Boy Are We Different … The Creation of Mankind
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:9-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you in the same way.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse(s) is(are):
Philippians 2:3-4
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.”
Today we will be reading from Genesis 1:6-31
I remember back in my elementary education being taught about the basic kingdoms of life on earth; the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom and the teacher said that humans were part of the animal kingdom. (I realize that there are more kingdom classifications of life but the teacher was keeping it simple for us. In researching this I found that even the scientists disagree on the number of kingdoms; is it five or six or seven?)
In my less than full understanding of what she was saying I said that I was not an animal and so the other kids would call me “pine tree” which I even thought was humorous.
What I meant was that I knew from Sunday School that there was a difference between mankind and the rest of the animal kingdom; that God had made us special, in His own image. And, so, we were and are different from any other animals.
What makes us different and what difference does it make???
For the answers please join me in your Bibles as we read:
Genesis 1:6-31
(Prayer for help)
What do we see in the Bible that informs us about the difference between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom?
We see in the creation account we just read that God said:
- “Let there be …” 3x (no discussion)
- “Let the …” 4x (no discussion)
- “Let Us …” 1x (Let’s talk about this …)
Who is the “Us” in the “Let Us …”?
Some say that God was consulting with the angelic host regarding the decision but this is both illogical and it has no Biblical foundation. If it WERE God and the angels it would mean that God and the angels are of the same image. They are not. And, there is no evidence that angels had any part of the creation event at all.
How DO we see angels in the Bible?
- As messengers
- As servants
- As worshipers
- NOT as advisers or consultants
Others say that God was using a first-person-plural-pronoun us to refer to God the Father in a fuller, more majestic sense - i.e., a plural of majesty. For instance, you can imagine the Queen of England asking the question, “And, how are we today?” or saying, “We are well” when asked about her health.
Such an idea also has no Biblical foundation.
Finally, we see here and in other instances in the Bible that it is a foreshadowing of the fuller understanding of the Holy Trinity which would be revealed when Jesus the Messiah would come to earth.
This is immense! We have been created in the image and likeness of God! While all of the plant life and animal life of this creation have only the essence of this world, we humans, have not only the essence of this world but we also have the essence of God’s image as well.
How do we know that? Let’s compare these two verses …
In Genesis 2:19 we see, “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.”
And in Genesis 2:7 we see, “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
When we compare these two verses we can see that both the animals and the man, Adam, were formed from the dust of the ground.
In that sense we are indeed animals, we are of the animal kingdom!
So, what IS the difference? The Bible says that, “… the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
Did the LORD God breathe into the nostrils of the animals?
The Bible does not say that He did.
Do the animals breathe?
Yes. Of course they do in one way or another.
So, what happened when, “…the LORD God … breathed into “Adam’s” nostrils the breath of life? Was it just that Adam started to use his lungs? No, it’s more than that. It goes on to say that, “… the man became a LIVING BEING.”
Now, that’s a peculiar phrase, “a living being.”
Does that mean that Adam just came to life or does it mean more than that?
When I looked at other translations of the Bible the most common usage was either “living being” or “living soul.”
A few translations say, that the man “became a living creature”.
So, what do we do with that?
What did Adam become when the Lord breathed life into him?
Did he become something different from animals or just another living creature?
Do you know that there is not one instance in the Bible where an animal is referred to as an “living being” or “living soul?”
Is that the part of us that makes us in the image of God; that we have a soul or that we are a “being”?
The flesh and bone part of us is of the earth. The soul, that fact that we are a “being”, is the “image of God” part of us.
What other differences do we see between humanity and the animals?
What does the Bible say? In Genesis 1:26 it says,
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”
Man was given the responsibility of ruling or having dominion over the animals. God the Creator did not give any direction to the non-human animals at all other than to reproduce and fill the earth.
The ESV Reformation Study Bible says it this way, “God gave humans the cultural mandate to rule the creation as benevolent kings. Natural man can rule the animal and plant kingdoms, but he cannot rule the heavenly powers, (including) Satan. Only the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, the very image of God’s Person and those united with Him can do that.”
In Genesis 1:28 we see God blessing humanity and presenting them with their mission.
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”
OK. So, from the Bible we can see that mankind is given the task of being caretakers of His creation. We do live on the earth with the rest of the animal kingdom but only we are created in the image of the Creator and only we have been given a charge of responsibility.
Finally in Genesis 2:7 it says,
“Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. “
What do we see here? We see that God created Adam directly from the dust of the earth. Why is this important? It is important because it shows that humanity did not evolve from lower animals.
God it not take an ape and give him an upgrade in order to make Adam.
In addition to that, humanity was created as a distinct and purposeful act by God and not a random mutation that occurred some time over the past 13.6 billion years (give or take a few billion …)
So we, as humans are differentiated from animals in the following ways,
- Human beings have souls that are made in the image and likeness of God
- We are given dominion over the animal kingdom “to rule the creation as benevolent kings.”
- The Lord has given us a singular blessing at the end of creation which He did not extend to the animal kingdom.
- The Lord gave us a mission. The blessing or care of the animal kingdom was to be accomplished indirectly by the Lord through humanity’s working within the mission He gave to us.
OK. Let’s look at the rest of the Bible and see if we see how we are different from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Only humans are attacked by satan.
Throughout Scripture we see satan’s great hatred for God. satan wanted to prevent Jesus from being born. When that failed he wanted to kill Jesus. The devil hates the Lord and he hates humanity in general and Christians in particular. Why? Because we resemble the God that he hates so much. We are created in the image of the God he hates!
