Humanity:
I believe humanity is made in God’s own image, and is special and unique in all of creation.
First, the crowning work of God’s creation is in that he made them male and female. As a result, gender in humanity “ought” to be viewed as a gift and an expression of God’s goodness.
Also, I believe that sin is not by God’s design in the “nature” of humanity. This fact is evident in that it was not in the “original” make up of man. In creation humanity was without sin and enjoyed a “free will” that was gifted to man by God Himself. I believe the Bible is factual in its portrayal of the fall of humanity. It was through an abuse of his “free will” that the first Adam sinned against God, resulting in sin being thrust upon the human race
…show more content…
There is no one who is can make the rightful claim that they are without sin. Both the Old and New Testaments support the idea that sin is a universal reality and truth of God. As it relates to sin, there is no distinction to be made between Jews and Gentiles. According to scripture, all have sinned. The universality of sin should be accepted as the truth of God with any position to the contrary suggesting that God Himself is a liar. We know from scripture that God is not capable of lying. It is contrary to His nature.
I believe As John Stott posits in his book Basic Christianity, the nature of sin can be surmised in the Bible in two basic ways; wrong doing that is “negative” in its nature and conversely wrong doing that is “positive” in nature. Negatively, sin can be understood as being a “shortcoming”, a “lapse” in judgement, a “slip” or even a “blunder.” Another way of understanding it can be the shooting at and missing of a “target.” Additionally, the nature of sin might be seen as wickedness deep on the inside of the heart and soul level of man.
Positively sin can be understood as “transgression,” a deliberate and willful act against the law of God, the “overstepping” of a boundary set by God, or a disregard for or “breaking” of divine law, or a “violation” of standards of justice according to the expressed will of
…show more content…
He created everything that is and will ever be from nothing. There is no realm in all of the cosmos apart from that which was created by God. He is singularly and with no equal or partners the architect of the only reality that there is, and it was all done for His divine purpose toward which history strives. God has great love and affection for His creation and especially his creation of humanity.
God’s creation was the beginning of all that is and ever was. Before creation there was nothing.
In creation humanity was designed by God and animated by God breathing life into it. After His creation God declared all of creation to be good and then rested, and blessed the day of rest.
He created every living creature on the earth. Nothing in the all of the foundation of the heaven or the earth can escape God’s credit. The fullness and breadth of creation is beyond man’s full comprehension and can only be partially understood through God’s revelation of Himself. All of creation proclaims the awesome power of God. It is by God’s design at creation that humanity would have dominion over the rest of creation. God existed before creation and will survive its end. He is the source of creation and not a creation Himself or a part of
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis1:1.) God’s perfect wisdom created everything. In Genesis 1 and 2 we can see that God has loving and gentile nature when He created the earth and heavens. God created man in his image and we are the only creation that God breathed in the breath of life for human beings (Genesis 2:7). God did not do this for any of other creations but only for humans. The Bible has many scriptures that tell us how creative God is. Genesis 1;26 states “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created all of this for us to have fellowship with him.
There is a distinction, a type of separation that exists between God and all other beings. God is unlimited and infinite, where as all other things are limited and finite. Man exists somewhere in between a state of creatureliness and Godliness. Similar to the way that God has given commands to other creatures, he tells man that he should be "fruitful and multiply," (Pagels, xii). Man's purpose is to procreate, according to Genesis. Yet man's function is uniq...
One might ask, What exactly are sins and where did they come from? According to Oxford Dictionary, a sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Sin is what started the fall of humanity that is still manifested in today’s time. Adam was the first of God’s human creation. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:16–17). Sin entered the world when Adam disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. “God gave to man the power of contrary choice. Man of his own will, by no external compulsion or determination, used that power in the commission of sin… ” (Reddit 10). The effects of Adam’s sin are profound and and they affect everyone. A few things that stand out in Reddit’s explanation of it is that “sin is lawless, universal and results in satanic bond”. Sin is lawless because its is breaking God’s divine law. “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1John 3:4). Sin is universal because, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one” and the evil one who is Satan. An objection could be that
Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” A man is a triune being composed of body, soul, and spirit who reflects the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, and the Holy Sprit. The Bible states in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This verse of scripture reveals that man has a spiritual nature that is separate from the body in which he dwells. Sister Roy believes that man is a whole being composed of parts or subsystems that all work together for a common purpose. Man has a shared relationship with God and the world (Alligood and Tomey 2010, 341-342). The Bible declares in Isaiah 43:7, “ Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.” A man’s ultimate purpose on the earth is to glorify God through his
He didn’t want us to sin, as we were to be perfect in his eyes. But that all went away after Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and this is when sin was introduced into the world (the Fall). Sin is now just a human nature thing in us and now we keep making poor choices as we have the “sin” blood in us and we need to make the right choices daily to keep us sin free.
