PART ONE
by
Keith Hunt
There are many who reading the Bible read it as though all
and everything it contains is "parables" "symbolic" "metaphors"
and hence to them everything the Bible contains must be
understood in different and other ways than "literal."
Of course the Bible does use "symbols" (the book of
Revelation is full of them as is the book of Daniel) and
"parables" (Jesus in the four Gospels used parables time and
time again), but to understand everything written in the Bible as
symbolic and nothing as literal, meaning what it says and saying
what it means, would (as it has done with many) indeed bring
about hundreds of differing and conflicting ideas and teachings
as to what the Bible is saying. Truly reading the Word of the
Lord in ONLY this manner (as being only written in metaphors and
symbolism) would give credence to the saying that many Bible
agnostics use "Well, you can make the Bible say just about
anything."
Yet many who read the Bible this way, with anything but
"literal" in their minds, have no real concrete conception in
their mind or in words of expression, as to how to explain to
someone WHO or WHAT is God. They have little or no way to explain
to anyone the truth about God.
God, to them is so vague, so unreal, so mystic, so far away,
so clouded in foggy haze, they are usually just lost for words in
trying to explain what God is like to anyone who asks them to
explain their concept of God. Some religionists go so far as to
say it is just not possible to explain or understand God, to
themselves or to anyone else for that matter. To them it seems
God is a kind of nothingness, there but not there, living but yet
not living as we think of living in the human mind. Some think
of God as "in everything." In the trees, the rivers, the flowers,
and just everywhere in every living thing. Such a view still ends
up as God being a nebulous "nothingness." Then some religious
groups simply say it is impossible to know about or to understand
what God is, and teach you should not try to figure out the truth
about God.
Well, with such people and such religious groups with those
kinds of teaching about what God is, or in their case, what God
is not, for to them He is a concept of nothing in any tangible
way, I have to openly and bluntly confess, I have little or
"nothing" in common (pun intended).
So the following will also mean nothing to such people of
this theological mindset, who cannot conceive of God as anything
but a vague, un-describable essence of something out there yet
not out there in a literal way as having form and shape like we
humans have form and shape.
But, to you who read the Bible to include "literal" reading,
to you who believe the Bible does in most parts "says what it
says and means what it says" - then to you, this study will be
insightful and edifying. To you, if you have not already come to
see the wonderful truths that the Eternal God has revealed about
Himself in His Word, then you will be in for some real
eye-opening surprises. To you, you will come to see maybe as
never before the truth about God, at least what God has revealed
about Himself in His Word.
SOME DEFINITIONS
GOD. This word in its simple definition means DEITY and is a
general term used even of false gods as well as the true God of
heaven. The word GOD can be used and is used in the Bible as a
proper name for the ONE supreme God the Father (as He is called
in the New Testament). It is also used for the person of the New
Testament called Jesus Christ. Looking up every place in the New
Testament in an exhaustive Concordance of the Bible such as
"Strong's Concordance," where the word "God" is used will soon
clearly prove the above two points.
GODHEAD. The term simply means that which is divine. Col. 2:
9 states Jesus is part of the Godhead. Of course God the Father
is also of the Godhead. Hence we know there are TWO revealed to
us that are in the Godhead. The subject of the Holy Spirit, who
or what he/it is, I cover under a separate study on this Website.
ONE. Many get confused over this word. The Hebrew word for
"one" in the Scriptures as "one Lord" (Deut.6: 4-6) and "one God"
(Mal.2: 10) is ACHAD, and basically means, be unity, collect, be
united in one, one in number. It is used as ONE in unity many
times; "they shall be one flesh" (Gen.2: 24); "the people is one"
(Gen. 11: 6). The Greek word for ONE in "one Lord" and "one God"
in Mark 12: 29 is HEIS, together in one (John 11: 52) and to be
ONE in UNITY (John 10: 30; 17: 11, 21-23 ). The English word ONE
can also mean one in unity. We speak of " I belong to one certain
church congregation" or "I belong to our one local swimming
club."
Whether one in UNITY or one in NUMBER is the meaning in a
particular passage must be determined by the context of the
passage of Scripture we are reading and not by the meaning of the
word itself.
IN. This word means in many Bible passages "in union with"
and certainly when used of PERSONS it does not mean BODILY
ENTRANCE INTO. We read of God being IN Christ (2 Cor. 5: 19) and
Christ being IN God (John 14: 10-11, 20). We also note that
man can be IN Christ (2 Cor. 5: 19) and Christ can be IN man
(Rom.8: 10). We read of man being IN the Spirit and the Spirit
being IN man (Rom.8: 9). It never means in all these cases
BODILY ENTRANCE INTO, for all of the persons like God and Christ
and mankind are individual persons with their own individual
bodies and cannot be getting inside of each other in any literal
bodily sense.
