1:27Genesis 1:27

God directly created humanity, male and female, in His own image and likeness as the crowning and noblest work of six literal days.STA 129.3+4 Being made in that image means bearing His likeness in outward form and feature as well as in mind and in righteous, holy character, proving He is a real personal Being.Ms 171, 1904, par. 4+4 Humanity came forth from His hand perfect in body, mind and spirit, upright and holy with no taint of sin, made for dominion, marriage, work and communion with heaven.STA 129.3+4 Sin marred, dimmed and almost obliterated that image, forfeiting dominion and bringing degeneration, suffering and death.STBk 129.3–5+4 Christ came to restore what was lost, re-creating repentant people in the divine moral image and at last fashioning them perfect and immortal again.FE 436.1+4

God directly created humanity, male and female, in His own image and likeness, as a perfect and upright act in which the Son united with the Father.STA 129.3+4 At creation humanity was physically perfect, with personal form proving that God Himself has real personality, and stood as the last crowning work after earth with animal and vegetable life had been prepared as a fitted home, given dominion over all that the eye could behold.STA 129.3+4 This plainly sets forth the origin of the race with no mystery and no occasion for erroneous conclusions, for man was not evolved by slow degrees from lower forms, from developing germs, mollusks, quadrupeds and apes through an ascending line, but was directly made by the great Creator as a being worthy of the hand that gave him life.PP 44.3+2 Though formed from dust, this origin gives dignity as son of God, and teaching that excludes God from sovereignty degrades man and defrauds him of that dignity.PP 44.3 The Creator who made man in His image also gave the laws of His kingdom and specified in His law the day to be kept as memorial of creation, and the making of man belongs to the six-day work God finished and saw as very good, after which He rested on the seventh day, was refreshed, and blessed and sanctified it.Ms 43, 1906, par. 5–7

Man was made last, after everything else, as the crowning, highest and noblest work, made to express God's thought, reveal His glory and live for Him, formed for His glory to acknowledge Him in every word and act.Ms 183, 1901, par. 4+4 God and Christ together made man in their own image and likeness, so man bears the image of God and Christ who is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person, by whom God made the worlds, and man was given dominion over fish, fowl, all the earth and every creeping thing.Ms 236, 1902, par. 2–4 Because man was made last, no human being can claim any part in the creation of the world or of anything that has the breath of life.Ms 236, 1902, par. 2–4

Creation was the joint work of the Father speaking to the Son who was with Him from the beginning, for the plural Let us is the Father speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ.Ms 43, 1906, par. 5–7+4 Christ was present as Commander in the heavenly courts, Adam was appointed monarch under God's supervision, and man was made by the hand of Christ and placed in a garden made expressly for him in fulfillment of a decision made in the councils of heaven to make man in God's image and likeness.Ms 29, 1899, par. 1+3 The mighty wondrous work was done together by Father and Son, bringing forth the earth exceedingly beautiful, diversified with hills, mountains, plains, rivers and waters, rocks hidden beneath, plants, flowers and tall majestic trees many times larger and more beautiful than now, with pure healthful air like a noble palace at which angels rejoiced.ST Jan 9, 1879 Humankind was made by a living personal God through Jesus Christ, not by intangible influence, with moral faculties and physical powers created as a sinless transcript of Himself, endowed with holy attributes, intelligence and power.Ms 29, 1899, par. 1+3 In counsel with His Son God formed the plan to create man in His own image and place him upon probation to be tested and proved.LC1 110.1

The account excludes evolution by slow degrees from germs, mollusks, quadrupeds and apes, and this grand simple statement must not be cast away to trace descent from lower forms.PP 44.3+2 Human opportunity for research is brief and limited, vision is restricted, conclusions about events before Bible history are frequent and greatly in error, deductions are constantly revised or discarded, and scientists conflict over the earth's age by millions of years.ED 130.1–2 Changing the days to accommodate science comes from inferences erroneously drawn from observed facts and undermines and destroys the force of God's word, for the literal Mosaic record does not allow millions of years for evolution from chaos nor vast indefinite periods of thousands or millions of years.ED 128.2+1 It is inconsistent to call revealed prophecies such as Daniel and Revelation too obscure while eagerly receiving geological suppositions that contradict direct creation, accepting mere supposition about what God has not revealed while rejecting what He has revealed.PP 113.2

Creation was in six literal days about six thousand years ago as part of the first week of only seven literal days, not after long indefinite periods with rest as another indefinite period, and not after an earlier superior race.ST Mar 20, 1879+1 Much larger human bones found in earth, mountains and valleys, with much larger animals and trees, are remains of that created family as it was before the Flood when all were much larger than now living, and the Flood then made great changes upon the earth accounting for wonderful things found in it.ST Mar 20, 1879+1 The time when those large men lived can be learned only from the inspired record, not from geology alone, and just how God accomplished creating in six days has never been revealed to mortals and is as incomprehensible as His existence.ST Mar 20, 1879 To make the six days indefinite destroys the fourth commandment, which commands a week of seven literal days in commemoration of that creation.1SP 87.1 Man was created perfect in organization and beautiful in form with great endurance and far greater physical power than now, proved by withstanding six thousand years of increasing disease and crime, with more than two thousand years passing before violation of natural law was sensibly felt though those before the Flood gave themselves to unrestrained sin, and without that original strength the race would already be extinct.CTBH 7.1

The verse belongs to the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men, the authentic account of creation and of the race found alone in God's word, unsullied by human prejudice or pride, fresh from eternal truth and kept pure by God's own mind and hand through the ages.TBC1882 6.4+3 Its light shines into the far distant past where human research cannot penetrate, beholding the power that laid earth's foundation and stretched out the heavens, and alone gives the true account on which knowledge of origins depends.TBC1882 6.4+2 It is to be accepted with implicit confidence as guide of life and made the chief study in schools to carry minds higher, train heart and mind by daily supplies from eternal truth, bring converse with patriarchs and prophets, and teach what redemption cost Him who from the beginning was equal with the Father and sacrificed His life to buy back a people from everything common and earthly to stand renewed in God's image.Lt 64, 1909, par. 5+2 To cavil at it, spiritualize it and explain away its most important truths as proof of wisdom, independence, talent and learning is infidelity prevailing alarmingly not in the world merely but in the church, and to reject it wholly or in part as a large share of the professed Christian world does is to reject truth and its Author, for it stands with the fall, the atonement and the perpetuity of God's law as a very pillar of faith.GC88 582.3

Human beings were created as a new and distinct order while all heaven watched with deep and joyful interest, made in God's image with design that they should populate the earth, live in close communion with heaven receiving and assimilating power from God as the great Source, and upheld by Him live sinless lives.Ms 97, 1901, par. 1+2 The purpose to make man to inhabit the earth and reign as ruling monarch over every living thing was formed in heaven's councils in consultation of Father with Son before Satan's fall, purposing to make this world with beasts and living things and man in God's image.SG3 36.1+1 It was carried out at once after the loss of the fallen angels was felt in heaven, after earth with animal and vegetable life was prepared as his fitted home, to uphold heaven's family principles in peace under God's rule.1SP 23.1+1

Man was placed on probation to be tested for loyalty before being made eternally secure and was not made unable to disobey, for the first trial was decisive.LC1 110.1+3 Had the first pair remained obedient and endured the appointed test loyal and true, the race would eventually have been made equal to angels, immortal, with God's favor and face-to-face converse with angels, freed from continual temptation and beset no more.LC1 110.1+4 Adam was created with perfectly developed organism and harmonious faculties in perfect conformity to his Maker's will in emotions, words and actions.LC1 119.2+1

After making every provision for happiness and supplying every want God tested loyalty, and when the pair failed to bear the test Christ proposed to become a voluntary offering for man.LC1 119.2+1 Adam, the man formed in God's image whom the Creator pronounced good, was instructed by God in all wisdom pertaining to the material world including the history of creation from the Creator Himself, lived among men for hundreds of years, himself witnessed the events of nine centuries, and imparted his knowledge to descendants, giving those early generations unrivaled advantage.PP 83.1

A personal self-existing God first formed the human body perfect in arrangement but without life and without vitality, then breathed the breath of life so man became a living, breathing, intelligent soul with heart, arteries, veins, tongue, hands, feet, senses, perceptions and faculties of mind set in action under law through Christ.8T 264.1+4 Through Jesus Christ, not something intangible, God endowed man with intelligence and power, forming substance in secret and writing all members in His book when as yet there were none, with eyes seeing the imperfect substance.MH 415.1–2+2 As crowning work above all lower orders, man was thus designed to express God's thought and reveal His glory.ST May 19, 1909

God took six days to make the world though He could have spoken it into existence in one day.8MR 412.1+1 His taking six days sets an example against overwork, rush and turning night into day, showing regular hours for work and sleep should be kept, labor stopping when nature says stop, and health and strength preserved for efficient healthful work instead of strained to breakdown.Lt 7a, 1878, par. 3–7

Male and female were created by God speaking His works into existence in the natural world made ready as a reservoir of means for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure, with nothing useless in it.6MR 30.2 Tares were sown afterward by the enemy through the curse.6MR 30.2 Rational beings alone should not cause confusion in the world, but should live to God and honor Him who is all-wise and all-sufficient, and Christ came so His perfection might be revealed in those made in His image.6MR 30.2

The making of man as male and female belongs to the six-day work that God finished and saw as very good, when heaven and earth and all their host were complete.Lt 51, 1901, par. 5–7+1 That finished work is the ground for His ending work, resting on the seventh day, being refreshed, and blessing and sanctifying it because in it He had rested from all creating and making.Lt 51, 1901, par. 5–7+1 This finished work proclaims His will to all the earth, and the making of man belongs to it under laws of His kingdom with the day to be kept specified in His law as a memorial of creation.Lt 51, 1901, par. 5–7+1 That memorial is to be taught to children amid the beautiful things of nature in fields and groves, where every flower, shrub, tree, lovely sight, and harmonious sound once filled the mind with thoughts of God's love, and where though sin brought thorns, sorrow, pain and death the green fields, sunshine, clouds, dew, night stillness, starry heavens, moon, rain and light still testify to His forbearance and love.6T 358.1–359.1 In the beginning the marriage law was given when the Sabbath law was given, as His two great gifts of woman as helpmeet and the Sabbath as rest, ordaining holy wedlock to raise honored families as symbols of the heavenly family.10MR 197.1–201.5

The first week originated the week as pattern and sample for successive weeks to the close of time, consisting of seven literal days with six employed in creation and labor and the seventh as God's rest blessed and set apart for man.CE 190.1–2+1 Each day generated some new portion so that each day is a generation, the first week measured off the first cycle, and the first six days of each week are given for labor because God employed the same period, with the seventh reserved in commemoration of His rest.CE 190.1–2+1 This is the reason stated in the law spoken from Sinai, beautiful and forcible when the days are understood as literal, so making the days indefinite destroys the force of the fourth commandment which commands observance of a week of seven literal days.1SP 87.1+1 That creation week was only about six thousand years ago, not over tens of thousands of years, with men, animals, trees and remains before the Flood much larger than now and great changes brought by the Flood accounting for wonders found in the earth.1SP 87.1

The record of man as male and female is one event of that first week of seven literal days, very plain not indefinite and obscure, not seven vast indefinite periods.1SP 86.2 To say God commanded a literal week to commemorate seven indefinite periods is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom.1SP 86.2 Holding the indefinite-period view while professing to believe the record is infidelity in disguise, the worst kind of infidelity, striking directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.1SP 86.2

Man was made in primeval glory with God as source of life and knowledge.ED 250.1 The Sabbath recalls that first glory and stands as a sign of God's creative and redeeming power and purpose to re-create fallen man in His own image again.ED 250.1 God created man upon the earth after making the world and then made the Sabbath for man.1SP 261.2 The Sabbath of the fourth commandment was instituted in Eden for the man thus created, who was created holy living under the principles of the ten commandments which existed before the fall and suited a holy order of beings.1SP 261.2

God gave example of observing the seventh day which He sanctified and made holy, designing that on that day man should worship Him and engage in no secular pursuits.4T 247.3+1 Those who reverence His commandments will, after light comes on the fourth precept, obey it without questioning feasibility or convenience.4T 247.3 No one disregarding it after enlightenment can be held guiltless before God.4T 247.3

Heaven has made great efforts to restore the image in which the race was created.Ms 4a, 1898, par. 20–21 That restoration is made vain by teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, selling the Lord to be in harmony with the rebellious multitude, corrupting the way of the Lord, saying Lord, Lord while refusing His will, presenting supposed good works as if God needs reminding of duty, corrupting truth, exalting error, and selling intellect or integrity for worldly advantage.Ms 4a, 1898, par. 20–21 Keeping sacred God's memorial of creation by remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy and hearing His warnings belongs to that restoration, and neglecting it leads to being denied and shut out of the kingdom in the day of judgment.Ms 4a, 1898, par. 20–21

Creation is the work of the living God, Maker of heaven and earth as defined by the fourth precept of the Decalogue.ST Mar 20, 1879 Just how He wrought in creating man and all things He never revealed, and human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of Heaven.ST Mar 20, 1879 God has given sufficient evidence for faith if men wish to believe, leaving man without excuse, while men endeavor to explain creation from natural causes by human reasoning in opposition to plain Scripture facts and turn from plainest precepts to receive infidel fables.ST Mar 20, 1879 Satan makes it his special work to lead fallen man to rebel against God's government and to obscure God's law, with special hatred against the fourth precept because it points to the Creator, and yielding to his devices in the last days leaves the earth almost destitute of true faith.ST Mar 20, 1879

At creation humanity was physically perfect, beautiful in form and organization, with sound health, vigor and glory, and perfect in every faculty of mind and body, not in the feeble, suffering, short-lived condition now common.STA 129.3+4 Men and women were formed perfect and beautiful and filled with great vital force, with intellect unaffected by transgression, walking and talking with God, and that deplorable decay since the fall is not the work of Providence or the appointed lot of humanity.STBk 130.5+2 Continual transgression of nature's laws is continual transgression of God's law, and the first human beings possessed a glory that later generations lost through indulgence of appetite and passion.STBk 130.5+1

