Anthropology

Question 1

Define the Image of God

Answer 1

a. The image of God is universal to all people (Gen 1:26-27).
b. highlights the value of man to the Creator
c. man is like God and represents God.
d. “While not God himself, man reflects the image and likeness of God in wonderful, complex, and mysterious ways.

Question 2

Total Depravity

Answer 2

a. Sin affects everything
b. The comprehensive pervasiveness of sin both universally and individually due to original sin. Sin is pervasive in that it affects everything and it is comprehensive in that it affects all parts of everything.

Question 3

10) Total Inability

Answer 3

a. Total inability is the practical implication of total depravity.
b. “…speaks of the sinners’ complete incapacity to respond to or, for that matter, to seek God on his own” (Rolland McCune, A Systematic Theology, 2:62).

Question 4

1) List 5 areas of contemporary anthropological confusion

Answer 4

a. Confusion of purpose
b. Confusion of worth
c. Confusion of identity
d. Confusion of gender and sexuality
e. Confusion about remedy

Question 5

2) What are the divine purposes for God creating man?

Answer 5

a. Dominion (Gen 1:28)
b. Procreation
c. for his own glory. (Eph 1:11-12)

Question 6

What passages in Scripture mention “image/likeness of God”?

Answer 6

a. Gen 1:26-27
b. Gen 5:1
c. Gen 5:3
d. Gen 9:6
e. Jms 3:9

Question 7

6) List and define the three traditional theological views for understanding the Image of God (see class notes).

Answer 7

a. Substantive: that which is structural (physical, rational, psychological, spiritual).
b. Functional: that which man does (i.e. exercise dominion).
c. Relational: the ability of man to be in relationship with God and with others.
Conclusion: “While not God himself, man reflects the image and likeness of God in wonderful, complex, and mysterious ways” (MacArthur)

Question 8

7) How did the Fall affect man being created in the Image of God? Does man retain any semblance of God’s image as a sinner?

Answer 8

a. defaced but not erased.
b. Eph 2:1-3
c. Rom 1:21-25

Question 9

8) List 4-5 passages that speak to the renewal of the image of God in the believer’s life.

Answer 9

a. Col 3:10
b. 2 Cor 3:18
c. Eph 4:24
d. Rom 8:28-29
e. 1 Jn 3:2

Question 10

9) List 3-4 passages that show Christ as being the perfect image of God.

Answer 10

a. 1 Cor 15:45
b. Jn 1:14
c. Heb 2:14-18
d. Col 1:15
e. Heb 1:3
f. Rom 8:29

Question 11

10) Biblically defend the value and dignity of human life.

Answer 11

a. Ps 139:13-16
b. Jer 1:5
c. Mt 6:26, 30, 32
d. Mt 10:31
e. Mt 12:12

Question 12

11) What does Scripture teach about the material part of man?

Answer 12

a. Gen 2:7 “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground…”
b. Gen 3:19 “till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return”
c. 2 Cor 4:16 “outer self is wasting away”
d. 2 Cor 5:1 “the tent that is our earthly home”

Question 13

12) Be prepared to identify, list and explain the biblical language for the immaterial part of man (as covered in class notes).

Answer 13

Soul (nephesh / psuche )
i. The nature of man in the totality of his inner being
ii. Prov 25:25
iii. Ezek 18:4, 20
iv. Ps 86:4
Spirit (ruakh / pneuma)
i. Ps 51:10
“Soul” and “Spirit” are sometimes used interchangeably
Heart:(לֵב, לֵבָב, leb and lebab; καρδία, kardia)
Mind: (νοῦς, nous)
Conscience: (συνείδησις, syneidesis)

Question 14

Defend dichotomism

Answer 14

a. Monism and trichotomism use: 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Heb 4:12
b. Dichotomist is right:
i. Gen 2:7
ii. Mt 10:28
iii. Mk 12:30 (see also Mt 22:37)
iv. 1 Cor 2:14-3:4
v. 1 Thess 5:23
vi. Heb 4:12
vii. Rev 6:9

Question 15

list and define the three proposed views for the origin of the soul. Be able to list 3-4 scriptural references for Creationism and Traducianism.

Answer 15

a. Preexistence: The souls of individuals exist in heaven (before creation) and God unifies them with a chosen body at conception. (No Biblical support)
b. Creation Theory (Creationism) - Parents bring about the procreation of the body of a child, but God directly creates the immaterial part (soul/spirit) of each person.
i. Ecc 12:7
ii. Isaiah 42:5
iii. “There are many references to God’s sovereign providence over the procreative processes in reference to the whole man (Ps 119:73; 139:13-16; Jer 1:5; Gal 1:15; etc.)”
iv. God’s direct creation acts ceased on day 7
c. Traducian Theory (Traducianism): The human body and soul are brought into existence through the process of procreation.
i. Gen 5:1-3 (fathered in his own likeness)
ii. John 1:13 – salvation is being born of God.
iii. It preserves the unity of the human race.
iv. It preserves inherited depravity.
v. It preserves God’s seventh-day rest.