When the apostle Paul said things like "I have you IN my
heart" and "You are IN our hearts (2 Cor. 7: 3; Phil. 1: 7), he
could not be meaning it was something literal but only meaning IN
UNION WITH, certainly not bodily entrance.
Being ONE with and IN each other does not depend on being in
any bodily contact, or the loss of any individual character or
personality. Persons can be IN each other and ONE with each
other, though they are literally in body, thousands of miles
apart from each other.
So Christ IN God and God IN Christ does not mean they are
one and the same PERSON. The NT (New Testament) clearly shows God
the Father and God the Son are TWO separate and distinct PERSONS.
They are not INSIDE each other, in a bodily manner. When Jesus
came to earth from the Father, the Father God was STILL in
heaven. When Jesus prayed to the Father in heaven, He was not
praying to Himself, but to the Father God who was a PERSON still
in heaven above. When Jesus died, and was dead and not still
alive (see the studies on "Death and Immortality" to prove that
death is not the continuing of life), the Father was alive in
heaven, and He, through His power of the Holy Spirit, raised
Jesus from the dead to a resurrection of immortal glory.
GOD IS A REAL PERSON
All of the following combined are proof positive that God is
a very real individual personal being.
Personal names are given Him (Gen.1:1; Ex. 3: 13-15; 6: 3;
Ps. 68: 4). He has many names showing many of His attributes. His
names are found over 19,000 times in the Scriptures.
Personal statements are made about God, just as they may be
about you and me and other persons.
Personal plans are ascribed to Him, such as that it was not
good for man to be alone and that He would thus make woman for
man. His plan to confound the one language at the tower of Babel,
and to bring a flood of waters on the age of Noah to destroy the
wickedness of man.
Personal acts are attributed to him, such as making man from
the clay of the earth as well as making woman from Adam's rib.
Many more such personal acts of God can be found throughout the
entire Bible.
Personal pronouns are used of God both in the singular and
the plural (i.e Gen.1: 26; 3: 22; 11:7; Isa.6: 8; John 17:
11-21).
Many verses show and prove that God does have form and
shape, that He does have a body (see my study "Does God have a
Body?" on this Website)
The Bible shows over and over again that God has emotions,
passions, desires, affections, very much like we humans have. God
can be tender, merciful, loving. He can get upset, run out of
patience, even get angry. He can be jealous, very patient,
sorrowful. He has all the emotions we have only in perfect
balance and righteousness.
The Bible shows many times over that God has a mind, has
reasoning powers, has intellect. His Word shows that sometimes He
has talked to and debated with, and reasoned with, and had His
mind changed by, human beings (Moses on one occasion persuaded
God not to destroy the Israelites and start all over again with
children from Moses himself as God was thinking about doing).
Even Satan has been allowed to reason and debate with God from
time to time, see the first chapters of the book of Job.
Yes, indeed, all the above prove unmistakeably that God is a
very real individual and not just an indescribable essence of a
nothingness.
THE INVISIBILITY OF GOD
The invisibility of God is subject to the WILL and the POWER
of God. If God chooses to manifest Himself as a physical man, so
men can see, talk to, eat a meal with, even touch, then the Lord
has the power to so transform Himself into flesh and bone.
This manifestation God has done a number of times over the past
millenniums. In Genesis 18 the Eternal God came with two angels
(also appearing as human flesh and bone) to visit Abraham. They
talked and ate a meal together. Many times God talked to Moses
face to face, as with a friend, so the Scriptures tell us.
Sometimes persons have seen God in a vision, Ezekiel was one
of them who saw God in the minds-eye or vision (Ezekiel 2 and
10). John in the book of Revelation shows us that he also had
seen in vision of the minds-eye, the persons of both the Father
and the Son. This would not have been seeing them in full glory,
or putting it another way, not seeing them in the literal glory
of their beings, for a very important reason. It was Moses
who asked if he could see the God of Israel in His full glory.
His request was denied, for one saving reason. He was told that
no human person could look upon the face of God in a literal way
while God was still in His glory form, as no human seeing God
thus could continue to live (Exodus 33: 18-23). The Lord did
allow Moses to see Him from the back, but not His face.
In God's time plan He has told us that one day all His
children will see His face in full glory. That will come to pass
when all His children are glorified in a resurrection of CHANGE
from mortal to immortal (1 Cor.15). And when sin and death has an
end, when the new heaven and the new earth will have come. When
God the Father Himself will come to that new earth to dwell among
His children forever (Rev. 21: 3-7; 22: 4-5).
