Anthropology

This opening lesson defines anthropology and biblical anthropology and gives three reasons to study man: as God's creation, His handiwork, and His inheritance. After contrasting Genesis 1:26-27 with evolutionary theories, it examines the Hebrew verbs bara, asah, and yatzar, the four ways God brought humanity into being (Adam, Eve, the virgin birth, natural generation), and man's design in the council of the triune God for His glory.

Building on Genesis 1:26-27, this lesson stresses that God's image is not only stamped on man but dwells in him, grounding the sanctity of life (Genesis 9:6) and male headship. You will study man as image-bearer, a moral, rational, social 'shadow' of God, and work through the tripartite chart of body, soul, and spirit, noting that the conscience was not yet activated before the fall.

Here man is studied as a living soul formed from two gifts: a body of dust and the breath of God (Genesis 2:7). The lesson refutes the Gnostic view that the body is evil and lays out ten scriptural facts about it, from its mortality to its role as the temple of the Holy Spirit. It closes with the trichotomy-dichotomy debate and three theories of the soul's origin, favoring traducianism.

This lesson pictures man in his primitive state in Eden, surveying his knowledge (Adam's high intelligence in naming the animals and calling his wife Eve, mother of all living), his moral state of righteousness and innocence, and his social and occupational life tending the garden. It gives special attention to the five God-given instincts, self-preservation, food, procreation, acquisition, and dominion, and to man's conditional immortality.

This lesson examines the fall of man, beginning with the probation in Eden, its purpose in developing mature holiness through free choice, its character as a test of obedience rather than a moral issue, and its reasonableness. It then traces the three phases of the fall, temptation, unbelief, and disobedience, and the resulting shame, spiritual unrest, and turmoil, showing how sin severed communion with God and activated the conscience.

Continuing the fall, this lesson presents four proofs that the serpent was Satan (Revelation 12:9, 2 Corinthians 11:3, the wording of Genesis 3:1, and the promise of Genesis 3:15) and the three appeals used against Eve: food, the lust of the eyes, and wisdom. It defends a literal reading of the account, details the fourfold judgment on serpent, woman, man, and ground, and distinguishes physical, spiritual, and eternal death.

This lesson turns to man's potential in the state of grace, presenting the believer as a new man created in righteousness (Ephesians 4:24) with a new humanity restored through Christ, the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). It teaches the new divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), new resurrection life, ongoing renewal, and kingdom authority, using Israel's Jordan crossing to illustrate death to self and the real possibility of holy living.

The final lesson uses two diagrams to trace the believer's growth: salvation, assurance, security, acceptance, and total commitment in the spirit. It contrasts a life with self on the throne, breeding inferiority, insecurity, inadequacy, guilt, and worry that cascade into frustration, hostility, and even bodily illness, with a Christ-centered life. Victory comes through identification with the cross (Galatians 2:20), dethroning self so Christ becomes the center.