 The class on systematic theology and wow everyone is in place it's really nice okay yeah we'll get started good morning to all of you are online as well so we'll begin at the doctrine of Trinity and you are already patient listeners thank you so much today we are gonna be looking at the doctrine of man it says in your notes so maybe we can call it the doctrine of mankind that's basically what we would be looking at today so the doctrine of humanity tries to answer some very basic questions it tries to answer why are we here on this earth who exactly are we humans and what is the purpose for which God created creation these are all the basic fundamental questions that are dealt with by this particular doctrine okay so it asks the very basic questions who am I why am I here where am I headed what is my future going to be why did God even make humanity all of those questions get addressed now we have two you know sets of people there are those who say that human beings just happen to come into existence the same way plants evolved and animals evolved humans also evolved from some other kind of creature and according to them there is no such thing as a God there is no creation event as such it's just evolution and humans just happen to come and so the belief that they would hold is that because I just happened to evolve out of something some creature came along and then I began to evolve and then it became into a human and so that is why I am here on this earth so for them there is no eternal future there is there is no value system so they just feel that we should just make the best of whatever we have here on earth right now because there is nothing in the future and so there are no fundamental set of principles given by a creator to his created beings and all of that all of that just gets removed if you believe in this you know idea that we all just simply evolved on the other hand in the Bible we see that God says God has inspired scripture to say that we all have been created specifically intentionally it's not just that we accidentally evolved out of some creature we were specifically created as human and we were created for a very specific purpose so God had something in mind when he made us and so every single thing that we do actually matters because it's all going to be leading up to something so everything that we do matters and also you know in the long run there are even eternal implications for what we do so a great divide between what you know people say when they believe in evolution and what people say when they believe what the Bible has to say about creation so there's a great divide between these two schools of thought you are supposed to be muting Shivukumar would you know yeah where was I yes so those who believe in evolution they would say that the universe was created at least 14 billion years ago and earth came into existence about 4.5 billion years ago and so the first life form that is one you know a single cell which can lead to a living creature so the same the first single cell was created 3.87 billion years ago and then the earliest creature which looked kind of human came into existence 2.5 million years ago and finally something that looks like a modern human being came into existence 200,000 years ago that's the kind of timeline which those who believe in evolution that's basically what they suggest on the other hand when we look at the Bible we get the idea that approximately in 4000 BC you know is when creation happened as a very specific event that God decided to do and then Abraham would be around 2000 BC Exodus would be around 1400 BC and King David would be just around 1000 BC so the timeline which the evolutionists are suggesting and the timeline that we see in the Bible is a huge contrast you know there's a large contrast so what would we say I mean how do we reconcile science and scripture now of course that was something that you would you know study in detail in your apologetics course but just for us to very briefly look at you know four different viewpoints that maybe you know that the different people hold on to the first of course are the people who believe in something called Fiat creation that word Fiat basically means you know a word a command a decree and so the those who hold on to the Fiat creation are just basically saying that God spoke and when God gave his decree you know everything came into existence including humans and so that would be Fiat creation creation by decree creation by the command that God gave so there was no evolving happening when God created like it says in the Bible he created him as he created Adam as an adult human being you know he didn't create a little baby and another baby grew up no he creates an adult human being who is fully formed in every way and that's how you know the human race are the very very opposite end of course you know we have the evolutionists who are saying you know long many many billions of years ago one tiny little cell was created and then that cell began to evolve and then it became into plants and then some of those plants then developed into animals and then some of those animals developed into humans you know so they talk about evolution so you have these two very different viewpoints at the two you know extreme ends of the scale in between Christians have tried to place two other theories which maybe can try to reconcile sign the scientific viewpoint which is at one extreme end and the biblical point which is the other extreme end and so they there are these people called theistic evolutionists okay so the you know theism is basically belief in God so theistic evolutionists they say that yes when God created he did use the evolutionary method okay that's their belief so they say when God created it wasn't just you know a fit creation where God spoke and the human came into existence okay rather okay creation came into existence human of course had to be made you know by God's hands so so the theistic evolutionists they say that humans were created but it