Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial or the residence of God.

God does not live on Kolob

One of the myths perpetuated in the media is this idea that Mormons believe God lives on Kolob. Does God live on Kolob? No.

This comes up a number of times, most recently in the popular Broadway musical, The Book of Mormon, produced by those two guys that do the animated series, “Southpark”. 

Part of the problem is that some Mormons may believe that God lives on Kolob. One review quoted a NY Mormon who saw it and laughed at the show, agreeing that God lives on Kolob, she agreed, “yes, we believe that.”

In one powerful number, I Believe, Price belts out a string of peculiarly Mormon teachings – that ancient Jews sailed to America, that God lives on a planet called Kolob,..(Houston Belief)

Based on scripture, we believe that He lives near Kolob. Not on Kolob.

In talking about the stars, Abraham says that he saw them, using the Urim and Thummim, and saw that there were many, and that one of them

“was nearest unto the throne of God…and the Lord said…these are the governing ones; and the name of the great one is Kolob, because it is near unto me…I have set this one to govern all those which belong to the same order as that upon which thou standest…”(Abraham 3:2-3)

Then he explains that Kolob was after the manner of the Lord, according to its times and seasons in the revolutions…one revolution was a day unto the lord…it being 1000 years according to the time where Abraham is standing…this the Lord’s time…the same as Kolobs time.

“which Kolob is set nigh unto the throne of God to govern all those planets which belong to the same order.”(Abraham 3)

This is all Einstein stuff.  E=MC2

Kolob is the greatest of all the stars, because it is nearest to God. In the facsimile 2, the hyphocephalos, Joseph Smith explains that

“Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial or the residence of God.”

Detail of the Hypocephalos, Reference numeral 1 represents Kolob according to Joseph

Therefore, Kolob is not the celestial home of God. It is near it. Kolob is a star and is the center of a great solar system of stars and planets. Hubble is discovering that beyond this solar system are many.

Ok, so we do have some crazy teachings, but let’s get them straight. 

The producers of that musical? Well they, and many like them, will continue to think Mormons believe in silly myths. Oh well, some of our beliefs are a little crazy. But I can believe in things I don’t see. And I certainly don’t know how all the cosmos work.

CHAPTER SIX
Man : Image of God

A
IN OUR IMAGE AND LIKENESS

Genesis 1:26-27, “Let us make man in our image,after our likeness”

Genesis 5:1, “In the likeness of God made he him.”

Genesis 9:6, “In the image of God made he man.”

I Corinthians 11:7 “Man. . .is the image and glory of God.”

Colossians 3:10, “Renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”

James 3:9, “Men which are made after the sirnilitude of God.”

The phrase "image of God" is found in three passages in the Hebrew Bible, all in the Book of Genesis (1-11):

Gen 1:26–27 And God said: Let us make mankind in our image(b’tsalmeinu), as our likeness(kid’muteinu). And they will have dominion over [the animals]…And God created humankind in His image(b’tsalmo), in God's image(tselem) He created him, male and female He created them. And God blessed them and God said to them: Be fruitfull and multiply, and fill the land and occupy it, and have dominion over the sea’s fish and the skies’ bird and every animal crawling over the land.

Later describing the birth of Seth these same words "likeness" and "like his image"  are used.

Gen 5:1–3 This is the book of Adam’s generations: On the day God created Mankind, in God's likeness(d’mut) He created him; male and female He created them, and He blessed them, and called their name Adam in the day of their being created. And Adam (Man) lived a hundred and thirty years and bore in his likeness(bid’muto) like his image(k’tsalmo) and called his name Seth.

Gen 9:6 One who spills the blood of man, through/by man, his blood will be spilled, for in God's image(tselem) He made man.

These seem to indicate the process of procreation of Adam the Son of God.  Breathing was the procedure of creation of Adam while the matter formed the body of Adam.  

We can classify the image and likeness as seen by the fathers into three groups
(See http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/beliefs/imago_dei.htm):

 

The Image of God as Similarity

·        This similarity includes both physical and non-physical characteristics.  Those who attribute a physical similarity assumes that the entire cosmos is the body of God.  After all the material universe exists within God as nothing can exist outside of Him. 

Acts 17:28  ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

The similarity should extent also into non-material aspects of God also in the structure and form of soul and spirit of man. This I believe is the total likeness.  God is a Spirit with the whole cosmos as His body, in which we have our being.  We are part of the body of God which again is both Spirit , Soul and Matter. The image implies both material and immaterial aspects of God which are reflected in the material and immaterial aspects of Man.  This is what I have proposed and is expressed in my books  especially in “Cosmos, the body of God” 

Most people have problem with the material physical aspect of Man being a reflection of the body of God.  Has God a physical body of matter?  We will discuss this later. The following are normally specified and asserted by theologians.  It can certainly be shown that all creation share these qualities to some extent.  But Man is supposed to be the paragon of excellence in these areas.  Here are the statements:

·        It was not a physical likeness, but... It was a mental likeness. Human mind is given higher intellectual and analytical abilities than the rest of the animal life forms, and incomparably higher with respect to vegetable life. Do vegetation have a mind?

·        It was not a physical likeness, but…  It was a moral likeness. Do animals make moral choices? Man is certainly expected to make moral choices every moment.

·        It was not a physical likeness, but…  It was a social likeness.  God created man to have fellowship with man over and above that of the rest of the life forms.  Animals and insects do have social interactions and fellowship.  Do men have any better status in this respect?

