Is God a personal being with shape and form? Does He have a head,
chest, stomach, arms, legs and feet? Does God have eyes, ears,
nose and mouth? Is God in one place at one time or everywhere?
Does God have a body or is He a disembodied Spirit? There are
some who teach God is not a personal being with a body. What is
the truth of the matter? In this article you will find the
answer.
by
Keith Hunt
The leader of one of the large Sabbath keeping Churches of
God has written: "Now, none of us would want to make God into an
image of mortal man, but IF WE CLING TO A BELIEF THAT GOD HAD A
BODY then we have inadvertently reduced God to an image made to
look like mortal man. God is not created. HE DOES NOT HAVE A
BODY" (Worldwide News, August 3, 1993, emphasis mine).
Do you see the psychological mind play here? The writer is trying to
intimidate his readers by saying that NOBODY wants to bring God
down to the level of man, and if we say God has a body, that's
just what we are doing - lowering the stature of God, and no one
wants to be accused of that now, do they. What he also says is
the reversal of what God said in the beginning.
Turn to Genesis, chapter one. God had been busy for a number
of days during that re-creation week, making various CREATURES of
the land, sea, and air. Nothing is said about them having the
form of God Himself. After all those creatures were created
notice what God says in verses 26,27, "....Let us MAKE MAN in
OUR IMAGE, after OUR LIKENESS.. ..So God created MAN in His OWN
IMAGE, in the IMAGE OF GOD created he him; male and female...."
Right at the very beginning of the Bible, the Eternal God
tells us that He created mankind in, not the likeness or image of
the angels or any other spirit being, but He formed and gave
mankind the IMAGE or LIKENESS of HIMSELF. God took the dirt of
the ground and moulded the shape and form of man from it to
resemble the image or shape of very GOD.
Friends, you need to clearly understand this plain truth.
The Bible is written so a young child can understand its basic
most important truths and teachings. God has hidden some of His
mysteries in parables and symbolism for the mature adult
Christian, for those who have fed on the milk of the word and are
ready for stronger meat, but the all important basic doctrines
and truths that God wants all of His children to KNOW, and know
that they know, is made easy to understand, if we will be as
young children in simple belief, as Jesus once said, "I thank you
Lord that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and have revealed them unto babes."
I submit that in Genesis 1:26,27 we are being told by the
creator that He does have a body and that His body is in the form
and shape of the physical humans He created from the dust of the
earth. I submit that is the truth of the matter and that is how
a young child would understand those verses. It was certainly the
way I understood those verses as a young child growing up in the
church I attended from the age of six years old.
The writer in the Worldwide News has turned the truth of God
upside down. He says if we believe God has a body we make God to
look like mortal man - yet God says I will make mortal man to
look like ME! Do you see how the word of God has been twisted
around to say the opposite of what was really said? Do you
remember who started that way of thinking, reasoning and
deceptive talk? It was none other than the great deceiver himself
- Satan the devil.
God had told Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree
of the garden except ONE. They were not to eat the fruit from
that tree - if they did they would surely DIE! Satan comes
along(chapter 3 of Genesis) and completely changes the plain
teaching and words of God, turns what God said UPSIDE DOWN. Satan
told the woman that God did not mean what He said, nor did God
say what He meant. The Devil told Eve that God was saying
something else in what He said to her, and that something else
was "Ye shall not surely die" but live forever as God, knowing
the difference between good and evil(verses 1-5).
Satan is still promulgating today his topsy-turvy deceptions
on mankind. Jesus told the young man who came to Him asking what
he must do to inherit eternal life, that he should "keep the
commandments" but the ministers of Satan say "no, no, you do not
have to obey those commandments to be saved." Paul was inspired
to tell the church at Rome that "the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life" but the deceiver has got most
ministers teaching that eternal life is the wage of sin, albeit
in ever burning hell fire. Jesus told Nicodemus that when born of
the spirit you would be like the wind, not being able to see it,
but Satan has people thinking they are born of the spirit at
conversion while still quite visible to other humans. Jesus said
"no man has ascended to heaven" but most professing Christians
believe millions are in heaven and thousands went to heaven
before Jesus spoke these words. Jesus says "think not" and man
thinks. Jesus said "believe" and man does not believe. Jesus says
"this do" and man does not. Jesus said, "I will come again" and
large segments of Christianity say no He will not. And on and on
it goes.
God said I will make man in my image, and a large Church of
God is now saying, no way - "God is not created, He does not have
a body."
