We read in Genesis 1:26-28;
“Then
God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the
earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So
God created man in his own image,
in
the image of God he created him;
male
and female he created them.
God
blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the
earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and
over every living creature that moves on the ground.””
First of all, man was made last of all
the creatures: this was both an honor and a favor to him. Yet man was made the
same day that the beasts were; his body was made of the same earth with theirs;
and while he is in the body, he inhabits the same earth with them.
God forbid that by indulging the body,
and the desires of it, we should make ourselves like the beasts that perish!
Man was to be a creature different from all that had been made. Flesh and
spirit, heaven and earth, must be put together in him.
God said, “Let us
make man”. Man, when he was made,
was to glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Into that great name we are
baptized, for to that great name we owe our being. It is the soul of man that
especially bears God's image.
Man was made upright (Ecclesiastes 7:29).
His understanding saw Divine things clearly and truly; there were no errors or
mistakes in his knowledge; his will consent at once, and in all things, to the
will of God. His affections were all regular, and he had no bad appetites or
passions. His thoughts were easily brought and fixed to the best subjects.
Thus holy, thus happy, were our first
parents in having the image of God upon them. But how is this image of God upon
man defaced! May the Lord renew it upon our souls by His grace!
In connection with the meditation
above, I read very interesting article and thought it would be helpful to you
too.
Did God create life on other planets? Otherwise why is the
universe so big?
by Gary Bates
Many people, Christian or otherwise, struggle with
the notion that the earth is the only inhabited planet in this enormous
universe. In short, is there life on other planets?
Those who believe life evolved on the earth usually
see it as virtual ‘fact’ that life has evolved on countless other planets.
Discovering life on other planets would in turn be seen as confirming their
evolutionary belief.
But even many Christians think, ‘God must have
created life elsewhere, otherwise this enormous universe would be an awful
waste of space.’ In my experience, this seems to be the major underlying reason
why people think that there must be other life 'out there'. However, our
thinking should be based on what God said He did (the Bible), and not what we
think He would, should or might have done.
Firstly, since God is the One Who made the universe,
it can scarcely be ‘big’ to Him. Humans struggle with its vastness because our
comprehension is limited to the created time/space dimensions within which we
exist, and it is mind-bending to try and comprehend anything beyond our
dimensional existence. Size is only relative to us as inhabitants of this
universe. And size and time are related somewhat. Because the universe is big
to us we consider how long it would take us to travel across it, for example.
But, time itself began with the creation of the physical universe, so how can
we comprehend what eternity is, or might be? What was ‘before’ the universe?
Similarly, how do we imagine how ‘big’ God is? We cannot use a tape measure
that is made of the very atoms He made to measure Him. One example of this
might be if you were asked to build a small house and you did. Now you are
asked to build a large house. In our dimensions, for you to build the larger
house it would require more effort and take more time. So, is it harder, or
does it take longer for God to build a big universe compared to a smaller one
(according to our perspective on what constitutes large or small of course)? Of
course not, because He isn't bound by time and space (which He created). Isaiah 40:28 says; … the
everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow
weak nor weary ….
We are impressed that God made billions of galaxies
with billions of stars in them and suitably so, because that is one of the
reasons for making them. But as mentioned, size
is not an issue for God. Stars are relatively simple structures as they
are just great big balls of gas. It would take more ‘creative input’, in that
sense, for Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand than for the creation of
countless quasars (there is immense genetic complexity in the structure of even
a dead fish).
The
Bible and ETs
It is often asked, ‘Just because the Bible teaches
about God creating intelligent life only on Earth, why couldn’t He have done so
elsewhere?’ After all, Scripture does not discuss everything, e.g. motorcars.
However, the biblical objection to ET is not merely an argument from silence.
Motor cars, for example, are not a salvation issue, but we believe that sentient,
intelligent, moral-decision-capable beings is, because it would undermine the
authority of Scripture. In short, understanding the big picture of the
Bible/gospel message allows us to conclude clearly that the reason the Bible
doesn’t mention extraterrestrials (ETs) is that there aren’t any.1 Surely, if
the earth were to be favored with a visitation by real extraterrestrials from a
galaxy far, far away, then one would reasonably expect that the Bible, and God
in His sovereignty and foreknowledge, to mention such a momentous occasion,
because it would clearly redefine man's place in the universe.
1. The Bible
indicates that the whole creation groans and travails under the weight of sin
(Romans 8:18–22). The effect of the Curse following Adam’s Fall was universal.
Otherwise what would be the point of God destroying this whole creation to make
way for a new heavens and Earth—2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1 ff Therefore, any
ETs living elsewhere would have been (unjustly) affected by the Adamic Curse
through no fault of their own—they would not have inherited Adam’s sin nature.
2. When Christ (God) appeared in the flesh, He came
to Earth not only to redeem mankind but eventually the whole creation back to
Himself (Romans 8:21, Colossians 1:20). However, Christ’s atoning death at
Calvary cannot save these hypothetical ETs, because one needs to be a physical
descendant of Adam for Christ to be our ‘kinsman-redeemer’ (Isaiah 59:20).
Jesus was called ‘the last Adam’ because there was a real first man, Adam (1
Corinthians 15:22,45)—not a first Vulcan, Klingon etc. This is so a sinless
human Substitute takes on the punishment all humans deserve for sin (Isaiah
53:6,10; Matthew 20:28; 1 John 2:2, 4:10), with no need to atone for any (non-existent)
sin of his own (Hebrews 7:27).
3. Since this would mean that any ETs would be lost
for eternity when this present creation is destroyed in a fervent heat (2 Peter
3:10, 12), some have wondered whether Christ’s sacrifice might be repeated
elsewhere for other beings. However, Christ died once for all (Romans 6:10, 1
Peter 3:18) on the earth. He is not going to be crucified and resurrected again
on other planets (Hebrews 9:26). This is confirmed by the fact that the
redeemed (earthly) church is known as Christ’s bride (Ephesians 5:22–33;
Revelation 19:7–9) in a marriage that will last for eternity.3 Christ is not
going to be a polygamist with many other brides from other planets.
4. The Bible makes no provision for God to redeem
any other species, any more than to redeem fallen angels (Hebrews 2:16).
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