Before the fall we are told God used to have an evening walk with Adam and Eve.  God primarily created people for fellowship. In the Old Testament the people of God were described as God’s wife.

“They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return to Me,” says the Lord. (Jer.   3:1)   “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” (Jer.   3:14)   “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also. ( Jer. 3:8)   My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jer. 31:31-33) 

She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.’ ( Hos. 2:7)

In the New Testament the Church is represented as the bride of Christ,  indicating perfect union and communion of God with man.

The fall of man is compared to adultery.  However the redemption involves the reinstatement and final union through the process of transformation.  This is the basis of the theology of Theosis in the Orthodox Churches.

The Image of God as Dominion

Gen 1: 25-26 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  

Thus man was created to rule over all the creation as a regent of God to “till and to keep”.

This is the Islamic stand as the following quotes makes clear:

 

 http://www.classicalislamgroup.com/index.php?view=tafseer/s2-v30to33-5

“Man is the viceregent of Allah on the earth

(4) These verses tell us that a viceregent was appointed to keep order on the earth and to promulgate divine laws. From here we learn the basic principles for the governance of men on the earth. The ultimate sovereignty in the universe belongs to Allah Himself, as is explicitly stated in many verses of the Holy Qur'an:

"
Judgment belongs to Allah alone" (6:57);

"The sovereignty of the skies and the earth belongs to Him alone" (9:116); 

"Verily, His is the Creation and the Command." (7:54)

But He has, in His wisdom, chosen to send His viceregents to the earth for maintaining spiritual and temporal order. Their function is to announce and promulgate divine commandments, to teach men how to abide by these laws, and sometimes even to exercise temporal power as well as spiritual authority under divine guidance. The appointment is made directly by Allah Himself, and is in no sense a reward for the good deeds or the spiritual effort of the individual concerned. There is a total consensus of all the authentic scholars of the Islamic Ummah on the doctrine that prophethood is not a thing which one can attain through one's personal effort or on the merit of one's good deeds, but that Allah Himself, in His supreme knowledge and wisdom, chooses certain individuals for acting as His messengers, prophets and viceregents. The Holy Qur'an has explicitly declared it in several verses:
     :
"Allah chooses His messengers from among the angels and from among men; surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Seeing" (22:75);

 

    :
"Allah knows best whom to entrust with His message" (6:124).

These viceregents receive divine commandments directly from Allah, and then promulgate them in the world. The chain of viceregents began with Adam (A.S) and continued in the same way upto the Holy Prophet Muhammad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B

 Similarity in Trinitarian Structure

One of the basic understanding of Man as an image of God lies in the Trinitarian concept of God as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in reflection as Soul,  Body and Spirit. 

Soul is the I AM that is in man similar to the Great I AM as Father.

The Body is parallel to the Son who is the creator of all the worlds, visible and invisible.  It was the Son who took the material body in incarnation identifying the physical aspect of God with the  Matter and redeemed matter from its corruption. In fact we have the pre-incarnate Jesus in human form is seen by the elders of Israel in the covenant ceremony.   I have elsewhere written how we have no other option than to assume that the Angel of the Lord in Old Testament is none other than God the Son who could not be anyone other than Jesus.

Exodus 24: 9-11 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,  and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.  Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.

 

Holy Spirit is the life giving Spirit which resides in Man as Spirit which has the ability to be in contact with Mother Holy Spirit.

 

In Hebrew the word for Spirit (רוה) (ruach) is feminine, (as is the word "shekhinah", which is used in the Hebrew Bible to indicate the presence of God.  In the Syriac language which had been the language used in our Thomas Churches in India  too  ruah is feminine.    This imagery is found in the fourth-century theologians Aphrahat and Ephraim. It is found in earlier writings of Syriac Christianity such as the Odes of Solomon  and in the early-third-century Gnostic Acts of Thomas:

Holy Dove that bearest the twin young;

Come, hidden Mother;

Come, thou that art manifest in thy deeds

and dost furnish joy and rest for all that are joined with thee;

Come and partake with us in this Eucharist

Which we celebrate in thy name,

and in the love-feast in which we are gathered together at thy call.

 

While the western scholars generally downplayed these grammatical gender,  Eastern Orthodox theologian Susan Ashbrook Harvey considers the grammatical gender to have been significant for early Syriac Christianity: "It seems clear that for the Syrians, the cue from grammar—ruah as a feminine noun—was not entirely gratuitous. There was real meaning in calling the Spirit 'She'" Even in Genesis 1:2 the formation of life and order followed the hovering of the Holy Spirit over the formless waters.

 John 6: 63 "It is the Spirit who gives life";

In the Old Testament the female part was also known as Wisdom/Understanding which were always involved in the creation process.  She was with God in creating, and she is clearly defined in female gender

Proverbs 3:13-20 

 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,  .....

She is more precious than rubies, nothing you desire can compare with her.

Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.

By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;

by his knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew."

“When he established the heavens, I was there … when he marked out the foundation of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman” (Prov. 8:27-31).

 

 As the Nicean Creed declares, the Holy Spirit,   proceded from the Father before the creation and was involved in the creation of life forms.

The Hebrew Kaballah presents three sefiroth formation in the Divine realm, where Understanding is depicted as feminine.

The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the Logos, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities ("De Mundi Opificio," i. 46).

