Sept. 2, 2007

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Man in God’s Image

 

Introduction

 

Animals in OT & NT. On the sixth day of creation, man and animals were created by the Lord. “God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing; and beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so. God made the beast of the earth after his kind and cattle after their kind and every thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image; after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over the cattle, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Gen. 1:24-27.)

 

This beginning statement in the Bible about man and animals is very important. Man and animals were created on the same day. Man was created in the image of God; but animals and plant life were not so created in God’s image. Man was given dominion over all other creatures on earth. In the beginning, the herbs or plants were given for man’s food. But after the Flood, the animals were allowed to be eaten. He said, “Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things.” (Gen. 9:3.)

 

After the Fall of man, it was God himself who clothed them with animal fur. Adam and Eve had made aprons of fig leaves. (Gen. 3:7, 21.)

 

Later in the Law of Moses, man offered animal sacrifices to God. These were offered as types and shadows of the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God commanded the sacrifices of the animals and birds. Some were for atone-ment of sin, for peace and thanksgiving offerings. There was nothing wrong with using animals in that way; and yes it was painful for both the animals and man, especially the children to watch. The priests ate the meat of the offerings, except the sin-offerings.

 

When the creation is denied and biblical history ignored, all sorts of distortions and errors enter concerning the relationship between man and animals. Christians should have a wholesome respect for the whole creation because God did it. The attitude of the American Indian in their reverence for nature is commendable. They did not destroy the world in which they lived. On the other hand, man can use the animal and plant kingdom for his benefit and survival; for food and clothing. Man was given dominion over the whole creation.

 

Confusion of man and animals in mythology. The relationship between man and animals has often been confused over history to the present day. For many years, Egyptian, Greek and Roman mythology played a major role in the lives of mankind until Christianity came into existence. Mythology is the story the lives of gods and goddesses, their offspring and conflicts. Often one god would punish another by turning him into an animal or animal-like creature.

Top 6 Animals in Greek Mythology

These animals and animal-like creatures from Greek mythology played a range of roles in the lives of the ancient Greeks, from devouring to helping. This list is ranked in order of how close to human they were. Note: there are no generic animals here.

1. Medusa

Medusa goes on this list of animal and animal-like creatures from mythology because she was transformed by Athena into a woman with snakes for hair. One look at Medusa turned a man to stone. From her severed head sprang the winged horse Pegasus, whose father was Poseidon. Medusa was killed by Perseus.

2. Chiron

Chiron, not to be mistaken for Charon the ferry man, was half man and half horse because he was a centaur. Chiron taught most of the Greek heroes. He was the son of Cronus and is credited with inventing medicine.

Chiron was immortal, but was accidentally mortally wounded by Hercules. To end the pain, Chiron gave up his immortality, and went to Tartarus. In return for Chiron's giving up his immortality, Prometheus was released from Tartarus where he was chained to a rock.

3. Minotaur

The minotaur was half man and half bull. Unlike the centaur, his bull half is usually shown as his head. His mother was the Queen of Crete, Pasiphae. His father was a bull Pasiphae fell in love with. The minotaur ate humans and to feed him, the Athenians were obliged to send 14 young men and women every nine years, until Theseus volunteered to go as one of the sacrificial victims, and slew the Minotaur.

4. Pegasus

Pegasus was a winged horse. Born from the bleeding body of his mother Medusa when Perseus chopped off her head, Pegasus sprang forth with a warrior named Chrysaor on his back. Bellerophon tried to ride Pegasus to Mt. Olympus.

While a horse is not very close to human, at least Pegasus was living. Not so the last of this selection.

5. Lernean Hydra

The Lernaean monster had nine heads, and one of these was immortal. If ever a mortal head was cut, from the stump would immediately spring forth two new heads. The hydra lived in the swamps and ravaged the countryside devouring cattle, until Hercules, with the help of Iolaus, put an end to it by burning the neck stumps after severing the heads. When Hercules cut off the immortal head, he buried it underground with a stone to hold it down.

6. Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse was a wooden device designed by Odysseus to get the Greek troops inside the Trojan Walls. The Trojans took the horse as a gift not knowing it was filled with warriors. The Trojan Horse put an end to the great city of Troy.  (article by N. S. Hill from internet)

Examples of Greek mythological creatures that have made its way to furry today include:

• Minotaurs
• Centaurs
• Satyrs
• Fauns
• Dragons, such as Ladon and Python and the Hydra
• Chimeras, such as the creature of the same name and the Sphinx

 

Errors in Regard to Animals

 

1—Animals cannot be used for food or clothing

 

PETA is a well-known international organization based in Norfolk, Virginia. Founded in 1980, PETA is dedicated to establishing and defending the rights of all animals. PETA operates under the simple principle that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. PETA educates policymakers and the public about animal abuse and promotes kind treatment of animals.

