32 suffer persecution for Christ (2 Tim. 1:8, 12, 16; 1 Pet. 4:12–16). In such cases of misplaced shame, believers are to be clear-minded enough to give greater weight to God’s view of them than society’s devaluation of them. God has created human beings in His image, and that image includes attachments and relationships with others. We are social creatures by design. The study of sociology at Cedarville University examines the connection between the individual and the group in light of what Scripture says about human nature and the purpose for which God has created us. To summarize, we begin our thinking with two foundational assumptions: (1) God exists, and (2) He has revealed Himself in the Bible. The God with which we begin is beyond definition. He defines everything else in His created world. If anything other than God is the ultimate measure of significance, then that standard is god and it is the object of faith in which its proponents believe. From a biblical point of view, we refer to those objects of faith as idols. Those idols can be the social idols of individualism or the corporate group. By virtue of being created as religious creatures in the image of God, we must worship someone or something. Wherever we begin our thinking reveals the object of our trust. Human beings created in the image of God cannot think otherwise. Robert Parr is a Professor of Sociology at Cedarville. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from The Ohio State University.
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