 

In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, Pharisees  taught ('Er. 18a, Gen. R. viii.) that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining  (Gen. i. 27) as "male and female" instead of "man and woman," and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam's body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo's statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.  Adam was indeed intially one Person without a distinction of Male and Female.  Eventually Female part was seperated.  In the seperation of male and female aspects of Man when Adam was seperated into Adam and Eve where while maintaining the various parts Father aspect was emphasized in Adam and Mother creative aspect was emphasized in Eve.  The union of Male and Female is never called in any sexual terms in the Bible, but as "knew" indicating a union of persons rather than sex.  The marriage is hence described as "becoming one body." referring back to the reflection of oneness of God and the oneness of Adam with Eve before the seperation of male and female parts.

"On the day God created Mankind, in God's likeness(d’mut ) He created him; male and female He created them."

Adam was the image of God because he was the son of God

Luke 3:37-38 the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,  the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

However  Adam could not find equal fellowship with the creatures of the world, God was forced to separate the female component in the form of a woman as Eve.  This is explained in detail in the bible. 

 

  Gen 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 

 

Gen 2:18- 24 . Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

 

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.  The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”

 

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

 

 

Hindu rendition of the story

The same story of God who has both male and female part is iconically depicted in the Ardhanarishvara (Sanskrit: अर्धनारीश्वर, Ardhanārīśvara), in Saivism of Hindism where He is a composite androgynous form of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati (also known as Devi (Godess), Shakti (Energy, Power of creation of life) and Uma(Life giver) in this icon). Ardhanarishvara is depicted as half male and half female, split down the middle. The right half is usually the male Shiva, illustrating his traditional attributes.

 

The earliest Ardhanarishvara images are dated to the Kushan period, starting from the first century CE starting soon after the coming of St.Thomas who entered Northern India in 40 AD  and later came down to South India in 52 AD and was martyred in AD 72 in Mylapore, Chennai, India.  Its iconography evolved and was perfected in the Gupta era.  

The Trimurthi with Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Elephanta Caves

 

Ardhanarishvara represents the synthesis of masculine and feminine energies of the universe (Purusha and Prakriti) and illustrates how Shakti, the female principle of God, is inseparable from (or the same as, according to some interpretations) Shiva, the male principle of God. The union of these principles is exalted as the root and womb of all creation. Another view is that Ardhanarishvara is a symbol of Shiva's all-pervasive nature.

Ardhanarishvara
(God who is half female)

Shiva  (meaning "The Auspicious One"), also known as Parameshwara (the Supreme God, Most High God, in Hebrew El Elyon), Mahadeva, Mahesh ("Great God") or Bholenath ("Simple Lord"), is a popular Hindu deity and is considered to be the Supreme God within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in Hinduism.  The word Ishwara which came to mean God has its etymology from  two Sanskrit words, Easow Paran which is a literal translation of “Jesus is Lord”.  The Tamil word Sivan, Tamil: சிவன் ("Fair Skinned") could have been derived from the word sivappu.   Tamil the word 'Sivappu' is used for being Fair Skinned. Shiva is the Lord of the last days,  "the Destroyer" or "the Transformer"  among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine  Shiva is usually worshiped in the aniconic form of Lingam, the God who has no  form.  Shiva of the highest level is limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless.

 

Siva lives in the Himalaya Mountains (Parvatam) and his wife is Parvati (daughter of the mountain, Bride from the dust of the earth).  Parvati the lover of Shiva took to tapas  until she was joined with the bridegroom, the Sunday school story of the waiting bride Church taken up by the bridegroom to heaven.

Kalyanasundara: Celestial Marriage of Shiva and Parvati in presence of heavenly beings Elephanta Caves

Shiva forms a Tantric couple with Shakti [Tamil : சக்தி ], the embodiment of energy, dynamism, and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe.

 

 

ADAM ḲADMON (more correctly, ḲADMONI)

The oldest rabbinical source for the term "Adam ha-Ḳadmoni" is Num. R. x., where Adam is styled, not as usually, "Ha-Rishon" (the first), but "Ha-Ḳadmoni" (the original). Compare the very ancient expression "naḥash ha-ḳadmoni" (the original serpent, the devil).—Adam, Hebrew for "man"; Ḳadmon or Ḳadmoni, "first" or "original"):

Philo.

The various philosophical (Gnostic) views concerning the original man are, in spite of their differences, intimately related, being a compound of Oriental mythology, Greek philosophy, and rabbinical theology. The first to use the expression "original man," or "heavenly man," is Philo, in whose view the γενικός, or ουράντος ἄνθρωπος, "as being born in the image of God, has no participation in any corruptible or earthlike essence; whereas the earthly man is made of loose material, called a lump of clay" ("De Allegoriis Legum," I. xii.).

The heavenly man, as the perfect image of the Logos, is neither man nor woman, but an incorporeal intelligence purely an idea; while the earthly man, who was created by God later, is perceptible to the senses and partakes of earthly qualities ("De Mundi Opificio," i. 46).

 

Philo is evidently combining Midrash and philosophy, Plato and the rabbis. Setting out from the duplicate Biblical account of Adam, who was formed in the image of God (Gen. i. 27), and of the first man, whose body God formed from the earth (Gen. ii. 7), he combines with it the Platonic doctrine of ideas; taking the primordial Adam as the idea, and the created man of flesh and blood as the "image." That Philo's philosophic views are grounded on the Midrash, and not vice versa, is evident from his seemingly senseless statement that the "heavenly man," the οὐράνιος ἄνθρωπος (who is merely an idea), is "neither man nor woman." This doctrine, however, becomes quite intelligible in view of the following ancient Midrash. The remarkable contradiction between the two above-quoted passages of Genesis could not escape the attention of the Pharisees, to whom the Bible was a subject of close study. In explaining the various views concerning Eve's creation, they taught ('Er. 18a, Gen. R. viii.) that Adam was created as a man-woman (androgynos), explaining   (Gen. i. 27) as "male and female" instead of "man and woman," and that the separation of the sexes arose from the subsequent operation upon Adam's body, as related in the Scripture. This explains Philo's statement that the original man was neither man nor woman.

