A Humanoid God

In The Image of God

We were created in God’s image.  The argument is made that this means that since God is a triune Being: Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are also a triune being: body, soul and Spirit. Let us realign our thinking: Jehovah is a triune Being; but not a Trinity!

He is Physical, Emotional and Spiritual, and in that sense, we are in God’s image. 

The next few posts will deal with these topics: 

1. Is God Visible? 
2. Is God temporal? 
3. Is God physical?  
4. Is God ever sorry for what He has done?  
5. Does God get jealous? 
6. Does God get angry?  
7. Is God unjust?  
8. Is God love?  
9. Is God a spirit only?

Is God Visible?

The church says no!  The Bible says yes and no.  To say that the Lord of the Old Testament is only spirit and whatever the Bible says about Him as being physical is not to be taken literally misses a major tenet of biblical theology.  The overwhelming teaching that Jehovah is absolutely invisible is completely contrary to many verses of Scripture; here are a few of them:

1. And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish.” Ex. 19:21. 
2. Then Moses...and seventy elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. Ex. 24:9+11. 
3. The Lord God of Israel had appeared to Solomon two times. 1 Kings 11:9. 
4. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. Isaiah. 6:1. 
5. the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Eze. 1:1. 
6. And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. Dan. 7:9. 
7. a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; Rev. 4:2-3.

Why can’t we, for a change, let the Bible mean what it so pointedly says?  There will be more about this topic later when we study about Moses.

Is God Temporal?

God is eternal, or, at least He has let us believe that He is.  It is important that we do not think in terms of the absolute.  It would be unreasonable for “saucerians” to reckon time by earth years while travelling from one planet to another.  When travelling just below the speed of light, a new kind of reckoning comes into play.  These time shifts are known as, time dilation.  

According to Von Daniken, depending on certain mathematical facts, the following time shifts happen.  In the time that the earth ages eighty years the crew on a spaceship, travelling at just below the speed of light will age only fifteen years.  What is still more amazing, in the time that the earth ages 3,100 years the space crew will have aged only thirty years. Astoundingly, in 420,000 years of earth time, the spaceship crew will be only fifty years older. 
Von Daniken. In Search of Ancient Gods. (Heron and Souvenir Press, New York)

Is it any wonder that primitive people spoke of the astronauts as being eternal?  For that matter, is it surprising, that the gods did not bother correcting them about the error, for, relatively speaking, it is true?  Even if the saucerians would have corrected the false impressions that the early people had, the people could not possibly have understood what the Gods were talking about.

The Bible allows for the fact that God is getting older.  It is true that He was not getting old as fast as humans are, but nonetheless, a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past. Psalm 90:4.  

However slowly He may be ageing, we may as well accept the fact that the Lord is older now than he was 100,000 earth years ago.  Let us dismiss than, the idea that Jehovah is an eternal, unchanging entity.  If this were not true, why would He be spoken of as having white hair?  And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. Dan. 7:9.

Is God Physical?

In the Bible, Jehovah is spoken of as having feet, hands, arms, eyes and other characteristics that humans also have.  The Bible clearly teaches that God does have physical and emotional characteristics.  Why not think of these physical attributes as being actual?  Why not believe that the superhuman being from another planet, (Jehovah of the Bible), in fact, is physical?

For evidence look at Genesis 6:3, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.  The RSV has dropped the word, also, from the text, apparently, to avoid the problem of having a teaching about a physical God.  Dr Atkinson, an evangelical Bible teacher, allows that the word, also, belongs in the verse as found in the KJV, but he says the, also, refers to animals, which are also flesh, like humans are; he is referring to those animals, which are to perish in the great coming flood. 

His argument appears to be very weak, for up to this point, the flood has not even been mentioned in the Bible.  This would be a strange way to introduce the flood and the death of animals.  The flood itself is not introduced until after the story of the giants on the earth.

If we insist that the, also, does not refer to a physical God the most likely connection of the word, also, would be to the sons of the gods.  These sons of the gods are mentioned in the verse immediately preceding the verse that says, the spirit of God will not always strive with man.  The meaning of that verse would then read like this, the spirit of God will not always strive with humans, for humans, like the sons of the gods, also are flesh.  If we accept this explanation, we are, of course, forced to admit that the gods had sons and that the Gods, including Jehovah, are physical, because the Bible says so.