At that day God the Father will never be invisible again to
any of His sons and daughters.
GOD AS SPIRIT (JOHN 4: 24) - WHAT IT REALLY MEANS
There are HUNDREDS of verses in the Bible to help us
understand the "spirit" world, or the world we do not normally
see. Most of the time we do not see the vast multitude of
creatures in this world of the invisible spirit. But it is there,
all around us, and just as busy (probably even more so) as our
little planet that is just a tiny speck of sand in an ever
expanding sandy beach of planets, stars, and galaxies, that make
up our universe.
The Bible declares that there are HEAVENLY and EARTHLY
"bodies" and that there is a "natural" body and for Christians
there will be a SPIRITUAL body (1 Cor. 15: 35-58).
We learn from this chapter fifteen in 1 Corinthians that all
things in creation have separate bodies from all others - bodies
for grain, fish, birds, beasts, man and every living thing on
earth. There are bodies for the sun, the moon, the stars, and all
things material. There are bodies for angels, cherubims,
seraphims, and all living creatures that God has created in the
"spirit" world. No exception is made in the word of God to the
effect that God is the exception, and has no body. I have proved
in another study on this Website, that God does have a body. So
when Jesus said that God is "spirit" in John 4, He was NOT
meaning that God is somehow bodiless or a bunch of "nothingness."
Jesus taught elsewhere that God has a voice and shape (John
5: 37). Jesus later showed John in the book of Revelation, that
God the Father HAS shape, and can sit on a throne (Rev.4 and 5).
The Greek word for "shape" in John 5: 37 is EIDOS, and means,
form, appearance, shape, fashion. It is something that refers to
outward form or what can be seen with either the human eye or the
sight that the spirit world can see with, for spirit can see
spirit. The spirit world is not dumb or blind.
Moses declared that man was made in the "image" of God (Gen.
1: 26-27; 9: 6). The Hebrew word for "image" is TSELEM, meaning
shape, resemblance, figure, bodily form, as proven in many
passages where it is used. See a Bible Concordance, such as
Strong's. The Hebrew word for "likeness" is DEMOOTH, meaning,
model, shape, similitude, and bodily resemblance. See a Bible
Concordance once again.
Paul was inspired to say that mankind was "the image and
glory of God" (1 Cor. 11: 7). The Greek word for "image" here is
EIKON, meaning likeness, profile, and bodily resemblance. This
can, once more be proven by looking up all the verses in a
Concordance, where this Greek word is used in the New Testament.
There is NO QUESTION about man being made in the likeness,
in the bodily form and shape of God. Hence it stands to reason
and logic that God then has a body, that He has form and shape
like unto us humans.
The Hebrew and Greek words above may be used in other ways
in the Scriptures, but the number of times they are used to refer
to what we normally think of, when we think of shape, likeness,
form, of something that can been seen, is proof positive that God
is a being that has form and shape, a body.
The Bible is loaded with passages where men have seen God,
either when He manifested Himself in flesh and bone and came to
earth for a while, or as men were given insight to see God as in
heaven or as a somewhat glory being. Remembering that God can
never show Himself in full glory, face to face with man, because
He has said no human person could ever live, if they saw Him this
way (see Exodus 33). Other verses you may want to note are: Ge.
18; 32: 24-30; Exodus 33: 11-23; 24: 9-11; Josh. 5: 13-15;
Judg. 6: 11-23; 13: 3-23; 1 Chron. 21: 16-17; Job 42: 5; Isaiah
6: 1-13; Amos 9: 1; Ezekiel 1: 26-28; 10 ; 1, 20; 40: 3; Dan. 7:
9-14; 10: 5-6; Acts 7: 56-59.
And also a number of passages in the book of Revelation,
where God and Christ reveal that they are beings with form and
shape, having a body.
The Bible says that all the redeemed will one day (when the
new heavens and new earth come) SEE the FACE of God (Greek,
PROSOPON, countenance, outward appearance, surface, person), with
their eyes (Rev. 7: 9; 14: 5; 21: 3; 22: 4-5). See the word
"face" in Matt. 6: 17; 18: 10; 26: 39, 67; Acts 6: 15; 20: 25,
38: 1; 1 Cor. 13:12; Rev. 4: 7; 6: 16; 10: 1; 20: 11.
The word is used in these passages of BOTH God and man, so
both must have a face. What is good for the one, must be good for
the other, or the Bible is impossible to read and understand.
Some, who have never seen God, as did many in the days of the
writing of the Bible, say that God CANNOT be understood, and some
even go so far as saying God is formless, a "nothingness."
