Images
"If you disturb the bee, you
will annoy it and it will try to sting you". So said the naturalist on the
TV program. His words set me on a trail of ideas which are as follows :
Bees, we are led to believe, become
angry when they are disturbed? This is a general assumption commonly held by
children and a large number of adults - I know I used to believe it when I was
young. You see, an insect really does appear to be angry when you disturb its
activities, but I believe now that the assumption is wrong. I believe that bees
(and all insects in general) know nothing at all of annoyance or anger. Neither
do they know anything of frustration, jealousy, revenge or sadism. Insects are,
as far as I know, driven through life 100% by instinct - in in-built program,
which operates moment by moment from the time the insect is first conceived to
the time it ceases to function viably.
If we accept the supposition that
insects can be "annoyed" we ought to also accept that they can be
happy, ‘in love’, dreamy, and reflective. And why stop there? Every human
emotion we can think of could be imputed into the tiny brain of any and all
insects. Such a giant step of faith on our part would probably lead to quite a
few legal problems!
But why do humans constantly jump to
the conclusion that animals are similar, if not equal in some cases, to
themselves?
Before we look at the possible
answers, let us consider another realms in which ‘imputed humanness’ is
involved - first of all science fiction. Almost invariably, whenever an
‘alien’ is brought into a story, it has emotions and reactions similar to ours.
There are degrees of humanness of course, from the outright human alien, that
is the creature which has a human body and talks English, and behaves in a
typically human way - to the ugly monster, which nonetheless still reacts with
anger, revenge and malice.
One could catalogue the hundreds (or
thousands) of ‘aliens’ which
Most aliens in the past have been
presented as a dangerous threat and therefore destroying them has been
justifiable - i.e. ‘War of the Worlds’, ‘Independence Day’, ‘Alien’ 1 and 2.
Exceptions would be ‘Alf’ - more of
a hyperactive but funny disobedient child in an animal costume, and E.T. - a
Messianic sort of alien with healing powers who helps people, then leaves earth
promising to come again. But in both cases, the aliens have exhibited strongly
human qualities. E.T. ‘Space Odyssey 2001’ and the sequel portrays the aliens
as guides of mankind to perfection. ‘Close Encounters’ portrays the aliens as
harmless. ‘Coccoon’ 1 and 2 do this also. Especially, though rather ugly, is
portrayed as loveable, kindly, gentle, forgiving and benevolent.
Another area is the demonic.
Films such as 'Poltergeist' openly portray evil spirits which occupy humans’
bodies. The demons are usually portrayed as malicious, destructive, violent,
hateful and malevolent - all qualities which humans can identify with. The
bible supports this view, although it has a lot more accurate information to
add. The demonic realm is usually depicted as harmful to humans, although
lately there have been instances where demons and demonic beings have been
sweetened a little - ‘Critters’ 1 and 2, for example.
Angels have also been ‘humanised’ a great
deal. In one movie they play baseball, in another they assume human form and
work wonders in various people’s lives - ‘Touched by an Angel’ is just one of
movies with this popular theme. In every case the angels seem to be just very
good, very kind humans, whose mission is to tell people about God’s love and
God’s forgiveness - but never (as far as I know) about God’s wrath over sin, or
the coming judgement day.
Psychopaths and the insane also feature in some movies, in
which human vice is usually stretched to some extreme area making the
destruction of such fantastic creations quite logical and necessary. But the
rule still applies. Even insanity must fit within the expectations and
assumptions which humans have of other humans, however twisted.
And finally, the ‘criminal’.
In some cases the criminal is portrayed as a mindless villain, who's joy at
killing is unbounded. Such portrayals present the human idea of hate, brutality
and unfeeling indifference to life. Other criminals are portrayed as
‘reachable’ and capable of repentance. But in all cases, the ‘criminals’ are
made in the likeness of humans, and therefore we, ‘the audience’ can identify
with them.
Running through all the above
examples, but more especially the science fiction aliens, the demonic, and the
angelic, is the common human desire to produce other creatures or beings
similar but different to humans. It is this same trait which has, in the past,
produced the tales and myths of gods and goddesses, of strange beasts and even objects
with powers. Talking mountains, talking statues, the worship of the sun,
animism - in which it is believed that every part of Nature is in some way
inherently alive.
The Romans had a god for their
doorstep, their door, their house, their table and chairs. The Egyptians had a
god for the germinating seed, the first shoot, the second shoot and the stalk.
Humans have always found ways to transmute their ‘humanness’ to the world
around them, and often to increase the power of those things thus deified.
