Created in God's Image

Good book

I was torn between giving this book two or three stars. I settled for three stars because there is enough in the book to ake it worthwhile reading to the end.There are many good things that Hoekema addressed in his book. In his preface, his objective was to “set forth what the Bible teaches about the nature and destiny of human beings” (ix). This he did very well in presenting a biblical view of man as created in Gods image; man’s relationship with God in creation, the sin that caused the relationship to be broken, how God has provided a means by which that relation can be restored and how God will perfect that relationship when Christ returns.Hoekema correctly examines both the Old and New Testament’s explanation of God’s revelation about man, all of man—his make-up, position as an image bearer, how he fell into sin; his position in sin and in Christ. He does very well in revealing God’s dealings with man through both common grace and special grace.The book though very good in some aspects is not without fault in order areas. The author claims to have written the book from a reformed evangelical perspective (ix), there are a number of issues he wrote about where he fails to write from this perspective.In chapter 5, he identifies the threefold relationship that God has placed man into. He identifies them as a relation between man and God, between fellowmen and between man and God’s creation (he calls it nature). Then on page 81, he claims that each relationship is “as important and as indispensable as the other two; that we can neither exist nor function without any one of them” (81). Whilst he acknowledges man’s relationship with God to be “indeed the prior and most important relationship” (81) he later claims that this relationship “does exist without the other two and is not realized apart from the other two” (81). What does he mean here? How does he explain Gods command in Luke 14:33, where Christ command that his followers surrender all to Him? How does he explain this in the light of God feeding Elijah for many months, using a raven to deliver meat to Elijah? How does he explain this in God’s destruction of the world by the great flood, sparing only Noah and his family? Does scripture not make God the center of our relationships?Then at the bottom of page 81, he interprets Psalm 8 to mean that God made man a little less than God. He was wrong in his exegesis (or maybe eisegesis for want of a better word) in using the RSV version to explain that man was made a little lower than God. The correct interpretation according to the context of the text is that God made man a little lower than angels, which is how most English versions render the word.On page 101, he made an unfortunate statement that questions his conservative reformed bible believing credentials. He writes“In this renewal of the lives of God's people we see the image of God far more fully than we do in the contributions of non-Christians. We see God’s image in its greater richness and wider splendor only as we look at the Christian community throughout the ages and throughout the world—in other words, in the universal church. When we look at great saints of the past and of the present—the apostle Paul, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham, to mention just a few—we see what God is like.”Some of the people in this list cannot be described as belonging to the Christian community as described by Hoekema. Mother Theresa was a professed Roman Catholic, the false church that denies salvation by faith alone through grace alone. The following quote from one of her books testifies to the fact that she was a stranger to genuine bible Christianity.“We never try to convert those who receive [aid from Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity but in our work, we bear witness to the love of God’s presence and if Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men — simply better — we will be satisfied. It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her or him, this is the way God comes into their life — his life. If he does not know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does not need to search then this is his way to salvation.”Billy Graham was a professed ecumenist, who viewed members of the apostate Roman Catholic Church as believers. Here are two of his quotes (verified from different websites) that bear testimony to this fact. The first shows him as an ecumenist at best. "Anyone who makes a decision at our meetings is seen later and referred to a local clergyman, Protestant, Catholic or Jewish." Then he makes another statement that can be construed as denying the exclusivity of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only source of salvation. "I used to believe that pagans in far-off countries were lost--were going to hell. I no longer believe that. I believe that there are other ways of recognizing the existence of God--through nature, for instance."He starts chapter seven on a very sad note. (Sad in the sense that he fails to allow the bible to be the starting point). He writes “For example, a person who has an extremely negative self-image, who thinks of himself as totally worthless, will not be able effectively to love his neighbor as himself; he will not date to give himself to his neighbor in fellowship since he feels he has nothing worthwhile to give” (102) I find it very difficult to believe that this statement could come from the pen of a reformed author. I presume that Hoekema is doing an exegete of Matthew 22:35 – 37. The text reads “And the second is like, unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Our Lord in this verse assumes that every man loves himself and should only share the love he has for himself with his neighbor. So Hoekema starts from the wrong emphasis here. If he starts with the Bible, he will know that every human loves himself more than what is biblical. This is the reason why we are sinners. 1 John explains the three stages of sin, which was demonstrated by Eve in the Garden of Eden. These stages of the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and pride of life describe why self-love is the primary motivation for every sin committed against God.On page 105, he writes “because a man realizes that he falls far short of what he could be, he often tends to look down on himself, despise himself or even hate himself.” The problem with this statement is that I have struggled to find any biblical example of this or indeed any biblical explanation that this is ever the case with humans. Rather scripture tells us that we are all rebel sinners, that we will rather do what pleases us than please God. By what Hoekema calls “despise or even hate himself,” man is still drawing attention to himself, instead of drawing the attention to Jesus Christ. This is in effect sin.Scripture should be the best place to disprove Hoekema. David says in Ps. 51 “2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.” So David knows that he sin is “ever before me.” This is the case though he has been forgiven. So I believe that he is wrong here.Hoekema has done very well in writing this book. He has addressed significant issues describing the doctrine of man. It is rather unfortunate that the problems identified have soiled what could have been an excellent description of the doctrine of man. Some of these issues are so bad that they question Hoekema’s claims as a reformed evangelical