The race has greatly deteriorated physically, mentally and morally, dwindling in size, physical strength and length of life from the nearly thousand-year lives from Adam to the Flood to the present brief existence marked with disease, decrepitude and imbecility.STBk 129.3–5+2 Sickness, suffering and premature death are not the work of Providence but the work of man through wrong habits and abuses in violating the laws God made to govern human existence, especially since flesh eating began.STBk 130.5+2 Every successive generation degenerated as sin corrupted the world and almost obliterated the image of God in man, with Adam and Eve first falling from their high, holy and happy estate through temptation to indulge appetite, and through the same indulgence permitting appetite and passion to take the throne and bring reason and intellect into subjection.ST Aug 1, 1878+1 No death of children was recorded during the first two thousand years, illustrating the original condition from which the race has woefully deteriorated.STBk 129.3–5

Humanity came from the Creator's hand perfect and beautiful in form and so filled with vital force that corrupt appetites and passions and general violations of physical law were not sensibly felt upon the race for more than a thousand years, even more than two thousand years.FE 23.2+2 Adam at creation possessed far greater physical power than men now have, and without that greater original strength the race withstood six thousand years of ever-increasing disease and crime only because endowed with great power of endurance, or it would already have become extinct.CTBH 7.1 Signs of decay began to show in the third generation from Adam, with more rapid degeneration in successive generations after the Flood, as indulgence of appetite and lustful passion leading to excess and violence and debauchery weakened the energies and brought disease of every type upon the race.Ms 108, 1894, par. 1+1 That vital force has been greatly weakened so that infirmity and disease press more rapidly and heavily with every recent generation, with intemperate parents transmitting inflamed and corrupted blood, disease, evil inclinations, and enfeebled mind and morals to their children in repeating the fall.FE 23.2+1

Adam came forth noble in height and beautiful in symmetry, more than twice as tall as men now living, well proportioned, with perfect and beautiful features and a ruddy complexion glowing with the rich tint of health.1SP 24.2+1 Eve was created not quite as tall as Adam, her head reaching a little above his shoulders, noble, perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.1SP 24.2 Intellectually and physically he was very good in the highest sense, with an intellect unaffected by the curse, walking and talking with God, communing face to face with His Son and with holy angels as companion of the highest order of intelligences.CTBH 165.2–166.1

Adam was created in God's image as the noblest of the Creator's works, a little lower than the angels, in the perfection of manhood without taint of sin, in original purity, uprightness, wisdom and knowledge, with all organs and faculties equally developed and harmoniously balanced.LC1 134.1–135.1+2 He stood in strength before God in glorious Eden where every want was supplied, with no sin and no signs of decay, and with Eve as a holy pair in free fellowship with angels and with peaceful beasts obedient to their word.LC1 134.1–135.1+2 That original image included greater size and physical strength and higher moral worth, from which the race has since decreased and sunk lower in physical, mental and moral degeneracy.LC1 134.1–135.1+1

Adam and Eve as a holy pair placed in an Eden home of beauty and glory were charmed and delighted by the birds around them in bright, graceful plumage singing happy, cheerful music, and they united with them in harmonious songs of love, praise and adoration to the Father and His dear Son for the tokens of love surrounding them.1SP 26.3+1 They had unlimited control over every living thing, with lions and lambs playing together peacefully and harmlessly around them or sleeping at their feet, while birds of every color flew among trees and flowers with mellow music echoing in sweet accord to the praises of the Creator.1SP 26.3+1 They recognized the order and harmony of creation as speaking of infinite wisdom and knowledge, and as they continually discovered some new beauty and additional glory their hearts were filled with deeper love and their lips brought forth gratitude and reverence.1SP 26.3

The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful, not one extensive plain but diversified with hills, mountains and plains, rivers and other bodies of water regularly dispersed, with bare high rocks hidden beneath the surface, adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, with pure and healthful air, like a noble palace at which angels beheld and rejoiced.ST Jan 9, 1879+1 When it came from God's hand it was holy and beautiful and perfect, where every flower, shrub and tree answered its Creator's purpose, everything upon which the eye rested was lovely and filled the mind with thoughts of love, and every sound was music in harmony with the voice of God.6T 358.1–359.1 Sin marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience, yet though marred with the curse the earth still reveals goodness and bears witness of the Creator in green fields, lofty trees, glad sunshine, clouds, dew, solemn stillness of night, glory of starry heavens, beauty of the moon, and not a drop of rain falling nor ray of light shed on an unthankful world except testifying to forbearance and love.6T 358.1–359.1

Adam and Eve came forth from God's hand perfect in every physical, mental and spiritual endowment, placed in a world of unsurpassed loveliness and glory, in a garden planted for them and surrounded with everything lovely and attractive to the eye that their physical necessities required.LC1 110.2 God's goodness and love was shown in providing fruits, vegetables and grains and in causing every variety of trees to grow out of the ground for usefulness and beauty.LC1 110.2 Men and women were not created in the present feeble, deplorable condition of physical, mental and moral decay, for that decay is not the work of Providence but the work of man through wrong habits and abuses in violation of the laws God made to govern human existence.FE 23.1

Adam and Eve fell from their high, holy and happy estate through temptation to indulge appetite, and through the same temptation the race has become enfeebled, permitting appetite and passion to take the throne and bring reason and intellect into subjection.FE 23.1+1 Even in that perfect state of manhood and womanhood before sin entered, appetite was one of the weakest points in their character, and failure to exercise self-control over appetite, together with curiosity and ambition, led to base disobedience and fall.CTBH 193.2 That fall brought moral darkness and a downward tendency that increased with each successive generation and made the reign of appetite more debasing and supreme, so that nineteenth-century people still bear the taint in physical, mental and moral nature with all aggravations acquired since passing out of Paradise, and face a far stronger power of appetite than the perfect first parents did.CTBH 193.2

Humanity was created upright in His image, fitted for the heaven of bliss, and surrounded with the most grand works of nature to charm the senses and inspire love and gratitude to the Giver and high and noble aspirations for pure, healthful, happy pleasures.Ms 33, 1886, par. 8–9 Man turned from this to selfish, sensual indulgences, leaving the fountain of living waters to hew broken cisterns that hold no water, separating from his Maker, withdrawing eyes from bliss and from Jesus and fixing them on earth, and like the first parents continuing to disobey by eating forbidden fruit and courting disease that he may die.Ms 33, 1886, par. 8–9 As Eve disobeyed, ate and brought dying death, multitudes now disobey, eat and drink stimulus in which death lurks, and indulgence of perverted appetite lays the foundation for disease and premature death while Satan creates appetite for stimulus and enfeebles physical and mental powers.Ms 33, 1886, par. 8–9

Adam was made after God's own character, pure and upright, with no indwelling sin and no corrupt principles, propensities or tendencies to evil in the first Adam, as faultless as the angels before God's throne.16MR 86.2–88.2+2 The strength of the assault that caused his fall was not anything evil inside him but attack from outside, not strengthened by inner sinfulness, a thing unexplainable now that will be made plain when we see as we are seen and know as we are known.16MR 86.2–88.2+2 In contrast Christ met Satan's temptations bearing the likeness of sinful flesh.ST Oct 17, 1900

The energies and passions of human nature belong to man's original creation in the image of God, and God did not give human beings a new order of energies and passions after transgression, for that would mean God implanted sinful propensities in the race, so the bias to evil is not from God.3MR 322.3–323.1+1 That image was lost when Adam transgressed, and Christ began His work of conversion at once so that through obedience to the law of God and faith in Christ man might regain it.3MR 322.3–323.1+1 Through grace bestowed by heaven and cultivation of righteous principles man may gain victory over the bias to evil, have words, thoughts and energies purified, have warped senses and perverted faculties restored, have a new character formed, and overcome the debasement of sin.3MR 322.3–323.1+1

Humanity as made by God was perfect, reflecting the moral image of God, and was left free to choose good or evil, with the result that if he chose evil he must have evil, and man abused the high prerogative of his nature.16MR 273.4 Christ gave His life to make it possible for all to become wise, partakers of the divine nature, complete in Christ, perfect without spot and blameless, thus placing human nature on vantage ground with God before the heavenly universe and the fallen world.16MR 273.4 Humanity was originally richly endowed with reason and with knowledge of God and of duty, bearing that moral image, and fell by listening to the deceptive talk of Satan, a richly endowed being fallen from a high and holy estate by rebellion, and so gained a knowledge of transgression God never designed.Ms 96, 1898, par. 26–27 The one sin of Adam opened the floodgates of sin upon the world, and that sin called for the only begotten Son to pledge His own life to restore the moral image, so that probation now enjoyed is owed to Jesus Christ, and it depends on man to choose his master, Satan or Christ, to humble himself, to become a co-worker through obedience, to win the prepared home, and to become a son or daughter of God receiving eternal life.Ms 96, 1898, par. 26–27

Man was brought forth last after earth with animal and vegetable life had been prepared as his fitted home, as the crowning work worthy of the hand that gave him life, made directly by God and Christ together in their own image and likeness with no slow development from germs, mollusks, quadrupeds or lower forms, formed from dust yet dignified as son of God, given intelligence to contemplate nature such as no other creature received, crowned king in Eden as rightful sovereign and monarch under God with dominion and unlimited control over fish, fowl, every creeping thing, every living thing, all the earth and all his eye could behold, so that no human can claim part in creating anything with breath of life.PP 44.3+4 So long as he remained loyal all nature acknowledged his rule and stood in subjection to him, uniting even birds with him in thanksgiving worship, for God made the world and gave Adam and Eve Eden as home and the race as subjects.PP 44.3+4 That kingship over the lower creatures belonged to man by creation.ED 26.4+1

When he transgressed that dominion was forfeited, the spirit of rebellion let in extended throughout animal creation, inferior creatures rebelled against his rule, and under sin's curse all nature witnesses to the character and results of rebellion, which the Lord in mercy uses to show the sacredness of His law and the danger of setting it aside even slightly.ED 26.4+2 By conquering Adam Satan claimed that dominion for himself, claimed the world God had made, claimed the race as his subjects, claimed Eden as his possession, and purposed to possess Eden as headquarters and there establish his throne as monarch of the world.LC1 116.4 The first Adam lost dominion through sin and the earth itself as man's dominion was usurped, coming under the power of the wicked one when man became Satan's captive, yet Christ as second Adam and Son of man remained loyal, showed Satan had not gained complete control, and by sacrifice and merits will redeem both man and his dominion, recovering all that was lost to a state with no more curse.PK 682.1+4 God created the earth to be the abode and kingdom of holy happy beings to inhabit, and that purpose will be fulfilled when renewed by God's power and freed from sin and sorrow it becomes the eternal abode of the redeemed and righteous forever within view of the city, where redeemed humanity again lives in peaceful harmony with tame animals and on His holy mountain nothing hurts or destroys and the lower creatures again recognize man's sway, the fierce becoming gentle and the timid trustful.ED 304.1+3

God Himself formed marriage in Eden by creating man in His image as male and female and giving Eve to Adam as helpmeet to raise up families crowned with honor as symbols of the family in heaven, giving the marriage law when the Sabbath law was given as His two great gifts of woman and Sabbath rest.10MR 197.1–201.5 He created the first holy pair in His moral image and gave them a paradise home, making woman from man to be one with him as companion and helpmeet to cheer, encourage, bless, soften, improve and complete him while he is her strong helper, ordaining marriage as sacred and holy sealed amid heaven's joy when morning stars sang together.ST Sep 6, 1899+1 Christ came not to destroy this institution but to restore it to original sanctity and elevation as part of restoring the moral image, beginning that work by sanctioning at Cana what He had sanctioned in Eden and putting His seal anew upon it, showing pure undefiled marriage in purity, holiness, truth and righteousness is sacred and one of the greatest blessings, to correct wrong sentiments and easy separation.10MR 197.1–201.5+2

Eve was designed to possess neither inferiority nor superiority but in all things to be Adam's equal, with no subordination while both remained obedient in harmony with the great law of love, the pair to have no independent interest yet each with individuality in thinking and acting.3T 483.1–484.1+1 After she was first in transgression by separating from her companion and soliciting Adam to sin, subjection was added as part of the curse with Adam to rule over her, so their union could then be maintained only by submission of one or the other.3T 483.1–484.1+1 That sentence grew out of sin yet would have proved a blessing if cherished with God's law, but man's abuse of supremacy has made woman's lot bitter and her life a burden.PP 58.3 God's plan assigned woman her own sphere and daily life-duties carrying true womanly dignity and nobility, lost when leaving that sphere to reach for positions He has not qualified her to fill.3T 483.1–484.1

The race male and female was created on division of labor, the sexes not equal in faculties, capacities for thought and action, duties or adaptations, each not the other but necessary as complement with both needed to complete either, likeness and unlikeness marking them equally from crown to sole in every vital organ by form, locality and function and in aesthetical, mental and spiritual endowments.HTL5 25.1–26.1 God put His own image in man and that image is preserved in marriage as He made it in its obligations and sacredness, while Satan makes studied effort to pervert it by polygamy and by weakening and lessening its obligations defaces God's image in the surest way and opens the door to misery and vice.PP 338.1

God's original plan was to place our first parents in a garden amidst beautiful sights and attractive sounds of nature to rejoice in, very beautiful with fragrant flowers, precious fruits and caroling birds in which untainted purity delighted as emblem of heaven and God's love, not to crowd people in cities in terraces and tenements.CH 176.2+3 Man was made for happiness not continual worry and at first was perfectly happy, but sin marred God's purpose bringing want, suffering, care and anguish found in large cities with disease, foul air, impure water and food, and crowded dark unhealthful dwellings.MH 365.1–2+2 The more nearly people come into harmony with that plan and rejoice in those sights and sounds today, locating even sanitariums amid them in quiet places with good air, room and ground for cultivation away from bustle and crowding, the more favorable their position for recovery and preservation of health of body, mind and soul, and the more wonderfully He will work to restore suffering humanity, impressing His image anew until His people are joyful reposing in His goodness, mercy and love with angels filling hearts with heaven's peace.CH 176.2+3

The image included hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation, with happiness in both labor and meditation, and God's plan equally taxes mental and physical powers in study of books and cultivation of land, giving Adam immediately after creation the work of tending what God had made with wants abundantly supplied from Eden's fruits, before disobedience a pleasure with earth yielding abundantly.Lt 382, 1908, par. 6–8+3 After the Fall work became toil and hardship, yet labor limits evil, resists temptation, disciplines self-indulgence and fosters industry, purity and firmness as part of recovery.RH Oct 3, 1912 Humanity was created rich in all the Owner could supply yet not for idleness, for both mind and body were made in God's likeness and similitude requiring active obedient work to fill the appointed place in a universe of harmony where ocean moves, grass clothes fields, leaves stir, sun moon and stars fulfill mission and Christ gave example, so idleness breaks that likeness and is sin, ignorance of useful work is not refinement or mark of gentleman or lady, neglect of common duties brings regret, manual labor is not degrading, and being made in the image does not entitle living by others' work or despising it.ST Jun 29, 1882+4