Maori and Greek legends abound with
gods and goddesses who : commit adultery, kill each other, act out of hate or
revenge, lust after things, show jealousy, hurt, injure, steal, lie and so on.
The gods and goddesses of the nations have always been simply projections of
those who invent and then worship them. This is one aspect of religions with
such deities which has led many people to deny their existence.
The only religion which has stood
apart from this is the Biblical one, in which the God of the Bible claims to be
the One True God, and also the Creator - which rules out all possible rivals -
and this One God demands total allegiance to Himself only.
But humans have long persisted in
refusing the witness of the One True God. Instead, they have made artificial
substitutes, or they have tried to combine the Bible God with the human
inventions. For example, look at the time when the Hebrews started to worship
the golden calf, in Exodus 32 :3-5
"And all the people broke off
the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he
received them, and fashioned (them) with an engraving tool, after he had made
(them into) a molten calf: and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel,
which brought you up out of the
When people ‘make gods’ they make
them out of their imagination, and they worship them with their physical
senses. In this case the Israelites made a calf, which they were already
familiar with because it was worshipped in
The human tendency to relegate human
qualities to inanimate objects is disguised in comedies such as ‘My Mother the
Car’ and ‘Chitty Chitty’ and robot stories. It is jokingly seen in comments we
make about things we are familiar with - ships are always female, cars can be
both but quite a few drivers refer affectionately to their vehicle as ‘the old
girl’ or some such term. When a machine refuses to operate properly some people
become very emotional and treat the machine as if it was a disobedient
creature. They try to ‘hurt’ the machine, as they would a person they were
angry with. They talk to the machine as if it can hear them.
One of the most interesting stories,
Lord of the Rings’ is virtually overflowing with beasts, monsters, and spirits,
all of whom manifest in some extreme or other the human range of feelings and
behaviour. The Hobbit is more like a conservative English gentleman (even
Tolkien himself?) than a creature which has appeared and developed in a
universe where there have never been humans - yet the whole story of the Rings
is drenched in human ideas, human behaviour, and human emotions. Evil battles
good and good triumphs - probably why the story is such a success. It contrasts
the two great Biblical themes and its protagonists are the humble hobbits and
other ‘folk’ who overcome all odds through courage and other noble virtues.
Lord of the Rings is really two
classes of humans - good and bad - battling against spiritual overlords - just
as the Bible says the reality here on earth is.
But why do people have such a strong
and universal desire to :
1. Have gods and goddesses as part
of their ‘origins’ background ?
2. Worship or show respect to them?
3. Relegate the course of their life
to their control or guidance?
Romans 1:18-23
"For the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness;" ("Hold the truth" means
"Hold down, or suppress, the truth". It is a common
human failing to ignore, reject, or deliberately overlook the truth.)
"Because that which may be
known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed [it] unto them. For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
(This means that the fact that our universe was created is open to our senses,
not just to our sight, but to full examination) being understood by the things
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without
excuse: Because that, when they knew God, (Or, when it was obvious to them that
there must be a God) they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools".
Romans 1:23 And changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Man was made in the image of God. Man therefore shares with God some
of God’s character and attributes - abilities and so forth. These attributes
are reduced to minute portions in Man, because God is infinite and man is
finite. God is Creator while Man is merely the created. Potter and clay. One of
the areas in which Man is like God is in the thing we call creativity.
Creativity involves visualisation,
imagination, lateral thinking, combining familiar and unfamiliar elements to
produce new combinations, deliberate randomness, speculation, forward and
backward projection ("what if?) and a number of other things.
As Romans 1:18-23 shows, Man
originally had a clear and undistorted view of God’s reality through the
evidence of the universe. Then, and now, and all through history, Man has
distorted, or rejected this evidence, preferring instead to construct imaginary
substitutes. Despite all the ‘religious’ ornamentation, there is often some
remnant of the truth left, i.e. the "Great White Spirit" of the
American Indians, and if any of the major religions of the world are examined,
it will be seen that traces of Biblical truth run through all of them. It is
this truth part which gives the ‘false’ religions their sense of authority and
credibility.
For example, in Buddhism, the 8-fold
way is similar to the Christian virtues. In Islam there is a call to worship
‘the One True God’ - unfortunately the Islamic God is not the God of the Bible,
although in some respects Allah is similar to Jehovah, which is why Allah has
such pulling power.
