Video Transcript: Origins

Welcome to week one part two. Origins. I am Brandon Appelhans, and we are  going to be stepping through the theological basis of creation. In this week,  we're going to be talking about what got made, how it got made, why it got  made, and then in the next section, where we talk about how it broke, what that  actually means, and how that impacts us. Now, we talk about creation. We have  to start by talking about what God did in the beginning, right? We have to start at the very beginning. There's no other place to start. So for this, we're going to talk about how these human beings got made and what that means, which means  starting in Genesis 1, in Genesis 1:26-28 God has already made the world. He's  already made the animals. He's made the skies. He's made the birds, he's made the plants. And then in the middle of this he says, Let us make man in our  image, in our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of  the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, over all the creatures that  move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image. In the  image of God, He created them, male and female. He created them. God  blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth  and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and the birds in the sky, and over  every living creature that moves on the ground. Now we see in the beginning  that God seems to care a lot for these human beings. It's not just that. He says,  Okay, I've made a bunch of stuff. Now I'm going to make a man and a woman.  I'm going to put them in the garden, and I'm going to put them in a place to enjoy everything that I've made. Instead, he says, Let us make man and women in our likeness, in our image. And these are really big, loaded terms in Hebrew. This  does not mean something small. This means something really big. Before we  get too far into this, I want to tell you a little bit about me. The reason being, I  love this stuff. I went to seminary to train to be a pastor, and then I ended up  starting a mental health nonprofit. And so the idea of working through the  theology of how people are made and why they're made, and how this piece  works together, this means everything to me. I spent a decade doing this work,  and I'm starting to do it again. So that is to say, we're going to get pretty nerdy  about this stuff, and I think that's exactly the way it should be, because I want  you to have a full theological basis for understanding how it works. That said,  let's jump back in. So when God says, So, God created mankind in his own  image. In the image of God, He created them, male and female, He created  them. There are a few things that we need to point out. The first thing that we  need to point out is that in this passage, God doesn't create man in his image,  and then woman, kind of like, comes out and does stuff. It's man and woman in  His own image. That means that the man and the women are both created fully  in the image of God. So when we talk about things like what it means to be fully  alive, if I use mankind or something like that, you can just generalize it. These  are human conditions. This is a human way of being made. Now we used this  slide last week because we were talking about a shadow and how we couldn't 

understand what the person would look like just from their shadow. And in some  ways, that's what image and likeness are like. They're kind of like a shadow. The reason being that image and likeness are these big, loaded terms in Hebrew,  because God is creating for himself something that is like himself on Earth. He  is not creating himself. He's not saying this is God, and now it's on earth He  alone is God, right? But what he is doing is he's creating an image, a likeness of himself, and placing it in the world. He's almost creating like his own shadow. It's something that resembles him, that is like him in some ways, that's there in the  world, that's tangible, that people can see, touch, because it's themselves. Now,  the word for image that he's using here God making our image and our likeness. This is a really, really powerful, powerful word. It's the word Selem, and it means illusion or resemblance, which is why we're using that shadow. It's this is  something that resembles himself, and it's used throughout the entire Old  Testament, just like in Genesis 9:6, where it says, Whoever sheds human blood  by humans, shall their blood be shed. For in the image of God, has God made  mankind, right? This isn't this is the image. This is his representation. So we  need to take it really seriously. Or when he goes on and says, When Adam had  lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own representation,  someone that was like him in his own image, and he named him Seth. And then  further in Numbers 33 it says, drive out the inhabitants of the land before you  destroy all their before you drive out all the inhabitants of the land, before you  destroy all their carved images and their cast idols and demolish their high  places in Numbers 33:52 Now, where is this image and likeness in Numbers 33  Well, it's also the word used for an idol, which is where some of the power of this word comes from in Hebrew. Now, idols were something used throughout the  entire Near East, right? We have a God. We need to make a representation of  that God. Okay? We make this thing. This is our golden calf. This is our image.  This is our Shira. This is our image that represents God. That idol is the thing  that helps us get in touch with that God, that helps us worship that God that is,  in some ways, a gateway to that God, because we don't see that God tangibly  face to face, but we see this piece, this image, this thing. So in the ancient Near  East, idols are considered one of the most valuable things that you can have,  right? This is your connection to your God. So if God says we're made in His  image and likeness, this isn't just a statement of they're made like me. It's a  statement about value. This is something incredibly highly valued a person in  the ancient near east for value, nothing higher than their idol, because this was  their connection to their god. If their connection went away, their crops would go  away, their family would go away. They would stop being able to bear children,  or their land, or their cattle would start having problems like their connection to  god meant everything, because god provided everything. So your idol meant  more to you than anything. So in that when God says, You are made in my  image and likeness, this is not some small thing. These are literally the thing that

