The document discusses different views on the nature and origins of man, including: 1. Materialistic, biological, psychological, economic, sociological, and philosophical views see man as purely physical or a product of natural forces. 2. The biblical view is that man was specially created by God in his image to have a spiritual nature, with both physical and non-physical aspects like the soul and spirit. 3. God created humans fully formed, though some theories suggest creation involved evolution or occurred in stages. The Bible indicates creation was completed in six 24-hour periods with man as the crowning achievement.

1. MAN HIS
CREATION
Chafer chapters 25, 26, 27, 28

2. 1. Materialistic view -
hydrogen, carbon, sulphur,
calcium etc. - total value less
than 1000Rs - complicated
WHAT IS MAN?
physico-chemical being
2. Biological view - animal with
a highly developed nervous
system - laws of being are
biological - highly evolved
animal

3. 1. Materialistic view -
hydrogen, carbon, sulphur,
calcium etc. - total value less
than 1000Rs - complicated
physico-chemical being
2. Biological view - animal with
a highly developed nervous
system - laws of being are
biological - highly evolved
animal

4. 3. Psychological view - man is
formed by heredity and
environment - how he acts is
determined by that. Freedom is
an illusion, actions come from
instincts in the unconscious
mind - anything higher like God
represents a projection of
psychological needs or
inhibitions

5. 4. Economic view - man is
what he ets, class struggle is an
economic issue - man is a unit
in an economic system - no
religious basis for man, it is an
illusion - Marx classless society,
religion is “opiate of the people”
5. Sociological view - groups
determine customs, prejudices
etc. - the individual is only a
factor in society as a whole - “I
am not an individual personality
but a member of the German
race” - state, clan, family first

6. 6. Philosophical view - man
is the animal that thinks - the
mind of man is unique - man
is reason
7. Existentialist view - you
are what you make yourself
to be - fulfill your potential
and become the “superman”
- Satre, “I act, therefore I
am” - action not thought
makes us fully human.

7. MAN AS CREATED BEING
Man has a natural desire to
understand his origins- the Bible
tells us the story of creation - men
try to explain apart from God as
we have seen - Chafer suggests
the results of such enquiries reveal
man has no certain information
about such matters apart from
God.

8. MAN AS CREATED BEING
Evolution is the most accepted
theory in the world to explain the
origin of life - development
through natural selection.
A single cell undergoes small
changes by mutation to form all
living things - God made all things,
“according to their kind” Gen 1:24

9. Man was made in the image and
likeness of God - Gen 1:26-27
Theistic evolution suggests God
using evolution as a method
requires a denial of the literal
meaning of the creation texts in
Genesis.
Man’s creation is clearly taught -
Gen 1, Jn 1:3, Col 1:16, Heb 11:3
Gen 1 has 17 refs to God as
creator - along with 50+
elsewhere in the Bible
This is creation out of nothing -
noting existed before creation.
Ex. 20:11, Ps 8:3-6, etc.

10. Man is seen as the crowning work of
creation, which took only 6 days.
Some say creation was in fact a re-
creation following an earlier creation
during which satan and the angels
fell. (Chafer states this would
account for an inorganic world far
older than Gen 1-2 would suggest).
Some suggest day is actually a time
period - it is also used at times for
longer periods, Day of the Lord

11. 24 hour time period - in which case
God created the world with apparent
age. Gen 1:11 a tree grows and
bears fruit in one day - did this
happen in 24 hours (miraculously), or
did it take longer.
People believing the inspiration and
inerrancy of the Bible take this
literally.

12. THE NATURE OF MAN
Man - made in the image and
likeness of God, who breathed life
into him - these three aspects make
man a moral being with intellect,
capacity for feeling and a will.
Man in general is material (dust)
and immaterial (spirit, breath) 2 Cor
4:16
So we do not lose heart. Though
our outer self is wasting away, our
inner self is being renewed day by
day.

13. THE NATURE OF MAN
The soul and spirit will live forever
but the body will return to dust, Ecc
12:7
These terms are used
interchangeably in the Bible - in
general the spirit is seen as the part
of man reaching and communing
with God and the soul relates to
self, intellect, will etc.

14. Heart, will and conscience
are also used to refer to the
inner man - Eph 3:16-17
that according to the riches of
his glory he may grant you to
be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through
faith

15. The use of the different terms
Heart, will and conscience
in contrast to one another or
in a also used to refer to the
are similar sense can led to
confusion. - Eph 3:16-17
inner man
Some pagan religionsriches of
that according to the believe
the glory he may grantman to
his immaterial part of you is
be strengthened with power
pre-existent, eternal, and is
incarnated in humanyour inner
through his Spirit in flesh.
being, so that Christ may
Some theologians believe the
dwell in your hearts through
human soul is created by God
faith
at the start of human
existence

16. The commonly held traducian theory says soul
and spirit are propagated by natural generation,
and for this reason man receives a sinful soul
and spirit because his parents are sinful.
At death a mans soul (this is all mankind) and
spirit are subject to resurrection.
The flesh can refer to the whole of
unregenerate man.
Bodies of saved people are called temples - yet
also earthen vessels and vile bodies which
have to be brought into line with God’s plans.
Our bodies will be transformed,
sanctified,saved, redeemed and glorified

19. Rom 8:11
Rom 8:17-18
Rom 8:23
1 Cor 6:13-20
Phil 3:20-21
In life Jesus had a
perfect body, as he
did after his
resurrection - we
shall too.