Creation set up a system of education as pattern for all time, with the first man and woman as parents of the family and learners, their Eden home as model school, the garden as classroom, nature as textbook and God Himself as teacher.ED 20.2 Human beings made in God's image were fitted as students to study God in His words and works with the whole earth as it came from the Creator and Eden as pattern as fit emblem and study, and as numbers increased they were to establish other Eden-like homes and schools until the earth was occupied, thereby fitted ever more fully through endless ages to reflect the light of the knowledge of His glory.ED 20.2+1 In creating Adam and Eve as parents of all God designed every human to stand related as part of one web of humanity in reciprocal action and mutual relation with all connected together and the whole connected to God, each depending on the other with nothing independent and none dropped without affecting the whole.5MR 369.1+1 He pledged every provision for happiness if man remained true to His commandments, training men and women as His children and objects of special love to imitate His goodness as consecrated channels through whom blessings flow to make others happy.Ms 157, 1898, par. 1–2

Genesis 1:27 shows that man was made last as the crowning work with a personal form in God's own image, and that personal form proves God Himself has real personality.Ms 171, 1904, par. 4+1 Though God is a spirit, He is not merely an all-pervading principle or actuating energy working through nature, but a personal, self-existing being whose mighty power works through nature and sustains all things.8T 263.1+1 He first formed the human body perfect in all its arrangements but without life, then breathed the breath of life into that form through Jesus Christ the Word, and at that breath man became a living, breathing, intelligent soul with heart, arteries, veins, tongue, hands, feet, senses, perceptions and faculties of mind all set in action and placed under law, endowed with intelligence and power.8T 264.1+1 As a personal being He has revealed Himself in His Son Jesus, who was on earth found as a man, ascended as a personal Saviour, and now intercedes as a personal Saviour before the throne.ED 131.1 Even when man was made in secret his yet imperfect substance was not hidden from God, whose eyes saw it and in whose book all his members were written when as yet there were none of them.MH 415.1–2

God is not an essence pervading nature but has personality, and Christ came as the express image of the Father's person to represent the Father as such.19MR 250.2–4 Man was created in His moral image with exalted powers of mind for a life of activity and usefulness, with an uncorrupted, sanctified, elevated, ennobled mind under God's supervision qualified by Christ's grace to love and glorify the Creator.19MR 250.2–4 Christ came to restore God's moral image in fallen man, so that through obedience to the commandments man becomes stamped again with the divine image and character and adorned with the beauty of divine loveliness, and those thus transformed desire a better heavenly country for whom God has prepared a city and is not ashamed to be called their God.19MR 250.2–4

Adam came from the Creator's hand bearing likeness to his Maker in physical, mental and spiritual nature, with all faculties capable of development and with capacity and vigor continually to increase.ST Oct 19, 1915+1 God's purpose was that the longer man lived the more fully he should reveal this image and reflect the Creator's glory, with vast scope for exercise and a glorious field for research into the mysteries of the visible universe and with face-to-face, heart-to-heart communion with his Maker as his high privilege.ST Oct 19, 1915+1 Had he remained loyal all this would have been his forever, and throughout eternal ages he would have continued to gain new treasures of knowledge, discover fresh springs of happiness, and obtain clearer and still clearer conceptions of the wisdom, power and love of God, more and more fully fulfilling the object of his creation.ED 15.1

The likeness was not in character only but in form and feature, including outward physical resemblance graceful and symmetrical in form, regular and beautiful in feature, with countenances glowing with health, joy and hope.ED 20.3+2 The human body is the wonderful work of the Infinite Designer formed in the divine image, and fuller understanding of it leads to bringing the body into subjection to the noble powers of the mind, keeping it in harmonious action and presenting clean, pure, healthy bodies to God.HL 11.1–2 Erect stature and sublime countenance are preserved by obedience to health laws, and iniquity has debased the outward form and well nigh obliterated the image from the inward heart.9MR 376.2 The human form, and woman's form in particular, was moulded in His image with wavy outline, undulating motion, health and beauty, so that natural shape as God causes a healthy body to grow is the standard of beauty and modishness whose highest radiance comes only from highest health.HTL5 21.3 Clothing must therefore serve health and comfort and never hinder freedom of movement, natural action of organs or free circulation of blood, and to torment limbs by ligature, compress vitals, cut the figure into conic sections, bishop sleeves and bustles, or otherwise deform the God-given form for fashion destroys both beauty and life.HTL5 21.3 God fashioned the body without mistake, perfect, beautiful and healthy as part of His lovely and glorious work in nature, and His plan carries authority requiring obedience in dress, appetites and passions, so modern improvements upon that form insult Him.Ms 109, 1909, par. 12

Being made in the image and divine similitude means likeness to God in character — righteousness and holiness which Adam could grasp, truth and uprightness not sacrificed to selfish desire or worldly ambition, love and honor and perfection, justice and goodness and benevolence.2RED 7.3+3 That character is fully revealed in the gospel and in the perfect character of Christ, showing what man was and what he may become again.ST Feb 24, 1909 It is restored when the perfection of His character is dwelt upon and the word is earnestly studied as a mirror revealing God's character and exposing defects, and by constantly beholding the Lord's glory with prayer and faith to put defects away the mind is renewed, the soul re-created, the human will molded to the divine will, and man changed from glory to glory until Christ's nature is revealed in gentle courteous words and kind helpful ways, even while largely unconscious of the change.ED 18.1+1 That likeness is being transferred to the books of heaven as character is formed, and in judgment every person will stand revealed just as he is, either still fashioned after the divine pattern or disfigured by idolatrous selfishness, greed and covetousness.Ms 53, 1903, par. 12+1 Every person must individually form such character by keeping the mind fixed on God and doing everything as viewing Him who is invisible.Ms 53, 1903, par. 12+1

Man was given hands for labor as well as mind and heart for contemplation, to find happiness in labor as well as meditation, with mind capable of continual cultivation, expansion, refinement and noble elevation, with God as teacher and angels as companions.2RED 7.3+2 To be created in the image is to bear the express image of Jesus as noble, majestic and lovely beings with countenances beaming with holy joy in freedom and happiness, as inhabitants of unfallen worlds still keep it in greater loveliness because they have lived in strict obedience and have not fallen by disobedience.CET 97.3–98.1 In the divine similitude mind and soul and strength are in harmony with the divine life, shown in excellence and perfection of character, refinement instead of coarseness, gentleness instead of roughness, generosity instead of selfishness, and purity instead of impurity.COL 102.3 The likeness consists in mind, intellect, affections, conscience, knowledge and virtue entrusted to be exercised, improved and kept supreme for more than mere animal life, by obeying God's law as the expression of divine character and keeping conscience in touch with His life, which even fallen nature can do through help provided by walking and living by faith on the Son of God, grasping the unseen and cultivating every entrusted gift in the Master's service.COL 102.3+1

As beneficent Creator God placed His image by endowing intellectual powers and the elements of true and noble manhood, and true greatness is keeping that image by God's estimate of character, not giant intellect or brilliant genius as the world estimates it.ST Nov 3, 1881 Its purpose is consecration to God's service as co-workers with Christ and angels in human redemption, but when intellectual power is set against true religion and prostituted to pervert truth, promote immorality and irreligion, destroy confidence in God and the Bible and banish thoughts of God, it defaces the image and brings man to brute level, becoming a curse to its possessor and all within his influence, with greater abused gift bringing greater evil and condemnation.ST Nov 3, 1881 God endowed varied capabilities of mind and soul and body to be developed to highest excellence to receive His character of benevolence and love, and this development cannot be selfish and exclusive but must employ every faculty for His glory and uplifting fellows, finding therein its purest, noblest, happiest exercise.PP 595.3–4 The student is to seek development not to excel others or for pride, selfish ambition, emulation, earthly standards or self-exaltation, but to fulfill the Creator's purpose, directing the mind to the Creator to know Him and become like Him in goodness and truth and beauty and excellence.PP 595.3–4

Every human being created in the image is endowed with power akin to the Creator's — individuality, power to think and to do — for high and noble purposes such as engage angels and for higher holier enjoyment than this world affords.4T 438.1+2 Its development is the work of true education, training youth to be thinkers and not mere reflectors of other men's thought, directed to nature and revelation and to duty and destiny, so the mind expands and strengthens and sends forth men strong to think and act, masters not slaves of circumstances, with breadth of mind, clearness of thought and courage of conviction, able to bear responsibilities, lead in enterprise and influence character, with ennobling mental faculties properly cultivated to form character for immortal life.4T 438.1+2 Humanity alone among created beings is so made, and is therefore superior in being able to partake of the divine nature, cultivate those powers, cooperate with the Creator and carry out His plans, though alone also found at war with His purposes.5T 311.4+1 Through cooperation with the divine agency provided for assistance man may rise to highest eminence of moral efficiency, and Jesus who knows this endowment and came to adjust the claims between heaven and earth looks with sorrow mingled with tears upon man wasting God-given energies in pursuit of what profits nothing.ST Jun 26, 1893+1

Because humans derive life from God as Creator and Source of all life they belong to Him by creation, formed for His glory to acknowledge Him in every word and act, and He desires beings formed in His image to have the higher life of which He is Author.Ms 183, 1901, par. 4+1 Man was the crowning act, highest and noblest of creatures next to angels, made to be a counterpart of God and to represent Him by revealing Christ's life in humanity, and because so formed he is very dear to God.RH Dec 3, 1908+2 Human life is therefore sacred and precious as a manifestation of God, its opportunities to be earnestly used and its powers developed to do their best, and defiling the body by indulgence of appetite or any other sinful practice is sin to be taught urgently by precept and example, with medical missionary education on how to live doing great good in preserving it.RH Dec 3, 1908+2 God created with design and purpose that man consent to be molded and fashioned after the similitude, and he who consents becomes the noblest specimen of God's work.8T 62.3+2 Those living in communion with the Creator understand this design and feel accountable to employ every faculty to the very best purpose, seeking neither to glorify nor depreciate themselves but to glorify God, which relation is the beginning of wisdom, true education and true wisdom beginning in reverence and fear of the Lord, requiring a divine principle pervading conduct through knowledge of the true God and Jesus Christ, and is no hindrance to true science.8T 62.3+2

Man was made after the image with faculties of reason and speech and gifts that can be enlarged if improved, meant to appreciate God's gifts, be elevated and ennobled, be a co-laborer with Christ the greatest Teacher, keep body and soul as God's purchased possession free from world-bound habits and unholy practices, grow to complete character as a vessel unto honor, and through grace reflect the beauty of Him who does all things well.17MR 58.1–59.1+2 Unlike clouds, rain, grass, fruit, sunshine, dew, wind, storm and growing grain which obey God's laws without resistance and fulfill His order, man alone can be unappreciative, remain imperfect and incomplete, produce disorder and confusion, and hamper body and soul, so for a rational being so made to resist God causes confusion in the world.17MR 58.1–59.1+2 The image includes full faculties — clear brain to appreciate eternal realities, healthful sinews and muscles for service, steady powers of action, clear speech and living sensibilities — to be used to His glory in all said and done, with reason, speech and intellect as special gifts to study His dealings and know the true God and Jesus Christ, unlike birds guided by instinct and unlike swallow and crane observing seasons and migrating as designed.Ms 80, 1903, par. 34–35+1 Man is to honor God by obeying nature's laws governing the organism and refusing inclinations and inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong, for gratifying appetite and accumulating treasure at cost of health abuses God-given powers, fills days with bodily pain and mental disquiet, breaks God's law by breaking bodily law, and disqualifies for service.Ms 80, 1903, par. 34–35+1

Being formed in the image gives divine relationship to the infinite God in power, majesty and glory, and remembering that origin keeps worship effective and elevating.PP 334.4 Forgetting it leads to representing God by graven image, even beast or reptile, and bowing to senseless objects no higher than self and symbolized by handiwork, which cannot elevate but degrades, destroys efficacy of worship, opens way for foul license with unrestrained passions, and gives Satan full sway.PP 334.4 Because man was created in the image of the infinite God, blessed with intellectual power and perfect symmetrical body, every person is in every way superior to idols which have no breath nor life and move only as hands move them.8RED 57.1–2+1 That image proves the Godhead is not like gold or silver or stone graven by art and device, and no work of art can represent His glory, but points to the true Deity as glorious, independent, needing nothing from hands to add to power and glory, whom heavens cannot contain much less temples made with hands.8RED 57.1–2+1

God created Adam with mind and will and moral faculties which though finite were after the similitude of His own, then placed him with Eve in Eden planted with every pleasant good tree and enriched with rivers, precious stones, gold and silver, giving pleasant employment of dressing and keeping the Garden, with Adam first to labor together with God and nothing interposed between them and their Maker.Ms 77, 1896, par. 1 It was wonderful to create mind so every faculty might be a faculty of the divine mind, and God's glory is revealed in creating man in His image and in redeeming him.HL 11.6–12.1+1 Man's life and faculties belong to God, not his own to treat as he pleases or cripple by decay-bringing habits making perfect service impossible, and he is absolutely dependent every moment as God cares for him and keeps the living machinery in action.HL 11.6–12.1 One soul outweighs a world, Jesus is Author of being and of redemption who restores the image, and none can dwell with God in holy heaven except those bearing His likeness — overcomers elevated, pure, one with Christ, counterparts of God's character conformed here to Christ's image and filled with fullness of God.HL 11.6–12.1+1 God treats human beings joined to Himself with heavenly respect, putting His own attributes into man and building character after the likeness into a goodly fabric of spiritual beauty and perfection, and His whole law has this same character, removing oppressive weights men lay on one another and requiring only what is necessary for physical, mental and moral well-being.Ms 19, 1897, par. 26

God put His own divine impress on human nature, making man truly man with nobility, worth and influence, and that image remains but can be obliterated by habits and course of action.Lt 35, 1888, par. 3–6 It is kept by resolving in youth, while character is molded by every act, to live up to light given, resist temptation, and form correct virtuous manly habits of earnest work and duty.Lt 35, 1888, par. 3–6 Man so formed was God's noblest earthly work, whose worth lies not in outward form but in mind, and moral excellence is not natural but the reward of hard unremitting labor beginning with parents forming correct taste, habits and manners, widening views, ripening judgment, strengthening intellect to meet life's battles, improving the mind and exercising children's talents.Ms 2, 1875, par. 24–27 God gives mind and every faculty with high design, and each forms character after God or Satan, for the mind is either the workshop of God or of Satan, so mental powers and every God-given faculty need cultivation and practice until character grows into a beautiful building for the Lord.19MR 198.1

