Using Old Testament Theophanies to Explain the Image of God in Man

Kline noted that long before the incarnation the Son of God participated in the majesty of the divine glory. This glory was a burning, radiant thing. Kline then noted that after Christ died and rose, He ascended to the Father. Then according to Hebrews 1:3 Christ was glorified with the same glory that He had had with the Father before the world was created. Kline noted that throughout the Old Testament, Christ's pre-incarnate glorious form was seen. This pre-incarnate Son reigned in heaven on a glorious cherubim throne. When seen clearly in the Old Testament, He had a man-like body which Kline calls anthropomorphous. When Christ formed Adam in Genesis, Christ made Adam to be the image of God. Kline suggested that this image of God began first as a physical similarity with the pre-incarnate theophany.

Then the image of God idea broadened out to include things like man's dominion over the animals. Then God placed man in the Garden of Eden. Kline noted that Eden was a small model of God's heavenly dwelling place. As such Eden was man's first temple where he would meet with God. Kline noted that God reenacted creation as Christ hovered over Israel leading them through the Red Sea and onto Sinai, God's holy mountain. At Sinai God turned the mountain into a small copy of heaven burning with glory fire. Then God commanded that Moses construct the Tabernacle which served as a mobile copy of heaven itself. The Shekinah glory filled the tabernacle because it served as a copy of heaven, and Moses spoke face to face with Christ there.

Conservative authors like Borland and Kline agree that the Bible is true in everything that it says. If people in the Old Testament claimed to have seen God, then they did see God. If people did see God in a man-like form, it follows that the person seen was probably Jesus Christ. This identification is confirmed in the book of Revelation where Jesus Christ is described in terms very similar to the theophanies in Ezekiel.

I disagree with Kline's use of Old Testament theophanies to explain the nature of God in man for there is too little evidence to draw such a conclusion. There is no evidence that we're made in the image of the theophany; this is only speculation. Also, if we're in the image of the theophany, then what did we look like before the fall? Where is there any evidence in the Bible that this image of God was broadened? I believe this image of God wasn't broadened, but was from the beginning part of him having dominion over the earth. I believe that the image of God refers to man's dominion over the earth, his moral capabilities as well his freedom of choice. This image has been marred since the fall, but has not been completely taken away. Likewise, this image will not be fully restored until the time when man's sinful nature is taken away at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.