Bearing God's Image By "Ruling"

According to Genesis 1:26-28, God gave human beings the responsibility to "rule" over the animals as well as over all the earth. "Ruling" refers to marshaling and managing with God's values as the reference point. It is one of the ways in which humanity bears the image of God.

The command to "rule" is sometimes called "The Dominion Mandate". Exercising dominion has the same meaning as "ruling".

Most theologians believe humanity is still under The Dominion Mandate. In other words, because the image of God has not been lost completely in spite of the Fall, we are still responsible to marshal and manage the earth as God's stewards with his values as our reference point.

This responsibility raises the question of how we should evaluate the worthiness of our occupations as legitimate pursuits and uses of our stewardship. The short answer is that most occupations not involving immorality or disobedience to clear biblical commands are ways of the fulfilling the command to "rule" the earth.

Henry Morris, a beloved theologian and creation scientist, in his book, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science, does an excellent job of laying out how various occupations tie back to The Dominion Mandate. He categories occupations as belonging to one of six groups overall: science, technology, the humanities, commerce, education, and one final unnamed category in which we find occupations that became necessary after the Fall (I'll give some examples below).

The category of science, Morris' scheme, relates to the "discovery of truth"; technology to the "application of truth"; the humanities to the "interpretation of truth"; commerce to the "implementation of truth"; and education to the "transmission of truth". Here are some examples of occupations in each of the categories:

science
physical sciences
earth sciences
life sciences
social sciences

technology
engineering
medicine
agriculture
architecture

humanities
theology
philosophy
music
art

commerce
business
transportation
law
finance

education
teaching
journalism
literature
homemaking


The sixth and final category contains those professions that have become necessary due to the entrance of sin and death into the world after the Fall. Morris writes: "Such disciplines as psychology, sociology, criminology, politics, jurisprudence, military science...would never have been developed if man had not sinned" (Biblical Basis of Modern Science, p. 45). Morris also includes much of the medical industry in this last category, since sickness and disease are also the result of the Fall.

As you read the above, no doubt you found your occupation somewhere in one of the six categories. The significance is that you and others in your profession, along with students who are preparing to enter your profession or one of the others--you have the potential to play a role in fulfilling The Dominion Mandate. It is one of the means by which you bear the image of God to a watching world.

More on this tomorrow...