PETA often targets businesses like KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) because they slaughter chickens for human consumption. They are not just against abuses in the business, they are opposed to the eating of animal meat. They are opposed to wearing furs or coats made from animal skins. Yet both of these are taught early in the Bible. God made the first fur coats for man to wear. After the Flood, he gave man meat to eat in addition to herbs.

We agree that the senseless slaughter of animals should not be done. Elephants in Africa and India are being shot in order to harvest the expensive ivory tusks. Animals today are often shot for sport, instead of for food to eat.

Concerning food, Paul wrote: “Some shall depart from the faith. . . forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Tim. 4:1-5.) In answer to the Jewish dietary laws: “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteems it unclean, to him it is unclean.” (Rom. 14:14.) “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (14:17.)

2—Trees and plants cannot be cut

Have you heard of the tree people? Membership in their organization begins at the $25 level; oak-leaf members ($250-499); golden leaf members ($500-999); Grove members ($1000-2499); sycamore circle of the grove ($2500-4999); leadership circle of the grove ($5000-9999); sequoia circle of the grove ($10,000 or more).

Story. Loosely based on a true event, this picture book recalls the story of President Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to allow a Christmas tree in the White House because having one would conflict with his conservation program: "It's not good to cut down trees for mere decoration. We must set a good example for the people of America." When Roosevelt discovered that his sons Quentin and Archie had sneaked a small tree into their room, he marched them over to see his chief forester, who informed them all that if done right, cutting some trees is a good idea, as thinning a forest allows smaller trees to grow. After that the Roosevelts had a small tree each year.

Recently in the news, over one hundred forest fires raged in Greece. It is believed that developers had the forests burned so they could bypass an ordinance against clearing forest in order to develop the land. If a fire burned the trees, then they could develop it. In the process, over 60 people have lost their lives. We all detest such greed and careless regard for human life. Maybe Greece needs to revise the ordinance.

Then there are the tree sitters! Men and women climb up in trees and chain themselves to the tree to keep loggers from cutting the trees. The tree sitters are environmentalists who want to protect our environment from destruction. Saving the environment is their gospel. Some have become fundamentalists in their views. Christians agree with reverence for the environment and preserving water, soil, food and trees for the next generation. But it is not sinful to cut a tree.

Forest fires destroy thousands of acres of timber every year. But did you know that some of those fires actually are beneficial to the forest? They not only burn the undergrowth, but they pop open large pine cones so that they can reseed and grow new trees. Without the hot fires, the cones could not open. There is a replenishing of the environment by divine design.

Man evolved from the animals

The doctrine of the evolution of man from the animals dates back to the ancient Greeks. In modern days, a new expression has been given to the doctrine by Charles Darwin, The Orgin of Species, 1859. There is not just a single theory of evolution; there are in fact many variations of it. What we do not know is whether these theories mutated, developed over long periods of time, or came about suddenly!

Have you ever noticed that humans give birth to humans; cats to cats; dogs to dogs; antelope to antelope? A dinosaur egg never hatched a bird; and a rock never turned into a toad! Never in all the world has such happened.

Darwin wrote: “I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors; and plants from an equal or lesser number. Analogy would lead me one step farther; namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless, all living things have much in common, in their chemical composition, their cellular structure, their laws of growth, and their liability to injurious influences.” (Origin, 642.)

Note what Darwin said. All animals can be traced back on their family tree to just four or five fathers. All other animals came into being from them. In like manner, plants have only four or five at the head of their family. He further surmised that plants and animals had a common beginning. So, the four or five heads of the animal kingdom and plant kingdom can be further reduced to one common ancestor. Now on the distant end nearer to us, man stands at the head of the process of gradual change.

Darwin ended his lengthy book with this interesting statement about the Creator: “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” (Origin, 649.) Most readers of Darwin and disciples of evolution do not believe in the existence of the Creator. Darwin was reluctant to deny the Creator in his day.

If one reads Genesis and The Origin of Species, one will note a huge discrepancy. Darwin said that the Creator breathed into one prototype life; from that one thing both plants and animals evolved. Genesis says that God created plants on the trees and grasses were created on the third day; animals and man were created on the sixth day. There is no common life source, from which plants and animals evolved, mentioned in the text.

Conclusion: Extreme attitudes and views result from not following the Word of God. Recently in the news, Leona Helmsley left $12 million in her will to her dog, Trouble. She wrote that he should be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grandchildren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grandchildren from her late son Jay Panzirer - so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each. Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other children - Craig and Meegan Panzirer - for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.

But no one made out better than Trouble, who once appeared in ads for the Helmsley Hotels, and lived up to its name by biting a housekeeper.

"I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," Helmsley wrote in her will.

Sometimes it pays to be a dog! Often in our confused world, animals are treated better than human beings. You can get arrested for cutting a tree or killing an animal, but millions of human babies can be killed without any arrests or convictions.