I personally do not worship a "nothingness" or a formless
something that does not have a body or a shape. The Bible over
and over again, teaches us that God is a very REAL PERSON with a
SHAPE, with a form and body. It is in the form and shape of us
human beings, who were made in the likeness, and shape, of God.
Some would say that the verses about the shape of God are
just figures of speech, and are not to be taken in any literal
way as meaning God has a body and form and shape. It is true the
Bible uses figures of speech many times, but taking the WHOLE
context of MANY verses throughout the Bible, it should be clear
that MUCH MORE than "figures of speech" are used to convey the
truth to us that God is a very real personage, that Jesus Christ
is a very real personage, that they both have form and shape, and
both have a body, just as all other created things, in heaven and
earth, have bodies.
For those who will read the Bible and not turn it all into
"figures of speech" where anyone can then make the Bible say a
million different things, especially about the world that we
normally do not see with the human eye, then it is clear that
there are many different "spirit" beings, even "things" like the
heavenly Jerusalem, and all have form and shape. The created
beings of the unseen world have form and shape, have a body. And
God the Father, and Jesus, at His right hand, also then have a
body each, with form and shape.
We need to understand some truths of God and the invisible
"spirit" world. We can gain some BASIC truth from two fine
examples in the Bible. Read all of 2 Kings chapter 6. Note
verses 15-17. read all of Genesis 18.
In 2 Kings 6, we see that as I have stated, the spirit world
is normally UNSEEN to the human eye. We also see that God can, if He so wishes and
decides, let the human eye SEE the spirit world. Then we notice
that besides angel beings, there are spirit animals, such as
horses, and spirit "things" such as chariots. We see that when
God allows humans to see this world, the things they see have
shape and form.
Genesis 18 shows us the truth that angels (and God) can
transform themselves into flesh and bone, can appear to mankind
as human, can talk and eat a meal with humans. This is why Paul
said that we should entertain strangers, for in so doing many
of us have entertained angels unaware (see Heb. 13: 1).
All of this explains the nature of Jesus' resurrection from
death after being crucified. His physical body was indeed
"glorified" and made immortal, and with immortality came all
authority in heaven and earth, as He told His disciples. He had
all authority over the unseen spirit and over physical matter. As
the last chapters of the Gospels show us, Jesus could appear and
disappear in front of humans at will. He could come into a room
where the doors were shut, and stand in the midst of His eleven
apostles. And after visiting with them, on one occasion, eating a
piece of fish, letting them handle and touch him, He could
"vanish" away in a split second.
There is a "spirit world" and there is a physical material
world. Actually Scripture tells us that God, through Christ (the
God being who became Christ), made the worlds, what is physical
in our universe OUT OF NOTHING. Yes, at one time there was no
physical matter at all, and then there was. God made physical
matter from no physical matter, from what we would say, as
NOTHING (see Colossians 1: 12-17). God was BEFORE "all" things,
even the things of the spirit world, for He created them also.
What is matter anyway? They say we are about 90% at least
"water." We humans are made up of atoms, all physical things on
this earth are so many atoms bunched together. It is a well known
fact of course that put in the right situation of a certain
physical conditions (that are atoms themselves), human beings can
VAPORIZE, just become invisible atoms.
On the day that has become infamous, September 11th, and the
terrorist attack on the United States of America, the plane that
plunged into the ground, because certain passenger would not
allow the terrorists to use it as a bomb, the plane hit the
ground with such speed and force that those who went to the site
of the crash within a few minutes, said that one of the bone
chilling facts to see was that they could NOT see any human
being, or parts of them anywhere. All the people on board that
plane had been vaporized away into invisible atoms.
It has been the fancy of humans to be able to perform what
science fiction has dreamed about for decades.....beam yourself
up or away......take your atoms and un-stick them so to speak, so
you could transport yourself in a split second to this or that
place, stick your atoms back together again, and.....there you
are in physical form once more, in another location, maybe
thousands of miles away from where you were standing or
sitting or lying down.
Well, God who made matter from nothing, can do just that if
He so desires, and He has allowed the good righteous angelic
world to do the same. They can all appear as physical atoms,
become flesh and bone human types (but of course their physical
flesh and bone atoms are immortal and not subject to death, or
pain, or cuts, or being destroyed like our physical bodies are).
As I have said, we see MANY instances in the Bible, where
angels have so transformed themselves, and in some cases even God
Himself has walked and talked and ate meals etc. with humans.
