Note: Read previous entries on “The Coming of the Kingdom” and “The Image of God” prior to this article.

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“It seemed much more common for ANE kings to place images of Gods”
Well, let me see if I can explain this clearly and succintly.  I don’t differentiate much between kings and gods simply because so frequently in the ANE the king was considered divine.  At the very least, the king was often viewed uniquely as the image of the god they served and he ruled on behalf of that king.  The Genesis account however stands in stark contrast to the view of the rest of ANE by describing all humanity as images of God, not just the king.

“I think the image of God has more to do with preparing us for the service of subduing the earth and multiplying than being objects of identification.”
I think you are correct, but need to take it further.  Being the image of God does not merely prepare us to multiple and have dominion.  Rather, we do those two things BECAUSE we are the images of God.  As I stated previously, where the image is, the king rules.  So, to expand the kingdom of God, we must expand the presence of God’s image.  To expand the image of God, we multiply and have dominion.  They are the means to the end of expanding the kingdom of God.  There are certainly a lot of implications in that, but that is the point – that we, as God’s images, go before him to beautify and prepare the whole earth for his arrival.

“over an earth that He already is sovereign over and was without sin”
Yes and no.  He is already sovereign, but He is not yet the unopposed ruler over all.  Until that day, the battle marches on.

Comments
From patzvey_YHVH
I agree, but just as a clarification on the last statement you responded to, Adam and Eve were image bearers before a battle had begun. Thus the immediate purpose was not to ‘claim’ what was already God’s, but to act within His character. Joining in the battle, expanding the kingdom, would be a secondary purpose. The ‘god of this world’ (satan) was not a god until someone began to worship him.

From RTSGuy (Steve)
Except that, unless you go with a highly unusual and speculative timeline, Satan did have followers prior to Adam and Eve (albeit non-human followers). The war between God in heaven and the rebel angel predates humanity’s fall in the Garden. Though no human worshippers of Satan yet, he was already in battle against the Lord on high.

From patzvey_YHVH
I suppose that is true, although extending dominion on earth through human vessels doesn’t make much sense to me when the conflict is in the heavens. In any case, this is really just nitpicking, and even if my nitpick is correct, the expansion of a kingdom (in the general sense) still occurs immediately out of the garden.

From RTSGuy (Steve)
“I suppose that is true, although extending dominion on earth through human vessels doesn’t make much sense to me when the conflict is in the heavens.”
Sort of. The conflict very much in on earth too. Which is the reason for Christ’s statement, “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What is his kingdom like in heaven? He is the unopposed ruler of all. That is not yet true on earth and that is what we are fighting for and we are laboring to bring about (though I hope it goes without saying that it is God himself who brings this about, not us).

“the expansion of a kingdom (in the general sense) still occurs immediately out of the garden.”
Which is precisely why we need to be careful not to develop a theology that says that something completely new started with Christ. Rather, all of redemptive history had been building toward its climax in Christ. Christ’s coming inaugerated the eschaton by perfectly fulfilling the requirements of the OT covenants and will one day return to consummate history forever as his kingdom will never end.

From patzvey_YHVH
To lend a little credence to your King/Idol analogy (although I still don’t like it in the way you presented it), Genesis 9:6, where modern capital punishment principles first are clearly dictated, gives the reason that man is in God’s image. It seems by that statement that God was affirming that likeness-to-himself attribute of the image of God and the subsequent results because of that. If that actually enforces an idea of an expansion of God’s kingdom by the spread of His image, I don’t know. The only direct/indirect conclusion I get from that passage is that the image of God grants innates rights to humans because they reflect the creator.

The only other thing that I am wary of, and I don’t believe you have made it clear, is if you are proposing ‘the kingdom of God’ to be an all-encompassing theme of Scripture, or just one of the themes that run through it. I do not agree that ‘the kingdom of God’ is the theme in Scripture that ties everything together.

From RTSGuy (Steve)
Again, I would highly recommend you to get and ready “Designed For Dignity” which provides Richard Pratt’s full treatise on man as the image of God. It’s an easy read, but very good.

As for your question about “the kingdom of God” as an all-encompassing theme of Scripture, yes and no. No because I think we need to be careful to say that anything is the single all-encompassing theme of Scripture. It may be, but I think we need to be careful of saying that. It is, if nothing else, very prideful to say that we have figured out definitively all that Scripture is about. However, at the very least, it is a VERY major theme. While themes such as the covenants, sacrifice and exile are themes that run throughout the whole of Scripture, “the kingdom of God” just might be the theme that binds them all together into a whole. So, all that to say, I would be careful to suggest it is the all-encompassing theme of Scripture, but it just might be.

