The Bible states that man is the unique and special creation of God. He is not the product of evolutionary progresses. Man was placed in the Garden of Eden, in covenant relations to God. Man was told that he was able to do this, but not able to do that. It is said in Genesis 2:16-17, “forth the part of that pact”. He was made Lord of the creation, like the Psalmist mentioned in Psalms 8:1-9.
Try whatever you like – “Word” isn’t relevant!
The thing our churches are most interested in today is attendance at meetings. Another gospel has replaced the Gospel. It is one that pretends to meet the needs of someone, but in effect, does not meet any of their needs at all. The only thing it accomplishes is the massaging of the audience members’ respective egos.
Love of God
The Bible says that this love is not traceable to their works or their faith; He just loves. His love is eternal like His love for the Son.
What is Man?
The Bible tells us that man was created in the image of God. Therefore, it should be obvious to us that one of the ways we learn of ourselves is to learn of God. So, the answer to the question as to what is man, is related to the question, who is God?
Holy Spirit as the Teacher
In the School of Christian education, the Bible is our text, the Spirit of God is our teacher, and we are progressively led by Him into all truths.
Holy Spirit in Creation
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? (Isaiah 40:12-14)
Importance of the Holy Spirit
In today’s churches, we witness believers maintaining their own views and understandings of the Holy Spirit. Some would refer to Him as a “dove” or “fire”. However, the greatest misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit can be found in the choruses we sing on a Sunday. The most notorious is, “Come, Holy Spirit”. It is an implicit recognition or failure to recognise the most fundamental fact of the Holy Spirit—that He has already come. These songs we sing speak of the Holy Spirit as if He is absent.
Modern Views of Man
Today, there are many who believe that men do not respond to the gospel in the 21st Century because they have intellectual problems with the facts of Christianity. To set the record straight, no man responds to any Gospel message if the Holy Spirit does not prepare his heart for the reception. One can set forth the gospel in the most beautiful logic, the most beautiful system. Men are just as blind and dead to it as it is possible for a person to be. The only reason men do not respond to the gospel is because the gospel comes to them with the proclamation that they are dead in sin and they regard it as totally irrelevant.
The Pre-Reformation Views of Man
man was to be understood chiefly from the stand point of his rational faculties—his mind. They thought that man’s mind was the immortal principle of man, and thus it was largely a divine principle. Man, then was a rational being and because he possessed reason, he was immortal. Man’s body is the material or the substance in which evil inheres. Therefore, to the ancient man, the body was sinful by definition, and the soul was immortal.