Featured Sin Essential to God's Purpose in Christ !

Adam was created, yes. That has never been a point of debate. When Adam was created, God declared the creation as "Very good." The "by" in Colossians 1:16 is ἐν plus the dative which is:

...A marker of agent, often with the implication of an agent being used as an instrument, and in some instances relating to general behavior rather than to some specific event

Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, vol. 1, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, electronic ed. of the 2nd edition. (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 796.
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No where is "Sin" implied or specified as something created by God.

What is more, your following statements:

Neither say nor imply anything about God creating sin.

What is more, according to James, God cannot be the author of sin:

[12] Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. [13] Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. [14] But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. [15] Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. [16] Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. [17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [18] Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:12-18 ESV)
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This passage specifically and categorically nullifies your assertions that God is the first cause of sin. Not only can God not be tempted with evil, He Himself cannot tempt anyone with evil. This is a clear and fundamental statement of the free will of mankind--a will that is bound by sin at the Fall and a will that was "able to sin and able not to sin" before the fall.

Furthermore, if it is true that "every good and perfect gift is from above" where did evil come from? It certainly cannot be from God since evil itself is neither good nor perfect.

Moreover, Romans 5 clearly states that is was man, not God, that brought sin into the world:

[12] Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—[13] for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. [14] Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:12-14 ESV) ​

So, your assertions are simply not possible under any biblical circumstance. You are simply wrong, you've demonstrated that you have no regard for authorial intent, and you've demonstrated that you cannot or will not care to handle God's word rightly.

Your method of whatever-it-is-you-call-it-bible-study cannot and will not lead to anything but error--even as we've seen you demonstrate here.

After all, expository preaching is demonstrated fully and faithfully in this passage of Nehemiah:

[1] And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. [2] So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. [3] And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. [4] And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. [5] And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. [6] And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. [7] Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. [8] They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:1-8 ESV) ​

The word was read aloud and it was explained to the people. Ezra, Nehemiah and those with them were intent on saying: "Thus says the LORD" and they could only do that if they spoke His words and He intended them.

There is an objective meaning to the text--which is paramount to understanding the Scripture. You are tirelessly imposing a subjective meaning on the text. You're more thinking "What does this mean to me" when you should be asking "What has God said in this text?" It matters not what you think a text means; it matter greatly what God has said in a specific text. His meaning trumps yours any day.

The Archangel

 

Wow.... Talk about jumping the shark....

In the OP, you stated:

Nothing of what you've posted here either requires or suggests the conclusion from which you started.

A few more things... Christ is not an image-bearer. Adam bears the image of God--as do all individual humans. So, your argument fails because you don't talk about things in the biblical categories.

In Pauline talking, being chosen "In Christ" implies a union with Christ. Being created by Christ presupposes or suggests no such union.

Your ramblings are full of holes according to any true biblical theology and your understanding of the English text has been shown to be wrong because your understanding doesn't comport with the original Greek.

Again, you're simply never going to be right about this subject and you're not likely to be right about anything because you aren't handling the text according to the intent of the authors....

The Archangel

 

You would be wise to distinguish between "Is the Image of God" and "Bears the Image of God."

I stated that Christ IS the image of God and, as such, He does not bear the image of God.

Only humans bear God's image.

I'm beginning to think you are only capable of seeing things you want to see in any written text, not just scripture. Apparently the author's intent means nothing to you at all levels.

The Archangel

 

YOU need to distinguish because the Bible makes a distinction. You can ignore the text--as you've been demonstrating the propensity to do. You're making statements that are not only outside of Scripture, they're directly contradicted by Scripture.

Yes, Christ IS the Image of God. Adam is not. Adam is a created being and is created IN the image of God. Jesus, being the Image of God is fundamentally God. Adam being created in the image of God is fundamentally not God.

When the Old Testament references "Image" it is not simply some intrinsic quality. Rather, it is positional. When Genesis says that Man(kind) is created in the image of God it means that Man is the under-ruler of the realm. Another way of thinking of it is that Man is the Governor of the Great King--God. We, as image bearers, are His representatives which is why, by the way, murder, etc. are inherently wrong. To murder someone is to murder the representative of God Himself, and that is an act of war or rebellion against God (just as if the US Sec of State were captured and murdered by a foreign Gov't, it could be said that they have done this against the US and a state of war would exist...).