At this point I need to emphasize that God has allowed this
transformation from invisible spirit to physical matter, ONLY for
Himself and the RIGHTEOUS angels. There is not ONE place in the
Scriptures that show us that EVIL demon angels, angels that
sinned, as the Bible tells, and BECAME demons (including the
covering Cherub that became Satan the Devil), can transform
themselves into physical matter. And we can thank the Lord that
they cannot, for it is horrifying to think how this world would
be IF such evil spirits could manifest themselves as flesh and
bone. What a frightening world it would be if we had to live all
our lives wondering if this or that human being was really
an evil angel in disguise. It is bad enough knowing evil demons
can "influence" and "possess" people, we have a bad enough world
with them being allowed to do those two things, let alone being
allowed to become flesh and bone. Oh yes, they are allowed to
appear to humans as "ghost" types, looking pretty real at times,
but if you were allowed to get close enough to them to touch them
or try to put your arm around them, you would not be able to do
so, your hand or arm would simply pass through them, without you
feeling a thing.
This explains why Jesus answered His apostles (on one
occasion when He appears to them in a room with the doors shut),
at their dismay, thinking they were seeing a "sprit" - or ghost
type evil demon, making out he was Jesus, with the words, "a
spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see I have" (Luke 24: 39).
The "spirit" that Jesus was talking about and what the
apostles thought they were seeing, was an evil fallen angel, that
can manifest themselves to humans, but only as none material
ghost type beings. In that account in Luke, Jesus also asked the
apostles for a piece of fish, and ate it before them all, showing
He really was flesh and bone. It would seem that Jesus is telling
us in that example that evil angel spirits are NOT allowed
to be able to do such a thing, that is eat physical food (even a
meal). Hence Jesus was proving to His apostles that He was indeed
flesh and bone.
Then as we have said, Jesus could just disappear, vanish
away, right before their eyes. He could turn His flesh and bone
atoms back into invisible spirit, or to our eyes, turn Himself
into nothing, vaporize Himself away.....beam Himself up, as the
guys and/or gals in the famous modern "Star Trek" movies could
do.
So with all that, what I've said above, we can now begin to
understand why Jesus said that God was "a SPIRIT" (John 4: 24).
He was not teaching that God was a nothingness nothing, some
kind of cosmic force, that could not be seen. He was not trying
to teach that God had no form or shape, or did not have a body.
He was simply telling us that there is a different DIMENSION in
the universe other than a MATERIAL one. He was telling us that
there is a "spirit" dimension, a world of beings, of creatures,
of things, that are in the MAIN invisible (the NT talks about the
"invisible God") to the human eye, and live or exist as not
physical material atoms but as spirit atoms, to try and explain
it to you in terms you may comprehend.
Paul was inspired to tells us that mankind CAN understand
God, at least the things that God has revealed to us, that He
wants us to KNOW about Himself and the spirit dimension He lives
in. Paul wrote:
"Because THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM;
for God HAS SHOWED IT UNTO THEM. For the INVISIBLE THINGS of Him
FROM the CREATION (by LOOKING AT THE CREATION) of the world ARE
CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN
HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD; so they are WITHOUT EXCUSE"
(Romans 1: 19-21).
This does not at all sound like God has kept Himself, and
the Godhead, and His unseen dimension of "spirit" with all it
contains, to Himself, as a secret, and does not wish human kind
to understand it. Just the OPPOSITE is TRUE....He has shown us
what His world is basically like by the things He has created in
our physical world. So, with a reading of the Bible in a natural
common sense way, we can put together quite a reasonably large
picture of what God Himself is like, plus what the world He lives
in is like. Many passages as I've said, and some I've listed for
you tell us many things about God and His world.
With a careful reading of the Scriptures we can see that God
has most if not all of the same EMOTIONS of mind and heart that
we physical material humans have. He can laugh, smile, be
serious, get jealous, have anger, have longings, have patience,
but run out of patience, have love, mercy, kindness, favor. He
can punish, He can hate, can determine right from wrong, give
advise, be perfect in judgment, slow in anger, take pity,
change His mind, can even cry and shed tears. He can even wish He
had not done certain things as He did. He can destroy some of His
work, and start over again. He can be reasoned with as Moses did
on a few occasions, when God was going to do something, and Moses
reasoned Him out of it.
All of the above can be found in the Bible, if we will read
it from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation.
As we read the book of Revelation and especially the last
chapters, we can discover a little about the world God lives in.
He lives or has a throne room. There are 24 "elders" (of some
type, the which we are not specifically told), around His throne.
There are multitudes of angels and/or spirit creatures singing
praises, a heavenly choir. God lives in an eternal spirit city,
called "Heavenly Jerusalem." The city has huge walls, and it has
a river of life running through it, with fruits trees.
We shall see more of how God lives and what He does at
times, in a short while.