Midrash.

This doctrine concerning the Logos, as also that of man made "in the likeness" ("De Confusione Linguarum," xxviii.), though tinged with true Philonic coloring, is also based on the theology of the Pharisees. For in an old Midrash (Gen. R. viii. 1) it is remarked: "'Thou hast formed me behind and before' (Ps. cxxxix. 5) is to be explained 'before the first and after the last day of Creation.' For it is said, 'And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' meaning the spirit of the Messiah ["the spirit of Adam" in the parallel passage, Midr. Teh. to cxxxix. 5; both readings are essentially the same], of whom it is said (Isa. xi. 2), 'And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.'" This contains the kernel of Philo's philosophical doctrine of the creation of the original man. He calls him the idea of the earthly Adam, while with the rabbis the   (spirit of Adam) not only existed before the creation of the earthly Adam, but was preexistent to the whole of creation. From the pre-existing Adam, or Messiah, to the Logos is merely a step.

 

Paul and Adam Ḳadmon

 

Diagram illustrating the Seflrot (Divine Attributes).(FromGinsburg, "The Kabbalah.")

The above-quoted Midrash is even of greater importance for the understanding of the Pauline Christology, as affording the key to Paul's doctrine of the first and second Adam.

 

The main passage in Pauline Christology is I Cor. xv. 45-50. According to this there is a double form of man's existence; for God created a heavenly Adam in the spiritual world and an earthly one of clay for the material world. The earthly Adam came first into view, although created last. The first Adam was of flesh and blood and therefore subject to death—merely "a living soul"; the second Adam was "a life-giving spirit"—a spirit whose body, like the heavenly beings in general, was only of a spiritual nature. The apparently insuperable difficulty of the Pauline Christology which confronts the expounders of the New Testament (see, for instance, Holtzmann, "Lehrbuch der Neu-Testamentlichen Theologie," ii. 75 et seq.) disappears entirely when reference is made to the Midrash. As a pupil of Gamaliel, Paul simply operates with conceptions familiar to the Palestinian theologians. Messiah, as the Midrash remarks, is, on the one hand, the first Adam, the original man who existed before Creation, his spirit being already present. On the other hand, he is also the second Adam in so far as his bodily appearance followed the Creation, and inasmuch as, according to the flesh, he is of the posterity of Adam. Paul, therefore, is not dependent upon Philo for his Christology, as most scholars hold; indeed, he differs from him on most essential points. With Philo the original man is an idea; with Paul he is the personality of Jesus. With Philo the first man is the original man; Paul identifies the original man with the second Adam. The Christian apostle evidently drew upon the Palestinian theology of his day; but it can not be denied that in ancient times this theology was indebted to the Alexandrians for many of its ideas, and probably among them for that of preexistence. The Midrash thus considered affords a suitable transition to the Gnostic theories of the original man.

 

The Clementines.

It has been said that the Midrash already speaks of the spirit (πνεῦμα) of the first Adam or of the Messiah without, however, absolutely identifying Adam and Messiah. This identification could only be made by persons who regarded only the spirit of the Scripture (meaning, of course, their conception of it) and not the letter as binding; who lived in a medium more exposed to the heathen mythology than that of the rabbinical schools. In such circles originated the Clementine "Homilies" and "Recognitions," in which the doctrine of the original man (called also in the Clementine writings "the true prophet") is of prime importance. It is quite certain that this doctrine is of Judæo-Christian origin. The identity of Adam and Jesus seems to have been taught in the original form of the Clementine writings. The "Homilies" distinctly assert:

 

("Hom." iii. 20). "If any one do not allow the man fashioned by the hands of God to have the holy spirit of Christ, is he not guilty of the greatest impiety in allowing another, born of an impure stock, to have it? But he would act most piously if he should say that He alone has it who has changed His form and His name from the beginning of the world, and so appeared again and again in the world until, coming to his own times, . . . He shall enjoy rest forever"

 

The "Recognitions" also lay stress upon the identity of Adam and Jesus; for in the passage (i. 45) wherein it is mysteriously hinted that Adam was anointed with the eternal oil, the meaning can only be that Adam is the anointed ( ). If other passages in the "Recognitions" seem to contradict this identification they only serve to show how vacillating the work is in reference to the doctrine of the original man. This conception is expressed in true Philonic and Platonic fashion in i. 18, where it is declared that the "interna species" (ἰδέα) of man had its existence earlier. The original man of the Clementines is, therefore, simply a product of three elements, namely, Jewish theology, Platonic-Philonic philosophy, and Oriental theosophy; and this fact serves to explain their obscurity of expression on the subject..........................

 

Zohar.

Closely related to the Philonic doctrine of the heavenly Adam is the Adam Ḳadmon (called also Adam 'Ilaya, the "High Man," the "Heavenly Man") of the Zohar, whose conception of the original man can be deduced from the following two passages: "The form of man is the image of everything that is above [in heaven] and below [upon earth]; therefore did the Holy Ancient [God] select it for His own form" (Idra R. 141b). As with Philo the Logos is the original image of man, or the original man, so in the Zohar the heavenly man is the embodiment of all divine manifestations: the Ten Sefirot, the original image of man.