was a evolutionary process where God you know kind of directed the direction in which evolution was going so he decided when you know those that initial single cell which which first existed he decided when it would develop into a plant how it would develop into a plant and then you know even as the cells multiplied some of those cells he decided at what point of time the those cells would start developing into animals and so they say that God kind of controlled the evolutionary process so it is true that this entire universe was 13.8 billion years ago and from that time on God began to direct the direction in which evolution went and so basically what happens with the theistic evolutionists is that they will not say that the earth were the universe and the earth were created in six days six 24 hour days so they would say it really did take 13.8 billion years okay so that would be the first belief so they will not say that it happened in just six days six 24 hour days also what happens is that if you're saying that it has happened you know from 13.8 billion years this entire evolutionary process then how exactly do you explain this Bible passage where it says God I know after he spoke on those six days and then what did he do he comes to the earth takes the you know dust from the earth forms the dust into a human and then breathes into it you can't exactly bring evolution into that so they say that this story with which the whole Bible begins it's more like a symbolic thing didn't actually happen in history didn't really happen it's just symbolic Adam and Eve are used as symbols to represent the human race that God made through evolution or something like that okay so theistic evolutions kind of move away from the scriptures by holding to that particular viewpoint the other bunch of people are what we would call progressive creationists so progressive creationists they say no no no this doesn't make sense at all I mean if you look at the Bible passage over there that's not evolution that's that's a definite act of God where God has come and he has formed man out of the dust so there's no evolution involved so what must have happened is that yes the world did exist from 13.8 billion years but at specific points of time God spoke and when he spoke you know a plant came and then when he spoke maybe another one one billion years after that animals came and then he you know after another one billion years he kind of assisted in the evolution of the cells into into forming into a human being so so basically what they say is that when God spoke when you know when animals were created so something like a cat-like creature would have you know been created and then over the centuries the cat-like creature would have you know diversified into lions into leopards into cheetahs and then when when God first originally spoke a donkey-like creature maybe came into existence and then that began to evolve into horses it evolved into giraffes so they kind of tried to adjust and say yes God did speak and whenever God each time God spoke one portion of creation happened but again it did not happen in six specific 24-hour days you know but so there was kind of evolution involved to an extent so here are people who are trying to you know merge the evolutionary theory with what is written in the Bible and they're trying to reconcile these two factors so now most of us you know who are you know evangelical we would in fact go with the first the very first theory which is just feared creation God spoke he did his speaking in six days and he created you know humans as well and that was just how it happened and so we talk about how you know creation it was just from 4000 BC onwards no such thing as 13.8 billion years of thing you know create of universe being evolving and all of that so those of us who hold to the feared creation we will not even consider the whole evolution process because if you try to bring an evolution into the Bible passage the Bible passage stops making sense so we just go with whatever the Bible has said and as science develops even further we will probably you know understand how creation just began 4000 in 4000 BC so we will maybe get a greater understanding once our brains have you know expanded enough and we have learned enough science to understand how this is so and so it's our lack of understanding which makes us think of the universe as being 13.8 billion years old it's just a lack of understanding so as our level of understanding increases as our level of the knowledge of science increases we will be able to accept the biblical facts right now we haven't yet our science has not yet developed to that stage so at the moment we just accept by faith what we still have not been able to understand through science okay so just wanted to bring you know bring in those things as an introduction so that we have an idea of what is said about the creation of humans so coming to you know now you know we'll focus more on just what the Bible has to say about humans so coming to the Bible we see that in the New Testament when Paul is talking about creation when Paul is talking about how sin entered into the world he's not talking about Adam and Eve as symbolic figures he's talking about them like as if they were real people in real history made by God and the actions which they you know did had repercussions what they did at that time it affected humanity it affected all of us so they talk about I mean Paul when he's talking he speaks about the creation of humans as a real thing which really took place in history and the actions of those original man and woman it affected all of us so it you know he addresses it as a historical event just maybe if we can look at a couple of scriptures to back up this Romans chapter 5 verses 12 to 14 so if someone could read out for us Romans chapter 5 12 to 14 and so death spread to all men because all sinned for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed when there is no law nevertheless death regained from