Humanity was created as a sinless transcript of Himself in fulfillment of heaven's councils, with moral faculties and physical powers endowed with holy attributes by the hand of Christ and placed in a garden made expressly for him, which sin alone could ruin and deface.Ms 29, 1899, par. 1 Being made in the divine image gave intelligence such as God gave to no other creature, enabling man to contemplate and appreciate His glorious works in nature and to recognize His wisdom, goodness, love and glory in creation, with physical, mental and spiritual gifts beyond animals.LC1 111.1+2 With that image Adam was crowned king in Eden and made rightful sovereign with dominion over every living thing and over all works of God's hands, blessing Adam and Eve together with this place and capacity.LC1 111.1+2

At creation man bore God's image and superscription as a coin bears the image and superscription of the reigning power, and sin has marred and dimmed that image so fallen man bears only a faint resemblance in character and form to dignified Adam in noble perfection, yet traces of God's inscription remain upon every soul however degraded so every soul is precious in God's sight and worth seeking and God desires to recover it and retrace His own image upon it in righteousness and holiness.COL 194.3+4
The divine likeness was lost by sin which is transgression of the law, debasing man by Satan so he no longer reflects God in perfect harmony with His nature and law and his heart wars against its principles, and none but Christ can fashion anew the ruined character by expelling controlling demons, lifting humanity from dust, reshaping after His divine pattern, renewing the heart by grace, sanctifying by truth and giving new birth to reconcile man to harmony with God and His law.DA 37.3+4
That loss is not in a moment but by gradual degradation, for by beholding man is changed until sin once loathed becomes pleasant when he ceases to watch and pray and guard the citadel of the heart, enslaving moral and intellectual powers to grosser passions until the mind is debased, brutal or satanic and cannot rise, and keeping the image requires constant war against the carnal mind and self-control by the refining grace that habituates meditation on pure holy things.CTBH 127.3+4

Man was created in exalted purity with golden character as sovereign in Eden with health and plenitude of blessings and covered with a halo of God's glory as a garment, and after transgression that covering departed because divine light cannot cover disobedience, Satan dimming the character with sin through controlling appetite and strengthening passions until moral power was destroyed and the sovereign became a slave groaning under sin's curse with poverty, sickness and suffering as the portion of Adam's children, bearing scarcely a resemblance to Adam in holy innocency.LC1 137.2+4
By transgressing express commands Adam lost favor, destroyed happiness and plunged the race into hopeless misery and despair with every successive generation degenerating physically, mentally and morally as sin corrupted the world and almost obliterated God's image, yet pitying love gave the well-beloved Son who is the brightness of God's glory and express image, who took man's nature, passed over Adam's ground, bore the test Adam failed, overcame every temptation and redeemed the failure.ST Aug 1, 1878
The image could be defaced, and before the Flood amalgamation of man and beast defaced it and caused confusion everywhere, which above every other sin called for destroying the race by the Flood, God purposing to destroy that powerful long-lived race that had corrupted its ways and not suffer them to live out hundreds of years.SG3 64.1

Humanity created pure and holy was transformed by transgression from that image into Satan's similitude so fallen humanity possesses Satan's attributes seen in violence and crime, having lost innocence to become selfish transgressors and disloyal subjects under Satan's control through senses and mind beginning a downward career of universal evil from Paradise onward.Ms 18, 1898, par. 9+1
Man was created with the principles of heaven in him, and Satan came to conform all things to himself seeking in every way to deface that divine image and place his own selfish principles and likeness and spirit where heaven's should be, while deception about God and sin can obscure it.RH Apr 16, 1901+1
That image can be lost when created knowledge of God and desire for good are banished by evil passions and purposes, for forgetfulness strengthens evil and the sin-loving heart clothes God with its own selfish attributes as seeking self-glory, diminishing goodness until men receive demonic impress.ED 75.2

God put His own image in human minds and His chosen representatives carried it, but it can be effaced by apostasy when satanic agencies confuse true and false worship and intermarriage and association without love for God lessen love, deaden sense of His high holy character, remove abhorrence of idolatry and turn obedience to Satan.FE 499.1
That image can be destroyed by united human action when the law of reciprocal dependence is perverted as men drawn together by Satan counterwork the gospel by perverting its principles for perdition, against which God presents uplifting influence yoking workers with Christ as laborers together with God bound as power for good.CH 569.2
God created man to be perfect and chose his life, yet man corrupted himself with understanding darkened under Satan by following the first rebel, affections perverted and will depraved into bond slavery, turning from Word and Christ's pure example to gratify perverted appetite and reaping as sown though the true pattern was sent.Ms 1, 1909, par. 7

Even as image-bearers the men at the cross joined Satan to crush the last spark of life from the Son of God's heart.ST Nov 30, 1882
Satan hates human beings because as God's workmanship they bear His image, he opposed their creation and now brings great sufferings upon bodies, his hatred embracing the whole family while his bitterest enmity is against God and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.Ms 38, 1890, par. 13–17+1
Man was created in God's moral image which Adam's indulgence of perverted appetite and passion marred, leaving moral powers enfeebled so with all capabilities he cannot overcome in his own strength, yet Jesus as second Adam met the same garden temptations including gratifying flesh in sorest wilderness need and overcame, so efforts joined to His mighty saving power bring conquerors and restore the moral image in servants' characters.ST Dec 1, 1887

Restoration of the image in the soul is the object of the Great Teacher and the true object of education and of life, to bring man back to the perfection in which he was first created and into harmony with God again.FE 436.1+3 That harmony and reflection in moral nature were lost, and the plan of salvation was devised and probation granted for this restoring purpose, requiring conversion giving a new heart and life by sanctification through the truth.FE 436.1+2 Every teacher is to work in harmony with it, making eternal interest the great theme and strictly guarding against conformity to the world.FE 436.1+1 So important was it that Christ left heaven to teach men fitness for the higher life, dwelling thirty years through childhood, youth and manhood enduring severest trials as a living illustration, then instructing three years as a teacher sent from God before ascending where He still watches with deepest care.CT 49.3 The gifts given were noble qualities, a well-balanced mind, and all powers of body and mind and soul harmonious to reach highest excellence for His glory and uplifting fellows, to be developed not from pride, selfish ambition or emulation to excel others but to know Him and become like Him, receiving benevolence and love like God's in fidelity to the Creator's plan and cooperation with the divine purpose.CE 63.2–64.2

The glory of the gospel is restoring the divine image in fallen men and women by constant beneficence and benevolence.RH Oct 3, 1907+3 That restoring work began in the heavenly courts where God decided to give unmistakable evidence of His love by giving His Son, and it is seen where Christ's self-denial for truth is followed, where faith works by love cleansing selfishness, and where obedience proves God's law a law of love to God and man which God honors wherever it appears.RH Oct 3, 1907+2 The fallen race lost that image, and pity moved the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to give Themselves to work out redemption, God giving His only-begotten Son so believers should not perish but have everlasting life, Christ giving Himself an offering for sin.CH 224.1–2+1 In giving Christ God gave with Him all heaven's resources so nothing was lacking for man's uplifting, making it impossible to say God could have done more, a matchless love whose depth cannot be measured and whose contemplation fills the soul with gratitude, cleanses selfishness, and leads to denying self, taking the cross and following the Redeemer.CH 224.1–2+1 Human beings were created in that image yet have lost the likeness.RH Aug 3, 1905

Humanity was created in the now-defaced image, and through Christ becoming propitiation by His crucifixion that image will be reproduced with a family of believing saints finally inhabiting the heavenly home, so restoration of image and world results from the cross.Ms 33, 1897, par. 16–17 The divine likeness was obliterated when man yielded to temptation after Satan worked constantly to destroy it, so Christ put His hand to the work a second time to re-create humanity.Ms 15, 1898, par. 7–8+1 When fullness of time came God sent His Son with divinity clothed in humanity to reveal perfection amid corruption, bringing grace, healing, bread of life and all efficiency for recreation.Ms 15, 1898, par. 7–8+1 Christ laid aside heavenly glory and placed Himself at the head of the fallen race to rescue from eternal death, uniting humanity and divinity in Himself that all possible might be done for complete restoration.RH Dec 24, 1901 That divine image on the soul, meaning character, attributes, Spirit and love, was lost and must be retraced by calling attention to God and His requirements so men are imbued with His Spirit, actuated by love and reveal divine attributes, through His life of continual self-denial as light and life proving the value of every soul embraced in complete salvation for all who believe, that none should perish.Ms 39, 1894, par. 3

Fallen man may reveal the image again because Christ stooped to take human nature, joining divinity and humanity to reveal God's sentiments, bringing that combined life within reach of all and counterworking Satan's false principles.17MR 24.4 Adam in Eden stood without taint in perfection of humanity with harmoniously developed faculties, the noblest work a little lower than angels in strength of perfection, in sharp contrast to degeneracy four thousand years later.ST Feb 22, 1883+1 Christ took fallen nature with its weaknesses, infirmities, decline and degeneracy to stand in Adam's place, bear the test Adam failed, and elevate man from degradation.ST Feb 22, 1883+1 As second Adam He met the same temptations that overwhelmed man in delight, including gratifying flesh in sorest need in desolate wilderness, and successfully resisted, overcoming where man was conquered.ST Dec 1, 1887 That image was marred by indulged perverted appetite and passion leaving moral powers enfeebled so man cannot overcome in own strength, but with help laid on One mighty to save, efforts joined with Christ's power bring him off conqueror, and the moral image is restored in those who serve Him.ST Dec 1, 1887

Christ receives repentant people and recreates them in that image into a life reflecting God, and this very image is to be reflected again.RH Jan 11, 1912+1 He endured humiliation so fallen man might have His mind and reveal God's love and Christ's perfect love for the Father, the cold heart quickened to glow with divine love and beat in unison with the Redeemer.ST Nov 25, 1897 By cooperating in redemption and suffering, united by faith, believing and receiving Him as part of Himself, man becomes complete in Him with Christ's glory revealed in character, the honor of Christ complete in His chosen people representing Him, to receive entrance into the Lord's joy.ST Nov 25, 1897 Sin defaced and almost obliterated the image in character as well as form and feature, but Christ came to restore what was lost.GC88 644.2–3+2 At the resurrection He changes the mortal corruptible sin-polluted form devoid of comeliness, fashions it like His glorious body perfect, beautiful and immortal, leaving all blemishes and deformities in the grave.GC88 644.2–3+2 All arise with freshness and vigor of eternal youth, restored to the tree of life in long-lost Eden, growing to full primeval stature as in first glory like Adam's lofty majestic height little below the Son of God, the last traces of curse removed, until in mind, soul and body they reflect their Lord and appear in the beauty of the Lord.GC88 644.2–3+2

The image is restored by God's Word, for the same creative energy that called the world is in that Word imparting power and begetting life.ST Apr 11, 1906 Every command is a promise bringing with it the Infinite One's life when accepted by will and received into soul, transforming nature and recreating the soul in God's image, and the life thus imparted is sustained by every word from God's mouth.ST Apr 11, 1906 The Spirit creates new life in regeneration, forming anew in God's image with change visible in character, habits, words and actions.SC 57.2 The Holy Spirit as Christ's representative and source of efficiency is the helper to look to, coming not only speaking truth but being truth, the faithful Witness and Searcher of hearts, whose transforming influence brings even thoughts into harmony with God's will and captivity to Christ, corrects selfishness, molds and refines character, establishes living connection between earth and heaven, and when welcomed effects wonderful transformations making teachers laborers together with God.FE 526.3–4+2 That image is moral, and its restoration comes through the Spirit.RH Oct 8, 1908

Being made in the image meant perfect harmony with God's nature and law with righteousness written on the heart, but sin alienated man so he no longer reflected it and his heart warred against law.GC88 467.1+1 Conversion and sanctification reconcile by bringing back into accord with law, and through Christ's merits fallen man is restored to harmony by a heart renewed by grace in new life from above, the new birth without which he cannot see the kingdom.GC88 467.1+2 Restoration of that image in the soul is the Great Teacher's object by conversion with new heart and life and sanctification through truth, keeping eternal interest the great theme and guarding against worldly conformity.STMW7 34.1 Through Christ the marred image can be restored as men become partakers of divine nature by earnest prayer and conquest of self, with strong faith expecting much, little confidence in self, rising to perfection to produce converted men pure in heart without guile, having Christ by their side for success.GW 80.1+2

Being made in God's likeness is character likeness restored when grace takes people as they are and educates fully by all-sided education, training by Christ's methods until fierce passions and defective traits are molded with new motive power and fullness of the Spirit after the similitude.HSP 16.5 God created the moral image now lost through sin, but loss can be reversed, for Christ as great Restorer will imprint His image again on those obedient to His law.Lt 135, 1900, par. 3–4 In that restoration His power, purity, perfect obedience and efficiency become the believer's, with all essentials for perfection available to those coming in faith as personal Saviour and opening the heart, by cooperation of human with divine through grace.Lt 135, 1900, par. 3–4 Man was created in the moral image, transgression brought grievous ruin destroying it, and the plan of redemption restores the sinner to it by the only means of the Son's self-sacrifice, condescension and love, He alone having strength to fight the adversary and as substitute and surety giving power to victors laying hold by faith in His name and merits.FE 135.1 That lost moral image must be restored by Christ, given to those loyal to all commandments amid temptations and deceptions separating genuine from counterfeit, finishing His redemptive work when He presents man clothed in His righteousness.Ms 125, 1901, par. 72

In the beginning God made man in His likeness meaning sonship as His children, which the first parents lost by listening to the tempter and yielding to Satan.STB 516.2–3+2 Man was not abandoned to chosen evil, but at infinite cost provision was made to restore sonship, the sinless Son given at infinite suffering to redeem from the destroyer, so all lost by yielding can be regained through Christ and men and women restored to God's image, with the promise of a Deliverer giving hope before the curse was heard.STB 516.2–3+3 Those accepting salvation humble themselves as His little children.STB 516.2–3+2 Man was created with living connection to God, lost when Adam fell from loyalty through disobedience opening woe, leaving man unable ever to rescue himself.ST Feb 22, 1899 God's love exceeds an earthly father's, measured only by His power and character, and proportionate to power is infinite compassion and desire to restore His image, exercising benevolence to the fullest at great cost to redeem those who lost connection.ST Feb 22, 1899