Note: Please read the article on “The Coming of the Kingdom” prior to this one…

“From the beginning of Genesis where God commands humanity to spread his kingdom” — are you referring to Genesis 1:27-29 with the image of God and the command to spread and subdue the earth? (just a clarification question)
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Yes, I am referring to the dual responsibility to multiple and have dominion over. For a more complete treatment of the subject, I highly recommend “Designed For Dignity” by Richard Pratt, but here is a short look at the subject.

Throughout the ANE (Ancient Near East), a king or god would command people to put images of himself throughout his kingdom as a symbol of his rule over that land. Where an image of the king was present, the king ruled. Well, YHWH, the Creator God, created humanity as his images (Gen 1:27) and then told them to multiple and rule (1:28). As the people spread throughout the land, the image of God was spread throughout. Where the image of the King is present, the King rules and reigns.

Obviously, sin dramatically distorted those images. Instead of spreading the image of God throughout the world, in sin, we choose to spread our own image as if we were the king. However, God would not abandon his plan of spreading his kingdom by means of his images, so he adopted a specific people (Israel) to rule in a specific land (the Promised Land).

The Promised Land, however, was not the end but the beginning. God still required his chosen people (Israel) to multiple and divide, but they saw the Promised Land as the end of the matter. Rather, it is Omaha Beach. That is, in WW2, it was at Omaha Beach that the allied forced gained their foothold on European soil that would eventually lead to their defeat of Hitler and reclaiming of all of Europe. Palestine was not meant to be the end for Israel, but rather the starting point for them to recommence their task of multiplying and having dominion over all the earth to show that the Creator God was King.

Israel failed time and again by not only failing to spread the image of God throughout the world, but even more they gave up the Promised Land as the foothold for the image of God on earth. And so, “in the fullness of time, God sent forth a Son”. Jesus came as a second Adam to fulfill humanity’s created purpose – that is, to perfectly spread the image of God (Col 1:15) throughout the world. He thus commissioned his disciples to go to from “Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). His church was to again take up that task of spreading his kingdom throughout the world. And so he has commissioned us as believers to be his ambassadors (2 Cor 5:20) – that is, we are to go before him to offer terms of surrender to the people of the earth. We are to offer them the opportunity to surrender to the King. And thus we succeed in spreading God’s image throughout the land.

Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not an inch in all the earth that does not belong to King Jesus”. Well, that is true and not yet fully true. As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the task of spreading the image of God to all the ends of the earth to lay claim to the entire earth as God’s kingdom. For where God’s images are, there He is King. And one day Christ will return and on that day he will reign forevermore as King not only of the Promised Land, but of every inch of the earth.

Comments
From patzvey_YHVH
Thanks for the clarification.

While I agree with you ultimately, do you have a reference for your analogy of ANE images and kings? At the moment I’m having a hard time remembering any specific reference to that in my reading, or even examples. It seemed much more common for ANE kings to place images of Gods, although this practice I remember most from the time of Israel to the time of the Romans.

I think the image of God has more to do with preparing us for the service of subduing the earth and multiplying than being objects of identification. It is certain that He has called us to be like Him, but God has no reason to spread His image (signifying His rule) over an earth that He already is sovereign over and was without sin.

This is part of a paper I was writing (the rest of the paper wouldn’t make sense as it was directly related to 2 books for one of my classes). I’ve been studying the kingdom of God a lot recently, and these are some of things that have been running through my mind…

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Jesus, in modeling prayer for us, said, “Your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10). From the beginning of Genesis where God commands humanity to spread his kingdom throughout the world to John’s Revelation where Christ will return to reign forevermore, the kingdom of God penetrates deep into the heart of Scripture.

The theme of the kingdom of God is especially evident in Luke’s gospel where the phrase “kingdom of God” occurs 32 times. In one particular instance therein, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a great banquet (Lk 14:15-24). In that parable, Jesus describes a master who commissions his servant to go to the “poor and the crippled and the blind and the lame” and bring them to his great banquet. The servant was given the incredible privilege and responsibility of inviting others to come to the banquet of the king. So often, in our tunnel vision, Christians often see the Great Commission as simply “getting’ people saved”. Rather, the heart of the Great Commission is inviting people to come serve the king and then teaching them how to do so. What a big picture of the role with which we, as God’s servants, have been commissioned!

And yet, instead of us, as the images of God, spreading God’s likeness throughout the world, the case more frequently than not is for the image of God to be blurred so as to become indistinguishable from the rest of humanity. Instead of yearning for earth to be like heaven where God’s reign as king is unopposed and without end, we compromise so much that the people around us don’t even know that we are citizens of the kingdom.

Comments
From patzvey_YHVH
“From the beginning of Genesis where God commands humanity to spread his kingdom” — are you referring to Genesis 1:27-29 with the image of God and the command to spread and subdue the earth? (just a clarification question)

I’ve been considering writing a few things on the image of God lately. It is disheartening sometimes how confused people can be about the responsibility we have as humans, and the abilities we have been given.