death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam who is type of him who was to come now if you look over here it says that sin entered the world through one man so it's not that sin entered through some symbolic fictional character sin is a reality that is there today and this real sin entered through a real person is what we see over here and it says in this way death came to all people so the death which is a very very you know real thing it entered through a real person so this is not Adam was not a fictional character and moreover if you look in verse 14 it says death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses so it's talking about Adam and Moses as real historical figures just to look at another scripture 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 21 and 22 if someone could read out 1st Corinthians 15 21 and 22 yeah yeah okay in Adam all die so the reason that we see people dying on a daily basis it's because a real person named Adam no performs certain actions which led to the fall of humanity in the same way that there are all people who are living over here today on this earth if they choose to make a choice of active accepting Jesus Christ just like the way he was resurrected for eternity we also will be resurrected for eternity so we are talking about real life situations which will have real life you know implications not just for now but even for eternity so we cannot if you once we'd say that Adam and Eve were you know symbolic figures and we go with the theistic creationism or you know we kind of compromise when we talk about progressive creationism it's a danger you see you may end up making all the things in the Bible metaphorical rather than actually really events which took place you know in real history so there's a risk in accepting theories so it's good to be aware of them but it's also good to kind of carefully reflect and see whether it really matches with what the scriptures are saying because the scriptures are the truth of God so we look at the eternal truth which God has stated and in light of that to whatever extent we can accept science we can do so and if the eternal truth is saying that something which science cannot understand we'll just have to wait till science develops to a stage where such things can be understood okay so it's as simple as that because science may not be able to explain the fact that someone can speak and things just happen I mean that would be an entire new level of science where God just speaks and just the speech of his can lead to a creation act okay so that's not something that science is able to understand at the current moment so maybe we can look at how creation was formed according to the Bible just one or two verses and then you know move in more deeply into how humans were created so Genesis chapter 1 1 2 3 which talks about the creation of the universe itself Genesis 1 1 2 3 if you could just read out in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the spirit of the God was having over the face of the water then God says let there be light and there was light so according to scripture we see that there was nothing in the beginning it was formless in the sense there was no form there was no earth and it was empty it was just completely void there really was nothing and then when God speaks that is when the entire creation process begins so all that existed before this emptiness was God himself because it says the spirit of God was hovering over the waters so the only thing that really was there was the spirit of God only God was there and then once he speaks then things start being formed things start being created okay so according to the Bible it's very very clear that God was the origin and through his spoken word the creation took place Hebrews 11 3 is one very very you know popular verse with regard to creation Hebrews 11 3 so we see that the Old Testament and the New Testament are in sync with one another they both are saying the same things so it's not like as if we can dismiss the Old Testament and say oh that was just some a set of myths and fables no because whatever is stated in the Old Testament that's carried over into the New Testament and in the New Testament we see how all of these things have implications even for us today so it's all very very relevant you cannot dismiss the Old Testament stories as just being fables and myths that would be a completely wrong you know perspective so Hebrews 11 3 what does that say okay so even in the New Testament times the New Testament writers are still holding on to what was said in the Old Testament they are not they have not changed their you know words whatever was spoken in the Old Testament is still being said in the New Testament and that was passed on to the church and the you know through the church even today we have these doctrines which we are holding on to okay so it says in Hebrews 11 3 that the universe was formed at God's command God spoke fear creation God spoke and it happened okay so now the beauty of creation is that God spoke for all the other forms of you know species that needed to be created but when it came to man when it came to humans because God was making a taking a new step he was working at a higher level because all of these things that he made he just made for man but when it came to the creation of man himself God was doing something creating something creating someone who would literally be in his image so now everything goes up to a higher level up to now it was just enough to speak it was just enough to you know command things to come into existence and they came into existence but now he's putting himself into something his very own image into someone and so he chooses to personally get involved in the process because it is his image that he's imparting to someone and so we see in Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 happening if someone can read out Genesis 2 verse 7 okay so it says that God chooses to form the man out of the dust so you know God is a spirit being he doesn't