By yielding to sin people lost God's image, but God's love did not cease and Christ took humanity to reach the fallen and bring everlasting life.ST Nov 19, 1896 Man must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin, for Satan declared none would keep God's commandments, so one soul saved proves him false and vindicates God's government.Ms 66, 1901, par. 14 Therefore Christ came and by obedient life showed man could obey, canceled guilt, and clothed Himself in sorrow's robe that the sinner might stand in righteousness.Ms 66, 1901, par. 14 Regaining the image through Christ is life's work whether longer or shorter, requiring thorough transformation of soul, body and spirit from the estate held in Adam and lost by sin and continued transgression.SA 59.1+1 God mercifully sends light to show true fallen condition so man may walk in light and be transformed, with mercy and truth for the humble penitent, while refusing light shows love of darkness lest deeds be reproved, bringing justice, judgment and just punishment on the rebellious.SA 59.1+1

That lost image must be restored by converting power when the leaven of truth hidden and implanted in the heart works with vital life, eradicating evil leaven of disobedience and denial and conforming the whole being to God's will and ways, after which the person is entrusted with Christ's work.ST Oct 27, 1898 All heaven is interested and working, God and angels intensely desiring humans to reach the perfection Christ died to make possible.Lt 21, 1901, par. 6–7 Restoration means oneness with Christ, completeness in Him and heirship of heaven, left to free choice requiring choosing the right side, connecting with heavenly agencies, adopting reviving principles, keeping principles pure and lives untainted, so adopted principles of Christ's life become a well springing to everlasting life overflowing to refresh others and improving talents in partnership with Christ.Lt 21, 1901, par. 6–7 Restoration comes through Him who gave His life, so standing in His merits man is made complete, partakes of divine nature and may take hold of immortality.Ms 18, 1894, par. 21–22 It calls for every influence, reason and money used single to His glory in God's lines to elevate and ennoble, refusing to throw away reason on tobacco and liquor or be lost through appetite, and placing children where lives are given to God.Ms 18, 1894, par. 21–22

Jesus as Saviour restores the moral image by constant working to transform character, and receiving and believing truth sanctifies heart and character to that end.16MR 248.2–3+2 That moral image now lost, showing Satan's image in the agent, must be brought back through living connection so man is elevated in moral influence and reflects Him, and must be recovered daily through grace with lesser trials borne under God purifying and strengthening for greater.ST Dec 24, 1912+2 Man was made in the moral image to be restored through the influence of Jesus, an ever-widening shoreless unseen yet intensely active influence bound with the world's interests and wielded by the Father as the restoring element.14MR 57.2 Knowledge of Christ restores it, so had teachers learned from Christ and sown pure seeds the world would have been converted and prepared for fellowship with the royal family in heavenly courts.RH Jul 3, 1900 Being made in God's image gives every son and daughter reasoning powers and capabilities for progress, elevation, ennobling, sanctification and converse with God, an image moral, to be developed, in which heaven has intense interest.14MR 73.1+1 It shows God's value of man and Christ's value of souls, for bearers may possess immortality running parallel with Jehovah's life and living as long as God lives as children, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, a thought filling with awe, while a soul lost is the world's most valuable loss.14MR 73.1+1

Man was created in God's image, lost it through degradation, and the only-begotten Son gave His life to save blood-bought souls and uplift by restoring His image through faith by which they become joint heirs, revealing soul-value in light of Calvary.Ms 83, 1897, par. 11 Christ came to restore that image, and those accepting Him join His work of saving others.RH Jan 14, 1902 God created humanity with God-given manhood and womanhood in His immortal image, laying redemption's plan before creating the world and placing Adam and Eve in Eden.Ms 3, 1888, par. 13 When they fell woe's floodgates opened and corruption spread so only Noah's family believed and were saved in the ark, yet God now gives privilege of gaining back that manhood and womanhood through belief so His immortal image is restored for work carrying into eternal life.Ms 3, 1888, par. 13 God's image is a pattern to be restored after Satan with ingenuity ruined it, through Christ's death for God's glory in uplifting, refining and ennobling, by whose merits the agent is re-created, a clean thing from unclean.7MR 274.3–4 That restoration is holiness by entire conformity of will to divine will, with clean pure mind and faith working by love purifying the soul, presenting soul and body as purchased possession spotless by beholding Christ and going to highest perfection.7MR 274.3–4

Through Christ's grace the divine image lost at the fall is wrought again on the soul, and character developed here under the Holy Spirit's teaching matures to bloom everlastingly before the Sun of Righteousness and shine forever in heavenly courts.Ms 85, 1893, par. 51–54 Jesus is committed to redemption sparing nothing however costly and withholding nothing however dear, taking apparently hopeless material even through whom Satan worked, making subjects of grace and delivering from wrath with gift upon gift of eternal life through open channels.Ms 85, 1893, par. 51–54+1 The setting forth of saving Bible truths is God's ordained means to stem moral corruption and accomplish restoration, with grace drawing men together in obedience.CT 249.2+1 Christ gave His life to make it possible, and presenting truth to the ignorant brings deeper sanctification in the presenter's own soul, an elevating ennobling work.CT 249.2+1 Man was created in the moral image which must be restored, heaven has made every provision though the world since Cain against Abel rejected every provision including God's Son for everlasting life, yet amid atheists and worldly religionists choosing darkness loyal faithful children still receive it.Ms 90, 1897, par. 6

This image is to be restored through vital connection with Christ by receiving influence to work for God's glory, under hallowed influence the Spirit acting on mind making humanity partaker of divine nature while linking with humanity.Ms 176, 1901, par. 9 Restoration requires divinity and humanity uniting, with human tapers lighted from the divine altar.Ms 158, 1902, par. 83+1 Man was created in the moral image to be restored, and the aim of educational institutions, sanitariums and nurses relieving suffering by natural methods is this restoration, which is true missionary work.Lt 142, 1908, par. 10 That lost image is to be restored through the gospel, and sanitariums stand as memorials bringing men and women to truth so every influence advances the gospel and restores the divine image.Ms 172, 1899, par. 23–25 Restoration is the character and aim of sanitarium work to be kept in locating them, done by true medical missionaries with remedies for physical suffering in one hand and gospel for sin-burdened souls in the other, sowing truth in many hearts.7T 80.1–2+1 Those taking the name pledge to be His helping hand in humility, mercy and love, and Christ who gave whole soul and body to save and restore, finishing sacrifice as Saviour not destroyer and dying brokenhearted over perversity allied to darkness and over unsaved souls who might have labored to reform the world, would have men become medical missionaries to carry on that work.Lt 8, 1901, par. 9+1

Sin has wounded that image, and medical missionary work helps restore its moral likeness by healing sin's harm.RH May 7, 1901 That moral image marred must be restored, and the restoring work is medical missionary work bound closely and inseparably with the third angel's message.Ms 172, 1899, par. 7–11 People cooperate with God in restoring His moral image, and learning to obtain wisely and prepare wholesomely foods they can raise or readily obtain locally, both poor and better circumstanced, is part of that cooperation which God desires continued by educating the people.CH 507.3+3 The body is God's handiwork, but food, drink and provisions alone do not restore it; people must learn care of the body, obey nature's laws and honor God-given nature.RH May 28, 1908 The moral image marred must be restored through principles revealed by God's people, and truth does refining work restoring it, so when the church fully receives light and in holiness keeps pace with revealed truth, darkness is dispelled, light brightens, confusion and strife cease, and God gives scarcely conceived power to those walking in light as it shines.LSEGW 298.3+1

The race was created after Satan's disaffection and fall, and Adam and Eve fell, so the moral image is now a matter of choice on trial in probationary time with Satan playing for every soul and Christ working for every soul.SPBC 178.2–4 God created men with talent and intellect in His moral image to bring minds into association with the divine, meaning likeness of character: goodness and love as instinct, loving God supremely and fellows impartially, attached closely to God and tenderly to one another, reflecting spotless purity as in a mirror.SPBC 178.2–4 Those consenting to receive it become like Him, while refusing Christ's character loses heaven, and by laying hold of the Saviour and receiving His merits by faith men work out salvation through chosen character perfected like His.SPBC 178.2–4 Work for the roughest lowest in large cities by special efforts and encouraging experiments is work to restore that moral image, as one part of a balanced harmonious whole also laboring for those not sunk so low.Ms 67, 1896, par. 6–7 God's love for man so created led Him to give His Son to die for transgression of the moral law, and because increasing sin would make men forget God and promised redemption He established sacrificial offerings to typify that perfect offering.ST Apr 15, 1875 Restoring the wounded moral image, sinless at first then wounded and bruised leading to fall and expulsion, is the spiritual welfare and salvation of perishing humanity, done as the earthly family connects with the heavenly family with invisible angels cooperating with visible humans in practical unselfish ministry binding sin's wounds, separating selfishness and making partakers of divine nature, angels intensely interested as those who shouted over sinless creation, fought Satan and triumphed, witnessed the fall, now unite with the redeemed and rejoice whenever God's work prospers.6T 456.1–457.2 That image is the moral image, lost and to be restored through humble Christlike missionary work teaching religious and Christlike love for souls, with workers trained to labor for their own race until the moral likeness is restored.Lt 102b, 1899, par. 19

Every human being reflects God by creation and therefore belongs to God as His property, and because God valued each soul enough to give His Son for redemption every soul is doubly His, both by creation and by purchase with the precious blood of Christ, so no one has liberty to speak contemptuously of another, faults and weaknesses in others never excuse contempt, even the most degraded must be treated with respect and tenderness, and God will hold people accountable for even a word of contempt against one for whom Christ would lay down His life.Lt 102a, 1896, par. 14–15 God is not inactive, silent, solitary or indifferent, but from His throne actively communicates with every part of His dominion, watching every human movement, listening to every sound from oppressed lips, approving or condemning every action toward Himself or toward His heritage, and raising up the afflicted whom Satan seeks to humiliate and destroy.Lt 102a, 1896, par. 14–15 Every act of injustice, robbery and oppression against those formed in His image is noticed by holy intelligences and written in the books, to take advantage of them and wound and bruise their souls is to drive on Satan's work with terrible vindictiveness and cooperate with the great enemy of God and man and with evil angels, the Lord sees and hears the cries of His children, He will treat unselfish oppressors with the same indifference they showed to fellow men, and they shall receive at His hand double for all these works.Lt 102a, 1896, par. 14–15

Every fellow man was formed in the image of God, so Christ enjoins the duty of respecting him, having come to represent God's character in meekness and lowliness to restore and save with a heart ever touched with human woe, leaving no place for a vindictive spirit.Ms 55, 1894, par. 11–12 Because the human family is the Lord's property by creation and redemption, anyone who abuses position or power by oppressing fellow men under any circumstances will render an account to God and meet his actions as done to Christ in the person of the oppressed, for Christ identifies His interest with the suffering, the hungry, the naked and the imprisoned, having paid the ransom with the price of His own blood.Ms 55, 1894, par. 11–12 Every person bears God's stamp and is individually His workmanship in body, soul, intellect, mind and talents, belonging to the Lord by creation and redemption, and that likeness gives each person sacred individual rights, individuality and identity that cannot be surrendered to another human being, including freedom to think and privilege to follow impressions of duty.RCOC 31.2–32.1+1 No human being has jurisdiction over another's conscience, no right to control another's mind, to judge for another and prescribe duty, to take away those God-given rights, or to be harsh, severe, dictatorial, bruising, exercising authority and dictating to fellow men, any more than to take life itself, for each is to be molded after the divine similitude and God Himself deals in infinite tenderness with His heritage and is not a tyrant.RCOC 31.2–32.1+1

God formed humanity giving flesh and blood, nerve and muscle, mind, intellect and reasoning powers to serve Him in His appointed way, and by creation joined with redemption by the blood of His only-begotten Son humanity belongs to God, entrusted with talents, abilities and opportunities to use, improve and return for His service and glory and to proclaim His righteousness, with God demanding an account.17MR 197.2–4 Therefore no man may take another man soul and body under his control, treat him as a mere machine, or dictate and control God's chosen instrumentalities, for man is God's to work, impress, imbue with His Spirit and use, each soul bought at infinite price is more to God than costly mansions, gold or silver, possessing a soul capable of living through eternal ages, so riches of a world sink into insignificance beside loss of a soul, which God will require at the hands of those who unjustly ruin others by partiality, insincerity and unjust dealing and drive them away from Him.17MR 197.2–4 Man formed in God's image is God's property bought with infinite price, even the blood of His Son, so men are not their own, and body, soul and spirit with all powers of thought, word and deed are to be consecrated to the Master alone, trained and improved for better service to Jesus Christ and used only in His service, each giving account with return proportionate to goods entrusted under rule and pledge to God alone.Lt 199, 1901, par. 7–10 Therefore God's people must preserve individuality, refuse to bind themselves by oppressive contracts, make no confederacies, never make flesh their arm but look to, trust in and do the Lord's will, and no man has right to force another's conscience or subject those Christ humbled Himself with insult and rejection to secure in willing obedience and to elevate and ennoble to human despotism.Lt 199, 1901, par. 7–10

God placed high value upon the human family because man was formed in the image of his Creator, while works of each successive day were called good man was pronounced very good, and no other creature called forth such exhibitions of His love.4T 562.4 That value remained when all was lost by sin, for God gave His dear Son to redeem the fallen race, it being His will they should not perish in sins but live to use powers in blessing the world and honoring their Creator, therefore no one is to live to himself or follow perverse will but to live to benefit others according to God's will, and professed Christians abusing blessings given them will be called to account by the Master.4T 562.4 God's estimate of worth is shown in giving His only-begotten Son to save man made in His image with a trace of His character, so the price of a human soul is the life of the Son of God, and therefore no one made in that image, high or low, rich or poor, white or black, is to be treated with contempt.ST Christ clothed divinity with humanity to meet humanity without extinguishing it, and came as a servant in lowly ministry to seek and save the lost and lift up the lowly, while Satan works through intemperance and sin to lay that image in ruins and obliterate every trace of God's character.ST

