Episode 11 | Brain Function | What The Image Is Not | Series | Image Of God

Can the image of God be explained by human consciousness, intelligence, emotions, or the soul? In Episode 11 of the Image of God series, Timothy Cappetto examines several of the most common explanations for the image of God and asks whether they truly fit the biblical evidence.

Drawing on Scripture and the research of Dr. Michael Heiser, this episode explores why defining the image of God by human abilities or brain function creates significant theological challenges. By studying passages from Genesis 3, Romans 7, Psalm 139, and 1 Corinthians 2, Timothy shows why the image of God is better understood as a God-given status shared by every human being rather than a quality that develops over time.

Join us as we continue discovering what it means to bear God's image and why every human life possesses inherent value, dignity, and purpose from the very beginning.

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Oh My Elohim Above The Stars By Timothy Cappetto

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Why can't the image of God be a human quality or defined by the soul or the spirit? Let's discuss that in today's teaching on the Thoughtful Theology Podcast. Well, hello there, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. My name is Timothy, and I am so glad that you're here with me today as we continue with our series, The Image of God. In today's teaching, we'll be focusing on the characteristics for what the image is not. What we might have grown up thinking what makes us have the image of God may need to be re-examined. So we start off here with some comments from Michael Heiser. He tries to get to the bottom of the fact that what characteristics for understanding what the image is will fail? Heiser says, here's basically the listing. These are things that you would see in theology books or commentaries, proposals to understand what the image is. And I'm going to suggest to you that all of them fail. So what is this list of what Heiser called failed suggestions? Number one, there's a consciousness. Just the existence of human consciousness is somehow proposed as being the thing we call the image of God. Number two, there's a self-awareness or sentience. Number three, there is an intelligence or rationality, emotions, the idea of possessing an internal soul or spirit. Number four, there's a conscience, the sense of right and wrong. Number five, there is the ability to communicate. Heiser continues, all of these things are very common in literature that you would read in biblical study and theology for understanding the image of God. And here I am saying none of these work, which of course the begs the question, well, why? Why would you reach that conclusion? Reasons of failure. There are fundamentally several reasons why I would say that. First, none of those things can be said to be present equally among all human beings. In other words, there is something on the list that's going to fail that test. It's not going to be an airtight way of looking at the image because, again, some of the characteristics that are essential are just going to fail. So let's break this down. Number one, let's ask this question. Let's study this for a moment. Do human beings have consciousness? And then later we'll get to can all those things on this list be present in human beings when referring to the image of God? So, number one, do all humans have consciousness? The Baker Encyclopedia of Physiology and Counseling. Definitions of consciousness. Beyond mere awareness, consciousness involves the ability to think about what we perceive, making judgments about meaning and importance. With uh hearing this definition, do we see awareness, the ability to think, to be able to perceive and making judgments in the Bible? I'll say that one more time. When we hear this definition we just heard, do we see awareness, the ability to think, to be able to perceive and making judgments in the Bible? Do we see consciousness in God's word? Is it talked about? From the book, Got Questions, Bible questions answers. This is what it had to say. Biblical consciousness emerges most vividly through moments of self-awareness and moral recognition. Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter three, verses six through seven. Verse six So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, this is of course Eve in the garden after the tempter, the original rebel, the serpent. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. When Adam and Eve's eyes were opened and they recognized their nakedness, they covered themselves with fig leaves, according to Genesis 3, verse 7. They experienced a fundamental shift, awareness of themselves in relation to their surroundings and their vulnerability. This wasn't mere sensory perception, but self-consciousness, the ability to recognize oneself as distinct from the world. So their perception, their understanding, it changed. And they, when they partook of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, that Hebrew word good and evil in the original Hebrew is to ra, to and ra. This original rebel, aka the serpent, mixed in truth with a lie. Humankind now knew all the difference between right and wrong. All the difference between right and wrong. Heiser says in the unseen realm, given the divine counsel context of her status, talking about Eve, as God's imager and new member of his family, what the Nakash said to her had the ring of validity. Of course, God wants us to be like the Elohim. We're all one family. We all represent the creator, don't we? Why would we die? This doesn't excuse Eve or Adam. Their disobedience had dire consequences. Now, honing back in on answering the question, do humans have consciousness? Turn with me in your Bibles now to Genesis chapter 3, verse 22. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, To and Ra. Now, continuing our discussion from the book Got Questions, Bible questions, God's statement that the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. The faith life study Bible says, as one of us, the plural here refers to more than just the singular God, Yahweh. It speaks of the heavenly hosts or God's counsel. Finishing the thought from the book here, Genesis 3.22 points to another dimension, moral consciousness. Consciousness in scripture involves discernment between right and wrong, not merely physical sensation. So we would have what we would call in modern days self-consciousness and moral consciousness. This is what is happening in Genesis. But what I'm realizing, and I hope that you realize as well, is that the biblical readers did not think like us. Now turn with me in your Bibles to Psalms 139, verses 23 and 24. And then after that, we're going to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11. Psalms 139, verse 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? Logos Bible Software says, the Psalms and Proverbs emphasize consciousness as inner knowledge accessible only to God and the individual. The psalmist invites God to search