I'm making, to represent myself, to be like me in the world, to take care of it to  be not little gods like this is actually me, but to be the representations of God.  These are the human beings. Are the same as the images of Baal or the  images, you know, the Asherah and things like that. These are the connections  to who God is. As an aside, this is why, when we read the commandments, it  says, Do not make an image or idol of God, because you are it right. And your  value and your worth as a human being is based on that. It's based on you are  actually the representation of who God is, and because of that, there is nothing  more valuable in the universe, apart from God Himself, than you. And to God,  you might be the most important thing in the world, because he made you. He  cares about you, and you are the thing that he's chosen. You're like his kids.  This is the thing that I made that means everything to me. So for God to say  we're making human beings in our image and likeness, this is a very, very, very  deep, very, very profound statement. Now he goes on from that to talk about  likeness. Likeness is a different word. You can see the transliteration there. It's  d'mut, and it's used throughout the Old Testament, but it means to be like it's  from the root damah, and we see this in Ezekiel 1:5, also out of the midst  therefore came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their  appearance. They had the likeness of a man. Next it says, Then King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. Then King Ahaz went to  Damascus to meet Tiglath- Pileser, king of Assyria. He gave an altar in  Damascus and sent to Uriah, the priest, a sketch of the altar, which detailed  plans for its construction. Right? Do we see this likeness? These are the plans.  This is the likeness. And behold, in Daniel 10:16, and behold one like the  similitude of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and  spake and said unto him that stood before me. O my Lord. By the vision, my  sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength, the one like the  similitude, right? There's this. This is just like it. This is almost like an image, like  a projection on a TV screen. This is something just like what I saw. Now, it's  important to ask who is included in this image and likeness, and the reason  that's so important is because the idea that we are made in the image of God,  that we are in the Latin Imago Dei, image of God, it's been dissected for  centuries, and people have made all sorts of different arguments about it. Is it  because we have the ability to reason? Is it because we have the ability to make moral reasoning arguments? Is it because we have the ability to care? Is it  because we have the ability and authority to do things? What is it that makes  you an image of God. And I want to say that there is a really easy test for this,  which is those might all be true, but I want to give you the Karen test. And this is  not related to anything about, you know, the name Karen in society today. This is related to my great aunt Karen. And this is not actually a picture of my great aunt Karen, but someone who looks a lot like my great aunt Karen. We didn't have  really great photos of her. And the reason it has to pass the Karen test is 