All religions evoke worship and a
sense of spirituality - all similar to Christianity. All religions have a
deity, prayers, and ceremonies. All religions have a priesthood (holy ones) and
a series of ranks which go from the most enlightened to the least. All
religions expect obedience to the creed and usually demand followers to become
evangelists.
In Nature-worship cults, Nature is
treated with huge respect. Christians can agree with Nature-worshipping cults
to a certain respect, because the Bible has much to say about caring for
Nature, but the cults miss the God of Nature.
So in all the above cases, the truth
has been revealed to Mankind, but subsequently the truth has been suppressed or
obscured. Christianity is therefore a process of re-education. All people
outside the Church are misinformed, ignorant, or deluded. They are like Moses,
who was brought up in all the wisdom of
But what is Man? Man is an organism which is
physically part of a whole biosphere, in which all the ‘Laws of Nature’
operate. Man was originally given dominion over the earth, but when he rebelled
against God, Man and all he had dominion over was cursed. The human race
has inherited this punishment for sin - gradual decay and death - because the
whole human race has also inherited the bias towards rebellion.
But there was a time when all energy
and all complexity was at its maximum. At the moment of Creation all planets
were spinning at their maximum, the stars were fully fuelled, comets were as
large as they would ever be, gravity was at its strongest, and so forth. Every
part of the whole universe was freshly ‘wound up’ and packed with energy. But
from the moment Adam and Eve sinned, the Second law of Thermodynamics began to
operate. The earth began to slow down, the moon began to spiral away, comets
began to break up, stars burned their fuel and some eventually collapsed, and
so forth. The human race is presently living in the space between maximum and
minimum. The all pervasive Second Law is part of every aspect of our lives -
everything is running down, decaying, rusting, collapsing. People need food
every day because their bodies burn the energy away, vehicles need fuel too -
from depleting oil and gas reserves. Buildings need repair, historic objects
need specially controlled environments. Machinery wears out, clothes
disintegrate. Depressing though it may be, the reality is that all things are
running down hill.
Despite the clear evidence that the
above conditions exist, Man rejects or suppresses this truth, and instead
conjures up a wide range of fanciful and illogical stories to smother the
obvious. The Theory of Evolution is one of these stories (See my notes on
‘Evolution and the Two Laws of Thermodynamics’). Religious myths and legends
are another attempt to cover the truth. Like sick children who refuse to take
the foul medicine, humans obstinately turn their faces away when God presents
the harsh and unpleasant truth.
"And they heard the voice of
the LORD God (as He came) walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam
and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the
trees of the garden". Genesis 3:8
Why did they hide? Because they knew
they had violated the command - the truth had been suppressed and Satan’s
version had been followed instead. This is the pattern throughout history.
"In meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth;" 2 Timothy 2:25
And they shall turn away [their]
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables". 2 Timothy 4:4
I remember a day when I offered to
let a Playcentre use some of my audio-visual Bible stories, but the women told
me flatly that Playcentre rules forbade this on the grounds that the children
were not to be given ‘religious’ instruction. However, that same Playcentre had
books telling the Maori legends, which were read to the children. The women
either did not believe that the Bible stories were true, historical accounts,
or they were intent on suppressing the truth. (Perhaps it is a common
misconception that 99% of the Bible is just history?)
There is a curious confusion about
he nature of
Because we were created by God, we
have a divine aspect. Because we are descended from Adam, we have a rebellious
aspect. In many ways the attributes which make us human are ‘neutral’ - in the
same way that a computer is ‘neutral’. What we do with those attributes makes
all the difference.
For example, Hitler was once a
sweet, innocent, harmless, naive baby. He had a body, a brain, and emotions,
just like virtually all babies. He passed through infancy and developed his
freewill and intellect. He made choices. He read
But if Hitler had been brought up in
a Christian home, and heard only books of truth, he might have been known as
Billy Graham, or Wesley, or Sturgeon, or Booth.
So what are the attributes which
distinguish us as God’s handiwork?
God made humans "in His own
image" = shadow, likeness. From this fact we should be able to draw
logically the idea that Man shares some of the character and ability of God
into himself.
There must be many books which focus
on human abilities. One book which I find useful is the Thesaurus. Under the
various headings at the front of the book, a general summary of Man can be
constructed.
Senses - taste, smell, touch, sight,
hearing
Emotions - feelings of love, hate,
irritation, frustration, benevolence, kindliness, gentleness, contentment,
foresight, imagination, curiosity, judgement, experiment, jealousy, happiness,
peace, joy, anger, spite, maliciousness, greed, and so on. (Emotions are
difficult to separate neatly from each other and from the actions they usually invoke)
Appreciation of - music, art, literature,
sculpture, photography, and all the other branches of The Arts. Size, colour,
beauty, ugliness, danger, safety, and so forth.
