Topic

The image of God

The biblical claim that human beings are made in God’s image and likeness, and so represent and reflect him in creation in a way no other earthly creature does.

Also called: imago dei, image bearer, image bearers, made in gods image, likeness of god

Genesis states that God made humanity in his own image, and the New Testament treats that status as the ground of human dignity. The question this site has to answer is a narrower one: does bearing the image entail that a human being cannot cease to exist?

Scripture never defines the image as inherent immortality. Human beings are not omniscient, omnipresent or omnipotent, and no one argues that the image confers those. The same Scriptures that describe the image also describe human life as grass, as breath, and as a mist that appears for a little while.

Two arguments on this site turn on the distinction. RB2 asks whether the image makes the soul indestructible, and answers that immortality is attributed to God and given through Christ rather than possessed by nature. S31 takes the pastoral form of the objection, that God would not destroy the crown of his creation, and grants the premise while denying that the conclusion follows.

What this is not

Terms in this dispute are routinely collapsed into one another. These distinctions are what keep the argument honest.

The image of God is not the same as immortality. Scripture attributes immortality to God alone and describes it as a gift given through Christ.
Bearing the image is not the same as being righteous. The image remains in fallen human beings who are nonetheless described as lost in sin.
Representing God is not the same as sharing his incommunicable attributes, such as omniscience or omnipresence.

Principal passages

Genesis 1:26-27Listed in the Scripture index
1 Corinthians 11:7Listed in the Scripture index
Romans 3:23Listed in the Scripture index
2 Corinthians 3:18Listed in the Scripture index
Colossians 1:15Listed in the Scripture index

Where this is argued in the case

RB2 Does the Image of God Make Humans Immortal?Why the image of God does not entail an indestructible soul, and where Scripture locates immortality instead.
S31 Would God Destroy His Image-Bearers?The good instinct behind the objection, taken seriously, and why it does not lead where the objection supposes.
S22 The Biblical Case for Conditional ImmortalityThe synthesis: 1 Corinthians 15 read through, and the short chain of reasoning from perishable bodies to the fate of the soul.

S31 Would God Destroy His Image-Bearers?The good instinct behind the objection, taken seriously, and why it does not lead where the objection supposes.

Sources for this topic

Joseph Dear. The Bible Teaches Annihilationism. 1st edition, PDF version. 2016. approximately 590 pages View original of The Bible Teaches Annihilationism (opens in a new tab) Details

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