In this episode, we are diving into theological anthropology, or the doctrine of man. What does the Bible say about us? What should we know about our nature, our purpose, and how we were made? This episode will answer all of these questions and more by looking at the creation story and exploring what it says about us. The Bible is a book about God and his relationship with his chosen people. This means it has a lot to say about theological anthropology. So let’s dive in.

S2E6 – What does the Bible say about man?: Christian Theological Anthropology – A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast

In this episode, we are diving into theological anthropology, or the doctrine of man. What does the Bible say about us? What should we know about our nature, our purpose, and how we were made? This episode will answer all of these questions and more by looking at the creation story and exploring what it says about us. The Bible is a book about God and his relationship with his chosen people. This means it has a lot to say about theological anthropology. So let's dive in.  https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/what-does-the-bible-say-about-man-christian-theological-anthropology/  Get the Doctrine and Theology Cheat Sheet Here: https://a-more-beautiful-life-collective.ck.page/bd897d28d0  Get a list of the names of God here:  https://a-more-beautiful-life-collective.ck.page/43d2d5cf6b  Get a copy of our personal statement of faith creation guide here:  https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/product/we-believe-your-personal-statement-of-faith-workbook-pdf-download/  Get “Building Our Foundations: 10 Week Study” here:  https://amorebeautifullifecollective.com/product/building-our-foundations-11-week-systematic-theology-book-bible-study/  Visit our Shop to get a copy of any of the resources mentioned in this episode:  I’m your host, Cayce Fletcher, and you can ​learn a little bit more about me here​.  While you’re here, would you consider leaving a comment, rating, or review? You can find our podcast, ​A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast​, wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen on ​Spotify​ or ​Apple Podcasts​, or watch on ​YouTube​.  Subscribe to the blog for access to our latest content and some freebies.  I love creating and sharing resources with you. You can find all of our resources at ​A More Beautiful Life Collective Shop​. Keep creating a life you love, and cultivating your heart for God. 

1. S2E6 – What does the Bible say about man?: Christian Theological Anthropology 48:43
2. S2E5 – Creating 12 Life Questions to Declutter Your Mind 41:07
3. S2E4 – Angelology: Types and Characteristics of Angels 51:28
4. S2E3 – How to Set Goals When You are Feeling Burnt Out 42:36
5. S2E2 – What is Bibliology?: Your Home Base for Studying Theology 40:28

Hey everyone, and welcome to Season 2 Episode 6 of A More Beautiful Life Collective Podcast. Today, on the podcast, we are talking about our 4th core Christian doctrine as we study Systematic Theology. So far, we’ve covered the doctrines of God, the Bible, and Angels. Today, we are going to be considering the doctrine of Man or theological anthropology.

Don’t forget to check out the workbook, Building Our Foundations, which you can find in the shop. This workbook will take you deeper into the topics we talk about on the podcast. It will also help you to create your own personal statement of faith. 

Theological Anthropology focuses on questions of humanity. What does it mean to be human? What is our nature? Why do we act the way that we do? What are we here for? 

In many ways, theological anthropology is the focus of most of the sciences, philosophical schools, and the abundance of self-help books. Humans desperately want to know the answers to these questions. Who am I? 

For millennia, we’ve tried to answer these questions using a wide variety of methods. From Plato’s dialogues to Freud’s psychoanalysis to Modern Positive Psychology, we see humans fumbling around, trying to sort out their thoughts about these topics. 

As we create our personal statement of faith, we need to have a firm grasp of what the Bible says in response to these questions. Modern secular humanism has a lot to say about mankind and our nature. But, does the Bible agree with humanist thought? 

As we talked about in our episode on Bibliology, the Bible is the basis for everything that we should believe about doctrine and theology. This means that when we attempt to answer the questions surrounding humanity, we have to do so by looking at what the Bible says. Then, we pull our beliefs, identity, and values from the doctrine that we learn. 

The Bible clearly states what the origin of man is, his nature, and his purpose. It’s up to us to choose to believe this and act accordingly. We have to choose to believe the Bible when it comes to theological anthropology.

This is probably the most controversial of all the doctrines. As we look at the origin and nature of man, we have to ask ourselves what the basis of our beliefs is. Who are you choosing to listen to? What belief symptoms will be the basis for your theological anthropology? 

You have to choose to have a Christian theological anthropology. 

Theological Anthropology based on the Creation Story

When we want to understand something, it is so helpful to look at the root of that thing. When we know the history behind something – where that thing came from, we understand why it acts the way it does.

