Heiser-The-Facade - Sparkling Eyes

and New Testaments seriously will be pre-pared. It's sort of preventive theologicalmaintenance.""So how would you defend the presence of the extraterrestrials we're workingwith to people so attached to the Bible?" the Colonel asked, his eyes narrowing ininterest. "What do you think this image of God is?""Those are actually separate questions." Neil looked at him uneasily. He knewBrian's thoughts on the image of God, that it was the lynchpin of his contention thatintelligent extraterrestrial life presented no theological problem. Despite Brian'scomments of the previous evening, he'd not anticipated any departure from Brian'sposition during the meeting. He couldn't contain his curiosity."What do you mean, Brian?""Before last night, I really had only one way of answering the Colonel'squestions. I now have another," he confessed in a reflective, almost tense voice, peeringmomentarily at Father Benedict."So give us both of them," the Colonel prodded."Oh, I will," Brian stiffened himself behind the lectern. "I'll start with the viewthat I had assumed I'd be giving since I received this assignment, the view that's tied upwith the image of God. I don't imagine anyone here will object to that one, since it'spretty positive. But let me say up front that the other one isn't going to be very encouraging.""I think we'll be able to handle it," Melissa noted impatiently, arms folded,rocking back in her chair. Brian looked again at Father Benedict, whose expressioncaptured his silent doubt."Well, I guess we should start by interacting with the traditional view soeveryone is clear on what specifically I object to in that understanding. The primaryverses for the doctrine are Genesis 1:26 and 27, which read:Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and letthem rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock,overall the earth, and over all the creatures that move along theground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God hecreated him; male and female he created them."I would agree," Brian explained, "that the image is certainly that which makeshumankind unique from the rest of creation. I would also concur that both men andwomen are included in the text with no hint of gender superiority with respect to theimage, that the image makes humans `like' God in some way, and that the image is eitherpresent or not; it isn't given incrementally. Where I disagree with the traditional view isin its definition of just what is meant by the whole notion of the image of God. I don'tthink it's a thing God put into humans at all.""That seems to be what the passage says," Melissa spoke up, her brow wrinkledwith confusion. "It says humans were created not that I believe it mind you—in theimage of God. It seems to point to something instilled in us. How do you get aroundthat?""I don't get around it because there's nothing to avoid. The preposition youpointed out is actually the key—but I'll get to that in a minute. Let's think about the logic170