Every person still bears the image of God, whatever nation, kindred or tongue, whether white or black, making worth universal and enduring and making man the proper study of mankind as purchase of Christ's blood.ST Nov 20, 1893 God's estimate is manifest in giving Jesus, heaven's best gift, to humiliation, poverty, self-sacrifice, contempt, rejection and death that His lost sheep might be saved, therefore no nation or person is to be despised or hated, to show contempt or hatred reveals Satan's characteristic, profound gratitude is demanded from every soul, and all heaven with ten thousand times ten thousand angels ascending and descending to minister and encamp around those fearing God is interested in man's ransom.ST Nov 20, 1893 God created man in His moral image, and that moral image must be restored in Black people through missionary labor done in God's love, by treating Black workers from a Bible standpoint as humble men for Christlike service without petting them or making too much of them even when they possess keen and superior talents, by teaching them religious and Christlike love for souls of their own colored race, and by keeping before them that they are called to labor for their own race and not for whites.CNA 139.1

Human beings bear God's likeness and therefore have such worth that Christ sacrificed His life for them, having manifested forgiving love and pity toward them.3SP 194.2–195.2+2 For that reason Satan hates them and determined to spare no pains to destroy as many as possible of those created in His image, practicing every species of deception by which they might be lost, pursuing that course with more energy because of his own hopeless condition and because he knows the empire he usurped will in the end be wrested from him.3SP 194.2–195.2+2 Every human being is made in God's image and Satan hates every one for that reason, his hatred coming from bitterest enmity toward God and toward His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ, so he seeks to bring people under deceptions, injure them, weaken faith and make them incapable of serving God under Christ in order to grieve Jesus.FE 299.1

Man is made in the image of his Maker, so holding fellow-men in slavery, severing ties of nature, oppressing them day by day, and inflicting inhuman tortures with relentless cruelty that compares with cruelty papists and heathen exercised toward Christ's followers violates that image and causes a man in that image to inflict untold agonizing suffering on his fellow-man.RH Aug 27, 1861+1 Angels stand amazed at such hard-hearted suffering, the cries and sufferings of the oppressed reach unto heaven, the names of oppressors are written in blood, crossed with stripes and flooded with agonizing burning tears of suffering, in the execution of judgment it will be more tolerable for heathen and papists than for such men, God's anger will not cease until the land of light drinks dregs of the cup of His fury and until Babylon is rewarded double for what she did to those made in His image.RH Aug 27, 1861+1 Human beings are God's workmanship made for standing above brute creation, and enslaving them and dealing in slaves and souls of men reduces that workmanship to lowest depths of degradation and places image-bearers on a level with brutes.RH Aug 27, 1861+1 Severing ties of nature and carrying human agony from place to place to be bought and sold inflicts indescribable agony, inhuman torture and untold suffering by man upon fellow-man, which all heaven beholds with indignation, angels record in the book, fills heaven with indignation and amazes angels, and such oppression by professed followers of Jesus is enormous grievous sin and solemn mockery giving Satan triumph, kindling God's burning wrath against the nation and especially against religious bodies sanctioning and practicing it until oppressors are rewarded double.RH Aug 27, 1861+1

Human beings formed in God's image are under His special care, receiving far greater love, care and attention than buds, blooming flowers, lilies and grass He clothes with beauty and purity even though cut down and cast into the oven.ST Feb 7, 1878+2 The beauty and purity of nature express God's love and teach those made in His image how He cares for them and how much more He delights to give them eternal inheritance and immortality, He has already given them the greatest gift heaven could bestow, His Son, and if they connect with God and heaven in Jesus' name and strength they can develop symmetrical spotless characters like the pure lily, take hold of heaven's blessings and have right hold upon earth, looking up through nature to nature's God.ST Feb 7, 1878 Man formed in His image holds highest rank in creation's scale, God gives attention proportionate to rank occupied, so if He keeps in order and clothes grass that today lives and tomorrow is burned, feeds ravens and watches sparrows, He bestows far more upon man, the soul's value cannot be exaggerated, heaven's attention is correspondingly great, all lower things kept in time and season testify God loves man, and this love grounds assurance it is the Father's good pleasure to give him the kingdom.Ms 73, 1893, par. 4–8 Human beings as children formed in His image are far more precious than flowers He made and decked with beauty, He tends flowers continually with all-seeing eye upon them and called them good, yet because people bear His image He guards them still more tenderly, His loving care surrounds each child of God, calling for obedient life that in no way displeases Him but praises His name and loves Him always.1T 19.1–4

Men and women formed in God's own image are His children and special objects of love and care, the God whose hand made lofty trees, grass, buds and flowers expresses love in every bud and flower, and His wonderful care for birds and flowers proves He will care still more for those bearing His image.CH 171.1+4 Seeing that care in nature teaches God's love and makes the sick ready to acknowledge He will care for them, so healthful outdoor exercise amid country surroundings restores and invigorates the diseased body and refreshes the worn mind, sick people placed amid nature can learn this lesson, and physicians and helpers can uplift the God of nature before seekers to reach souls and restore body and mind.CH 171.1+4 People are intelligent spiritual worshipers of greater value than birds, the God who created and preserves human life can be trusted to provide for needs.SC 123.1 God placed high value by making man in His image with noble intellectual and moral powers and capability of placing human will in perfect harmony with His will, having the mind that was in Christ Jesus and bearing divinity's stamp, and this worth at creation stands together with worth shown when Christ purchased all by His life's sacrifice, so men are not their own.Lt 105, 1893, par. 31–36

The value God places on humanity is shown in giving His beloved Son to shameful death to save them from ruin in atonement for all mankind, His tender disinterested love toward transgressors greater than any earthly parent's, affectionately studying happiness of His heritage and delighting in harmony and love among His children.Ms 18, 1896, par. 1+1 Because God is infinite, His love revealed in Christ's atonement shows that worth, Christ's blood is of unlimited value able to save to the uttermost all who can be persuaded to come, therefore every individual formed in His image is bidden to come and be saved, and men are to be used as His agents without selfishness or exclusiveness to win fellow men from sin and reach the neglected.Lt 33, 1898, par. 24–26 Humans formed in His image constrain Him by love and goodness to delight in their well-doing and happiness, expressed in giving His only-begotten Son as propitiation for a guilty world so whoever believes will not perish but have everlasting life, and He continually exercises tender love toward even transgressors.STGC 62.4+2 Human beings are creatures formed in His image whom He loves with past-understanding love as tender pitying Friend of sinners desiring them saved in His kingdom, and the claim He delights in torturing image-bearers in hell to burn through ceaseless eternity misrepresents Him as cruel tyrant, puts a wall of darkness between people and Him, and makes them fear and despair of ever being saved from sin's doom.LSEGW 30.4–31.1

Every soul bears the image and therefore has value and dignity discerned by Christ, including children whom He regards with divine compassion, died that they might have eternal life, and counts as precious and savable unto eternal life just as others.8MR 434.3–436.1+1 Even the most unfortunate bear God's image and are of value, so those with true religion must reveal Christ and show they learned in His school by using entrusted gifts and means as stewards and trustees, as Christ used eternal riches, to seek and save the lost, minister to God's family, and relieve the needy and suffering for whom He gave His life, knowing they must reckon to the Master for use of His goods and will not be approved as good faithful servants if they enjoy comforts with no care for the less fortunate.SW 46.1 Man formed in God's image stands far above birds and dumb creatures of His care, so a human is of much more value than animals, and even a poor afflicted blind man is entitled to tenderest consideration, neighborly love, mercy, compassion and courtesy, far more than game or birds, with praiseworthy reasonable Godlike compassion.4T 326.2–327.2+1

This dignity makes care for human health and regular habits of eating especially important, for humans formed in their Maker's image are of greater value than animals.HTL2 32.3–33.1 Man made in God's image is of far greater worth than a brute animal and far better than a sheep or other dumb animal, so to leave a suffering man unhelped and unrelieved on the Sabbath while at once rescuing a fallen animal or beast from danger for fear of loss puts the animal above man, exalts the dumb animal above image-bearing man, reverses God's order and denies creation dignity, while doing good and showing mercy to man on the Sabbath is lawful and honors both the day and man's God-given dignity.4RED 50.3–51.1+1 Human beings bear God's image, which calls for respect for man as sacred principle of morality and justice joined with reverence for God, plainly stated in divine laws given in Israel's wilderness journeyings to be read and understood today.Lt 44, 1903, par. 25 Every fellow worker is formed in God's image and therefore must be treated with respect in word and action, with words expressing Christ's sympathy and revealing God's purposes of love, speaking the language of Canaan as those no more of the world and separate from its methods.Lt 196, 1901, par. 23

Every person, even the drunkard degraded by liquor traffic, was made in God's likeness and remains capable of better things, entrusted with abilities to honor God and bless the world, which gives human life great worth in His sight.MH 341.1+1 Because they bear that likeness and have been bought with His own blood, God cares for them, hears their cries, sees first cause and last effect of drunkenness, marks wickedness laying snares to rob them to build others in luxury and perpetuating crime and misery, and will require account from those who helped speed them to ruin.MH 341.1+1 Being created in God's image means bearing character after the divine similitude, and perfecting character after that likeness is now the purpose, carried out through most thorough education of organized companies to work as nurses, evangelists, ministers, canvassers and gospel students, in preparation to receive higher education in the school above.MOPP 16.2+4

The Scriptures reveal what God expects of beings formed in His image, how to improve present life and secure future immortal life, satisfying mind's questionings and heart's cravings as no other book can.CE 37.1–38.1+4 By obtaining knowledge of God's word, giving heed to it and testing all plans and purposes by it as His will revealed, men may rise from lowest depths of ignorance and degradation to become sons of God and associates of sinless angels with every thought, feeling and aspiration ennobled, and clear conception of what God is and requires gives humble views of self, teaching human intellect is not omnipotent and without help only God can give human strength and wisdom are weakness and ignorance.CE 37.1–38.1+2 Men and women as creatures formed in Christ's image belong to Him, revealing His unprecedented self-denial and love proved by leaving heaven and assuming their fallen nature to save them.3SP 183.2+2 God created man in His similitude with a soul to be saved and sense of eternal realities, faith in God and confidence in man, but sin the greatest evil causes multitudes sunken deep to lose that similitude, lose sense of eternal things and hardly know whether they have souls, leaving neither faith nor confidence.ST Jul 6, 1915+1 Such sinners are to be pitied and helped, with physical wants first cared for through disinterested kindness by feeding, cleansing and decently clothing them, so seeing unselfish love makes it easier to believe in Christ's love.ST Jul 6, 1915+1 Every human, male and female alike, bears God's image, and no person has any right to defile himself or deform that image by poisoning it with tobacco and alcohol or polluting Heaven-given air with smoke.4MR 445.2

Man was created to reveal God's image, and that image was to appear in him through obedience to Jehovah's laws in his natural laws.HL 23.6 Human beings formed in that image must honor God by obeying nature's laws, especially those governing the human organism and life itself, for breaking life's laws breaks God's law and disqualifies for His service.CT 189.3 Warnings are sent against this violation, yet habit is strong and warnings go unheeded when men are determined to follow wrong habits without reasoning from cause to effect, sacrificing health, peace and happiness to bodily pain and mental disquietude.CT 189.3 Unlike the swallow and crane that observe seasonal change and migrate to a suitable climate in obedience to the laws of their life, image-bearers fail in this obedience.CT 189.3

Though man fell from a perfect holy state by transgressing God's law, with disease, suffering and death rapidly increasing since, God still extends love and lets light shine to show that a perfect life requires living in harmony with the natural laws governing being, so that body and mind are exercised to His glory.3T 162.4+1 The body is a wonderful structure like a harp of a thousand strings entrusted to human charge, and because all powers belong to God for service, which is rendered far better in health than in disease, it is sacred duty and privilege to understand His established laws and govern habits into harmony with them.RH Sep 12, 1871 As the body is understood it is to be brought into subjection to the noble powers of the mind, kept in harmonious action and preserved as perfect as possible by intelligence, so the mind may comprehend the breadth and length and depth and height and know Christ's love as the secret of true happiness.RH Sep 12, 1871

Men and women were formed as reasonable beings, and because body and spirit are God's they have no right to treat the body as they please but must glorify Him in body and spirit and keep the image as perfect as possible by preserving body and mind in healthiest condition.SG4 148.1–2 This sacred duty is done by obedience, denying unhealthy appetite and gross passions and doing what God requires instead of leaving God to do man's part.SG4 148.1–2 Those who give themselves to self-gratification and bring disease on themselves cannot render acceptable service, cannot weigh truth's evidences nor comprehend God's requirements, and their unworthy offering is no more accepted than Cain's, nor will Christ raise them while they persist in sinking lower.SG4 148.1–2

Man was created with God-like manhood and God-given powers carrying dignity and honor, whose object is to honor God and bless fellow men, pointing to the high destiny of becoming sons of God for which this life's discipline prepares.CE 69.3+1 Sin is to be hated and shunned not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment but from sense of its inherent baseness, because it degrades those powers and stains that manhood.CE 69.3+1 Through education begun here and continued hereafter man may be restored to God's image, and eternity alone will reveal the glorious destiny of the restored.PP 601.1–602.1

Even men weak in moral power retain a little reason and a little semblance of the image not entirely obliterated, and giving them liquor instead of helping them overcome appetite extinguishes that little reason and obliterates what little of the image remains.Ms 92, 1893, par. 2 Human reason with sound brain and strong will-power belongs to the image, and intoxicants deface and deform it by taking away reason, diseasing the brain, weakening the will and making appetite uncontrollable, so good resolutions are overpowered, the wife forgotten and hungry naked children neglected.ST Oct 27, 1914 No licensing revenue can compensate for this downfall of the soul, which ruins children into pauperism and degradation and perpetuates evil tendencies in their children.ST Oct 27, 1914+2 The moral image includes power to distinguish right from wrong and sacred from common, and the liquor traffic destroys that moral image, ruins God's workmanship, health, reason and families, so sustaining drink by voice and vote aids Satan in that destruction.Ms 87, 1898, par. 12–14

Man was made with reason, intellect, self-control and mental and moral powers meant to rule appetite and passion and placing him above the brute, yet indulging appetite for spirituous liquor, rum, tobacco and other stimulants voluntarily debases him below the brute.HL 114.1+2 The draught placed to the lips paralyzes reason, benumbs intellect, excites animal passions and leads to crimes of most debasing character, making him a shame and curse to family and terror to all around, unable to give God an undivided heart or love neighbor as himself because indulgence engrosses affection and sells reason and self-control to craving.Ms 108, 1894, par. 7+1 Strict temperance in all things, touching not, tasting not, handling not spirituous liquors, narcotics, tea, coffee, wines and opium, lets reason hold the reins and keep appetites and passions under control, preserving the image.3T 561.2+2

