This is a recollection module good for High School Students. According to the Scriptures, humans are not an evolutionary accident but a special creation. Human beings were purposefully produced by God to fulfill a preordained role in His world. They have peculiar qualities that somehow reflect the nature of God Himself and set them apart and above all other created beings. 1. Created in the image and likeness of God *Selem – Hebrew word for “image” which bears a strong physical resemblance to the person or thing it represents. *Demuth – Hebrew word for “likeness” as reflecting this image in such qualities as goodness, grace, and love. *After the FALL (sin of Eve and Adam) retained the “image” but lost the “likeness” *Neither of the words imply that persons are divine. *Likeness but not sameness 2. Persons are made body-soul-spirit Genesis 2:7 says, “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In creation God endowed persons with a spiritual aspect of life. This passage says that man became a soul, not that he had a soul. A person is both body and soul, or more accurately, body-soul. The Old Testament supports this holistic view of persons who are not segmented into parts known as body, soul, and spirit. BODY PHYSIOLOGICAL (World-Consciousness) RELATES TO ENVIRONMENT SOUL PSYCHOLOGICAL (Self-Consciousness) RELATES TO OTHERS (mind, emotion, will) SPIRIT SPIRITUAL (God’s-Consciousness) RELATES TO GOD (intuition, conscience, communion) 3. Share in His rational nature People have the power to think, analyze, and reflect even upon abstract matters. They cannot be defined by or confined to material attributes. As God is spiritual (John 4:24), persons are spiritual. This spiritual kinship makes possible communication with God. 4. Human persons have the purpose They have an instinctive need to be something and to do something. They have a responsible intuition and an inner call to duty. The human race has a unique sense of “oughtness.” Humans are moral creatures. They can and do make moral judgments (Gen. 2:16-17). Persons have a censoring conscience which they may defy. They are choice makers; they can obey their highest instincts or follow their most morbid urges. A human is the only creature who can say no to God. Humans are autonomous persons. God endowed them with the freedom to govern their own lives. Baltimore catechism: humans are created to know. Love and serve God and to be happy with him in the next 5. Fellowship with God made possible No person could have a meaningful relationship with a robot. Real fellowship can take place only between two authentic persons. God created “man” in His own image because He wanted a relationship with another sovereign person. Sharing: Share 1 word/phrase (New discovery or rediscovery from the input)