We can look at our origin story by flipping to the first few pages of our Bible. The Bible begins with the origin of the world and man. 

Genesis 1 describes the creation story which culminates in the following verses:

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God, he created them; male and female, he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

As we read through chapters 1-3, we learn how the world was made, man’s place in the world, what he was created for, why marriage exists, and how the world ended up so broken. 

Importantly, if we believe that the Bible is true and inerrant (see our episode on Bibliology), we are choosing to believe what the Bible says about our creation story. 

A crucial point: In the beginning, things were very good. Before sin entered the picture, the way God made the world was pleasing to him. This means that the creation order is something that we should emulate. If God created something in a specific way, he did it for a specific purpose. The closer we get to that Edenic state, the better for us. 

In our episode on creating our ideal schedule, we considered how our days should align with the day as created by God. We work during the bright sun of midday; we rest in the dark nights. We have a rhythm that matches the weekly pace set forth by God: 6 days of work, and 1 day of rest. By looking at creation, we can begin to understand how humans were hard-wired to live. 

The modern world does not view humanity in this way. Humans evolved by chance over hundreds of thousands of years from a common ancestor of primates. We were uncivilized hunter-gatherers whose bodies were picked and chosen as random survival assets. When we view humanity in this way, we have one of two temptations: (1) We may desire to go ‘back in time’ to when we were closest to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. This can be seen in the Paleo diet (where bread, dairy, and some vegetables are bad) and books like Hunt Gather Parent. This is a similar argument to what I mentioned before, except the origin story we are looking to for answers is strikingly different. (2) The second option is to view our origins with contempt. We’ve evolved past the evolutionary needs of the past, so we can give up their constraints for the sake of our health and well-being. 

Both of these options miss out on the goodness that comes from looking at the true origin story of humanity. When we look at our origins, we can draw so much truth, goodness, and beauty. When our lives begin to look more like that Edenic state, we are also looking much more like what our future state will be like in the Kingdom.

Our understanding of theological anthropology is based on the creation story because the creation story is the best to discover how mankind is created to be.  

5 Theological Anthropology Lessons from the Creation Story

#1 – We were created by God. 

The first lesson we have to learn about theological anthropology is that we were created by the Creator.

God designed us. He made us. In fact, Psalm 139 says, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” He didn’t just create mankind in the beginning. He continues to create each one of us uniquely and with purpose. He made us by design. 

Science repeatedly proves that the design of creation is beautifully intricate. From the DNA that makes up all of us, to the way that our food gives us the nourishment we need, to the way that the Sun resets our natural rhythms, we are made purposefully. Each part of us has a purpose – some of which we are still researching and learning about today. 

#2 – We were created in the image of God. 

The second theological anthropology lesson is that God created us in his image and likeness. What does it mean that we are made in the image of God, the Imago Dei? Some commentators suggest this refers to the immaterial part of humanity. We are made to have dominion over the world like God has dominion over everything. We are made with a conscience. We can make choices through reason. After the fall of man, the image-bearer nature of man was marred. As John Piper says, “We are created in the image of God, and the fall of human beings into sin in Genesis 3 did not destroy it, but defaced it.” 

One of the primary purposes of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to help us to bear the image of God more fully and completely. Ephesians 4:24 shows us putting on the new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” We are getting back to that Edenic state when we choose to submit ourselves to Christ and the work of the Spirit. 

The implications of this theological anthropology lesson – of being made in the image of God – are many. Because we are image-bearers, we should not kill fellow image-bearers. Murder, whether pre- or post-birth, goes against this core fact of our nature. More than that, we treat each other with honor. We all bear the image of God so we treat each other accordingly. No wonder love is such a central theme of scripture. When we love one another, we give respect and honor to those who image God.

#3 – We have a common purpose: To rule over the Earth, fill the Earth, and subdue it. 

One of the central questions that has bothered man is ‘What are we here for?’ Christian theological anthropology has a very clear answer to our purpose. We are here to steward the Earth.

One of my favorite Michael Jackson songs is “Earth Song,” and even if you’re not a MJ fan, the music video is worth the watch. The video shows the decimation of rainforests, elephants with their tusk stripped and left to die, and war-torn neighborhoods. The emotion in the song is palpable: How could humans cause so much pain and suffering? The ending of the video shows an almost end-time prophecy fulfillment, as what was torn apart by man was put back together again. 

