Read each student thread and reply of at least 150 words each.
Thread 1
The Bible is the book that is written by various authors who were inspired by God, and many of those Bible verses contain the images of God. God has various unique characteristics and for the discussion, I would like to talk about two images of God which is his dominance and love. God’s dominance over the creation is very essential in the biblical teaching because it is essential when we learn about God’s Creation, the universe, and it is also essential when we learn about the purpose of Creation, human. In the history of Christian theology, there are three ways to view the image of God, the Substantive View, the Relational View, and the Functional View, and for the God’s Dominance, I would like to use the substantive view which is “identified as some definite characteristic or quality within the makeup of the human.” Through the bible verse, Genesis 1:26,28, we could learn about God’s image, dominance, is says, “Then 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 birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth…And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The second image of God is love, there are great amount of bible verses like Colossians 3:14 “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” and 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” that teach us how important love is. Love of God, which is one of the most important images of God, is very essential in biblical teaching because there are many ‘fruits’ that comes from love.
Thread 2
The substantive view of God is where the image of God is given to anyone, where no one has it more than anyone else. This is the most well-known view in Christian theology. Some people think that the image of God is seen in our physical bodies. Others believe that we can see the image in our souls, attitudes, and personalities. There are a lot of different ways that people can see this view, but there is one thing in common in all the different versions: where the spirit is located. Each person believes that the spirit is in humans.
The relational view of God is where humans can have a relationship with Him as well as build the relationship. The image itself is the relationship that is held.
The functional view is where a person declines the other two views. The image of God is seen in what people do. A topic that is commonly discussed in this view is dominion over the world. Essentially, they believe that God sent His most powerful people to rule over the Earth.
I believe that a mixture of the substantive view and the relational view is what biblical teaching shows us. We are taught that anyone can come to Jesus if they want to. God does not stop anyone from coming to Him. We can see this in Romans 10:13. It says that anyone who comes to Him will be saved. We also are taught that we can have a relationship with God. We can see this in James 4:8. It says, “draw near to God and He will draw near to you”. I do not think that the functional view of the image of God is sound biblical teaching. I could see how seeing God in what we do, but I do not believe that God sent the strongest people to rule over the world.