Where do we first see the evil one attacking the ones who are maed in the image of God? We see it in the very next chapter!
Genesis 3:1, when he asked Eve the half-truth, deceptive question of, “… did God really say …?”
We see the Holy Spirit giving us this warning about the devil in
1 Peter 5:8 (AMP), “Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.”
We see a young girl being possessed by a demon in
Matthew 15:22, “A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to [Jesus], crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.’”
What does that have to do with humanity being different from animals?
Humans are created in the image of God. The devil hates God and by extension, he hates those who are created in God’s image and he wishes to destroy them all eternally in hell. In reality, the devil could care less about animals.
We never see animals possessed by demons in the Bible except for the time Jesus cast the demons from the man who lived in the tombs and He allowed them to enter the herd of pigs.
This in itself shows that we are different from animals and special in an immeasurable way to our Creator.
How is the evil one attacking humans beside demonic possession and demonic harassment?
Through false teachers!
Saturday morning I watched a video by a guy named Richard Rohr.
First of all, the only way this man could ever be considered a Christian is that he wrote a book called “Universal Christ” and he bases most of his teaching on writings by Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure and Don Scotus all of whom are Roman catholic writers 12th and 13th centuries A.D.
During this video he was describing Jesus as “the death” and “Christ” as the life. This took me a while that he was describing Jesus as a mere human and “Christ” as what he called the “Universal Christ” or “Cosmic Christ.”
Rohr does not consider the Jesus Christ of the Bible to be Lord or that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World.
Rohr does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God, instead, he believes in ‘Scripture as validated by experience and experience as validated by Tradition are good scales for one’s spiritual worldview’. ‘Tradition’ is not tradition of the church, but rather ‘the perennial philosophy’ which ‘points to recurring themes and truths within all of the world’s religions’
Rohr states that the Holy Spirit is female. He refers to the Holy Spirit as an ‘inner compass’ but also as a ‘force field’. And he says that the Holy Spirit seems to be linked to the ‘unified field’; and it keeps us in ‘the flow’, where our ‘True Self’ is.
How do people come up with such non-Biblical mumbo jumbo?
And, do they ever go to a zoo and preach this heresy to the animals? No, the evil one only uses them to deceive and destroy the ones made in the image of God Himself.
And, here are some quotes from William Paul Young, author of The Shack …
- The God of Evangelical Christianity is a Monster
- Jesus is not the 'founder of Christianity
- I'm trying to get far away from [picturing God as] Gandalf or Santa Claus
- Jesus was always challenging the dogma of religion. So, you know, it's not like I'm out there by myself. (In other words, Jesus challenged the Jewish religious establishment and Young is doing the same thing and thereby making himself equal with Jesus.)
OK. Now, these “Christian” authors are showing us another Christ that they see from their inner thoughts.
Why are they showing us this false Christ?
Matthew 24:23-24 says,
“At that time (the time of Jesus’ return and the end of the age) … false messiahs and false prophets will appear ….”
2 Timothy 4:3-4
“The time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
This is just another proof that we as humans are different from animals. The evil one has no interest in the future of any life on earth except for human life. Why? They contain the image of God who created them.
Neither true prophets nor false prophets preach to animals? Why? Because they do not have immortal souls which can be saved or destroyed. Only humans have the treasure of being created in the image of God.
And, here is the summation of what we see as the difference between humanity and the rest of the animal kingdom.
- God created us in His image, to be in relationship with Him and to care for His creation.
- The evil one hates the image of God within each human and uses his demons to tempt, harass or possess them if possible.
- The devil uses false teachers to keep the unsaved from coming to Christ for salvation or to draw away those who are saved into damnation. Why? Because he hates God and the image of God that is within us.
- God knows the destructive plan the evil one has for every one of us and in the Father’s great Love and Mercy He sent His One and Only Son to be the Savior of our souls.
As you listen to this Scripture listen for the great love the True Jesus has for those made in His image.
Does He sound like a “monster”?
Does He sound like some impersonal Cosmic Christ?
A Cosmic Christ, an impersonal “force field” which is “ever-growing” and is wherever “matter and the spiritual coincide”?
In John 10:14-15, 17-18 Jesus says,
“I am the Good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me - just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father - and I lay down My life for the sheep … The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life - only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
We have a great and wonderful God. God’s creation is magnificent and faithfully declares His Glory. The animals He created all work together as an amazing flow of life. They are interconnected in such a way that to try to map it all out would boggle the mind.
Some of them we love. Some of them we fear.
And at the same time we realize that The Creator did something special when He created mankind; He made us in His image.
And, being made in the image of God with immortal souls, it was necessary for those souls to be protected.
We need to stop here and thank our Lord that He has given us the Holy Bible as an anchor for our immortal souls!
We need to stop here and thank the Father for sending His One and Only Son to show us the Father, to take the penalty for our sin upon Himself for our salvation!
We need to stop here and thank The Holy Spirit for His gracious faithfulness to draw us to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord!
We have an inexpressibly GREAT GOD!
Our hearts should be overflowing with gratitude and thankfulness for His bountiful provision for our eternal life!
Unlike animals, we are created in the image of God and we were created to have eternal life with Him. Trust Him! Embrace Him. And look forward to the day when we stand in His presence with unbridled adoration for Who He is.
It is because of Who He is and what He has done that we can say along with Job … “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” - Job 19:25-27
Do you have that hope? Amen? Amen!
Final thoughts and prayer
