The Age-Long War Against God (Part 1)

The human race originated in the creating activity of the living God. Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." There was nothing of biological chance connected to human origin. Neither were there millions of years involving some sort of random evolution. God created man's body out of the dust of the ground, using that particular matter, and then God imparted to that body a spirit or soul.

Man's original likeness to God consisted in at least the following:

  1. the fact that humans are spiritual as well as physical beings, possessing souls which have intelligence, volition, and emotion.
  2. moral righteousness belonged to the first man and woman; they were without sin in their original created state.
  3. mankind was endowed with dominion authority over natural creation - authority to be used for God's glory.
  4. God gave man power by means of his physical body whereby to serve Him in this material world. Purely because of God's creation and wisdom the human being was and is utterly unique in the entire universe - uniquely God's image.

However, Satan (the rebel angelic being) came early in the history of the world to steal man from God and from God's service. Through deception and manipulation Satan succeeded in the instigation of mankind's fall from the state of created perfection into a condition of moral corruption. This fall left the human race spiritually blind with a bias for evil and in a decided state of physical weakness with death working in both body and soul.

The great work of redemption accomplished by the incarnation of God the Son involves the conquest of evil and the re-creation of mankind and the entire universe. The ultimate result will be the new heavens and the new earth inhabited by sinful humans made new creatures by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10). This re-creation is taking place in this present world as Christ regenerates spiritually dead souls through the means of His Gospel.

Yet, in this also Satan is active, seeking to counterfeit and thus thwart God's activity. The "Father of Lies" (Satan) works hard at producing religion and religious people. He desperately wishes to keep people from entering the Kingdom of God and becoming members of God's new creation. All of us must exercise great caution lest our religion be that of Satan's origination instead of Christ's. The fact that we are connected to something with the label "Christian" or which possesses a measure of "Christian tradition" provides no guarantee of genuineness. The only proof of genuineness is the Bible. Is our religion biblically defensible? Are both its doctrine and practice taken out of the Scriptures? Isa. 8:20 - "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."