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Attacking the Image of God
Alfred B. Davis
Posted: 7 February 2023

What is the image of God? Well, according to Genesis 1:26-27, it is man:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Much speculation has been made as to just how man is the image of God. Some say it is because man is a rational, moral being possessing reason, intelligence, and will. Genesis 2:7, however, suggests that it is even more than that. It suggests that man reflects the triune nature of God:

  1. Body - "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,": God the Son
  2. Spirit - "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;": God the Holy Spirit
  3. Soul - "and man became a living soul.": God the Father

Considering how man is created in God's image, it is not surprising that the Devil, who hates God, goes to such great efforts to attack and destroy the image of God. After all, the Devil cannot directly attack or hurt God so he goes after that which God loves, that which bears the image of God in the world.

One of the more overt ways in which the Devil attacks God's image is by instigating the killing of people. Whether by man or beast, every time the Devil is successful in his efforts to cause a human death, he is symbolically destroying God by destroying the image of God. In fact, Genesis 9:5-6 puts it this way:

"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."

Another, more subtle, attack on the image of God comes in the form of corrupting God's image. Rather than outright destroying or killing, the Devil mars and distorts the image of God, thereby misrepresenting, mocking, and maligning God.

Remember, in Genesis 1:27, the Bible tells us that God created man in His own image, both male and female. Consequently, it is not surprising that we see a variety of attacks on the male and female identities of God's image. In doing so, the Devil again misrepresents, mocks, and maligns God by attacking both the attitudes and appearances of men and women.

For instance, when the Devil convinces a man or a woman that they are not really the sex or gender that they were born as, he is successful in attacking the image of God. This is because they are now misrepresenting God by denying the reality of how God created them, claiming that God made a mistake, or that He did not quite know what He was doing. This type of attack manifests itself by men and women dressing and acting like the opposite sex or even claiming, despite their genetic makeup, to be the opposite gender of what they were born as.

There is, of course, a psychological term for this: Gender Dysphoria. Gender Dysphoria, since 2013, has been defined by the American Psychiatric Association (APA)'s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, as a "condition in which a person has marked incongruence between the expressed or experienced gender and the biological sex at birth." Prior to 2013 the APA used the term "gender identity disorder." The APA changed the term, according to a 2013 pre-publication statement regarding the upcoming 5th edition of the DSM in order "to avoid stigma and ensure clinical care for individuals who see and feel themselves to be a different gender than their assigned gender change" (https://www.psychiatry.org/File%20Library/Psychiatrists/Practice/DSM/APA_DSM-5-Gender-Dysphoria.pdf).

The APA also asserted in the same statement:

"The DSM-5 diagnosis adds a post-transition specifier for people who are living full-time as the desired gender (with or without legal sanction of the gender change). This ensures treatment access for individuals who continue to undergo hormone therapy, related surgery, or psychotherapy or counseling to support their gender transition."

And:

"When it comes to access to care, many of the treatment options for this condition include counseling, cross-sex hormones, gender reassignment surgery, and social and legal transition to the desired gender."

As you can see, the APA furthers the Devil's attack on the image of God by promoting surgical mutilation, chemical and hormonal intervention, and encouraging counsel that coddles, supports, and encourages their mental illness rather than helping people understand and accept how God made them. But then, considering that the APA's worldview is generally anything but Biblical, it is not surprising that the Devil is able to use them to further his attacks on the image of God.

Yet another attack on the image of God comes in the form of attacking men in their relationships with their wives and children. This may not seem obvious at first but becomes clear when you realize that the relationship between a husband and his wife pictures the relationship between Christ and the His church and the relationship between a father and his children pictures the relationship between God and His children.

In Ephesians 5:21-33, the Apostle Paul writes about the relationship between a husband and wife, repeatedly comparing their relationship to Christ and the church, saying in verse 32, "This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Then, in the next chapter, in verse 4, Paul writes, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Consequently, corrupting men in those relationships is an insidious and subtle way for the Devil to attack the image of God. (Same sex marriage, by the way, completely destroys this picture by twisting it into something perverse and unseemly.)

In doing so, the Devil makes God look ineffective, weak, overbearing, uncaring, demanding, mean, untrustworthy, aloof, vindictive, unfaithful, intolerant, absent, feckless, unstable, arbitrary, contrary, negligent, irresponsible, and worse! In fact, this tactic is so successful that it often hinders people from coming to Christ for salvation because their view of God is often colored by their relationship with their earthly fathers or, in the case of women, with their husbands. Even after salvation, some Christians still struggle in their relationship with God after salvation due to poor relationships with their earthly fathers.

Obviously, this article is not very politically correct or woke. Political correctness and wokeism are just the latest weapons in the Devil's arsenal with which to attack the image of God. Fight back! Be the man or woman that God created you to be and uphold the image of God to those around you!