have hands but you know so I mean we we're not saying that you know God came and picked up dust and began to shape man out of that so we don't really know what method God used but he actually personally chose to get involved in the creation process of humans okay so he forms personally forms it doesn't just speak he actually forms the man from the dust and then it says he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being what about all the plants which existed before you know man was created what about all the animals were they not living beings animals breathe they also have breath but here you have got breathing into this human and then you know he has the breath of life coming into him so which is why they say that when God breathed it was not just you know breathing that was imparted to the human it was also his spirit that was imparted to the human so for animals they were just created in a certain way for their lungs to function in a certain way and they had to you know pump in a certain way and they just began to breathe the animals began to live but here you have God breathing into this human that he has created he has imparted something of himself into that person so which is why they say that when God breathed it was not just he was not just getting that person's lungs functioning he was actually imparting his spirit to the person and so this human being is a spirit being just like God just the way God is spirit humans are also spirit beings it's just that they live inside a human container inside of you know flesh and blood body but we are also spirit beings in the image of God so that is how man was created what about woman you know did God just speak and say okay let women also happen and did the women happen no again you have God personally involved in the creation of you know of the woman and so you have Genesis chapter 2 verses 21 and 22 if someone could read out Genesis 2 21 and 22 okay so when God created Adam something very unique happened he personally came and formed the person and then he breathed himself something of him into that person that person became a spirit being and so when the woman had to be created she had to be taken from the man because then she also will be a spirit being what God has imparted into Adam will also get imparted into Eve so for that to happen Eve could not be a separate creation by herself she had to be part of this image of God which God has imparted into Adam and so Eve was taken literally from Adam so that she too will have the same spirit in her God's own spirit and she too will be a spirit being she too will be in the image of God which is why you know when you look at your Genesis chapter where do you have the creation of you know in Genesis chapter 1 when God speaks and says yeah in the image of God he created them male and female he created them so it's not like as if only man was created in the image of God even the woman was created in the image of God now both of them were created equally in the image of God so we cannot say that you know only humans I mean only only men bear the image of God even the women also bear the image of God he just used different methodologies to create them so for Adam he created him in a particular way and imparted his spirit for women he uses a different method but even the woman also bears the spirit of God and from them from this original man and woman you have humanity being formed and to look at a verse you know that can talk about that Genesis chapter 5 verses 1 to 2 if someone could read out Genesis chapter now okay so here in our English translation they try to bring out the meaning of what God originally did but when you look at the Hebrew Bible you will see the same word Adam is used for the human being Adam and the very same word is used for human kind okay human kind is also called Adam the same word is used for the descendants of this original man and woman so the original man who was created in the image of God Adam he is in God's image and all of his descendants are also the very same word is used they are also called Adam humankind is also called Adam to show the fact that they also are now continuing to be in the image of God so the image of God did not stop with just Adam and Eve it moved on into into into all the descendants as well they too bear the spirit you know of God of course by then they became spiritually dead you know because of their sin but they were still spirit beings spiritually dead spirits but they were still spirit beings so if you were to you know read Genesis 5 1 to 2 with the Hebrew word being used it will basically say this is the written account of Adam's family line and in verse 2 he named them Adam when they were created so Adam has got the spirit of God in him that was imparted to Eve as well because she was taken from Adam and created and then they're both of them together they pass on the same thing to the rest of their descendants who also are still spirit beings only thing by that time because of the fall their spirits are now spiritually dead and you know we see in the New Testament that God puts a new spirit inside us he makes us into a new creation all that's you know deeper doctrine but this is the fundamental truth that even the descendants of Adam and Eve are also created in the same image of God yeah just to cover another one small you know aspect of this whole thing where we say in the image of God he created them male and female he created them so in the image of God you have two persons being created the man and the woman so which means both of them equally carry the image of God which means they both are equal in the status so it's not that women would be inferior to men because how can you say that the image of God in the woman is inferior to the image of God in the man image of God is image of God you know if this is one single image of God God has represented himself in the man and the woman so both of them are automatically equal in status so if we say that they're equal in status and they're equal