The heavenly Adam, stepping forth out of the highest original darkness, created the earthly Adam (Zohar, ii. 70b).

 

In other words, the activity of the Original Essence manifested itself in the creation of man, who at the same time is the image of the Heavenly Man and of the universe (Zohar, ii. 48), just as with Plato and Philo the idea of man, as microcosm, embraces the idea of the universe or macrocosm.

Luria.

The conception of Adam Ḳadmon becomes an important factor in the later Cabala of Luria. Adam Ḳadmon is with him no longer the concentrated manifestation of the Sefirot, but a mediator between the En-Sof ("Infinite") and the Sefirot. The En-Sof, according to Luria, is so utterly incomprehensible that the older cabalistic doctrine of the manifestation of the En-Sof in the Sefirot must be abandoned. Hence he teaches that only the Adam Ḳadmon, who arose in the way of self-limitation by the En-Sof, can be said to manifest himself in the Sefirot. This theory of Luria's, which is treated by Ḥayyim Vital in "'Eẓ Ḥayyim; Derush 'Agulim we-Yosher" (Treatise on Circles and the Straight Line), leads, if consistently carried out, to the Philonic Logos.

C

DoES God Have a body?

 God said, “Let us make man with our image and likeness…
God created man with His image. In the image of God,
He created him, male and female He created them.”
(Genesis 1:26-27)

Maimonides states in his third principle of faith that God does not have a body and physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all. What then is the meaning of the words, “Let us make man with our image?” Of which “image” does the scripture speak?

The classical commentaries explain that God is beyond all representations and understanding and hence  this image of God in is simply a statement that man has  reason, a sense of morality, and free will.  

The Kabbalistic interpretation of the “image” is different and profoundly deep. The same concept is also found in the post-Thomasian Indian concept.  God in these cases has two aspects.  I would prefere to use the Indian names which is very revealing.  God in his absolute existence - even before he came into "existence" is Nirguna Brahman - God without Properties.  Hence He or it or whatever it may be was unknown and unknowable.  We cannot call that Saguna Brahaman existed since existence itself does not make sense without the knower or seer.  Jewish Mystery present this concept and make this a negative-existence.  Indian Vedanta defines Nirguna Brahman as "Not this, Not this" since every question has to be answered as neti ("Not this"  or "neither this, nor that". Neti is  from na iti "not so").  Hence Hebrew name for Nirguna Brahman is Ein (Ain) - the inaccessible essence of the creator, sometimes also known as  Atzmut.   The only way to bring our intellect to what the Atzmut is, is through denial, is not material, it is not visual, is not limited, is not understandable, and so on. The Atzmut is the essence from which everything originates, the cause of causes, all that was before something existed or was created before we can think of as the beginning, Ain was, is and will be, no time or space, without measure without properties without extention.  The Ain evolved itself - we do not know why and how into Limitless Nothing - Ain Soph.

Then Ain Soph evolved into Ain Soph Aur,  the limitless light from which evolved the Saguna Brahman - God who is knowable and known.  

Even here if Saguna Brahman can be said to be knowable and creative within,  Saguna Brahman should contain at least one other person or more.   It is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Christianity; Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva in Hinduism; and Kether, Chokmah, and Binah in the first triangle of the Tree of Life in esoteric Judaism.    Once we realize this evolution of the two states of existence - the Negative and Positive forms, the problem will be solved easily.

The image of God referred to as "in the beginning God" is not the unknowable but the known God.   Thus the comparison of human image with the Trinity is what we are looking at. The Primordial Adam - Adam Kadamon - is vast, beyond comprehension and contains uncountable worlds   The Primordial Adam is dual and androgenous - that is, considered in terms of human biology, Primordial Adam is neither male nor female, but both.  The primordial light-energy-being known as Adam  Kadamon was the first emanation of an unknowable first cause Ain Soph Aur. 

 Atziluth is the realm of pure divinity - The Divine World.   Those who shared this dimension are called "Sons of God" 

 

Adam Kadamon
The God whose image was Adam

One of the oldest ideas in Kabbalah is a correspondence between the sefirot of the Tree of Life and the human body. The sefirot represent the active, creative potency of the divine names, and their relationship to the body emphasises that we should view the sefirot as components of a single organism. The human shape is the "form" of this dynamic, and is the prototype, shape, or image at the largest scale (macrocosm), and at the human scale (microcosm).

 

The jewish mystical tradition the Primordial Purusha the Adam Kadamon as the first living knowable being with the Three components within Him.  But then He alone existed and there was nothing else, not even nothing nor was there something outside of him.  God alone existed.

John 1:1 that Jesus also existed: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The preincarnate Christ was intimately united with the Father, so as to partake of His glory and to be appropriately called God. Holy Spirit was also present before creation of any of the worlds. Genesis 1:2 describes the Spirit “hovering over the face” of the  waters.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity existed in perfect harmony and formed a completed family  and communed within "Himself". And these three formed the form of God.

Since there was nothing outside of God, first God has to create a "nothing space" within Himself by purposely concealing his presence.  The concealing was required to provide the freedom of will of the beings and to establish laws in the physical and spiritual worlds. The concealment implies immanence of God in the Universe without a direct involvement.  God can only conceal his presence and allow of creation to evolve and grow with freedom without direct involvement of God unless absolutely require for correction.