Intellect - reasoning, awareness
(self-awareness and other levels), logic, maths. The ability to construct
hypothetical arguments. Understanding of randomness.
Freedom to choose between one or more
possibilities. Freedom to argue, or disagree with something which is known to
be right.
Two good reasons why God has given
Man such a wide range of abilities, is so that :
1. Man may enjoy a full range of
experiences, and
2. Man has no excuse on Judgement
Day for denying the reality of God.
(If Man was extremely ignorant and
intellectually dull, some slightly cleverer people might claim that God was
unfair and unjust. It would come to the same sort of argument which some
homosexual advocates use - that homosexuals are ‘born that way’ because of
their genetic make up. If this were true, then God would be a sadist.
Logically, if God created people with an unavoidable defect, He
could not then correctly judge those with it. It would be the same as God
creating people with two legs and then condemning all people with two legs!)
Scripture comes very close to saying
that humans are gods - a belief which many cults and some religions hold. But
Scripture qualifies this idea by adding that Man is also "dust" and
that Man depends in every way on God
i.e. Colossians 1:17 "And he is
before all things, and by him all things consist",
or Acts 17:24-29 "God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and
earth, dwells not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's
hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life, and
breath, and all things; And hath made of one (blood) all nations of men for to
dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before
appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord,
if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from
every one of us:
For in him we live, and move, and
have our being; as
certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."
Note : "We are His
offspring". This direct teaching from Scripture, which is true and valid,
has been twisted and distorted by evolutionists and Nature-worshippers. Both
say the lie that : "We are Earth’s offspring"- the former
speak ‘science’ lies (natural selection, mutations, time) while the latter
speak ‘pagan’ lies (Earth Mother, Mother Nature, Earth Goddess).
But even Jesus was happy to allow
human leaders to be called "gods".
"Jesus answered them, Is it not
written in your law, I said, You are gods?
If he called them (the human godly
leaders) gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be
broken;
Say you of him (the Son of God),
whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, You blaspheme; because
I said, I am the Son of God?" John 10:34-36
Jesus was quoting from Psalm 82:6,7 :
"I (God) have said, You are
gods; and all of you are children of the most High (that is, created by God).
But ye shall die like men (mortal
and earthy), and fall like one of the (mortal and earthy) princes". Psalm
82:6-7
To find out where these words in the
Psalm come from we have to go back to Exodus 22:8 and 28. Here, the elected
judges and rulers of
It was this usage of the word
"gods" which Jesus accepted, then he applied the highest sense of the
word to himself. The Pharisees could accept the first part, and probably
thought they themselves were God’s appointed "gods", but they could
not accept the logical extension of the word, which applied fully to Jesus, who
was God’s own Son, and therefore El "God" on earth.
So the Bible teaches strongly that
in many ways Man is like God. Man’s free will, self-awareness and ability to
understand things, his inherent knowledge of right and wrong, his innate
ability to be self-expressive, to individualise, to imagine, his ability to
act, feel and behave like God, and his desire to find happiness, completeness
and meaning - these are all marks of the Creator.
So far we have sketched in what
makes humans like God. Now we will glance at what makes humans unlike
God.
Man is not all bad. Some people in the Church are
determined that this is not so. They seem to speak of nothing else but Man’s
depravity, Man’s evil heart, Man’s wicked imagination, and man’s utterly filthy
condition in God’s sight. Logically, if this were true, then no-one would ever
be saved. It is thanks to the divine aspect still remaining in Man that those
who preach the gospel find something to appeal to! Man has a conscience, and a
sense of right and wrong. When the preacher appeals to these God-given
attributes, some people respond by repenting.
That Man has an evil side is
obvious. One has only to listen to the day’s news, or read a newspaper to find
this out. If Man was good, we wouldn’t need prisons, security guards,
armour-plated vehicles, military defence, strong walls, locks, bars and
bodyguards. Parents would never need to smack or discipline their children.
No-one would be lazy, or careless, or indifferent. World leaders would spend
everything on the welfare of their people and nothing on arms. If Man was good
we wouldn’t need referees, lawyers, or the criminal justice system. The world
would be free of drugs, booze and cigarettes. No home or car would need to be
locked or insured. It would be quite a different place - the sort of Utopia
which many people dream of, but which can come about only when the whole world
is Christian.
