The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Image of God

Which of these statements is true?

1. At the Fall man completely lost the image of God.
2. Even in their sinful condition, human beings retain the image of God giving them dignity and worth.

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#2

Is the image of God defined in WSC Question #10, knowledge, righteousness, and holiness?

If so, how much spiritual knowledge, righteousness, and holiness did man retain after the Fall? 0%. Correct?

Does saying man retained the image of God after the Fall lead to a redefinition of Total Depravity?

Can you elaborate a little more on why #2 above is correct?

Q. 10. How did God create man?
A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
This was the ORIGINAL "state" of man at creation. This does not completely define the term "image of God". That term is best and rightly defined by consulting ALL of Scripture, aka: "The Analogy of Faith". In the original creation, God created man differently than all else that He created, i.e. plants, etc., and the animals. He was given an intellect, reason, wisdom, will, etc., which none other of the creation was given. Those qualities best define the "imago dei" image of God. And those qualities/attributes were negatively affected due to fallen man's corruption of nature.

There are a number of articles on The Highway website in the Calvinism and the Reformed Faith and in the "Anthropology" section.

Affirmative. Again, you may want to consult the articles as referenced above, e.g., "Total Depravity".



Briefly explained above in this reply?

I suspect that you are being hassled by a known individual who most likely holds to the heresy of fallen man being UTTERLY Depraved vs. TOTALLY Depraved. IF fallen mankind was utterly depraved, then you would be describing Hell itself in which mankind would utterly destroy itself in short order. My personal advice would be to avoid this individual completely.....

Thank you, Pilgrim. I have avoided as you mentioned. I am now trying to clear up and understand the correct doctrine as opposed to the error I had previously been exposed to. It is my hope that by doing so I can correctly inform people with whom I come in contact and that by putting my questions on this forum it may help it’s readers.