The Tzimtzum (Hebrew צמצום ṣimṣūm "contraction/constriction/condensation/withdrawal") is the Hebrew term used in the Lurianic Kabbalah to explain this.    This primordial initial contraction, forming a Khalal/Khalal Hapanoi ("empty space", חלל הפנוי) into which new creative light could beam, is denoted by general reference to the Tzimtzum. 

" God decided to create yesh ("something") from its Ein ("nothing"), God needed to "make a space" or to "provide room" for that which was not God. God therefore "emptied himself" bv contracting his infinite light to create a conceptual space for the creation of the universe. In a great cosmic flash, God then "condensed" into a point of infinite densitv and infinite energv called tzimtzum  ( "contraction") and "exploded out" in all directions (the cosmic "Big Bang"). In a sense, this self-imposed "contraction"of the Infinite Light is a picture of God "sacrificing" Himself for the sake of creation."

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/kabbalah/Creation/creation.html

Because the Tzimtzum results in the "empty space" in which spiritual and physical Worlds and ultimately, free will can exist, God is often referred to as "Ha-Makom" (המקום lit. "the Place", "the Omnipresent") in Rabbinic literature ("He is the Place of the World, but the World is not His Place"). In Kabbalistic interpretation, this describes the paradox of simultaneous Divine presence and absence within the vacuum and resultant Creation. Relatedly, Olam — the Hebrew for "World/Realm" — is derived from the root עלם meaning "concealment". This etymology is complementary with the concept of Tzimtzum, in that the subsequent spiritual realms and the ultimate physical universe, conceal to different degrees the infinite spiritual life force of creation.  

It is into this empty space that God created the substance called body.  This body is material in the physical realm while it is spiritual bodies of various forms and dimension in the spiritual realms of creation.  Thus the entire cosmos which God created formed within God's body which is what we refer to as the body.  Yes the worlds has variety of substances which form the various organs and flesh and blood and covering.  Once this is understood clearly, the problem of body and form will resolve. 

In the cosmos which is represented in Jewish mystics as the Tree of life is explained as worlds as world within world, and each world is considered as a Man (Purusha). This indicates a series of generations within the creative process with all forms of life within God in all the various dimensions.  Man extent from the lowest of the world - the material kingdom to the highest Divine dimension as the Sons of God  in the created realms.

 

 

Hexagram – Interlocking Triangles: Created Universe as Reflection of God

There are two symbols employed here to represent God. The first is the tetragrammaton at the center of the upper triangle, the unutterable name of God. The second is the use of the triangle where God as a tripartite being of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is united within a single godhead. The upper triangle, with the tetragrammaton centered within it, is therefore the totality of God.

The lower triangle is the created universe. It too is encased within a triangle, only this one is reversed in orientation. This is the reflection of God. The created world reflects the nature of God. The lower triangle has three concentric circles within it.  The circles represent the three realms: Physical, Celestial and Angelic (labeled here as the Elemental, Aether, and Emperean).

Does God Have a Body?

We can only go by the revealed scriptures for this if we are not to rely on our own imaginations and conjectures.

"And above the expanse that was over their heads, like the appearance of a sapphire stone, was the likeness of a throne, and on the likeness of the throne, was a likeness like the appearance of a man ...."  Ezekiel 1:26,

The Throne of God from the first Russian engraved Bible, 1696.

 

The Throne of God is the reigning centre of the sole deity of the Abrahamic religions:
 primarily Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  The throne is said by various holy books to reside beyond the Seventh Heaven  and is called Araboth in Judaism, and al-'Arsh in Islam.

 

The uniqueness of Adam was that he existed in all the worlds even from Material Realm to the Divine realm.  It is this that made Adam the Son of God - the First Adam.  The second Adam being the incarnation of Logos and part of the Trinity shared his glorious spiritual body as well as material body in Jesus.  In the pre-incarnational theophanies this Logos appeared in human form. 

 Micaiah (1 Kings 22. 19-20), Micaiah said, "Therefore, hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left. "The LORD said,.....

Isaiah (Isaiah 6), In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 

Dan 7:9 -10 "I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were a burning fire. 10"A river of fire was flowing And coming out from before Him; Thousands upon thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat, And the books were opened.…, “

All speak of God's throne, although some philosophers such as Saʿadiah Gaon and Maimonides, interpreted such mention of a "throne" as allegory.

 The concept of a heavenly throne occurs in three Dead Sea Scroll texts. Later speculation on the throne of God became a theme of Merkavah mysticism.

In the New Testament the same concept continued with the final presentation in Revelation where John portrays the Throne room.

These were visions and most people brush it off as just mental creations of the visionaries.

But there are other portions which we are forced to take literally such as the following:

Numbers 12:8  With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

But there are other places where God's form was visible in some cases to more than seventy four.   Did Moses behold the form of the Lord?
Again
Exodus 24:9-11 Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.

There is no escape of the reality of the seeing the God of Israel in human form in this case unless we take all of the Old Testmane theophanies as just mass halucination.  It will crumble the whole of Abrahamic  revelation as human fantasy of a culture.

There are evidences that God did lay down his glories so that He can be seen and heard throughout history.  Ultimately God himself did this in incarnation

Philippians 2:5–8  .. Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Who is the Angel of the Lord
M.M.Ninan
ISBN-10: 1494715627

ISBN-13: 978-1494715625

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http://carm.org/bible-difficulties/genesis-deuteronomy/has-anyone-seen-god-or-not
Has anyone seen God or not?
Exodus 24:9-11, Exodus 33:11, Exodus 6:2-3; and John 1:18

Has seen

(Gen. 17:1) – “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty ; Walk before Me, and be blameless;

(Gen. 18:1) Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.”