This video demonstrates the fraught nature of man’s purpose on Earth. (1) Our primary purpose was to rule over the Earth and subdue it. (2) But, today we know of all the destruction of the last century and a half. Subduing the Earth became raping and pillaging the Earth. Entire animal species were killed to extinction (like what almost happened to the American Bison after 15-20,000 were killed for sport each year). Predator populations were driven way down which led to entire ecosystems being destroyed. There’s even an Eastern and Western Garbage Patch floating in the currents of the Pacific Ocean. 

Is this what it means to subdue the Earth? Well, no. We have to frame the Biblical understanding of what our purpose is in the context of what life was like before really the 18th and 19th centuries. If you’ve ever had land you are responsible for, you know the constant battle of maintaining it. Weeds and thorns are always growing up. Pests are always getting in. Limbs fall and block paths. Trees get blown over. Chaos is always creeping ever closer. 

The only way to fight against this chaos – this entropy – is to be ever-vigilant. You have to tend to your fields and paths, clearing away brush, chopping down thorns, and occasionally having a bonfire to burn all the debris you’ve collected. 

This is true even if you don’t live in a wooded forest. Weeding is what takes the most time when you are gardening. If you don’t weed, chaos will take over your garden plants and choke out fruitfulness. Pruning is necessary for your grape vines to bear the most fruit. If you leave vines year after year without pruning, they will begin to bear less and less fruit. Not to mention you’ll have a jungle on your hands. 

Even if you have animals, a farmer knows you have to keep watch over your flock. This means moving them from pasture to pasture and being vigilant about diseases. It also means that you have to keep a close watch for animals that cause chaos. Those might be the animals sent first to your freezer. 

Most of us live a backward life when it comes to the Earth. We feel sorry for what has happened to the Earth. We would never want to kill a chicken ourselves because it seems too brutal and violent. We like to live pleasant air-conditioned lives in our comfortable houses. Meanwhile, we buy our chicken from a supply chain that is anything but humane and causes a significant amount of damage to the environment through the various processes that we take to fill our homes with all those nice things. 

It’s like we feel like we get a pass from what’s happening behind the scenes because we don’t get our own hands dirty. 

What is our purpose when it comes to the creation story? We fight against chaos in the world turning the brambles into (organic) gardens. We care for the animals around us with humanity and keeping in mind the circle of life. 

We don’t rape and pillage the Earth. But, we recognize that God gave us the Earth, the plants, and the animals, for us to rule over (and eat!). 

Genesis 2:15 describes this purpose succinctly, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” We work the Earth, growing good things, while taking care of it so that it can continue to produce. In short, we are stewards of the Earth. 

Maybe, we would all do better if we got out into nature a bit more to get back to our roots. Creation often inspires worship for the Biblical writers. And, it gives us a whole host of benefits too. 

#4 – Man, Made as Male and Female

The lessons do not stop there. The next theological anthropology lesson is that we were made in one of two ways: Male or Female. And, that the perfect pairing is when a male and female come together in marriage.

Genesis 1:27 describes how God created us male and female. You can get a further picture of this story in Genesis 2: 

 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

As we read the creation story, we get a back story of the loneliness that Adam felt before Eve was created. One of Adam’s first work assignments was to name all of the animals. This he did, but he didn’t find any helper for him. The first thing that was not good was that Adam was alone without a helper. 

The perfect helper was a woman, the being created from Adam’s own body. In a podcast of Therapy and Theology, Joel Muddamalle describes the specific role that woman has a helper of man. Often this is seen as something that is less than, like a servant. But, this doesn’t truly capture the full picture. The same word for helper used for woman in Genesis 2 is a word that is used to describe God’s role for Israel in other places in the Bible. 

The rib that fashioned Eve gives a picture of a load-bearing, stabilizing wall. Since it is a piece removed from Adam, a man without a woman is an unstable force. The converse is also true: Woman needs the stabilizing force of man. We are not complete without each other. This is why man and woman become one flesh. We are the perfect pair, meant to be together since the dawn of time. This is God’s design for marriage. 

#5 – Man was created out of a combination of dirt and breath of life

What are we made from? The last theological anthropology lesson tells us we were made from a combination of dust and God’s breath of life.

Genesis 1 describes man’s place in creation, but Genesis 2 describes how man was fashioned. We were created out of ‘the dust of the ground.’ This statement alone should be enough to keep us humble. Genesis 3:19 goes on to say, “From dust you are and to dust you shall return.” It is just a part of the circle of life that we return to the very ground that we came from. There is a fleetingness to life on Earth that we have to recognize – something that God and the angels don’t share.  