Living as bearers means keeping reason in control, refusing to create a liquor appetite having no foundation in nature and refusing to put the bottle to a neighbor's lips, for giving way to drink dethrones reason, defaces the image and brings misery, crime and disease, and drunkards so debased shall not inherit the kingdom.ST Oct 17, 1878 Man was created to reflect God with powers meant to govern animal appetites, yet free use of tobacco enslaves higher powers to animal nature, and spirituous liquor drags the reflector below the brute, paralyzing reason, dulling intellect, exciting passions to debasing crimes.3T 561.2 Temperance, firm denial of appetite, plain non-exciting food and touching not, tasting not, handling not liquors and narcotics keeps reason in control of appetite and is the only path of safety.3T 561.2

God made man a little lower than angels with physical, mental and spiritual strength and attributes that if properly used make him a blessing and reflect glory to God, yet through intemperance of any kind he violates principle and God's law in his physical nature.CH 105.1+2 Such intemperance benumbs perceptive organs and weakens brain-nerve power so eternal things are not appreciated but leveled with common things, and higher powers designed for elevated purposes are enslaved to baser passions.CH 105.1+2 Because great sympathy exists between physical and moral, wrong physical habits prevent mental and moral powers from being strong, and right physical habits are required for their strength.CH 105.1+2 Making appetite god by worshiping the stomach and living to eat instead of eating to live brings self-destruction until powers are destroyed, and Christ came in flesh to give another trial to uplift from that fall.ST Jul 4, 1900

God gave powers for His service and expects them kept unimpaired in best condition, for world misery comes not because God loves suffering but because men weaken themselves by immoral practices adding successive falls since Adam, especially by spirituous liquors shortening life despite repeated warning.CTBH 39.2–4 Christians owe it as duty to God and neighbor to bring every appetite and passion under enlightened conscience and obey life and health laws to preserve health, thereby receiving physical and mental vigor and moral power to war against Satan and in Christ who conquered for them be more than conquerors.CTBH 39.2–4

Surrender to appetite degrades created dignity, lowering beneath beasts and sacrificing manhood, honor, reasoning faculties and sensitive mind that place man above beasts, especially when appetite holds complete control and benumbs mental sensibilities.HTL2 25.2+1 This decline is gradual, as highly seasoned food creates morbid appetite leading to further indulgence until health and intellect are sacrificed to lust.HTL2 25.2 Failure to control eating is intemperance, especially subsisting on highly seasoned animal food and free pork making blood impure, unbalancing circulation and producing feverish system with chills, fever and failing appetite, leading to ale for stimulation, then continual ale, then stronger drink, then every excess until lower than beasts.HL 116.2 Indulged appetite with rich animal food, pork and stimulating intoxicating drinks confuses brain, beclouds reason, impairs health and circulation and benumbs mind so sacred spiritual things and obligation to God, family and community are not discerned, and by letting appetite control reason man barters reason for drink to a mere wreck, a slow sure process beginning with making appetite god, with guilt remaining even in intoxication.SG4 124.3–125.2

Men were formed with reasoning faculties, fine feelings of soul and high sense of sacred requirements, yet depraved appetite destroys fine feelings so holy things lose sacredness and disobedience looks pleasing instead of exceeding sinful.SG4 13.4 Satan rejoices to see image-bearers yield as slaves to depraved appetite, for he can then control mental faculties and lead the intemperate to debase themselves and dishonor God, as appetite led Aaron's sons to offer common instead of sacred fire.SG4 13.4 God created the moral image seen in character with high design for what man was to be, yet habits of tobacco and liquor destroy appreciation of that design, benumbing soul sensibilities so sacred things cannot be discerned, manifesting inferiority.Ms 123, 1901, par. 1 Giving self to intemperance brings littleness, earthliness and degradation wearing away the moral image till scarcely a trace remains, making wretched homes and unfitting for heaven, so the debased must not be pattern and the first step shunned.CTBH 147.1

The image embraces physical strength, clear brain able to distinguish sin from truth and will free from enslaving poison, and tobacco enfeebles physical powers, confuses brain, yields will to narcotic, stupefies senses, chains will in hard-to-overcome slavery with Satan as advocate and leads to craving for stronger fermented wines and liquors, all intoxicating.CTBH 17.4+1 This mars the image, dishonors God and violates purity, self-denial and temperance such as Christ exercised in His long wilderness fast to break appetite's power, and unholy appetites grow to habit giving satanic power over the appetite-overcome mind.CTBH 17.4+1 The conflict against this evil destroying the image must be vigorously maintained with no tame message, and God will send holy angels to aid those destroying these idols, though the world is revolted and corrupted.Lt 102a, 1897, par. 14–15

God created man with full faculties — clear brain to appreciate eternal realities, healthful sinews and muscles for service, steady action, clear speech and living sensibilities — to be used to His glory in all said and done.Ms 80, 1903, par. 34–35 Drunkenness from beer, wine or other intoxicating liquors temporarily spoils this image, changing a man in full possession of faculties into a changed being with unsteady steps, thick indistinct utterance, confused brain and benumbed sensibilities.Ms 80, 1903, par. 34–35 Using poisonous tobacco and drinking alcohol poison deform the image, and smoking pollutes Heaven-given air for life, so male and female alike bearing the image have no right to defile or deform it.4MR 445.2 The image must therefore be preserved by temperate habits begun in childhood, avoiding every association leading to indulgence and using every power to fulfill His will.Ms 80, 1903, par. 34–35

Because human beings are formed in the image, opening temptation to another is serious responsibility, and since moderate wine and cider lead toward drunkenness, avoiding them protects others and supports lasting temperance.5T 360.2 Reason belongs to the image and must not be destroyed, yet money earned in cities spent not for bread but for drink from publican or saloon-keeper destroys reason and defaces the image.FE 326.1+2 To honor the image families should leave crowded cities for the country where temptation is fewer and children of God-fearing parents can learn wisdom from God and the Great Teacher and gain fitness for heaven.FE 326.1+2

God created people to bear the divine image, and that image is not borne when one trifles with hearts, encourages improper intimacy, draws affection and worship to self and leads minds from God to center on self, robbing God of devotion and heart-worship He claims, however idolized as ideal perfection being only erring faulty clay.Lt 4, 1885, par. 9–10 The image is purity and Christlike loveliness, and truth enthroned restores it by sanctifying, making pure and keeping pure, more after Christ's likeness and more lovely, without which truth is valueless and unsaving.Lt 115, 1893, par. 9–10 Caprice and changing passions — envy, jealousies and evil surmisings — deface the image.Lt 115, 1893, par. 9–10 The image is innocence, serenity and benevolence fully seen in Christ's face bearing heaven's signet, convicting beholders at His trial of loyalty and royal character never to be forgotten as Cain's face exposed murderous guilt, yet accusers refused to heed, and at the cross God covered that countenance with thick darkness hiding His glory and Christ's last agony.ST Dec 8, 1898

Being created in the image includes true manhood, self-control and power over will, and forgetting origin when provoked, giving up to passion and self-rule, letting feeling run away with judgment and yielding to Satan sadly defaces and mars it.4T 90.2–91.1 Such impulsive unsubdued uncontrolled soul cannot live among pure angels nor be admitted to heaven, and evil in nature must be seen in true sinfulness and corrected at once by conversion becoming as a little child.4T 90.2–91.1 God created humanity with noble nature, well-balanced mind, pure thoughts and holy aims originally perfect and harmonious, but sin perverted powers and weakened nature.SC 17.1 Minds and faculties entrusted to be controlled by God are to be cultivated, improved, expanded, elevated and ennobled in faithful duty, not devoted to enfeebling intellect by intemperance, pleasure-loving, liquor, tobacco, opium and drugs weakening hold on life, nor by horse-racing, card-playing, cricket and football, for laying God-given faculties on Satan's altar leaves God-given work undone and makes preparation for immortal life and Christ's second appearing impossible.Ms 5, 1899, par. 6–7

God gave mental and moral powers as priceless endowment for appreciating eternal worth, and Satan appeals to physical nature through intemperance and sensual indulgence to corrupt mankind, destroy those powers and blot every trace of likeness from the soul, while control of appetites and passions preserves it.DA 122.2 God put His image in the heart, and it is well-nigh effaced when appetite and passion are made chief good and heart filled with vileness, as sensual indulgence debases entire nature, drowns reason, perverts judgment, makes thoughts earthly and words low and brings will surrendered to Satan to depths of vice and folly.MYP 66.3 Those so living are low, vile and corrupt in God's estimation however high before the world, with depravity written on the countenance, and truth appeals to intellect in vain because heart opposes its pure principles.MYP 66.3+1

Human beings were formed to link with heaven by goodness, purity, truth, reverence, love for sacred things and holy affections and noble desires, and to dishonor that image by licentiousness and gratification of animal propensities weakens mind, debases soul, benumbs moral and intellectual powers and consumes holy affections in lust's fires.PP 458.1 Those so dishonoring the image will not scruple at any dishonor to God gratifying depraved desire, putting sensual indulgence before idolatry, and the slave of passion cannot realize law's obligation, appreciate atonement or value the soul, but is dragged to brutes with soul a blackened waste habitation of evil spirits.PP 458.1 Man is noblest earthly being made in the image, and moral pollution practiced by youth and children of both sexes, a soul-and-body-destroying vice wrecking body and mind, degrades that creation and transforms man into gross corrupt beast.CH 662.1 To preserve the divine image every Christian must restrain passions and be controlled by principle, without which he is unworthy of the name.CH 662.1

Secret habits taxing brain, exhausting vital energy, debilitating system and exposing body to disease make complete wreck of beings so formed, and this moral pollution is impure and hateful to God bringing His frown, surely bringing reward for cause must bring results.ApM 28.1–29.2+1 None can so indulge and be Christian or enjoy God's favor, and favor is regained only by sincere repentance, entire reform and perfecting holiness in fear of the Lord, living elevated in thought and act while fitting for immortality without spot or wrinkle or blemish to dwell with pure sinless beings in God's kingdom.ApM 28.1–29.2+1

Human beings are made with noble mental powers meant for high moral and intellectual themes, yet reading exciting love stories, looking at nude art and whatever suggests impure thoughts defiles imagination and leads to sins and crimes dragging image-bearers below brutes to perdition at last.CTBH 137.4 Feeding imagination with exciting stories, impure pictures and nudity awakens lower baser passions and corrupts morals, and giving loose rein to lustful passions drags beings far above beasts down to beasts, so impure reading and seeing must be avoided and pure themes cultivated lest even strong minds be unbalanced and almost paralyzed by intemperate reading.CTBH 137.4+1

Evil seeks to obliterate the image in the young, and Christians are to represent Christ in contrast with the age.RH Feb 17, 1903 The moral image is defaced when youth are led gradually from safe into forbidden paths step by step ever downward by satanic agencies, seduced and made strengthless into habits such as wine-drinking bringing shame and suffering to themselves and parents.Ms 92, 1893, par. 3 Secret vice destroys and defaces the image in children, and youthful profligacy even in children like Sodom's sins does this work, permitted by parents conforming to the world and letting children meet worldly standard by failing to educate to love and obey God, to restrain and diligently teach the Lord's way.TBC1882 60.2–3+1

God created every youth in His image a little lower than angels with impress pure not corrupt, fitting for usefulness here and society with angels hereafter, while appetite slavery, debasing vice, perverted appetites and moral wreckage are not made by God but formed afterward.3T 568.2+1 They come when parents indulge appetite, fail to control passions, neglect proper self-denying training according to given pattern and transmit own sins, while Satan supplies temptations weakened will cannot resist.3T 568.2+1 To lose that image is to become too impure to remain in God's presence or with pure angels in holy heaven, and parents making children what they are bear fearful responsibility when meeting face to face at final reckoning.3T 568.2+1

God gave man muscles and His image, and training muscles to fight other humans misuses that gift.Ms 233, 1902, par. 10 Maiming and bruising another mars the image, which is wicked mischievous devilish, and making amusement of fighting and judging by self-made law is satanic cruelty and lawlessness disregarding God's Word and His image.Ms 233, 1902, par. 10 Human beings created in the image have God-given dignity and worth shown as the price Christ paid on Calvary, and the liquor traffic brutalizes and destroys that dignity.PK 186.1+2 To degrade a redeemed soul by drink lowers what ought to reflect God to below brutes, and those originating, preserving and selling poisonous drink even when legal commit injustice and cruelty lacking Christ's mind and will be accountable and arraigned at judgment, making it grievous to enact laws supporting the trade.Ms 90, 1894, par. 6–7+1

Because God made man in His image He has right to affections and whole mind and expects powers rendered back, with man's great value shown at Calvary where Christ left heaven's honor and glory to die to elevate and redeem.Ms 18, 1887, par. 11–12 The same Creator instructed Manoah's wife in temperance for offspring, standing for every mother: to give well-balanced minds mothers must be temperate and keep heart and affections sound to impart healthful mind and body.Ms 18, 1887, par. 11–12 Man must preserve every power in best condition for service, especially the body as God's given habitation, and the newborn given life by the Creator should live naturally rather than be given injurious killing stimulants.Ms 18, 1887, par. 11–12+1

God created man with natural inclinations good and powers rightly applied, but Satan brought collision with God perverting inclinations and misapplying powers and works continually to destroy the divine image, so following natural inclinations harms self and others and words and actions must be restrained.MYP 68.1–2 Man was formed to magnify the Lord of Hosts by contemplating God's love and perfection of His law, yet fails though creation reveals God's good merciful forbearing character, and transgression brings divine displeasure upon the world readable in nature's testimony.Ms 62, 1898, par. 14+1

Remembering the great Creator made finite man after His likeness and placed him in God's world in His presence gives sense of the infinite and calls to contemplate God.CTBH 125.3+2 Meditating on this likeness with God's watchful loving eye giving His Son to redeem from perishing lifts soul above earthly commonplace to ennobling eternal, leads thought into broad exalted fields, develops youthful minds to noblest reach and leaves no satisfaction in trivial sensational subjects.CTBH 125.3+4 Neglecting God's Word as highest wisdom prevents that development, while opening mind and heart to these themes gives highest wisdom.CT 139.2+1 God offers love and impress of His image, yet those doubting His Word, following independent judgment and choosing darkness refuse that love and impress, staying in darkness at soul peril, over whom divine love sheds anguished tears.3SP 13.1+1