Much then, of the our physical world, is a mirror or a
shadow of God's unseen spirit world. A shadow comes from
something that is a reality, or a shadow could not exist with a
real substance being there in the first place. And by saying real
"substance" I use the word not to mean something of material
matter in this case, but something that is a reality and from
which a shadow or resemblance can be made. God made a shadow, or
likeness, of Himself, when making mankind, but put that likeness
or shadow into material matter, with certain things within that
matter suitable for a material world. God does not need lungs to
breath but we do. God does not need a heart like we do to pump
blood through our body, in order for us to continue living. God
does not need to sleep at night like we must. and so with many
other things. But the BASIC form and shape of God's body is like
that of the human race.
The mind and emotions of mankind is again basically derived
from the mind and emotions that God has, of course one large
difference is that God's mind and His emotions, are perfectly
Holy and Righteous at all times, where ours are not so perfect
and not so righteous many times. God is sinless, and cannot even
be tempted with sin (James 1: 13). That is the one area where God
did not duplicate in creating mankind, but make a way possible,
did have a plan, that mankind COULD, if they chose TO ACCEPT
God's plan, one day be like Him and Christ….perfectly Holy and Righteous,
never being able to sin or be tempted with sin, again, for all
eternity.
All of this wonderful plan of salvation and final
inheritance for the Christian, I have covered in many other
studies on this Website.
The subject of the "Trinity" and God as "three in one" and
the relationship of Christ as God and towards God, is not the
focus of this study. All that theology question is covered in a
number of different studies on this Website, and I refer the
reader them, for the answers to those particular and specific
topis.
We can clearly ascertain from many verses that each spirit
being, be it angel, cherub, a creature of some sort, fallen
angel, and God the Father, and Jesus Christ, have thought and
mind, actions, and other things, to communicate to each other in
their world, and as God has allowed and permitted, to communicate
to us in our world. God and Christ, being the Godhead, do of
course have power and authority over all their creation to stop,
allow, destroy, and whatever else they deem necessary at any one
time, to be done throughout the entire universe. As we have seen
the Bible teaches that all things, invisible and visible, in the
universe was made by God through Christ, and at one time none of
it existed, but was then brought into existence. So naturally,
God and Christ have power and authority over ALL of it, at all
times. The things that may go on in our world and in the
invisible world, is all allowed by God. He has the power and
authority to allow or disallow, at any second of time.
GOD A PERSONAL SPIRIT!
Jesus said, "God is a SPIRIT" (John 4: 24). With the above,
to what I have said, and with the dozens of Scriptures we can
read in the Bible, we now understand that Jesus was NOT meaning
that God was a spirit nothing, like the nothingness of "love" as
love having no body, and not being in a literal location, or
being able to see the shape and form of love.
Jesus was obviously then, meaning that God the Father was
not living in His world as having a flesh and bone body, of
physical material substance, but living in eternity with a
"spirit" or none material body. Jesus was pointing out that God
lives in a different DIMENSION than what humans live in. God is
for the most part, and in the most of time, a SPIRIT being. His
body is made of "spirit" material if we can term it that way, for
us to try to grasp it, but that spirit is not matter or material
as we know of or think of matter in our physical world.
As we have seen, God can, any time He wishes, transform His
spirit material body INTO physical material matter of flesh and
bone. And I say "flesh and bone" because we need to remember that
God does not need blood to flow through His body, in order to
live and survive, as we do, when He is manifesting Himself as
flesh and bone. Could God give Himself blood in His material
body, when in the form of flesh and bone? Well of course He
could, for with God it is written, nothing is impossible. But
there would be no need to so do, for we as humans do not see the
blood flowing through our body when looking at each other.
Looking at dozens of verses in the Bible we see that God is
a PERSON who is made of Spirit. He is like us humans, He has
BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT! Now, when the Bible speaks of human
beings having a body, soul, and spirit, it is meaning, we have
form and shape, taking up a certain amount of room and space. It means
we have a soul, that is we have a life that is within a context
of many different EMOTIONS (which animals do not have - i.e.
animals cannot cry with sadness or joy of emotions like we can),
and we have a spirit or MIND, that can reason and think and
deduct and organize (i.e. animals cannot write a multi volume
Encyclopedia).
God has ALL three also. He has a BODY, He has a SOUL, and He
has a SPIRIT (Job 13: 8; Heb. 1: 3; Dan. 7: 9-14; !0: 5-7).
He is a SPIRIT being with a BODY (Dan. 7: 9-14; 10: 5-6,
9-19; Exodus 24: 11; Gen. 18; 32: 24-32; Ezek. 1: 26-28; Acts 7:
54-59; Rev. 4: 2-4; 5: 1, 5-7; 22: 4-5); SHAPE (John 5: 37); FORM
(Phil. 2: 5-7, same Greek word as in Mark 16: 12, which refers to
bodily form); and an IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF A MAN (Gen. 1: 26; 9:
6; Ezek. 1: 26-28; 1 Cor. 11: 7; James 3: 9; Dan 7: 9-14; 10:
5-6).