because Karen had Down syndrome, and then she lived to be in her late 60s,  and developed severe Alzheimer's. So she could only remember about 30  seconds at a time, and she had the reasoning capacity of probably a six year  old, maybe less. Her whole life consisted of having her diet coke, which she  treasured, and then caring for the people around her. When you were in a room  with Karen, it was a really different experience, because when she first met you,  she'd go, who are you? And then you would tell her, and then she would give  you a hug, and then she would sit down with her Coca Cola, and she would hold it in both hands. And about 20 seconds later, she'd look over and say, who are  you? And then she'd run over and give you a hug, and then she'd hold her Coca  Cola in both hands, and then she might get distracted by something. A few  minutes later, she look over and go, who are you? Run over, give you a hug and hold her Coca Cola in both hands. The reason that's important is because the  Imago Dei is not just limited to the Einsteins of this world that have incredible  capacity for intellectual reasoning, it's also people like Karen. So if our if our  definitions don't match the reality of people existing in the image of God, we we  don't need to say how those people aren't image bearers. We need to adjust our definition. Is in this case, we need to say that maybe it's not just how well you  can reason, but maybe it's also the innate value and worth that you have as  human being, the image and likeness maybe are about the value of your own  soul and about the value of your own life, not just what you can do and not just  what you can harness. And there may be some other things that you're able to  do that are unique to you as a person, but those aren't just like image bearing  things. Now there are some things that go with that. Karen was given authority  in the world to make a difference. I was too, you were too. That's an image  bearer thing. We have value and worth. We have authority. We have life. So  when we look at Genesis 1 suddenly there's this big narrative of God creating  these little human beings and saying, These are the most incredible, wonderful  things in the entire universe, and I care for them so deeply, whether they look  like Einstein or whether they look like Karen. Then God continued, because he  didn't just make them. Then he said, Okay, now you're going to do something,  right? So God saw all that he had made, and the Lord took the man and put him  in the garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. Here we see this idea of  authority. God made you to do something. And that is true whether you are  Einstein or whether you're Karen, you're made to do something. You're made to  think about things. You're made to do things with your hands. You're made to  build things. You're made to make things. You are not meant to sit idly and see  nothing in this world happen. You were made to impact things, you were made  to do things. And that is part of being human, and anytime we're not doing things that runs counter to how we're made, and as we're going to see as we move  through this course, when something like mental illness affects us and people go through a phase where they're not able to do the things they did before. It can 

affect us in pretty profound ways, because this is counter to how we're made,  right? If we're made to do things, not doing things isn't just, oh, I have an  obligation. I need to do something. This is actually counter to creation. I'm not  doing something. I am made to do something, and that affects us now. The next  thing about Genesis is God looks at all he's done, and God saw al that he had  made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day to be clear, God just planted human beings in a garden on planet Earth and said, Okay, they've got dominion over this thing. They're going to rule over  it. And it does not say that Adam knows how to use a shovel. Does not say that  he knows how to to weed or how to take care of plants or how to take care of  animals. It doesn't say he knows how to do anything horticultural whatsoever.  And then God looks at it and says, This is very good in Hebrew. It says, this is  Tov, tov. This is so good you can even translate it. This is as perfect as I can  want it to be. This is fantastic. God has His image bearer in the garden with no  idea what he's doing, necessarily, but he represents him, and he is with him, and this is exactly the way God wanted it to be. And that brings us back to this  picture of brokenness and homelessness, because this isn't the way that God  created the world to be. This is broken. This is against that idea that I was made  to do something, I was made to contribute, to create, to build, to make, to do, to  be of value. When I am treated as I am not valuable, and I cannot create, and I  cannot do and I can just survive, and that's all that matters. So bringing back  dignity to people means more than just. How do we provide a little bit for them?  It means restoring them to the way they were created, to be this Genesis 1 idea  of I am valuable because I am valuable, that I am good because I am good, that  God created me like this to make a difference in the world, and that is a beautiful thing that is juxtaposed directly against some of the realities that we see,  realities that we experience in our day to day lives. And when we see a picture  like this, we have to ask, Is she an image bearer? The answer is yes. And when  we see the homeless man, we have to say, Is he an image bearer and the  answer is yes. And it's not just they who are, it's you. You are the most valuable  thing in a known universe next to God himself. You matter more than anything in the universe. To God, your life matters every part of you matters. Every  relationship that you have matters. All of you matters, and all of you is making  image and likeness of God. So as we step forward through the rest of this  course, we're going to be looking back at how it is that these image bearers who are made so valuable and so worthy and so well are often in these crazy places  that break how we see the image of God, that break our experience of what it is  to be an image bearer and how we can restore those things. Thank you very  much, and I'll see you again in section three.