Man was the crowning act of creation made to be counterpart and represent God by revealing Christ's life in humanity, and because so formed is very dear to God.HL 10.2–3+1 Therefore defiling the body by appetite or any sinful practice is sin, and teaching against it by precept and example is urgent, with medical missionary education on how to live doing great good in preserving it, since Satan labors to obliterate God's image and imprint his own.HL 10.2–3+1 Human beings were created to glorify their Maker with God-given manhood, yet sin and Satan erase likeness through pride, self-indulgence, appetite, liquor, tobacco, vanity, wealth, display and degenerate fashion, enslaving, beclouding reason, dulling intellect, crippling manhood, dishonoring God and neglecting judgment preparation for which account of life-work must soon be given.ST Apr 12, 1905+1

God's work is after the divine image not human pattern in everything affecting character, part of original plan requiring entire consecration of soul, body and spirit to meet present emergencies.Lt 183, 1901, par. 24 Man was made according to the divine similitude which is character, and God's design is to bring humans into connection with Himself so humanity touches humanity and Spirit-controlled men increase in knowledge strengthening every principle according to that likeness, with providentially appointed centers as special workings for this restoration.Ms 195, 1898, par. 6 Man must form character after that likeness by earnestly cultivating mind as the Lord's garden, cultivating and using every mental and physical power in right relation to make a perfect whole, so the church as building represents the Designer's wisdom amid last-day perils.2MR 341.2 Though men fell and became children of wrath, Jesus by mercy and abundant grace trains fallen men effecting amazing transformation to develop characters after the similitude again as sons and daughters fitted for heaven's occupations and pleasures, a fortress impregnable to Satan's sophistries and confederacy, a mystery to him and astonishment and joy to seraphim, cherubim and cooperating powers.CET 208.2

God put His image in every soul and it can be restored when sinners turn back, with heaven delighting and rejoicing in restoration not destruction, for destruction is strange work to Him.COL 190.1 Yet divine love sheds anguished tears because though formed in Maker's likeness man will not accept love and receive the impress.ST Jan 10, 1878 Man formed in Maker's image should unite larger responsibilities with smaller as God does, giving attention to lesser matters even amid vast overwhelming business instead of neglecting children's instruction and home duties that found society and decide happiness of families, churches and eternal interests, for the world needs good men blessing homes more than great minds.4T 522.2+2

Meeting the similitude fits a family for companionship with saints in light, while being far from it requires thorough transformation of every member with genuine daily conversion and Spirit's influence to understand spiritual things.Lt 66, 1896, par. 2 Young men and women created in Maker's image and likeness, as younger members of the Lord's family, are to be trained by God's plan of development with this identity impressed, and schools are God's instrumentalities to make known Himself.ICEP 4.1 Being made in the image means spirit must represent Christ's Spirit and Christ seated at God's right hand is pattern to follow for perfect character, and teachers must keep that high divine plan in view instead of narrow low worldly models, working so pupils are conformed to Him in love and commandment-keeping, living for God not world.STSE 104.2–105.2+4

The divine image is model for character parents should help children develop, and through Christ's grace parents can train toward it so it is seen in characters, transforming natural self-centered character, softening harshness, subduing coarseness, producing affectionate words, actions and home courtesy.ST May 7, 1894+1 Children should be guided to develop characters shaped after this likeness.RH Sep 15, 1904 Every soul was created to bear the image, and impressing it on children is parents' first home work by careful looks, words, actions shaping future, with intellectual culture and moral training fortifying minds with firm pure principles and laying foundation for noble manhood and womanhood rewarded a thousandfold.CT 130.3–131.1 Fathers and mothers watch for souls teaching line upon line with courage, energy and reliance on divine aid in labor enduring as eternity, leading to gradual elevation exerting every faculty to know and strengthen powers, living for higher object than pleasure and becoming perfect to see God.ST Sep 23, 1886

Children formed in the image must have this impressed in early years, for bearing it means loving and fearing God, keeping commandments, living in strict obedience to Thus saith the Lord and becoming what Christ's living example showed as pattern.Ms 67, 1909, par. 7–8 Teaching this identity and training to love Jesus and obey law is fathers' and mothers' greatest work, and even children and youth are to understand present saving truth to distinguish righteousness from sin and obedience from disobedience.Ms 67, 1909, par. 7–8 Human beings made after the similitude belong to the Lord, so children as Lord's property are entrusted to parents to be molded after His likeness as carefully as a palace, requiring harmonizing, never allowing disorderly actions or ungainly words, and never correcting with scolding, anger or passionate blows but with reason and self-control.Ms 64, 1911, par. 6

God Himself established family relations and His Word is only safe guide in managing children, for human philosophy has discovered nothing more than God knows nor wiser plan than the Lord's.ST Nov 24, 1881 The Creator understands children's needs and feels deeper interest because He bought them with blood, and when His Word is studied and obeyed there is less soul-anguish over perverse wicked children.ST Nov 24, 1881 Man was made in divine likeness to be developed in each soul, and with God's help developing it in children by educating to resist evil is the mother's work surpassing artist, sculptor, author and musician in importance.MH 377.1–378.1 Appreciating this she regards opportunities priceless, presents highest ideal in character and training, improves abilities, inquires at every step what God has spoken, studies His Word and fixes eyes on Christ so daily care and duty reflect the one true Life.MH 377.1–378.1

The divine similitude is pattern after which character and minds are molded, and Christian parents and those charged with others in an institution carry solemn terrible responsibility to educate to that likeness.Lt 47a, 1902, par. 1+1 This requires self-control, sweet temper, pleasing traits, pure principles, faith and prayer, overcoming harsh voice and disagreeable disposition without delay before habits fix and seeking God wholeheartedly.Lt 47a, 1902, par. 1+1 The divine likeness belongs on the expanding mind and heart, impressed in infancy when most susceptible to good or evil, so a mother with Christ within and countenance full of sunshine imparts pleasant influence reflecting that likeness, while harsh discordant fretful scolding impresses unhappiness and discord instead.Ms 129a, 1901, par. 4–5

Man was created in the image to be restored in the soul, which is true object of education, for knowledge is power for good or evil and only for good when balanced by religious principle with fear of the Lord as beginning of wisdom.HSFM 286.1 The first most precious knowledge for restoration is knowledge of Christ, to be kept ever before children, with parents patiently remedying character defects as carefully as bodily injury.HSFM 286.1+1 Higher education is experimental knowledge of salvation by earnest diligent Scripture study renewing mind and transforming character, restoring the moral image through Christ requiring self-humbling and walking in sent light.CT 11.1+1 Teachers must prepare students for what is coming by combining intellectual and moral powers to Bible standard in greatly changed education.Ms 69, 1908, par. 8

The moral image now to be restored through Jesus who gave His life requires cooperating with Christ in missionary work, being a student, improving faculties for best service, thinking soberly, consecrating daily, counting hours precious, purifying soul with resolution, using opportunities and reaching high standard.Ms 126, 1897, par. 14 It is catching the Spirit's inspiration and laboring with all given power, gaining knowledge of accountability to God and souls, helping souls higher and teaching youth to stand alone with firm purpose like Daniel, in which God helps so life is not vain.Ms 99, 1899, par. 28 The divine image is solemn elevating ennobling character every gospel minister must reflect in life and influence, while carelessness, recklessness, selfishness, self-sufficiency, laziness and unconsecration are contrary and unfit until transformed by severe self-discipline, thorough conversion and faithfulness in lesser temporal duties before bearing souls' burden.4T 440.1

Man formed in the image by all-wise Creator with bestowed faculties and advantages is certainly regarded by Him whose eye is on smallest creatures, and that honored position requires returns by faithfully improving gifts with diligence like bees and ants, greatly increasing usefulness instead of improving less wisely than those little teachers.4T 455.2 The Lord made man perfect with cultivable physical and mental powers, and will help young men and women develop them, correct defective speech and manner and fit to bear burdens in God's cause as they pray and cooperate with the Spirit working perfection.FE 215.1 Formed in the image with provision from Him who guides planets and upholds worlds, man may be little less than angels while doing earthly duties, and God designs bearers to rise higher toward perfection realizing His power and glory at every step.GW92 170.2 Responsibilities are exactly proportioned to light, opportunities and privileges, with accountability for good left undone through indolence in using means within reach.GW92 170.2 Endowed with reasoning powers, cared for by God and expected to grow spiritually and bear righteousness, they may through His Son be elevated, ennobled and glorified.5T 250.2

The moral image can be defaced by sinful conduct dishonoring God who redeemed at cost of blood, and can be perverted yet must be recovered and restored daily through Christ's grace, with lesser trials borne under God's control purifying and strengthening for greater.5T 511.1+1 Sin and degradation can destroy the moral image, yet sinners fallen to depths and cast out can be raised through the gospel for which Christ paid His blood to angels' joy.8T 73.2–74.1 Restoration comes as workers follow Christ relieving suffering and teaching righteousness, laboring in love to feed, cleanse, clothe and care for souls with angels and divine power cooperating to give opportunity to the perishing, and the restored can then help restore others as God's precious elect beside the throne.8T 73.2–74.1

Man was created with traces of God's love in soul, but the image has been sadly disfigured and nearly obliterated because men chose darkness rather than light.19MR 181.3+2 Since obedience wins eternal life and disobedience places man on Satan's side, the disloyal must repent and render obedience to law as warning that the Lord is at the door as in Noah's day.19MR 181.3+2 Adam in holy innocency shows how noble the moral image was, yet physical and moral wretchedness has so defiled it that man bears scarcely a resemblance, though following Christ's lessons of instruction and holy life would stay that tide.2RED 73.4–74.2+1

Christ came to uplift man toward the divine image by glorifying God and working His Sender's works, teaching righteousness by precept and example.ST Nov 12, 1896 His life lived out God's law as authoritative for every son and daughter of Adam, a perfect pattern and standard of moral excellence representing God's character and showing what man may become by partaking of divine nature.ST Nov 12, 1896 God created human beings with kingship including mastery of self, which was lost, and the gospel's saving power through grace restores it, giving self-control and producing Christlike lives practically demonstrating what grace can do.MH 132.2

Man was created in both outward form and inward heart, yet iniquity has debased the form and well-nigh obliterated the image from hearts.9MR 376.2 In the beginning God gave wholesome delicious food and placed man in dominion over dumb creatures, meaning mercy not taking creatures' life to consume flesh as luxury.MH 317.2 Flesh harms soul and body, and those seeking to become pure, refined and holy for angels' companionship should dispense with flesh and return to original food, practicing and teaching children this mercy.MH 317.2 Man wearing the image and delighting in it finds dignity putting obstacles in using animals as food, even herbivorous, calling instead to superior grains, vegetables and fruits.HLT1 20.2–21.2 Those made in the image should regard creatures with tenderness, for meat-eating cruelty destroys tenderness, and whatever affects body affects mind and soul so injurious flesh is morally injurious.ST Jun 13, 1916 Many animals display near-human intelligence in seeing, hearing, loving, fearing, suffering, faithful use of organs, sympathy, tenderness and affection superior to some humans, forming attachments broken only with suffering, so a human heart caring for domestics and seeing confident affectionate eyes cannot willingly give them to the butcher and devour flesh as sweet morsel.ST Jun 13, 1916

Man holds high place far above low flesh-eating scavengers such as the hog made to clean putrescent filth and never designed as food, and common sense and pure instinct show the creature made in the image was not designed to make the scavenger-in-chief staple food.HLT1 18.3–19.1 The human family formed in the image are next to angels noblest of created works, and God desires those made in His image to become all possible and do very best with given powers.MH 397.1–3 Life is mysterious and sacred as manifestation of God the source of life, whose precious opportunities once lost are gone forever, and God sets eternity with solemn realities before them, giving grasp on immortal themes and valuable ennobling truth to advance toward object worthy of all capabilities.MH 397.1–3

The grace of Christ revealed in speech and action teaches that man was made in God's likeness, bringing truth from under human conjecture to make known life's gospel, so born-again life expressing truth in good works lets light shine and glorifies the Father.Ms 3, 1909, par. 11 The image includes soul, body, spirit and moral likeness, and life's great object is to restore that whole image, meaning overcoming unnatural appetites and sinful indulgences, giving sin-sick souls courage to give up liquor, tobacco, tea and all flesh meat, and educating youth to perfect manhood to teach good things.10MR 231.2 Humanity was formed intended to reveal the image ever more fully with growing faculties and communion, with all powers harmonious, noble qualities and well-balanced mind, vast scope for research in visible mysteries and face-to-face heart-to-heart communion as high privilege growing eternally in knowledge, happiness and clearer conceptions of wisdom, power and love.ST Oct 19, 1915+2

By disobedience this was forfeited, the fall perverted gifts, sin marred and nearly erased likeness, weakened body and mind, lessened mental capacity, dimmed spiritual vision and subjected to death.ST Oct 19, 1915+2 The plan of salvation devised with granted probation aims to restore the Maker's image, bring back perfection of creation, promote development of body, mind and soul to fulfill God's purpose, and regain through Christ all lost by yielding to Satan, which is life's great object underlying every other and true object of education depending on faithfully carrying out Creator's plan with parents and teachers cooperating.ST Oct 19, 1915+2 Human beings so created are objects of special care and love, and God longs for them to reveal character like His.ST Nov 19, 1896 True nobility comes only by restoration, for which God has made full provision of grace and mercy to enrich into truthful refined uplifted ennobled life honoring the Creator, which the unconverted regarding as bondage, never bowed in will nor forgiven, cannot understand.Ms 81, 1897, par. 16–17

Adam and Eve at first lived simple in habits in harmony with nature's laws, with abundant supply, fewer imaginary wants and more opportunities to work in God's ways.DA 367.1–2 Selfishness and unnatural taste departed from that life bringing sin, misery, excess and want, yet God still shows tender care for common needs, so though plain scanty fare and poverty may be lot, need will be supplied with abiding comfort of His presence far better than luxuries.DA 367.1–2 God made male and female in Paradise surrounded with everything useful and lovely, planting a beautiful garden lacking no herb, flower or tree for use or ornament.Ms 44, 1900, par. 25 Knowing His workmanship with wonderful organs for use could not be happy without employment, He gave appointed work as soon as He made them in holy innocence, for Paradise delighted souls but was not enough, and labor calling bodily organs into exercise is necessary for happiness.Ms 44, 1900, par. 25