in importance then it would mean that men should honor women recognizing the fact that in the same in the same way they bear the image of God the women also bear the image of God in the same way the women are expected to honor the men because they must recognize that not only are we women created in the image of God even men are created in the image of God so it should lead to respect it should lead to equality when it comes to the roles which humans play you know in marriage man is given a certain role the woman is given a certain role and both the roles are very very important in God's eyes because even in the Trinity God the Father assumes one particular role and Jesus Christ assumes a different role they continue to be equal but they have two different roles and they don't think that they're inferior to each other just because they have different roles the God the Son Jesus Christ you know he says I and the Father are one very openly he says that we are equal we are one but at the same time you know he chooses to submit himself to the Father and he in no way feels inferior and in no way does God the Father look down upon him in fact God the Father says I'm going to place everything under his feet so that he will be Lord overall so they are they are they are equal in status but in their roles they play the role that they are you know that they have chosen to play in the Trinity and here you know when it comes to human marriage the man plays his role of leadership and the woman will submit to him because in the same in the same way that Jesus Christ is submitting to the Father okay so the roles are different but the status of image of God stays equal in both of them what else can we look at yeah maybe we can also look at this about what exactly do we mean by image of God so when we when God said let us make mankind in our image in our likeness and when it says in verse 27 God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them so each time this word image is being used what exactly does it mean so God is a spirit being we too are spirit beings only thing of course God is not restricted to one human body he is everywhere he's omnipresent we on the other hand we are right now restricted to one you know single human container you know inside which we live okay so so in that sense we are different from God who is omnipresent everywhere but wherever this Hebrew word for image is used and wherever the Hebrew word for likeness in God's likeness wherever these two words are used they're talking about something which is similar but not identical so we are similar to God but of course we are not God we're not perfectly we're not divine the way he is but we are similar to him so this word image and this word likeness it's talking about something which is similar but not identical so we in no way no way does it say that humans are divine the way God is divine we are not but we are similar to him because we are spirit beings and then there are a whole bunch of other similarities which you would find in your notes it talks about the different ways that we are similar to God we are moral beings we have a sense of right and wrong the same way God knows right from wrong he put that inside us so that we also have this basic concept of what is right and what is wrong the mental capacities just the way God can think and God can reason and God can logically explain things we also have the ability to think and reason you know and understand things humans are relational the same way God is able to relate with others in the same way he's able to relate between the three persons of the Trinity we also have the ability to relate with others spiritual man as a spirit being God is a spirit being physical we are we have been created in such a way that we use our physical bodies at least we are supposed to use our physical bodies to portray the nature of God so we use our hands we use our feet we use our eyes we are supposed to use all of this to reflect God's nature not use them the way we want to use them you know in any way that we wish to but rather we were originally created so that we would use our hands to represent God's nature you know in the way Adam would look after the garden in the way he would name the animals so everything that we were supposed to do in these human bodies it was meant to be used this human body was meant to be used to reflect some aspect of God's nature to accomplish some you know some purpose or plan of his so these human bodies were created very specifically for one thing they were created for God's purposes and now humanity has come a long way you know where people are not even aware of this they think oh this is my body I will do with it whatever I want but originally when the creator created the human body it had one purpose it would be doing what God wanted done it would be you know reflecting his nature his love his kindness his sincerity and you know hard working character all of those things were supposed to be originally reflected by this human body so he is because we were created in his image to reflect him okay so in that sense what else can we look at regarding the image of God yeah another thing that we see is that because we are all created in the image of God we cannot say that certain people belonging to one particular ethnic group they alone are created in the image of God because if we look at the world you have a lot of biases and prejudices some people think that they are superior some people think that they are better and they really carried it to the extreme you know in those centuries when they began to treat you know people of dark colored skin as slaves and they would I mean Christians were selling and buying slaves like us of their property and what is the explanation that they used they said no no no these are not fully human they are not spirit beings the way we are spirit beings those are the words which they actually used they actually that was their logic you know and someone would ask a Christian you know why on earth would