At the same time, what gives us life is the breath of life that comes from God. Without this breath, we are nothing but dust. This is true now: Without the holy spirit, we are still nothing but dust. An abundant life comes through God. 

What about sin? 

You don’t have a clear picture of theological anthropology if you don’t read Genesis 3. But, this episode is already getting a little long. This just demonstrates again that the Bible is about God and his relationship with his chosen human people. There is so much more that we could say about theological anthropology because the focus of the Bible is who we are as humans who are in Christ. So far, we’ve really only covered the first two chapters of the Bible, but we could continue to draw conclusions and flesh out our understanding of theological anthropology from the rest of the Bible. That would be a podcast that would last for a while! 

In the next episode of this series (in two weeks), we are going to focus on Hamartiology, which is the theological doctrine of sin. In that episode, we will talk about how sin entered the world and how sin affects us now. For right now, I’ll just leave you with this passage from Romans 3: 

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11     there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16     ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.” 18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We are all under the power of sin. This means we have all fallen short. None of us can be truly good without God – a striking difference from humanist philosophy.  Theological anthropology tells us that we are sinful without Christ.

Does man have a soul? 

The last question we have to answer to understand theological anthropology is what is man’s nature. We know that we were made from dust and the breath of life. We know that humans all die (and are mortal). We know that we have a heart, soul, mind, and body. But, what is the nature of our soul?

Part of being made in the image of God means that we are made different from the animals. Another crucial distinction is the fact that we are made with a soul. But, what is this soul? What is the nature of the soul? What even is a soul? 

As I mentioned in the last episode, some popular Greek ideas were infused into Christianity during its early days. One of the most popular Greek philosophers – Plato – lent several ideas to what we know now as mainstream Christianity. 

Plato stated, “Man differentiates from animals in three ways: the soul, which is immortal; the desire for and acquisition of knowledge; and the tendency of Man to become social and political.”

According to Plato, the fact that man has an immortal soul is one of the key reasons why we are different from animals. But, is the immortal soul a Biblical idea? 

Ecclesiastes 3:20-21 says, “20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” 

Sometimes, the soul is just a reference to people (see Exodus 31:14; Proverbs 11:30). Sometimes, the soul is differentiated from the mind, body, heart, and strength (see Deuteronomy 26:16; 30:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:23). We do know that Jesus is the great shepherd of souls (1 Peter 2:25). 

According to the Bible, the human soul is: 

• created by God (Jeremiah 38:16).
• can be strong or unsteady (2 Peter 2:14)
• can be lost or saved (James 1:21; Ezekiel 18:4, James 5:20)
• needs atonement (Leviticus 17:11)
• is purified and protected by the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:22)

Based on these verses, it seems as though the soul is the spiritual part of a person. Is the soul immortal? In Adventist groups, the answer is no. The body and breath of life combine to make a soul which sleeps once the body dies (see John 11:11, 1 Thess. 4:13, & 1 Cor. 15:51). Other mainline groups say that the soul is immortal and cite verses like 2 Cor. 5:1-9 and Phil 1:21-24. 

Look at the difference in these verses: 

1 Corinthians 15 – 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

1 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?

    Where, O death, is your sting?”

2 Corinthians 5 – 5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

We will get more into what happens when we die and what will happen in the last days in our last episode of this series on Eschatology. For now, I leave you with a question rather than a statement on this topic: What do you believe souls are, and are they immortal? Fleshing out your understanding of this will clarify what you believe about Eschatology. 

Regardless our main focus should be verses like this: Matthew 10:38 says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We want to be those who are living in the resurrected kingdom body someday regardless of what that looks like. 

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Our understanding of theological anthropology should help us to stand stronger in the faith.

My Personal Statement of Faith: Theological Anthropology

Man was made in the image of God from the dust of the ground and God’s breath of life. We were made to rule over the world, subduing it and filling it. We were also made specifically male and female, and the best pairing is that which follows the creation pattern. We are also sinful beings, and only through the work of Christ, can we be put back to the original Edenic version of ourselves. 

What do you think? Questions about Theological Anthropology

1. What does being made in the image of God mean? How does that affect how we treat our fellow human beings? 
2. How should we steward the Earth? What is our purpose as man? 
3. How is woman the perfect helpmate for man? Why is marriage so important? 
4. What is a soul? Do humans have an immortal soul? 

Remember to check out our workbook, Building Our Foundations, on the shop to help you dive deeper into what you believe and create your own Personal Statement of Faith. 

Until next time, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.