MOSES SEES GOD'S BODY
God first revealed Himself in a mighty way to Moses from the
burning bush. From that time on the Eternal and Moses were
friends with a "buddy-buddy" relationship. This relationship
between the Lord and Moses was so personal that it is recorded,
"And the Lord spoke unto Moses FACE to FACE, as a man speaks unto
a friend...."(Ex.33:11). Now our "no body" for God teachers will
say either this is just a metaphor or God appeared as a human,
but when in the "spirit" He has no body or face. Of course that
is the answer they will give to any section of scripture where
God appeared to men. But there was a time when God appeared to
Moses IN THE SPIRIT FORM - the Lord opening up his eyes to see
Himself in the spirit dimension, that the human eye can not
usually see, I refer you to the example of the servant of Elisha
in 2 Kings 6.
So close a relationship did Moses have with God that on one
occasion Moses was so bold as to ask the Lord to show Himself to
him, not as a human but as He really IS. Moses' request is found
in Exodus 33 and verse eighteen. Notice the reply from the
Eternal: "....You can not SEE MY FACE; for no man can see me and
live."(verse 20). God did not say to Moses that He did not have a
body and so did not have a face and so could not show Himself in
the spirit form as having a shape. To the CONTRARY, the answer to
Moses SHOWS CLEARLY GOD DOES HAVE A FACE AND BODY! He told Moses
that no man could look upon the face of God in spirit form and
live. Now I ask you, how simpler can the word of God be in this
matter? No theological degree needed to understand this verse,
just believe it for what it says.
Well friends, notice what God would do for Moses, "And the
Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand
upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my GLORY passes by,
that I will put you in a cliff of the rock, and will cover you
with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away my hand, and
you SHALL SEE MY BACK PARTS: but my FACE shall not be
seen."(verses 21-23).
There it is, how simple, how wonderful, is the word of the
Lord. You can believe it - means what it says and says what it
means. You do not need seductive men to "interpret" God for you.
Truly I tell you with the words of the apostle John, "These
things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
But the anointing which you have received of Him abides in you,
and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same
anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie,
even as it has taught you, you shall abide in it" (1 John
2:26,27).
As a young child's mind together with the anointing of the
Holy Spirit, you can understand the truth about God, you can know
the things that God wants you to know about Him, the things that
He has revealed about Himself, and one of those truths revealed
to us is that God DOES HAVE A SHAPE, A BODY, A FACE! Moses was
given the great privilege - only a few to be so given - of seeing
God in His SPIRIT - GLORY - FORM. Moses could not look upon the
face of God and live, but he was able to look upon the BODY of
God from the back.
Oh the truths of the word are so wonderful. Be not afraid of
those who "set themselves" up as your teachers, who huddle behind
closed doors with their theology degrees from theology schools of
this world, and come forth to proclaim deeper understanding of
God, which is really only old pagan myths from Babylon and Egypt.
How the Lord must LAUGH at their imaginations, then again maybe
He WEEPS at their hard heartedness for not being as little
children in reading and believing His word.
EZEKIEL SEES GOD
The prophet Ezekiel was born in Jerusalem to a priestly
family. At the age of 25 he was taken captive by the armies of
Babylon about the year of 597 B.C. He was among the captives of
Judah by the river of Chebar in the environs of Babylon. In the
book that bears his name he tells us that the word of the Lord
came to him(chapter 1, verses 1-3). Not only did the word of the
Lord come to him but he also SAW things that very few, if any,
other human has ever seen.
From the midst of a cloud and fire he saw FOUR LIVING
CREATURES - their likeness he explains in verses 5-14. In verses
15-21 he tells us about the FOUR WHEELS together with the living
creatures.
Now notice carefully verses 22-28. Above the heads of the
four living creatures was a firmament of crystal. Ezekiel tells
us there was a VOICE from the crystal floor above the heads of
the creatures(verse 25). On the firmament was a THRONE - sapphire
stone(verse 26). THEN NOTICE THIS! Upon the throne was the
LIKENESS OF A MAN! He then goes on to tell us the appearance in
COLOR of this likeness of man. From the LOINS up was as amber
with fire round about. From the LOINS down was as fire with
brightness(verse 27).
So, what possibly could this man shaped likeness be? Was it
just another creature of some kind, or some created angel?
Ezekiel did not leave us to guess, or I should say, God did not
leave us guessing, as this was all inspired from the Lord - what
Ezekiel saw and wrote was what the Lord allowed him to see and
told him to write. Ezekiel was allowed to see things in the
SPIRIT DIMENSION - things the human eye cannot see unless God
works a miracle of sight. What or WHO was this man above the
crystal firmament upon the throne? Verse 28, "THIS WAS the
appearance of the LIKENESS of the GLORY OF THE LORD."
There it is, no guesswork needed, we are told in easy to
understand language that what Ezekiel saw was the GLORY OF THE
LORD - the appearance of the LIKENESS of the Lord.