As the first book of the Old Testament convey, Genesis, and its Greek meaning “in the beginning,” life originated with God in the Garden of Eden. Accor...
In Genesis, god created merely by speaking. It was god who created the heavens and earth also known as cosmos. Water was already pre-existent matter; everything else was created by god. It all began when god spoke in the darkness and said let there be light and there was light. God saw that the light was good. During the day there would be light, and the darkness would be at night. By the second and third day, god created a firmament (dome) which separated the waters from the waters. God called the firmament heaven and said that all the waters under heaven should be gathered as one allowing for dry land to appear. This created one place for the water and another place for dry land. It was the dry land that beca...
A foundational belief in Christianity is the idea that God is perfectly good. God is unable to do anything evil and all his actions are motives are completely pure. This principle, however, leads to many questions concerning the apparent suffering and wrong-doing that is prevalent in the world that this perfect being created. Where did evil come from? Also, how can evil exist when the only eternal entity is the perfect, sinless, ultimately good God? This question with the principle of God's sovereignty leads to even more difficult problems, including human responsibility and free will. These problems are not limited to our setting, as church fathers and Christian philosophers are the ones who proposed some of the solutions people believe today. As Christianity begins to spread and establish itself across Europe in the centuries after Jesus' resurrection, Augustine and Boethius provide answers, although wordy and complex, to this problem of evil and exactly how humans are responsible in the midst of God's sovereignty and Providence.
The book of Genesis 1-11 gives us a teaching and lays a foundation for the truth that is expressed later in the bible as it makes an assumption that God is the creator of the universe and all it holds. The scriptures in this books gives an expression of God as being just, love, wrath, holy and grace. This scripture enables us to understand how we should view the world and God’s part in the creation and the recreation of the whole universe.
When you read chapter one of Genesis you have the feeling that God is perfect. God holds all power and control. God turns chaos into order. "God said 'Let there be light.' And there was light, And God saw the light, that it was good" (Gen 1. 3). God's word is action, God's word is law in the universe. When God creates something, he ends it with God seeing that's its good. This is in effect giving support to the perfect nature that is God and the creations God has made. "God does not play dice" (Armstrong 9), God has order and a purpose for what he makes. An important aspect to God is seen while he is creating the world. He separates water from land. Light from Darkens, Day and Night, Male and Female. This shows that boundaries are important to God. We see examples where God put boundaries on mankind with their language by mixing the language up so confuse man and killing off the evil from the good.
Sin can be defined in many ways, but it creates a separation from God. There is a war that occurs inside people. That war is between one’s flesh and the Holy Spirit. Satan was the originator of sin because pride caused him to sin against God. Adam and Eve were the doors that allowed sin to enter the world. Sin causes death and without a savior, it is impossible to cleanse oneself. Once sin is conceived, it takes an atonement to wipe away one’s sin. Jesus became the atonement for all believers and He gives everyone a chance to have a relationship with God. As Christians, one must be aware of sin because it can affect a person’s destiny and cause delays with God’s blessing.
The doctrine of original sin can be defined as the belief that “all of humanity is born with a built-in urge to do bad things… stemming from Adam and Eve's disobedience to God” (BBC). The traditional story as imprinted in the Christian Bible claims that original sin emerged in retaliation to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit despite God’s clear commands, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (New International Version, Genesis 2:4-3:24) This friendship, or covenant, with God was then broken, marking a separation. From a theological standpoint, we are the children of our parents – Adam and Eve – who inherit this submission to sin. Nonetheless, regardless of theological background, original sin is merely a sense of weakness humanity has imbedded to yield to sinful or evil acts. Moreover, this embedded drive in humans to commit evil doings is additionally used to rationalize “the need for police, the collapse of great civilizations, suicide, war, suffering and so on” (CNA).
But it is the corruption . . . offspring of Adam, whereby man is . . . original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually.” The Bible informs us that we are servants or slaves to whom we obey. “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” ( Rom. 6:16 NRSV ) Sin can be described as a cosmic power responsible for the enslavement of its prey. This scenario is analogous to the enslavement of subjected peoples by force of the armies who had become their conquerors. We too, are in danger of finding ourselves in bondage to an adverse, and alien influence known as sin. Rendered unable to choose freely we are resigned to surrender in obedience to sin because it now exerts power over us. In the account of Abel and Cain offering sacrifices to God we have an example of just how elusive sin can
Every day God created something new and blesses it. God created nothing irrelevant or unworthy. Entirely everything he created served a purpose. Also all he had created came from nothing. The fish were undeniably produced out of the waters, and the beasts and man out of the earth; but that earth and those waters were made out of nothing. God created what is known as the world today and everything that exists on the earth. Reading Genesis 1 gives all mankind an idea of how life started and how the earth was formed to be this magnificent place. The earth is very complicated yet God could solve all of the problems and create blessings. He gave us light and darkness, day and night, water and land. He created all living creature including mankind.