Posted on:
03/25/09:
Technology: Friend or Foe?
Then God said,
“Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestock and over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to
them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth and subdue it and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that
moves on the earth.”
– GENESIS 1:26-28
Packed in Genesis 1:26-28 is affirmation of our uniqueness as human beings made in the image of God. As this affirmation is made, our human task is given. The task is referred to in theological terms as the cultural mandate. This mandate escapes the notice of many Christians, yet it is a crucial truth that helps make sense of our lives. The mandate tells us that the Lord has given us a purpose to develop the earth further. Albert M. Wolters sums the cultural mandate, writing, “the human race will fill the earth with its own kind, and it will form the earth for its own kind. From now on the development of the created earth will be societal and cultural in nature.”(1) In other words, God has mandated that humankind develop the earth so that it is a civilized place in which to live, play, raise a family, engage in commerce, work, and the list could go on.
