the brevity of this answer. Man is not an animal. If one would look at the classifications of created things he finds in Genesis chapter one (I think a posted something along this line) he would come up with several. For example, on the fifth day God created living creatures that occupy the waters. The variety of these creatures is beyond the imagination! The same is true of those creatures he made to occupy the sky. Here you have two biblical classifications -- fish of the sea and birds of the air. But the final classification, the thing God created last is something that only one creature occupies. It is in a class by itself. It is the class of the image of God and the only creature that occupies that classification is man. The animals belong to different classes such as water, air, cattle and creeping things (v.26). Man belongs to none of those classes. Man is not an animal. Non-believers of our culture do not see man as the image of God. Man is seen as a smart animal or a machine. To our culture the difference between man and non-man is only a matter of degrees. This is not the biblical view. Man is unique among all God’s creatures. He is made in God’s image and has been give benevolent dominion over the earth and will judge angels. Yes, there are similarities in the bodies of men and animals, but that is because God has made us to live in the same environment. And the image of God is not man’s body. My point about animals is that they are not rational. They have not understanding. They do not think. “Animal intelligence” is only an expression. And I also need to add that animals are not made in the image of God nor in any degree of the image of God. I agree that a human person has thought, will and emotion. You think man is an animal and that other animals can think and emote but not choose, and that this inability to choose separates man from the “other” animals. I see no biblical basis for classifying man as an animal. And he is not an animal. He is the image of God. What distinguishes man from the animal is his rational mind, which is the image of God. Moral choices cannot be made without a rational mind. Animals cannot be immoral. One must understand the command of God in order to keep it. Adam understood and transgressed. |
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2 | Isn't the main point volition | Gen 3:1 | mark d seyler | 154032 | ||
Hi Lionstrong, I think you made some excellent points. Man is unique in God's creation. Would you agree with the idea that it was the spirit that God created man with that sets him apart from the rest of creation? Love in Christ, Mark |
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3 | Isn't the main point volition | Gen 3:1 | Lionstrong | 154035 | ||
Matt 10:28 "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being ("living soul" KJV). Hi Mark, It is the KIND of spirit that God created man with that sets him apart from the rest of creation. Man's spirit, the breath God breathed into man's body and into no other creature, is a unique spirit. Man's spirit is the image of God. Man's spirit is a rational mind which the animals do not possess. It is not that we have spirits and the animals do not. It is that our spirit is the image of God and therefore rational, and the animal spirits are not. So, I agree with the wording of your question, though you may not have meant it that way. "Was it the spirit that God created man with that sets him apart?" Yes, Man was created with a rational spirit after the image of God. The spirits of animals were not created this way. And they do not think; they are not rational; they are not personal. |
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