(Exodus 6:2-3) – “God spoke further to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD; 3and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD, I did not make Myself known to them.”

(Exodus 24:9-11) – “Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, 10and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself. 11Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and they saw God, and they ate and drank.”

(Num. 12:6-8) – “He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.  I shall speak with him in a dream. 7"Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses ?"

(Acts 7:2), "And he [Stephen] said, 'Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran...'"

Has not seen

(Exodus 33:20) – “But He [God] said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live !"
(John 1:18) – “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
(John 5:37) – “"And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”
(John 6:46) - "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”

(1 Tim. 6:15-16) – “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

It is evident above that God was seen. But, considering the "can't-see-God" verses, some would understandably argue that there would be a contradiction. One explanation offered is that the people were seeing visions, or dreams, or the Angel of the LORD (Num. 22:22-26; Judges 13:1-21) and not really God Himself. But the problem is that the verses cited above do not say vision, dream, or Angel of the LORD. They say that people saw God (Exodus 24:9-11), that God was seen, and that He appeared as God Almighty (Exodus 6:2-3).

At first, this is difficult to understand. God Almighty was seen (Exodus 6:2-3) which means it was not the Angel of the Lord, for an angel is not God Almighty, and at least Moses saw God, not in a vision or dream, as the LORD Himself attests in Num. 12:6-8. If these verses mean what they say, then we naturally assume we have a contradiction. Actually, the contradiction exists in our understanding, not in the Bible--which is always the case with alleged biblical contradictions.

The solution is simple. All you need to do is accept what the Bible says. If the people of the OT were seeing God, the Almighty God, and Jesus said that no one has ever seen the Father (John 6:46), then they were seeing God Almighty, but not the Father. It was someone else in the Godhead. I suggest that they were seeing the Word before He became incarnate. In other words, they were seeing Jesus.

If God is a Trinity, then John 1:18 is not a problem either because in John chapter one, John writes about the Word (Jesus) and God (the Father). In verse 14 it says the Word became flesh. In verse 18 it says no one has seen God. Since Jesus is the Word, God then, refers to the Father. This is typically how John writes of God: as a reference to the Father. We see this verified in Jesus own words in John 6:46 where He said that no one has ever seen the Father. Therefore, Almighty God was seen, but not the Father. It was Jesus before His incarnation. There is more than one person in the Godhead and the doctrine of the Trinity must be true.

 

The common argument against a body for God is the statement "God is Spirit" John 4:24 and it is this aspect of God which pervades all universe. God is Spirit.   The very word spirit also means “breath,” and breath is the evidence of life. "It is the Spirit that give life."  Throughout Scripture He is called the living God (e.g. Joshua 3:10; Psalm 84:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).  Man is also a spirit and it is in this realm of Spirit we commune and  worship God. That was what Jesus was saying in John 4:24.  But a spirit is also a person, not an impersonal force which acts without purpose or reason. It does not mean the Spirit cannot have a body. 

 

Yes in Luke 24:39 establishes that Jesus did have the physical body even after resurrection.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

Luke 24: 36-39  While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

Again body does not mean Physical body.  Each living being in whatever dimension they are have their body made with the substance of the world in which they live.  Man is a unique being who exists in all four dimensions from material to divine.   Ghosts do not have a physical body

If we take the argument, "Here Jesus states clearly that God is spirit. Since God is spirit, he does not have a body. ...  Then Jesus himself defined what spirit is – and pointed out that it is different from a human, physical body. After his resurrection, he told his disciples, "Touch me and see; a ghost [Greek, pneuma, "spirit"] does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24:39).  If this argument is true, Jesus was simply saying he is not God.  Is that what the testimony of the disciples?

 

Does God have a material body?

The clear indication of the revelations throughout Old and New Testament indicates a Physical Material body for God.  Yet this assertion has led to absolute fallacies and heresies especially in the Mormon Versions.  If matter is real and if it exists, it has to exist as part of God since there is nothing outside of God.  Even if God has the form of a Man we cannot see this form because we are all nothing but dust particles within the inside of God. It is like a microbe trying to visualize human form while it is floating through the blood stream.  Unless God lay down his glory and size and makes himself visible through his power we will only have the Word of God to follow. 

Since there is nothing outside of God we have no way of seeing the form of God in all its fullness from outside the body of God.  We are inside God's body as part of the body as an organ or even as a microscopic molecule.  The cosmos is the body of God just as Church is the body of Christ.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mormons

 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as the Mormons)  grew out of the early Protestant church in the United States. The statement that Man is the image of God came to be interpreted to mean that once God himself was a Man with a physical body like us.   Joseph Smith’s  1844 King Follett sermon says:

“It is the first principle of the gospel to know for a certainty the character of God, and to know that we may converse with Him as one man converses with another, and that He was once a man like us; yea, that God himself, the Father of us all, dwelt on an earth, the same as Jesus Christ Himself did; and I will show it from the Bible."

