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Free2dance
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Username: Free2dance

Post Number: 541
Registered: 2-2010
Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 2:00 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I was reading Psalm 91 just now and I came to verse 4 and had to stop reading to look up the word "pinions" in the dictionary. Here is what it said for anyone else who doesn't know, "the terminal section of a bird's wing including the carpus, metacarpus, and phalanges; broadly : wing."

After reading this my thoughts brought me back to mid November of 2010 when I was sitting beside my dying grandfather talking to him about God. I told him that God is spirit and we were made in His image with spirits that are born dead to him and must be made alive by putting our trust in Jesus finished work on the cross. He began to argue with me and tell me that God had a body and that was how we are made in His image. He talked about God showing Moses his back, and about the language in the Bible that describes God's face being turned away or His hand being stretched out.

I wish I had Psalm 91 in that moment. Sigh...
Jeremy
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Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 3874
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 3:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, Psalm 91:4 is a very good verse to use. The NIV translates it as follows:

"He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

In fact, Walter Martin loved to use this verse when talking to Mormons, who were trying to prove that God has a body.

He would have them read this verse, where it says that God has feathers and wings, and then ask them: "So is God a chicken?!" :-)

Jeremy
Starlabs
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Username: Starlabs

Post Number: 87
Registered: 5-2011
Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 5:15 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow, lightbulb moment. I always wondered why the Bible said man was made in "Our image". I knew that verse was talking about God the Father and God the Son and I thought since Jesus had a body that God had one too. But I guess Jesus first had that body when He came to earth, maybe not when we were created. So you are saying when it says made in Their image it is actually the spirit and not the body? That's cool. I never looked at it like that. It makes since now when I read that verse of being made in "Our image".
Jeremy
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Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 3875
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 7:06 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Starlabs,

Here is something I posted last year on this subject:


quote:

When it says in Genesis 1:27 that God "created" man in His image, it uses the Hebrew word bara (which is the word used for creating out of nothing). This refers to man's spirit. In Genesis 2, when it speaks of how God "formed" man out of dust (speaking of man's body), the Hebrew word yatsar is used. So it is our spirit that is created in the image of God, not our body.

Genesis 2:7 says:

"Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." (NASB.)

And since God is spirit*, His "breathing" into Adam "the breath [literally, "spirit"--again same word] of life" refers to God creating a spirit in Adam and him coming to life. It is our spirit within our body that makes us physically alive--living breathing persons. As James 2:26 says, "the body without the spirit is dead."




*See John 4:24.

Also, notice that Genesis 1:27 says "image" singular not "images" plural. If we were made in the physical images of the Father and Son (and Holy Spirit), as Ellen G. White teaches, then it would be plural. But God is one spirit Being.

The Adventist teaching that God the Father and God the Son have always had physical bodies necessitates a belief in polytheism (multiple separate physical divine beings) rather than Trinitarian monotheism (one divine spirit being).

Jesus says in John 4:24 that "God is spirit." And in Luke 24:39, He says that, "a spirit does not have flesh and bones."

Jeremy
Jeremy
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Username: Jeremy

Post Number: 3876
Registered: 10-2004


Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 7:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You can find more on my website at: http://www.cultorchristian.com/#Incorporeality

Jeremy
Asurprise
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Username: Asurprise

Post Number: 2430
Registered: 7-2007
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 5:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Another thing that makes sense is the fact that we are three-part beings and God is a three-part being. Notice this verse....

"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and my your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1st Thessalonians 5:23
Starlabs
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Username: Starlabs

Post Number: 89
Registered: 5-2011
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 3:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

That's interesting, Jeremy. I'm still learning a lot apparently. Thanks for sharing that! I'll check out your site!
Kelleigh
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Username: Kelleigh

Post Number: 412
Registered: 7-2011


Posted on Friday, March 02, 2012 - 6:18 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I don't think God has a body. How can you be omnipresent and all the other omni's if you've got a physical body?
Goodnight.

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