What the Bible says about Spirit in Man as Receptacle of Intelligence
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Genesis 2:7 From our childhood, we carry an image of God kneeling over the created but inert Adam. He is lifeless until God performs the first mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and then Adam springs to life! His eyelids flutter, he takes a deep breath, and then he bends from his waist and sits up. Nowhere does the Bible show God breathing life into any animal that He created. When He created them, they started breathing. Why should man be any different? He is different because he is in the likeness of God. He did something to man that actually made man into the image of God. While he was lying there on the ground, he was still yet a creature. But when God knelt down and breathed into him, the infusion of the spirit in man occurred. That is what made man in the image of God! That is what gave man the power to have dominion. It gave man the intellect he needed to rule what God has created. Man has creaturely life, but with the infusion of the spirit in man, he is more—a living being with intelligence. Man was given the power to govern his actions, not by instinct, but by memory, by conceptualization and thinking spatially. A man can appreciate beauty, communicate verbally, or write. A human being has feelings that are—in the expression of their subtly and power—far above an animal in terms of love or hate, and above all of the emotions that fall in between. We can create and destroy. The power is in a man to do these things. The power is in the spirit when combined with the brain, but it has to be developed. God shows very clearly that, as we are, we are nothing more than a pale representation of what we can be. Yet, we are endowed with powers that lift us so far above the animals on earth that we can have dominion over them. Mankind is then commanded to fill the earth and subdue it. Subdue means "to tread upon," which implies "to bring into subjection." It does not mean "to destroy" or "to treat violently," but "to control and direct." In Genesis 1:26 and 28, God implies that He has conferred powers to mankind not given to animals. It is also the first indication, when combined with Genesis 2:7 and 15, that when God confers a responsibility, He also confers the powers to carry out that responsibility. John W. Ritenbaugh The Right Use of Power Related Topics: Adam and Eve | Creation of Adam and Eve | Creation of Mankind | Dominion | Dominion over Animals | Image and Likeness of God | Image of God | Intelligence | Mankind's Dominion over Animals | Responsibility | Responsibility | Spirit in Man | Spirit in Man as Receptacle of Intelligence

Genesis 11:4-6 How technologically developed the people were at this time is sketchy. The Great Pyramid of Giza, whether built before or after the Flood, is evidence of a high degree of technology. Whatever the case, God's statement that "nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them" implies the builders of Babel were at least on the verge of great technological leaps. How much can a person discover and develop in a seventy-year life span? Yet these people lived hundreds of years! Since knowledge accumulates from generation to generation, imagine how it would build in a person over 500 years! Consider what man has accomplished in the last 150 years. He has learned how to harness the power of mighty rivers by building dams to produce electricity. He has built soaring bridges across great chasms. He has drilled deeply into the earth to tap its stores of oil and gas to transport ourselves from place to place, heat our homes, and fuel our factories. Man has put satellites hundreds of miles into the heavens and placed men on the moon. We can watch the astronauts on television though they are 240,000 miles away! The list of our technological accomplishments seems endless. Technology, though, is not the answer to mankind's problems. By the time the Millennium begins, the world will have realized that knowledge of physical things cannot solve our problems, especially those of the spirit. Each new technological stride merely titillates us for a while, failing miserably to give a sense of meaning to our lives. Technology cannot rid us of competition and inordinate desire. Instead, it only seems to accelerate the plunge toward oblivion and meaninglessness. John W. Ritenbaugh Preparing to Rule! Related Topics: Babel | Babel, Tower of | Confusion of Language | Intelligence | Knowledge | Knowledge shall be Increased | Knowledge will be Increased | Knowledge, Increased | Languages, Confusion of | Pre-Flood Culture | Pre-Flood Society | Spirit in Man | Spirit in Man as Receptacle of Intelligence | Technological Advancement | Technological Leaps | Technology, Trust in | Tower of Babel

 

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