Finding Purpose

This past spring one of my junior-year courses was on church doctrine, and to be honest, I'm glad it's over.  I had really looked forward to it before I started it, but it soon became clear that it was just going to be a quagmire of contending theological perspectives-- one claiming superiority over another-- and that gets tedious to keep chewing after a while.  There were a few things taught in my textbook that I took issue with, and there were several things taught that I didn't necessarily agree with or felt that they could have been presented in a more comprehensive, non-biased manner.  After all, if you're going to write a book on theology, it's best to be humble about it, especially when there are various legitimate perspectives that can be taken into consideration. 

One of the things taught in my textbook that I took issue with was in the chapter about "Theology of the Edenic Era."  It's a chapter that covers what we are taught about God and ourselves in the first couple of chapters of Genesis during humanity's brief time in the Garden of Eden.  My textbook teaches that "God's purpose in creating man is stated in Genesis 1:26."  With that part, I fully agree.  But then the textbook goes on to say that man's purpose is to rule over God's creation.  With that part, I do not agree.  The textbook reiterates, "God's purpose for man from the very beginning was that man was destined to rule over creation."  This is a very human-centric teaching, focused on a desire to have authority and a lust to exercise that authority.  And it's also wrong.

My textbook is correct that the purpose of mankind is stated at Genesis 1:26, but the purpose of humanity is not to rule over God's creation, our purpose is to know God and reflect His image.  Genesis 1:26 begins, "God said, 'Let Us make mankind in Our image, in Our likeness'..."  That is our purpose.  Our purpose is to reflect God's image and likeness, and to do that we must know Him by being in fellowship with Him.  Thus, the wholeness of our purpose is to know God and to be in relationship with Him so we can faithfully reflect His image.  In the Genesis account, after God created us for the purpose of fellowship and reflection, He gave us our job.  Which is why Genesis 1:26 continues, "...and let them rule..."  Our job is to have dominion over creation. There is a difference between a person's purpose and their job.  My friend is a teacher-- that is her job.  But her purpose as a human being is to bear the image of God.  She bears the image of God (purpose) while she teaches (job).  When we wrongly teach that the purpose of mankind is to rule and reign, it not only appeals to our fleshly proclivities, but it also puts the focus on us-- our desires, our rights, our ambitions, our understanding of ourselves.  When we rightly teach that the purpose of mankind is to know God so that we may accurately reflect His image, it appeals to our spirit and rightly puts the focus on God-- His desires, His will, His purposes and His understanding.

My textbook not only teaches a gross error about the purpose of humanity to countless seminary students, but to anyone who uses it as an authoritative source for correct doctrine.  I consider it a gross error because it perverts the very foundation of our understanding of ourselves.  Our understanding of ourselves should be based on our understanding of God and what He is like, only then can we accurately reflect His image.  When our understanding of purpose is in error, it affects everything else, including our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.  I already see how such a teaching has caused exponential damage in the church and our understanding of how we are to serve in the church and be in relationship with each other.  By putting the focus on mankind and ruling and reigning, the church has inadvertently made authority an idol.  The focus in the church is the authority of man and who is over whom, rather than God, Who is over all.  More time is spent defending the theology of hierarchy in the church, rather than laying any perceived authority at the feet of Christ and joining hands in humility with other believers.  Jesus' high priestly prayer the night before His death wasn't about the preservation of vertical authority, it was about the preservation of horizontal unity.

Then God said, "Let Us make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it." So God created mankind in His own image; in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Gen 1:26-2)

Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one-- I in them and You in Me-- that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me. (John 17:20-23)

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom 8:29)

And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and those exercising authority over them are called benefactors. But you shall not be like them. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is not the one who reclines? But I am among you as the one who serves." (Luke 22:25-27)