 

Mormons believe that God the Father, whom they refer to as "Elohim" or "Heavenly Father," was originally a flesh-and-blood human being, who was spiritually "begotten" by another "god" (and his "goddess" wife) and then physically born on another planet (not Earth). "Elohim" lived a normal human life, and by embracing his world's version of Mormonism, he "progressed" to become the "god" he is today.[www.mormonwiki.org/Eternal_progression]

 

 Mormons teach that man can become God, and that God was once a man:

"God himself, the Father of us all, is a glorified, exalted immortal resurrected man!" (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 322-23, 517, 643)

"...God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man and sits enthroned in yonder heavens..." (Journal of Discourses, V6, P3, 1844)

This principle of progression from material to spiritual is an ongoing process.

"As man is, God once was: as God is, man may become." (Lorenzo Snow, quoted in Milton R. Hunter, the Gospel Through the Ages, pp. 105-106)

Jesus is identified as the god Jehovah (Yahweh). The pre-mortal Jehovah was born to the Virgin Mary and was named Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God—the literal father of his physical body was God the Father.

 

How did God become God? According to the teachings of the LDS Church, God faithfully obeyed all the religious laws taught to him by his own God on his own planet. Eventually he died, like all mortal men, but he resurrected and rose to become a God himself. The same is something that can happen to every human, though not in this life. The heresy comes here. Now where is the God of the present God? In another planet and so the progression goes on.

"Further, as the Prophet also taught, there is a "God above the father of our Lord Jesus Christ.... If Jesus Christ was the son of God, and John discovered that God the Father of Jesus Christ had a father, you may suppose that he had a father also. Was there ever a son without a father?” Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine {MD}, 1966, 322R

 

Cosmology of Mormons

"Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God.  First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time. The measurement  according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years according to the measurement of this earth, which is called by the Egyptians Jah-oh-eh."

 

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And God created man in his own image

Just as man is Soul, Body and Spirit, an inseperable unity, God is Father, Son and Spirit all one inseperable unity .

 

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Temple of God

 The bible says that our body is a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19)

 Larkin makes the following comparison between the biblical tabernacles  in his book " The Book of Revelation" by Clarence Larkin [1919]

1.  The Heaveanly Tabernacle as seen in the Revelations of John

2.  The Earthly Tabernacle as given to Israel through Moses which formed the Tabernacle where God made his presence with  his people .

3.  The Tabernacle of God as Man with his Body, Soul and Spirit

Tabernacle in the wilderness - YHVH in the midst of his people

 

 

 

 

 

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Man as the Image of God

http://www.catholictheology.info/summa-theologica/summa-part1.php?q=543

1. Scripture (Gen. 1:26) tells us that God said, "Let us make man to our own image and likeness." An image is a kindof copy of its prototype. Unless the image is in every way perfect, it is not the equal of its prototype. Finite man cannot be a perfect image of the infinite God. Man is an imperfect image of God. This means that man is made to resemble God in some manner.

 

2. The image of God in man makes him superior to other earthly creatures. St. Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. vi12), "Man's excellence consists in the fact that God made him to His own image by giving him an intellectual soul which raises him above the beasts of the field." It is true that all creatures have a likeness to God, some by the fact that they exist, some by the further fact that they live, some by the still further fact that they have knowledge. But only intellectual creatures(angels and men) have a close likeness to God; only such creatures have the spiritual operations of understanding and willing. Of earthly creatures, man has a true likeness to God; other creatures have a trace or vestige of God rather than an image.

 

3. The angels are pure spirits, that is, they are unmingled with matter, and they are not intended for substantial union with matter. Therefore they are more perfect in their intellectual nature than man is, and, in consequence, they bear a more perfect image of God than man does. In some respects, however, man is more like to God than angels are. For man proceeds from man,  as God (in the mysterious proceeding of the divine Persons) proceeds from God; whereas angels do not proceed from angels. And again, man's soul is entirely in the whole body and entirely in every part of the body; thus it images the mode of God's presence in the universe.

 

4. The image of God is in every individual human being. It shows in this: that God perfectly knows and loves himself, and the individual human being has a natural aptitude for knowing and loving God. Man, by grace, can love God on earth, although imperfectly; in heaven, by grace and glory, man can love God perfectly. Hence the image of God is in the individual man.{-It is important to ponder the fact here presented in a day when more and more importance and value is ascribed to society as such.-}

 

5. The divine image in man reflects God in Unity and also in Trinity. In creating man, God said (Gen. 1:26): "Let us make man to our own image and likeness."

 

6. The image of God in Trinity appears in man's intellect and will and their interaction. In God, the Father begets the Word; the Father and the Word spirate the Holy Ghost. In man, the intellect begets the word or concept; the intellect with its word wins the recognition or love of the will.

 

7. Thus the image of the Trinity is found in the acts of the soul. In a secondary way, this image is found in the faculties of the soul, and in the habits which render the faculties apt and facile in operation.

 

8. The image of God is in the soul, not because the soul can know and love, but because it can know and love God. And the divine image is found in the soul because the soul turns to God, or, at any rate, has a nature that enables it to turn to God.

 

9. Man is created to the image and likeness of God. The image of God is discerned in the acts and faculties and habits of the soul. The likeness of God is either a quality of this image, or it is the state of the soul as spiritual, not subject to decay or dissolution.

 

“The image of God, we found, describes not just something that man has, but something man is. It means that human beings both mirror and represent God. Thus, there is a sense in which the image includes the physical body. The image of God, we found further, includes both a structural and a functional aspect (sometimes called the broader and narrower image), though we must remember that in the biblical view structure is secondary, while function is primary. The image must be seen in man's threefold relationship: toward God, toward others, and toward nature.” ( Anthony A. Hoekema. Created in God's Image (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986).