He has BACK PARTS; so must have FRONT PARTS (Exodus 33: 23).
He has HANDS AND FINGERS (Exodus 31: 18; Ps. 8: 3-6; Rev. 5: 1,
6-7); NOSTRILS (Ps. 18: 8, 15); MOUTH (Numbers 12: 8); LIPS AND
TONGUE (Isa. 30: 27); FEET (Ezek. 1: 27; Exodus 24: 10); EYES and
SIGHT (Ps. 11: 4; 18: 24; 33: 18); VOICE (Ps. 29; Rev. 10: 3-4;
Ge. 1); EARS (Ps. 18: 6); COUNTENANCE (Ps. 11: 7); HAIR, HEAD,
FACE, ARMS (Dan. 7: 9-14; 10: 5-19; Rev. 5: 1, 6-7; 22: 4-6);
LOINS (Ezek. 24: 26-28; 18: 1-4); BODILY PRESENCE (Gen. 3: 8; 18:
1-22; Job 1: 6-12; 2: 2-7; Exodus 24: 10-11).
There can be no missing it, the Bible makes it clear that God is a real PERSON!
GOD GOES FROM PLACE TO PLACE IN A REAL BODY, like we do
(Gen. 3: 8; 11: 5; 18: 1-22, 33; 19: 24; 32: 24-32; 35: 13; Zech.
14: 5; Titus 2: 13). He is Omni-PRESENT, but NOT Omni-BODY, and
there is a huge difference. God's presence can be felt or
displayed anywhere in the universe VIA His nature and POWER of
the HOLY SPIRIT. I have discussed exactly what God's Holy Spirit
IS, in another study on this Website.
God's body, or He Himself as a PERSON can only be in ONE
place at ONE TIME. But His Holy Spirit can be EVERYWHERE at the
SAME time.
God wears CLOTHES (Dan. 7: 9-14; 10: 5-19); He can EAT (Ge.
18: 1-22; Exodus 24: 11); He can REST, but not because He gets
tired, but because He ceases activity or completes a work (Ge. 2:
1-4; Heb. 4: 4); DWELLS IN A MANSION IN A CITY, in a place
called HEAVEN (John 14: 1-4; Heb. 11: 10-16; 13: 14; Rev. 3: 12;
21: 1-27); SITS ON A THRONE (Isa. 6; Rev. 4: 1-5; 22: 3-5); WALKS
(Gen. 3: 8; 18: 1-22, 33); RIDES upon cherubs, the wind, clouds,
and chariots drawn by cherubim (Ps. 18: 10; 68: 17; 104: 2;
Ezek. 1: 1-28).
All this makes clear to us that God is a very REAL PERSON!
In the first two chapters of Genesis alone there are nearly
200 personal acts of God in creating, planting, speaking,
working, seeing, blessing, commanding, etc.etc. He has EATEN with
men, as many as 74 at a time, who saw Him with their natural eyes
and conversed with Him as literal as other persons at banquets
(Ge. 18: 1-22; Exodus 24: 9-13). He has wrestled bodily with man
(Ge. 32: 24-32). He has written laws with his own finger while
men looked on with the natural eyes (Exodus 34: 1-7, 27-28). He
has REVEALED Himself in so many different ways to mankind, some
of those way in Himself becoming physical flesh and bone, at
others times, in visions to man, of Himself in His throne room or
riding in His chariot. One time in His full glory to Moses, but
only His back parts, as no man could like upon God's face in full
glory and remain alive (Exodus 33).
All this proves beyond doubt that God is a very personable
being with a body, most of the time in glorious spirit form, and
now and again in flesh and bone form, when wanting to come to
earth and converse with mankind.
At this point I want to state that God the Father has
Himself NEVER come to earth to converse with mankind. The one
person of the Godhead who is God as much as God the Father is God
(except in final authority), is the one who appeared to mankind
at times, in the past ages. That same one later became the one
human person we now know as Jesus Christ. And as Jesus Himself
said in the Gospels, "You have either seen the shape or heard the
voice of God, at ANT time." He was talking about the God we
know today as God the Father. John stated that "no man has seen
God at any time" (John 1: 18). John is referring to God the
Father as the context proves. The God that men have seen, was the
second member of the Godhead, the one who later became Jesus the
Christ. All this I have shown in other studies.
But the day is coming when all the children of God will SEE
the face of the Supreme ONE, when He Himself comes to earth with
the heavenly city Jerusalem (see the last chapters of
Revelation).
