Biblical Psychology of Man
Kenneth Gary
Liberty University

The words being created in the image of God cause one to look at himself/herself as an image of God. What does image look like? First, we are spiritual beings, when God created the first man, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), making man a living soul and giving to him spiritual life. Man is uniquely made by virtue of the fact of creation according to a pattern designed by God. God equipped man with an intellectual ability which was and is far superior to that of any animal. Thus man was given a mind capable of hearing and understanding God's communication with him, emotions capable of responding to God in love and devotion, and a will which enabled him to choose whether or not to obey God. Humanistic psychology makes the assumption that a personal God is a myth and that we are simply products of spontaneous generation and billions of years of evolution. If man in his origin is a product of a long evolutionary past, man is then best understood in terms of the animal, the savage, and the child. From the Biblical perspective, man was created as a mature individual and did not evolve over time. Some humanistic psychologists hold that man is simply someone who has evolved from primitivism. Their aim against maturity is what they use to justify their position. If man is constantly led to believe that they evolve from evolution rather that he was created in Adam into maturity and responsibility and that his revolt is against maturity and responsibility, his self-justification is shattered. It has become the norm with humanistic psychologist for persons who come to them seeking counselling not to discuss, their problem, but they choose to discuss their childhood, their parents, and their environment in order to "explain" their present "situation", that is, their failure. The fact of a mature creation is one of the basic and most important facts of a Biblical psychology. In Genesis 1: 26 in the account of the creation of man God gives man the authority over the animal world. I believe this speaks to the connection between man and God. “…let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26. This relationship towards animals established the normative to man’s healthy psychology. Throughout the ages man has tamed the wild animals. They have learned to use some as protectors, servants and even as pets. Animals just like mankind have a function to bring the earth under dominion. Both man and the animal kingdom has a responsibility to God.
As psychologist, there is a great opportunity to understand the psyche of man, to connect that understanding to his origin. Too often the two are separate and the uniqueness is missed. Just as God has created man in His images he gave them a responsibility to develop the relationship.
Once we have come into the full realization of what it really means to be created in the image of such an awesome God. We are faced with greatness of our possibilities and the tragedy of the potential we overlooked. To realize our full potential in our humanity is to reflect the very image of God, His creativeness and spirituality. Furthermore, we all humans possess these capacities just like God, and each of us has the potential to express them distinctively, because God's image has been imprinted uniquely on each of us. What I find amazing is that God in His infinite creativity He did not create no two like human beings; you are the only you there has ever been or ever will be.
References:
Etzel, G., & Gutierrez, B. (2012). Praxis beyond theory. Virgina beach, VA: Academx publishing services.
Towns, Elmer. Core Christianity. Chattanoga: AMG, 2007. Print.
Creationism and Psychology. (2015). Retrieved on September 16, 2015, from http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/creationism-and-psychology-2/.