The Lord had said from the beginning as we have seen, that
He made man in HIS LIKENESS, so it should not be at all
surprising to find that when He allowed Ezekiel to see Him in His
GLORY FORM, it was in the form, likeness and appearance of a MAN.
This was not God appearing to man as flesh and bone as He did
many times to Abraham, Jacob, Moses and others, but this was God
showing Himself to Ezekiel in His SPIRIT GLORY form, and Ezekiel
KNEW the Lord had a body in the form and shape of a man.
This was definitely God on this throne - a throne that
travelled the universe(which also tells us that God as a person
can only be in one place at one time) - as this person goes on to
speak to Ezekiel in the first person tense as THE LORD - see
chapters 2 through 6.
Nothing hard to understand here my friends, just believe
what you read, that's all there is to it. Here in the book of
Ezekiel we have revealed to us more of that spirit world that God
lives in - the other dimension that is unseen to human eyes
unless that other world is allowed to show itself to us by the
Lord who made it. And at times - to a few selected humans - the
Lord has chosen to even show His form and shape to men. It is
always as the form of human kind, for the human kind was shaped
in the form of the God kind.
ISAIAH SEES THE LORD
Another human that was blessed with seeing the Eternal in
His Glory was Isaiah. It was about the year 760 B.C. and the
prophet of God tells us: "the year that king Uzziah died I SAW
also the LORD SITTING UPON HIS THRONE, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple." (Isa.6:1). This was not the temple
in Jerusalem but the very temple in heaven itself, continuing in
verse two, "Above it stood the seraphim And one cried unto
another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts...."
This was no small thing for Isaiah, he knew exactly what he had
seen, this was awesome - he proclaimed:
"...Woe is me!....I am a man of unclean lips....for mine eyes
have seen the KING, THE LORD OF HOSTS...."(verse 5).
The Hebrew words used for Lord in verses 1,3,5 are ADONAI
and YHVH - no mistaking - Isaiah did see the ETERNAL sitting on
His throne in heaven. Now if God does not have a body then pray
tell me how Isaiah could have seen God sitting on His throne
with seraphim around about? If God did not have a shape and body
Isaiah would have seen just an empty throne. Then again maybe(to
our bodiless God teachers) the throne and seraphims were not
really there either, all this was just the wild imagination of
Isaiah, or just a dream, or maybe a metaphor, perhaps it was a
figure of speech on Isaiah's part and not really something he
literally saw. For those who want to "spiritualize" away the
plain words of the Bible, nothing will convince them that what
Isaiah wrote was what he literally did see.
There are those Christians who believe Satan is not a
literal spirit BEING but just a metaphor standing for evil. There
are those who believe Jesus will not literally come back to earth
as He said He would, but that He has returned via the Holy Spirit
coming on the day of Pentecost. There are those who believe that
the New Heavens and New Earth of Revelation 21,22, is just a
figure of speech and metaphor for the time when there will be no
more evil, when man through the help of the Holy Spirit will
bring about universal righteousness. It is impossible to argue
with or try to convince such people that they are in total error.
But for those babes that the Eternal God has revealed His truths
to, then Isaiah chapter 6 is another proof that the Lord does has
a shape and body, albeit composed of eternal spirit.
STEPHEN SEES THE FATHER AND SON IN THEIR GLORY
The early apostolic Church were in need of dedicated men to
serve the Lord and brethren. The congregation of believers
together with the apostles chose 7 men and ordained them to the
office of the DIAKONEO (Acts 6:1-7). The man Stephen was one
of those seven ordained. He was full of faith and power and did
great wonders and miracles among the people(verse 8). He was so
effective in his work for the Lord that the religious rulers
brought him before the council for questioning. They set up false
witnesses against him who said Stephen blasphemed their temple
and law(verses 9-15).
Stephen began his defense and preaching of Jesus in chapter
7. By the time Stephen had finished his sermonette, they were
spitting mad - ready to literally kill him. At this point we are
told: "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up
steadfastly into heaven, and SAW the GLORY of God, and Jesus
standing on the RIGHT HAND of God, and said, Behold, I see the
heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the RIGHT
HAND of God"(verses 55,56). Now ask yourself this question: If
God does not have a body how could Stephen know that Jesus was at
the RIGHT HAND of God? If God is Bodiless, then Jesus could have
been standing at God's left hand, or standing on his shoulders,
or maybe on his chest or legs. How could Stephen say Jesus was at
the right hand of the GLORY of God if that glory did not have a
shape and form as like a man? The truth is, Stephen could say no
such thing unless what he saw was TWO ETERNAL BEINGS.