Jesus does not bear the image of God as Adam does. Jesus IS God, not a mere "representative."

Furthermore, you assertion that "Adam was made in the Image of God because he was in Christ" is patently false because Adam was made "By" Christ, not "in union with" Christ. The text is quite clear on this, yet you ignore it.

Then, you say, "Man finds his confirmation in the Image of God as he is conformed to the Image of Christ Rom 8:29 which comes by Redemption !" The problem with this is that it is also patently wrong.

Man, in the Fall, does not lose his status as an image-bearer. Genesis 9:6 is very clear that Man is still an image-bearer, even after the Fall:

[6] “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. (Genesis 9:6 ESV)​

Notice the "for" in the last stanza. The institution of the death penalty for murder is given precisely because Man--even fallen Man--is still an image-bearer.

So Adam--and all of us--are already in the image of God, and even non-Believers are image-bearers.

Those of us who are believers, who have been chosen, predestined, etc. are conformed to the image of Christ. But, the image of Christ is fundamentally different from the image of God.

The image of God (as discussed in Genesis and above) is more of a functional or positional reality. The image of Christ is an intrinsic quality. What Paul is saying in Romans (and, of course, other places) is that being conformed to the image of Christ means that we are becoming more like Him. In other words, we are being sanctified so that we more closely resemble Christ, not the fallen Adam.

Also, note the Adam-Christ dichotomy in 1 Corinthians 15:22. There is a distinction between the image of Adam and the image of Christ. So there is no support for the idea that man becomes an image bearer when he becomes a believer.

You're simply never going to get the Bible right if you keep making up things that are far outside of the text. You can't be right if you don't take the Bible at its word. And you can't take the Bible at its word if you hunt and peck verses, do violence to the context and the text itself, and ignore normal "rules" of reading.

I mean, seriously, do you look at a Speed Limit sign that says "55" and say to yourself "I think that means I can drive 70?" Do you look at the line on your mortgage contract that says you have to pay, for example, $1,000 a month and say to yourself, "That means I only have to pay $500?" If you don't do that with the speed limit and if you don't do that with your mortgage (or rent, etc.), which you can't do without deep penalty, you can't do that with Scripture--without deep penalty.

The Archangel

 

Salty, if I've learned anything from discussions with savedbymercy, it's that she is allowed to conflate any point in any way she feels, but if you don't respond to her exact post, she will ignore you and accuse you of evading. It's okay for her to evade our questions, and she will not accept any other points of view. Go look at some of her other threads for further proof. :smilewinkgrin:

 

One thing you can say about her/him is that she/he likes Rabbit Trails. In fact she/he started out running down a Rabbit Trail and she/he certainly was not following Scripture but her/his twitching nose. I do believe a rabbit's nose twitches continually does it not!

 

Adam and eve became lost sinners, and when did they get saved?

 

Nothing here--or anywhere in scripture--says equates the image of God with the image of Christ the way you are doing.

Logically, if you have Adam in union with Christ then when Adam fell, you'd have to say Christ fell. Which, considering you charge God with being the cause of Sin, isn't likely to be too far of a stretch for you.

I have demonstrated that Adam was made in the image of God, that the image of God is more functional, and that every individual is an image bearer--even unbelievers. You've simply ignored the text of scripture.

Context, context, context! While, somewhat miraculously, you get the preposition of Ephesians 1:4 correct, the "us" of Ephesians 1:4 is not addressed to all humans. Paul is writing to the church (believers) at Ephesus and he is saying that believers have been "chosen in [Christ] before the foundation of the world." He is by no means saying everyone has been chosen in Christ.

Nothing in Ephesians 1:4 references Adam and nothing says Adam was in union with Christ. You are simply reading into the text.

You know... I ignored the first such comment. But, pointing out that you are deficient in handling the Bible is not a matter of pride for me or anyone else.

It is your practice to charge God with wrong, evade all scriptural evidence to the contrary, and accuse people of being sinful when they point out your deep errors.

It isn't "pride" that I've been trained to study the Bible, that I know the languages, and that I've been trained to read the Bible as the authors have written the text. If you think that to be "pride," then theology isn't the only thing in which you have no acumen.

The Archangel