Compared to the night sky man is insignificant

1. An Assessment of Man Compared to the night sky man is insignificant Psalms8

2. What Are Human Beings? • Animal • Physico-chemical • Creature occupying space & time • Diverse life-form • Highest life-form • Highest animal • Minute body in solar system These Are Biological Explanations Only

3. “To rule out God’s activity because it cannot be a part of the scientific explanation as to what humans are is to draw a philosophical conclusion which is not part of the scientific hypothesis. Science can no more establish the absence of God from the universe than it can certify His presence in the biology laboratory.”(Dr. Carl Schultz) _______ __ __

4. Basic Questions For Assessment Anthropological & Biological • Who am I? • To whom do I belong? • By what shall I live? • How can I protect myself?(Martin Marty) 1. Is there a God? 2. What is my relationship to Him? 3. Will He protect me? Theological

5. Anthropology In Doxology • “There is no revelation of God except it also throws at the same time a special light on the nature of man; and conversely, a true understanding of man cannot be achieved if God is disregarded.” (Weiser) • God-made • Measured • Magnified • God-mandated 2-Sided Communication God -- Man Man -- God

6. #1 God-made • Not concerned with HOW • Metaphors • Gen. 2:7 • Job 10:11 • Eccl. 11:5 • Job 10:8 • “Thine hands have made me.” Potter Weaver Cabinetmaker Heb. on "made" - "To work, form, fashion"

7. #2 Measured • Mortal – Lit., weaklings • Psm. 8 shatters humanism philosophy • “By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.” (Pascal) • Rom. 8:18-26 • Gal. 6:3 • 1 Cor. 3:18 • 2 Cor. 12:11 • Acts 5:36 Theudus and 400 other men were "measured." They amounted to nothing

8. #3 Magnified • “Crowned us” • Human greatness is God-conferred • Based on two poles, human lowliness and human height • Gen. 2:7 • Rom. 8:16 Man is wrong to assume any grandness without an acknowledgement that Jehovah bestows it

9. “…face to face with God man becomes aware of the total insignificance of his existence. When man gazes up at the illimitable expanse of the heavens studded with stars, the difference between God and man is revealed in all its magnitude, and the wholly contradictory quality of that difference is made manifest. The finite is confronted with the infinite, the transient with the eternal, the perpetual sorrows and anxieties of man, who constantly goes astray, with the peace, steadiness and order manifested by the heavenly bodies which run their prescribed course…”(con’t.)

10. “…It is only if man stands in awe of the greatness of God, which strikes terror into his heart and makes him aware of his total insignificance, that, taking that awe as a starting-point and as the basis of his thoughts, he learns to gain a full understanding of the divine miracle which is made manifest in the relationship between Creator and creature, the miracle namely that it did not seem too small a matter for this Almighty God ‘to be mindful’ of man and lovingly ‘to care’ for him. As soon as man comes to realize his total insignificance in the sight of God from whom he cannot demand anything, he clearly recognizes that the innermost nature of his relationship with God is that of an incomprehensible grace.”

11. #4 Dominion Over Animals • Psm. 8:6-8 • Gen. 1:16 • Sun – plants & vegetation • Moon – seasons, orbit, tides, etc. • Man – animals • Rule or Govern = Dominion Humans have little if any control over the physical world

12. “The conqueror of the forces of nature has not been capable of overcoming evil within himself. Created in the image of God, man is sufficiently like God to believe that he is a god and thus becomes an idolater of himself. He no longer asks in wonder and humility, “What is man that thou art mindful of him?” He does not even acknowledge any more that his dominion over nature is a responsibility entrusted to him by the lord of nature. He courts self-destruction by indulging in self-congratulations.”(Terrien) Any “dominion” by humans over anything is at best a trust, a stewardship, for God alone is to receive the praise

13. “The concept of man’s dominion over nature is revolutionary when measured against ancient religions which declared that the gods were natural powers and that man’s life was embraced within the mysterious depth of nature, with its rhythmic cycles of fertility. The God of Israel is not a natural power: he transcends the realm of nature, for He is its Creator. And in a lesser sense man, though related to the animals, stands over against nature as the creature who is commissioned to have dominion over the works of God’s creation, as one who is the representative or vice-regent of God’s sovereignty (kingdom) on earth. This emptying nature of divinity has made possible a “scientific” approach to nature as a realm which man can study, explore, and use in the service of God.”(Galusha Anderson) Man can only oversee under the auspices of divinity!

14. Man’s Two-Fold Position Native Insignificance Conferred Greatness