Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Man, Part 5.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonablefaith.org.

Last time we talked about man's being in the image of God and what this means.

And I suggested that those who see some sort of a fundamental dichotomy between an ontological

or substantial image of God and a functional image of God are guilty of making a false

dichotomy. In fact, the reason that man can function in the image of God is precisely

because of certain properties that he has ontologically.

So it is the ontology that grounds or is the basis for the function.

So let's talk a bit more about man as a personal being.

We saw that God is the personal, infinite God. That is to say, on the one hand, God is

personal, actually try personal. But on the other hand, God is infinite, necessary, eternal,

omnipotent, omnipresent, perfectly good, and so forth.

Insofar as God is infinite, a great chasm separates God from the rest of creation.

Man stands on the side of the chasm that belongs to creatures. Man is himself a finite, created thing and in that respect is like animals, plants, and

inorganic substances. He has a hominid body akin to that of the great apes. But insofar as God is personal,

man is like God and unlike the rest of the created order. To say that man is in the image of God

ontologically, I think, is to say that man is in the image of God ontologically, I think, is to say that man is

personal. He is a person in the same way that God is personal, and he has the essential

attributes of personhood. But of course, since he's not infinite, he has these attributes to a finite degree.

And therefore he can function in certain ways.

He can be related to God as God's co-regent on this planet in stewarding the Earth and its resources.

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