Imago Dei: The Image of God - Vol 1 No 12

The Bible says all humanity bears the image of God and thus has value.

Picking up where we left off

In the previous class (written about in Vol 1 No 10) Mike caused quite a stir when he called out his fellow students for being incongruous. Almost everyone in the class was very vocal about their disdain for the Germans in WWII who devalued and then directly destroyed the Jews and other "deplorables" in perverse and cruel means, or tolerated those who were doing so. The class was asking, "How could the Germans DO that and how could the populace just sit by and let it happen?" Mike observed that NONE of them for a moment thought THEMSELVES capable of doing either one.  

Oh but you do!

Mike posed, "So what about those who lived down the street from the concentration camps watching the truckloads of men, women and children go by, knowing they were going to their deaths at the hands of their countrymen.  Could you do that?""No way!"  There was unanimous agreement. 

"Oh, but you do the same thing," Mike said gently.

The class quieted.

"Every one of us goes about business as usual every day when right down the street children are taken into the abortion mills and systematically exterminated.  Hitler killed his six million but we...we...just in America...have killed our sixty-one million!"

As they say... "All hell broke loose."  Classmates began shouting and agitated banter became the mood of the class.  Some were defending the unborn, others adamantly defending their right to abort.  The professor allowed the fray until, at the end of class, he called for the conversation to continue at the next class.

"Evacuation"

When they arrived back at class several days later, the professor did not immediately bring up the previous conversation.  Instead the class watched Conspiracy, a documentary movie about the Wannsee Conference of 1942, where the major players in Hitler's regime coordinated the means for the systematic annihilation of millions of Jews on an industrial scale.  This group of high-ranking Nazi officials met and calmly discussed the logistics of the "Final Solution," the elimination of Jews from Germany and ultimately, the world. They were there to synchronize the resources to "solve the Jewish problem."  One particular scene was quite cogent, when Lt. General Heydrich, the leader, praised Major Langer for the "evacuation" of 35,000 Jews in Latvia.  The Major interrupted wanting to assure that Heydrich understood that those Jews had not been moved to another location, but that he had had them shot to death.  Heydrich, with a wry smile, repeated that he understood that they had been "evacuated" and that that is the term that they were to use.  Major Langer told him that he wanted to be sure to use the approved language for what they were doing and repeated then that he had "evacuated" the tens of thousands of Jews and would use that term in his reports to the Reich. 

When the movie ended, Mike's hand shot up.  

When the professor nodded towards him, Mike said, "Isn't it interesting that Heydrich wanted the term for the systematic extermination of the Jews to be 'evacuation?' The Jews were 'evacuated.'  In America when an abortion is done,they use the exact same language!  They 'evacuate' the uterus!  And instead of using bullets, they evacuate using suction or dilation and curettage.  When they 'evacuate the womb,' the abortionist systematically burns, tears or dismembers the child.  They use the exact same language for the exact same action!"

"It's not the same thing!"  several retorted.

One girl said, "I personally believe that abortion is the killing of a human, but I have friends who don't believe that, and they have their truth and I have mine.  I allow them their truth, and they allow me mine so that we get along." 

Mike retorted, "And when you adopt their 'truth,' which is really a falsehood, what you have is either a dead baby or applying the same philosophy in Nazi Germany, a dead Jew, both bearing the image of God." 

The professor asked, "You keep referring to the 'image of God' when we have these discussions.  What do you mean by 'bearing the image of God?'"

 The Image of God in Man

What an opportunity!  Since the professor asked the question, everyone was quiet and listening.  Mike began, "First of all, the Bible teaches that our value as humans is predicated on the fact that God has created man in His own image." 

The groans were audible.

One man spoke up. "I believe I was energy that converted to matter and when I die, I will convert back to energy again." Many in the class agreed.

"Then where do you get the right to make any statement about morality?" Mike querried. "Energy does not have inherent morality and neither does matter.  According to your worldview, you have no basis upon which to call anything right or wrong.   That's the road down which Darwinian Evolution takes us.  Those whom we deem "lesser" or not as evolved as we are, are able to be labeled vermin and then exterminated.  That was Hitler's view.  He was being consistent!  I can say with certainty that Hitler and his thugs were evil and immoral."

"What gives you the right to make that moral judgment?" one shot back.

"The Bible says that I am made in the image of God, like you.  The Bible says all humanity bears the image of God and thus has value.  God created man such that aspects of His character were given to humans that were not given to the animals.   One is that He is eternal, and so He gave us souls that will never die.Our bodies will die and return to dust, but we each have a moral soul that will never die and will give an account to Him Who made us. He gave us knowledge, reason, a moral conscience, and the ability to speak and communicate as a reflection of these attributes that are present in Him.  Our value comes from Him alone, that we bear His image, reflections of His character.  So God says that when you kill another human, you are attacking His image in them, and He punishes those who do so.  So you see, every human has inherent value, no matter what his social class, genetic make-up or economic achievements, simply because he is human and an image bearer."

"I've never heard that," said his professor.

Mike said, "If Hitler had listened to the Bible properly taught, instead of Margaret Sanger and her twisted book on Eugenics, he would have treated the Jews very differently.  Whether he liked them or not, he would have understood that they were created in God's image and therefore, were valuable.  Ideas have consequences."

Many of the students talked with Mike about this after class and at other times afterwards.  This idea of being made in the image of God was new to most of them.

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