"Let us make God in our image, according to our likeness" Episode 1

"Let us make God in our image, according to our likeness"

Jer 9:23 Thus says the Lord:

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

Let not the mighty man glory in his might,

Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

24 But let him who glories glory in this,

That he understands and knows Me,

That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.

For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

The prophet Jeremiah speaking to these different classes of people: wise, mighty, rich, and all who glory, in essence was emphasizing the need to understand the nature of the God of the Bible by all and sundry.

Unfortunately, from the Athiest to the Zoroastrian many has not made this their goal in life. However, we have rather "sought out many schemes” including creating God in our own image. Pathetically, even those who claim to be Christians can best be described in the voice of the prophet Zephaniah as: "Those who have turned back from following the Lord, And have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him.” (1:6)

In ages past, the Almighty declared: “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;.."

But today, mankind says "Let us make God in our image, according to our likeness"

How did man create God in his likeness? When did that happen? Why did man create God in his likeness? 

Let me walk you down the rest of this article, to get you the answers to the above questions.

To begin with, we are living in the age of Atheism, Agnosticism, Skepticism and all the 'isms' one can possibly think about. Now all of these arose from a core problem of man trying to create God in his own image so that he can get away from being accountable to the Almighty God. It is not for nothing that the apostle to the gentiles rightly warned that: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8, NRSV).

 Thus, the apostle Paul cautions his hearers to be wary of the toxic and menacing effect of philosophy and empty deceit which are according to human traditions. 

Furthermore, Wayne Jackson wrote: "Homosexuality is now an equal rights issue. Political advocacy groups, legislators, activist judges, the media, Hollywood, and some public schools, press to legitimize the behavior. “Gays” can’t help who they are, they say. Supposedly, we must respect their “sexual orientation” as a matter of nature".  

Now people who would speak against such a perverse lifestyle would be labelled as politically incorrect, intolerant, ignorant etc. I was surprised to hear an argument on radio station in Ghana here, where the panelists were clearly justifying a homosexual by saying: "well, that's his sexual orientation" Really? Have they forgotten I Cor 6:9-10: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God"

Have they forgotten Sodom and Gomorrah? (Gen 19)

Also, Rom 1:26 "For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due." The problem is: we have created God in our image.

Incredibly, some so called sexuality educationist are teaching teens that, and I qoute from one site: "However, gender isn’t about someone’s anatomy, it is about who they know them self to be. There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these". 

When was the Genesis account revised by God or repealed? "...in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen 1:27). The world is now confused about gender identity whereas the above text stated it black and white. We tried and are still trying to become wiser than God "but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,"(Rom 1:21-22)

Moreover, in the area of marriage, divorce and remarriage, we would better have God listen to us than we listen to Him. Many run away from the responsibilities attached to marriage, divorce and remarriage. We would like to create our own god and then give him the rules we want. And when we wake up one day to realise we are not interested in those rules anymore, we can put that God away and look for a new one. Nevertheless, God's truth still stands that: "‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”( Matt 19:5-7)

Marriage is seen more of a social contract than an institution established by God. You can divorce your partner when you have "fallen out of love" and for many other absurd reasons, re-enacting the Pharisees' problem: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” Matt 19:3

We have difficulty accepting the plain teachings of the scriptures on such undebatable topic because we have created God in our likeness. Therefore, we think God will accept how we treat such issues. After all, He is like us.

          To be continued.......