Not one verse can be given in the entire Bible to show or
prove that God is intangible, without body, without body parts,
and mental and emotional passions, except John 4: 24, "God is a
Spirit." And by using the rest of the Bible on this subject of
God, we can easily see that Jesus was NOT trying to teach that
God was formless, and a something that was nothingness, but was
teaching that God is or lives in a different dimension....a
dimension of eternal "spirit."
GOD'S SOUL
God has SOUL PASSIONS, or LIFE (soul standing for life
passions) just like mankind does. Giving one example, God said,
"My SOUL shall have NO PLEASURE in him" (Heb. 10: 38; see also
Lev. 26: 11, 30; Isa. 42: 1). Our way of saying it would be,
"My life, my inner passions, shall have no pleasure in him."
God's soul or life is capable of FEELINGS OF GRIEF (Gen. 6:
6; Judges 109: 16); ANGER (I Kings 11: 9); REPENTANCE or REGRET
(Gen. 6: 60; JEALOUSY (Exodus 20: 5); HATE (Prov. 6: 16); LOVE
(John 3: 16); PITY (Ps. 103: 13); JOY, PEACE, LONGSUFFERING,
MERCY, GRACIOUSNESS, and COMPASSION (Neh. 8: 10; Phil.
4: 7; Col. 3: 15; Ex. 34: 6; Ps. 86: 15); GENTLENESS (2 Sam. 22:
36); GOODNESS (Rom. 2: 7); MEEKNESS (Ps. 45: 4); KINDNESS (Ps.
31: 21); FELLOWSHIP (1 John 1: 1-7); PLEASURE AND DELIGHT (Ps.
147: 11).
God can have all of these passions, and more. All of the
things we can feel, as we say, in our heart (in our inner most
being of life), so God can feel in His inner life of being, and
of course why not, for God made mankind in His image, after His
own likeness.
GOD'S SPIRIT
By this we are not talking about the Holy Spirit, but we are
talking about the inner MIND of God, just as we have an inner
mind or spirit of mind that sets us far apart from the rest of
creation on this earth. God said, "My SPIRIT (mind, thought,
will), shall not always strive with man...." (Gen.6: 3).
God's personal spirit consists of MIND (Rom. 11: 34);
INTELLIGENCE (Gen. 1: 26; Rom. 11: 33); WILL (Rom. 8: 27; 9: 19);
POWER (Eph. 1: 19; 3: 7, 20; Heb. 1: 3); TRUTH (Ps. 91: 4); FAITH
and HOPE (Rom. 12: 3; 1 Cor. 13: 13); RIGHTEOUSNESS (Ps. 45: 4);
FAITHFULNESS (1 Cor. 10: 13); KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM (Isa. 1: 2; 1
Tim.1: 17); SPEECH (Heb. 1: 1-3; Acts 3: 31); REASON (Isa. 1:
18); DISCERNMENT (Heb. 4: 12); HOLINESS (Isa. 57: 15); JUSTICE
(Rom. 3: 26; Acts 17: 31); IMPARTIALITY (Rom. 2: 6; 2 Sam. 14:
14).
All of the above and more make up the MIND, and the
CHARACTER, the very being of God.
God is also ETERNITY (Ps. 90; 1 Tim. 1: 17); SELF-EXISTENCE
(John 5: 26); INFINITY (Rom. 11: 33); PERFECTION (mat. 5: 48);
INVISIBILITY (Col. 1: 15; 1 Tim. 1: 17; 6: 16); IMMORTALITY (1
Tim. 1: 17; 6: 16).
God is also OMNIPRESENT (Jer. 23: 23-24); OMNISCIENCE (Rom.
11: 33); OMNIPOTENT (Rev. 19: 5).
We shall look at the above three facts and qualities of God,
in more detail, in the next study. What the Bible teaches about
them, may not be what you think or have been taught.
Those who want to tells us and teach to others that God is a
nothingness that cannot be understood or comprehended, are either
Biblically ignorant or of course they are going to ignore all of
the verses we have given, or spiritualize them away as man's
way of explaining a God that they say cannot really be explained.
If these passages of Scripture are not telling us about God, so
we can have an understanding of Him, then other passages about
other subjects in the Bible, must also be understood as not
meaning what they say. Hence, with this kind of reasoning, no one
should take the Bible in any serious way.
But all that it NOT true, and those who teach such
falsehoods are indeed like the people the apostle Paul was
talking about when he said, "....this sort are they....ever
learning, but never able to come to the truth....so do these also
resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the
faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall
be manifest unto all men...." (2 Tim. 3: 6-9).
...............................
Written 2003
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