Billy Graham, R.L. Dabney, and Life On Mars

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Published August 15, 2023

Last week we discussed some periphery issues surrounding the Bible and extra-terrestrials. I want to expand today a little on one of those as well as to speak concerning a particular argument some evangelical Christians make for the existence of intelligent life on other planets. While not every subject we judge during this series will receive two posts, I think it important as we start out to establish a pattern of how and why we should be taking up what may seem like a frivolity.

God in His graciousness has provided both a book of nature and a book of Scripture which each in their own way declare His glory. (Ps. 19:1,7). We cannot neglect either when considering this matter. Throughout as we begin to look at things like fairies, mermaids, and other human-like creatures there are going to be questions around the commonplace presence of them in cultures both far and wide. It is not unheard of to read defenses of the Flood that posit the same argument. In other words, if something has a habit of showing up in the tales of the Sioux and the people of the Indus Valley there has to be some kind of there, there. However, before we get too far down that road, which we will hop back on at a later date, let’s get back to a portion of the discussion concerning the nature of the image of God in man and how that one doctrine eliminates the possibility of little green men from Pluto.

Defining the image of God can be a little problematic because there is a lot of nuance around what we mean by that term. To begin with we need to understand that what separates man from beast is not the form of his physical presence. Humanity is more than his constituent parts, however, he is not less than that. R.L. Dabney writes in his Lectures in Theology, “The statement that [Adam’s] body was created out of pre-existent matter, and his soul communicated to that body by God, solves a thousand inquiries, which mythology and philosophy are alike incompetent to meet.” To be human is to be body and soul. The latter being the accidens, the thing which carries with it the kernel of our uniqueness in the eyes of God.

Continue here.

See also:

• What Does God Hath To Do With Thermians? (substack.com)