you be you know buying and selling humans as slaves like as of their cattle like as of their property this was the explanation they would say no no we white people have been created in the image of God but these people with their dark skin they are not fully human is what they would say but of course you know thankfully those days have gone in fact it was a lot of Christians who fought for the end of slavery they took the scriptures they stood on the scriptures and they said what you are doing is wrong because everyone has been created in the image of God whatever ethnic group you belong to whatever the color of your skin may be we are all equally in the image of God so a person who has dark skin is very much in the image of God the same way even you know another light skinned person is and also another aspect of this that maybe we would need to keep in mind you know we come across all kinds of people we have good godly people who have godly standards and we come across people who have such terrible moral values they are so horrible in their lifestyle you know in fact even some of them very cruel and evil also in their lifestyle but basically deep down even those evil terrible people are created in the image of God so we must be careful in the way we address them now we are not supporting the evil that they are doing we are not saying it is okay you know to be sinful we are not saying it's okay to be cruel and violent we are not agreeing to the things which they are doing but accept the basic fact that they too are in the image of God they too have been given a mind to think they too have the ability to form relationships and based on the you know image of God which is in them reach out to them and help them to see what they were meant to be they were meant to be something so beautiful they were meant to be something so superior so reach out to them and help them to see who they are supposed to be rather than just looking down on them and condemning them and mocking them you know recognize the fact that they too bear the image of God that they too have the potential and the capacity to become you know Christians and become Christ like just like us so we need to extend dignity and respect even to them I think that would be the correct way of doing ministry because that is why Jesus Christ when he came to the earth even those people who were sinful he spoke to them with dignity he spoke to them with respect and so the Samaritan woman even though he told her to her face I know your background I know the person that you're living with right now is not even your husband he told her that very plainly and openly but she never felt disrespected because of the way he did it the way he spoke the way he treated her so in fact rather than being offended she gladly went back to the town and told everyone I have found the messiah come come let's go and talk to him so how we treat people is so vital because every human being however rotten they may be right now are created in the image of God yes we have a question yes ma'am when we see image of God it's like physically we are like image of God or what yeah so we would say that God is a spirit being he is not restricted to one single human body so it's Jesus Christ when he chose to become our representative he restricted himself to a human body and chose to be like us but God eternally is a spirit being he's not you know confined to one one single physical body so in the Old Testament wherever we have wordings which are which talk about the eyes of the Lord the hand of the Lord especially you have this you know scriptures where you say the right hand of the Lord is with his people so over there it's using human imagery so that we humans can understand when we think of a mighty man standing over there in his right arm you know because in their culture the right arm meant you know power the right arm meant strength and support so yeah in human words they would if someone were to say my right arm is with you brother then you know it would mean okay he's going to stand with me so that kind of same imagery is used in the Old Testament to describe God it's it's God trying to explain to us in human words different aspects of him but it does not mean that God actually has a right arm he's a spirit being so even when they talk about you know Isaiah speaks of his vision of seeing God on his throne and then in Revelation you have all these descriptions and the descriptions kind of get vague because they are trying to describe something that is beyond their understanding if it is somebody with a physical being it's very very clearly it's very easy you can always say okay okay the hair was this color and you know the skin is this color and all of that but then when they try to start describing Jesus you know they talk about rainbows and they talk about diamonds shining and because you know so Jesus Christ does have a physical being because it says he retains those wounds even into eternity because as because those wounds will be representative of the fact that he is our elder brother so he chooses to retain that identity of himself and actually have a physical form but the Godhead Yahweh is just a spirit being he is not confined to one physical structure so you know so in that sense no we would not say that God is that we are created in his image in that sense he is not confined to two eyes and two hands and two feet no so in that sense he's we would not say that we are in God's image he's a spirit being and we on the other hand are physical beings yeah about so it would mainly be his we are created in in the image of his spirit and we looked at all the qualities in your notebook in your notes about the different aspects of the likeness the likeness of moral morality the likeness of being able to think the likeness of being able to relate all of those likenesses so in that sense yes we are in his image yeah so it's 9.50 now so we will take a break and at 10 o'clock if everyone could please log back in those of you who are online thank you