me and know my heart and try me and know my thoughts, suggesting consciousness encompasses the hidden dimension of human interiority. Paul similarly notes that who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit and or of that person. Consciousness is fundamentally private, known only to the self and God. Now turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 7, verses 15 through 23. Really hone in here. This is really good. For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that this is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Paul's struggle in Romans, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate, illustrates consciousness as self-reflection and the an internal conflict. This is not instinctive behavior, but deliberate awareness of the gap between intention and action. So now we got answers from the Bible. And based on those answers, did we get the answer to our question? Do human beings have consciousness? Well, yes, but we have to remember the biblical understanding of the people back in this time was still different than our modern understanding. And it's important to always remind ourselves of the this every time when we study God's word, when we study the Bible. Now, let's answer question number two. Can all these things on the list that we read earlier be present in human beings when referring to the image of God? Heiser says, the image of God, what does it mean? Theologians have offered many explanations of the image of God. The above description, however, rules out practicality, all of them from the outset. In short, any explanation that links the meaning of the image to some quality or attribute, especially if it's linked in turn to brain function, fails immediately for one simple reason. It's a straightforward reason. Not all humans, especially in the beginning stages of life, possess the required attribute immediately or equally. What does he mean by this? All of the following have been proposed by theologians as identifications of the image of God. Intelligence, rationality, emotions, your will, consciousness, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to communicate or pray. These attributes are all dependent on brain function and are all therefore not possessed immediately by all humans. The brain must develop in stages. The conceptuous or fetus in the womb isn't exercising any of these abilities. If an infant is born with a brain injury or handicap, it cannot be said to not be in the position of the image of God. Let me say that again. It cannot be said to not be in possession of the image of God. Loss of these abilities in old age also does not erase the image. There is no biblical precedence for such ideas, since there are no exegetical data that having the image of God developing incrementally, since Genesis chapter 9, verse 6 informs us that the image of God is what gives human life its sacred status. If the image were partially, then life would be only partially sacred, which is an incoherent position. So Heiser continues in another article that I believe will tie the rest of our thought here together nicely. Now, I know this has been a lot so far today. Believe me, I'm right there with you. My fully developed brain was swimming a little bit when I first was studying this out. So if you need to take a break between any of these parts of the podcast, I totally understand. But let's go ahead and move on and finish Heiser's thoughts. Image not gained incrementally. So again, if we look at the list, consciousness, sentience, intelligence, emotions, the soul and the spirit, sense of right and wrong in consciousness and communication, we have a fundamental problem with them, with all of them, except maybe the soul, if you want to isolate that. And we'll look at that more in a second. When he says a second, that's gonna be next episode. All of these other things extend from brain function, they are dependent on bodily element, the brain. In other words, there is some quality that is connected to the brain in some way. So why is that a problem? Well, if we want to affirm the sanctity of human life from its very beginning, the moment of conception, the thing that occupies space in a woo in a woman's womb after conception, if it doesn't have a brain, then it can't be in the image of God. We have just defined it out of existence. And this is a problem because there is no sense that humans either get or become the image incrementally, they are just created that way. The life form we know as human life has this thing called the image. In scripture, there is no sense that you get it in stages. And if you're going to define it as anything that links itself to the bodily organ we know as the brain, you've got a real problem. What you have is before you have brain function, and really even full brain function, you have a partial human or something that isn't quite human, isn't quite in the image yet. So let's review. Every human being does have consciousness, meaning self-awareness and knowing the difference between right and wrong, according to Genesis chapter three. Number two. You need to also remember that the biblical writers and readers were not thinking about a brain. They had yet to have that concept. They thought of the heart of being the place to describe what we call now consciousness. Number three, the image of God should not be thought as something that relies heavily on brain function. Because if we do this, we just might prove that everybody doesn't quite fully have the image of God. Because our brains develop incrementally, and nowhere in God's word does it refer to the image of God being given to us step by step. So, what are we, podcast listeners? We are made in the image of God. We are his representatives. Let's go out each day and represent the creator God well. Let's go out each day remembering who we are in Christ and that we are in Christ. Die to ourselves every day. It's no longer I who live. Galatians 2 20. John the Baptist says in John, the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 30, He must increase, but I must decrease. So what was John's mission? Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 1, verses 6 through 9. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. So John's mission was to point the world to Jesus. This was John's mission, and this is our mission as well. Before we end today's podcast, I have a praise report. Just in the last week, we've had two other donations that have been graciously donated to the podcast. So now we are actually funded for four whole months. And so thank you so much to everyone that has donated thus far. You are keeping this podcast running strong and you are keeping this podcast ministry going. Don't forget to subscribe and write us a review on your favorite podcasting app. Until next time, thank you also very much for allowing me to share God's word in its original context. It's my prayer that reading the Bible just as the original readers did will help us grow in our relationship with the Creator God. Hope everyone has a great week. We'll see you next time.