Now the New Testament plainly says Jesus is God. Both He and
the Father are God - one God but two individuals (John 1:1-18;
Heb.1:1-8). If Jesus is God, as He is, and if God does not have a
body, them Jesus is also bodiless. Yet Stephen SAW Jesus at the
right hand of the glory of God in heaven. If Jesus had a shape
and form, and if Jesus is God, then the Father who is also God,
has a form and shape - has a body. The logic of the one side must
give evidence of the logic of the other side, unless you are
going to argue that the Bible is a book of il-logic, then of
course anything in the Bible is up for private interpretation and
nothing is sure.
But to the childlike mind the plain truth is easy to
understand. The word of the Lord means what it says and says what
it means.
JOHN SEES THE BODY OF GOD
Towards the end of the apostle John's life he was in the
isle called Patmos(Rev.1:9). In writing the book of Revelation,
John did THREE things - 1) bare record of the word of God. 2)
bare record of the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3) bare record
of all the things he SAW (Rev.1:2). John SAW MANY THINGS! One of
the greatest things he saw was: "In the midst of the seven
candlesticks one LIKE UNTO THE SON OF MAN, clothed with a garment
down to the FOOT, and girt about the PAPS(chest) with a golden
girdle. His HEAD and His HAIRS were white like wool, as white as
snow, and His EYES were as a flame of fire. And His FEET like
unto fine brass. He had in His RIGHT HAND seven stars and His
COUNTENANCE(face) was as the sun shines in full strength"
(Rev.1:13-16).
As most Bible scholars know and admit, this is a picture of
Jesus in His GLORIFIED form in heaven above. Then in chapter 4
and 5 we are given a view of the heavenly throne room. Much of
this ties in with what we have already seen in Isaiah 6
and Ezekiel 1. There is a BEING sitting on a throne in heaven
holding a book in His RIGHT HAND that only the true Lamb of God
can open and reveal. These things in heaven above are real my
friends, they do exist - the twenty four elders, the living
creatures, the seraphim, the angels, the throne, the temple, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and God the Father and Jesus Christ - all
made of eternal spirit, all the living above having
form, shape and bodies
PHILIP ASKED TO SEE THE FATHER
I guess after being with Jesus and seeing all the miracles,
knowing He was from God, believing He was the literal "son of
God" and sent from Father, it would only be natural that one of
the disciples would at some point want Jesus to "show us the
Father, and it will satisfy us"(John 14:8). The disciple to ask
that request from Jesus was Philip. Notice the reply Jesus gave:
"Have I been so long with you, and yet have you not known me,
Philip? He that HAS SEEN ME HAS SEEN THE FATHER; so why say you
then, show us the Father" (verse 9).
Jesus was the "carbon copy" as they say, of the Father. In
every part of life. Hem manifested the Father - in attitude, in
emotions, in thoughts of mind, in love, mercy, kindness, justice,
anger, and in BODY. Jesus was telling Philip and all of the
disciples that the Father was just like Himself in EVERY WAY,
except as He had told the woman at the well, the Father was
SPIRIT, not flesh and blood, but composed of eternal spirit.
Now if Jesus knew that God did not have form or shape, that He
did not have a body as He did, then how could He possibly have
told Philip that they had seen the Father by seeing and knowing
Himself. The logical mind of man upon hearing the answer to
Philip would have understood Jesus to be saying that the Father
did have FORM and SHAPE, that He did HAVE THE APPEARANCE OF THE
HUMAN KIND and was in mind and emotions just like Jesus.
Now that is the simple and easy way to understand what Jesus
said about the Father, and that is what all the rest of the Bible
proves to be the truth of the matter.
How wonderfully plain are the basic truths of the Lord, if
we will only be as babes in belief.
TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE - THE FACE OF GOD?
Those who believe and teach that God does not have a
body(and so no face, arms, hands, legs, feet), to those who
believe God is some kind of "spirit" without form or shape, they
by their very teaching will never see the face of God, I am not
sure WHAT they expect to see if they would make it into the
Kingdom of God, as far as looking for "the Father" of all things.
But this I do know for those who will trust and believe the
word of God as little children..... I can tell you with full
confidence friends.......I can tell you with full assurance,
this I can tell you is the "thus says the Lord" of the matter.
The UNBELIEVING will be cast into the lake which burns with fire
and brimstone - the second death. And those that overcome shall
inherit ALL THINGS and, "he showed me a pure river of water of
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it....the tree of
life......And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him:
And THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE and His name shall be in their
foreheads....and they shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev.21:7,8;
22:1-5).
The day will come my friends when the true believers will
indeed see the very FACE of God the Father. What a great and
precious promise. I hope you will be there to see the glory of
our Father's BODY and share in His everlasting Kingdom.
This has only been a short study about the truth of what God
IS.
..................
Written 1993
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