What is " The Image of God?"
When the bible talks about Gods image, I have often wondered just what it is. I used to think it meant our physical shape, that God, in his Spirit form, shapes like a human. Having a head, torso, arms and legs and so on. But I am off into another belief that is growing in my belief; That the image of God, is " Consciousness." When God blew the breath of life into Adam, he was giving him consciousness. And Adams body became alive.
If this much is true, then all humans are made in Gods image, or they are conscious beings. So then the " Breath of Life", or consciousness, is in every human; Not to be confused with " The Holy Spirit of God", which is the annointed spirit of conversion, which is not in every human. But there is " A Spirit of Life" in every human, which I think is consciousness. In Revelations 4:5 an interesting thing about God is revealed; the suggestion is that God has " Seven Spirits!" Which I think, if true, is simply incredible! Well, the " Spirit in man", or consciousness, is surely one; and " The Holy Spirit of God" which is given to the called and chosen, is a second one. So theres two right there, I wonder what the other five are? The Image of God , being consciousness, means the human has a thinking, intelligent, mind. An active mental phenom that can grow and increase in knowledge. Consciousness then is a spirit in man, nothing physical. The body is physical. And I don't think consciousness has any particular location within the body, its just there. We tend to think its in our head, which is because when we introspect, we seem to look inward on an inner space somewhere behind our eyes. And yet, there is nothing inside our heads except physiological tissue of one sort or another. There is no space in our heads. And if all these things be true, they bring up some very interesting possible ramifications. |
In Genesis 1:26;" And God said,Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." This means " All humans" are made in the image of God, not just believers only. No believer in God can make the false claim that unbelievers are not in Gods image. So what is it that all humans have in common with God? Its academic, consciousness. Secondly, we have Life. So Gods image is conscious Life. Now I have a theory concerning prehistoric man. I believe its obvious that Neanderthals existed prior to Adam, Archaeology has proven that hands down. And many believers in God are struggling to either excuse that as not being true, or trying to explain it as best they can. I think Gods image is the answer.
Its an incredible answer. I believe God did create primordal man, they existed, they had life, but not life given by the breath of God. In other words, they didnot have " Conscious life." They were not created in the image of God. Adam was called " The first man", well what does that mean? It means he was the first man to be made in Gods image, or the first human given a working consciousness. Primordal humans had no working consciousness, I believe God created them simular to animals, existing on instinct. Why did God create them, I really don't know, I can only speculate. |
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I agree with you up to a point, but I've thought about the Genesis creation myth before - and the conclusion I came to then isn't that it is just "consciousness" that molds man in the image of God. But, the ability to create. The ability to create is the one aspect of being human that differentiates us from the myriad of life forms that are conscious. Elephants have graveyards, dolphins have language, primates have tools, my cat can be trained to use the litter box - all of which require a level of consciousness to perform - and these are just the ones we know about. Quote:
I agree that the breath of life and the Holy Spirit are two separate phenomenon. I would venture that the Holy Spirit wasn't needed until after the fall from Eden. When humans saw themselves as separate and apart from God perhaps the Holy Spirit was created to provide a bridge back...? Quote:
Got me. Quote:
If consciousness was located anywhere in the body my money is on our DNA. It's amazing how we are unconscious of the trillions of axon potentials that fuel our every breath - but our DNA keeps sending out the messages and it permeates every part of our body. So, I'm not saying I know for sure - but I think its worth looking in to. Quote:
True - though there are interesting possible ramifications to life without the Genesis creation myth, but its always good for a mental stretch. I personally would like to have read the original books in Hebrew and Aramaic as I think much was lost not only to time but to the "telephone game". If a book is translated, then translated again, and then translated again - how do you know what was in the original book? |
Hi ~ maybe we all see what we are comfortable with.
My experience is that God is the most brilliant light of all ~ the vibration of love ..joy and bliss is far beyond any feeling's here. Maybe as we are made up of energy .. is us in Gods image ? With respect to all opinions :) xx |
What I see as "Image of God" is me as being of Love. Love is infinite energy, that encourages us to do and to love everyone and everything unconditionally.
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Well I believe the Genesis account is not myth, but it certainly seems mythical; as does God. And I think the multiple translations of the bible, into three different languages, Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, defintely has distorted certain parts of scripture, but God made sure that enough of it remained intact to deliver the important componants of Salvation. |
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Well I agree that Love and energy are defintely componants of human consciousness. |
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Well I certainly agree that Spirit is energy, for sure. Consciousness is indeed the governor of human behavior. |
The Image of God is really everything, except what is imagined to be god, for then this is just an idol of the mind.
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Interesting quote. The image of God is consciousness in humans, I do not believe animals are conscious beings. They have highly developed instinct, but they hold no signs of Consciousness. Conscious beings will eventually become civilized and develop these things; Verbal language. Agriculture. Science. Written language. Religion. Some type of government. Mathmatics of some sort. Reading skills. Education. And so on, which is why I do not view animals or primordal man as conscious beings. |
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