Both the earth and the creature made to rule over it were declared by God to be good—indeed very good. This Christian understanding of mankind’s original material perfection is rare among the religions. Most of the ancient religions, and modern Hinduism, consider the material world as something evil, or at the least, something to be escaped from. The philosophy behind the Hindu practice of yoga is in fact the necessity of “escaping” from the material body and blending in some ethereal, spiritual way with the Universal All, which transcends the material. How different that is from the Christian understanding that the “All” is personal, and in Him we have our origin. Further, He actually took the material form of a man, died in the material form of a man, rose again in the material form of a man, ascended to heaven in the material form of a man, will one day come back in the material form of a man, and reign forever in the material form of man as the sovereign over material human beings that He has taken into His family as children of
Both the earth and the creature made to rule over it were declared by God to be good—indeed very good. This Christian understanding of mankind’s original material perfection is rare among the religions. Most of the ancient religions, and modern Hinduism, consider the material world as something evil, or at the least, something to be escaped from. The philosophy behind the Hindu practice of yoga is in fact the necessity of “escaping” from the material body and blending in some ethereal, spiritual way with the Universal All, which transcends the material. How different that is from the Christian understanding that the “All” is personal, and in Him we have our origin. Further, He actually took the material form of a man, died in the material form of a man, rose again in the material form of a man, ascended to heaven in the material form of a man, will one day come back in the material form of a man, and reign forever in the material form of man as the sovereign over material human beings that He has taken into His family as children of