But Man’ behaviour is logical. Like
Nature, Man cannot abide a vacuum. If the truth is pushed out, something has to
rush in to fill its place. If the True God is removed, the logical alternative
is a Man-made version. This is where the subject of idols becomes very
interesting.
"You shall make you no idols
nor graven images, neither rear you up a standing image, neither
shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down to
it: for I am the LORD your God". Leviticus 26:1
This verse does not forbid the
making of Art, i.e. sculpture, embroidery, painting, engraving and so on,
because if it did, then the God-given designs for the
That Art and idolatry and demonic
activity are connected can be seen in :
1.
"Moreover the workers with
familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the
idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of
Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of
the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the
house of the LORD". 2 Kings 23:24
2.
"And the spirit of
But why would any human even want to
worship something Man-made?
(To see the extent of this problem,
in just the comparatively tiny
Originally, Mankind was given
dominion over all the world. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps upon the earth". Genesis 1:26
Man, like God, was originally meant
to rule over Creation. Man was down the chain as far as rank went, but he had a
very important role. Satan of course was angry that Man should have this
dominion, especially as he had just lost his position in heaven, so when he
heard the words "In the day you eat . . . you will die" Satan decided
to cause Man to sin, thus (apparently) eliminating Man from the position he,
Satan, now coveted. But of course God had another plan, that of redemption, so
instead of taking over the earth, Satan instead found himself in all-out war
against God. That war has waged for about 6000 years, and continues today.
Satan himself had no desire to
worship God, and having influenced Man to follow his rebellion, Satan now set
about to divert as many people as he could away from focussing their attention
on God and on to other things. Other fallen angels began their work. New
deities were invented. Demonic possession, signs and wonders, and
misinformation began to spread amongst the burgeoning population, until we read
that only one man, Noah, as faithfully worshipping the True God. After the
Flood the
It is undeniable that Man is a
worshipping creature. With some people it is obvious - shrines, idols, incense,
prayers, chanting, pilgrimages, priests, witch-doctors and so on. With other
people it is less obvious. A definition which I have heard, of an idol
is : "Anything which is considered to be more important than God".
The Dictionary says "Object of excessive devotion". By the second definition,
we are forced to include, in some cases "Job, Sport, Wife or Husband,
Children, Machine, Outdoor Pursuit, Indoor Pursuit, Self, Girl or Boyfriend,
Animal, and then on down to more and more subtle things. Humans have an inbuilt
desire to focus on one thing, and to make that one thing more important than
any other thing. Idolatry, which is Man’s substitute for true worship, is the
logical replacement.
And its not that God is ambivalent
about worship. God actually expects it, loves it, wants it, and even demands
it. God made Man to worship Him. The normal, healthy behaviour of a Christian
is to place the True God at the top of the list every time.
But getting back to the fact that
Man was made in the image of God, it is a common thread which runs through the
Bible, that Man is like God. Man bears the physical likeness, and sometimes the
moral likeness of God. That this is so is referred to indirectly in the law on
murder : "Whoever sheds man's blood (kills another human), by man (through
justice) shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man".
Genesis 9:6
What Man does is take the truth
about the invisible God, and create a substitute which is more to Man’s liking.
As Paul says :
"(They) changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things". Romans 1:23
Most of the gods concocted by Man
are deficient in some way. They are either unreliable, or fickle, or too remote
to be of any use, or too ‘human’ to be trusted, or they are given to fits of
anger, lust, jealousy and spite. The gods invented by the world are really
projections of the ones who made them, complete with every human vice, and it
is no wonder then that the theory of Evolution claims that all religions are a
result of evolving Man’s attempt to explain the unknown. In this they are
mostly correct. Man, having rejected the One True God, has indeed manufactured
religion. But religion is a result of descending devolution, not ascending
spiritual evolution. Man abandoned the truth and fell into idol-worship,
quickly becoming ‘primitive’ and thereafter climbing up the ladder of more and
more complex religious practises. Today’s major religions are the result of
centuries of denial of truth.
But today God wants to bring fallen
humans back to the truth. He wants people to abandon the "wisdom of
"In whom the god (Satan) of
this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them". 2 Corinthians 4:4
"And have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him:" Colossians 3:10. Notice how being created into the image which God
requires and "knowledge" go together. The whole Christian life is a
matter of learning the truth and unlearning the lies. Light comes as ignorance
and misinformation are dispelled. It is not enough to be converted - the whole
job is to learn.