This will be continued in the next post.

New Testament Supports Polytheism

The Changing Bible

There are many other Bible verses that also tell us that there are numerous Gods, and it is interesting to see what Bible translators have done to some of them.  Let's look at one, in detail:

1 Cor. 8:5 in Greek.  For if there are being called gods either in heaven or on earth, even as there are gods many and lords many.

This is very much like the KJV, NKJV, The NWT have written it.  These are in agreement with The New American Bible, (there are, to be sure, many “gods” and many “lords”).

Take a look at what modern translators have done to that verse to make the Bible agree with church doctrine.  

• Many things in heaven and on earth are called gods and lords, but none of them really are gods or lords. Contemporary English Version.  
• According to some people, there are a great many gods, both in heaven and on earth. The Living Bible.

Notice also that the Greek, the KJV, NKJV, NWT, and TNA include the meaning, to us or for us.

• yet to us there is God the Father…NKJV
• yet for us there is one God, the Father, The NAB    

The New Translations leave out those words, again, to suit their theology, and completely change the meaning;

But we know that there is only one God. The Living Bible

But we know that there is only one God, the Father. New Living Translation

Verse 4 states that there is no other God but one.  About this Greek word (Theos = God, Vine writes that theos in the polytheism of the Greeks, denoted “a god or deity.  It appears, therefore, that when Paul wrote these words he was using the Greek thought of a plurality of Gods, even though he insisted that, for us, there is only one God.

Moses was a Polytheist

Polytheism

Many of the religions of the world have developed along very similar lines, all started with a plurality of Gods.  Many religions, over the course of the centuries, have changed to monotheism.  The Jewish religion is no exception to this trend.  Concerning this topic, Mr Meek writes, Among critical scholars today there is none who claims monotheism for anyone earlier than Moses. 

Hebrew Origins. Theophile James Meek, (Harper Torchbooks. 1960)

Later he writes, El may have been a great High God to the people of Ugarit (ancient Ras Shamra), but along with him were hosts of other deities, many of them little less important than He.

The oral traditions handed down from Adam to Moses spoke of a plurality of gods.   However, when Moses recorded the history of Israel, he emphasized the Lord of the Jews, Jehovah,

• the God that called Abram from Ur, 
• the God that lay claim on Jacob’s life, 
• the God that delivered the Jews from Egypt. 

Considering the mighty deeds that Jehovah had done for them, it is not surprising that they affirmed that, for their nation, there was only one God.

In speaking about the plural pronouns in reference to God, in the opening chapters of Genesis, it is insisted by many that God is, in fact, singular, but in speaking of Himself God is using what is known as “the royal we”.  If that were the case, it would be proper for Him to say “us” although He meant only himself.  

Admittedly, this is one way of explaining the problem, but it sounds like nothing more than an easy way out of an interpretation dead end.  Concerning the problem of the plural pronoun, the well-known author, Isaac Asimov, said,  It is possible to argue that this (the plural pronoun) is not true evidence of early polytheism.  God might be viewed as using the royal “we”; ... Nevertheless, as far as we know...early beliefs were always polytheistic and monotheism was a late development in the history of ideas.  
Guide To The Bible. Isaac Asimov, (Avenol Books. New York. 1981)

It is not without importance that even the first commandment emphasizes the fact that there are other gods.  Notice that the commandment explicitly says, You shall have no other gods before Me. Ex. 20:3.   Here, again, Mr Strong says we must use the same plural word for God that we used in Genesis 1:1.  

There, obviously, the word gods did not refer to idols because it was not idols that created the heavens and the earth and so it cannot refer to idols here!  It refers to plural, real, living gods.  If these other gods were pieces of metal or stone only, surely, Jehovah would not be so hung up about it.  

In any case, Karen Armstrong in, A History of God, puts it this way, the idea of the covenant tells us that the Israelites were not yet monotheists, since it (the covenant) only made sense in a polytheistic setting.  The Israelites did not believe that Yahweh, the God of Sinai, was the only God but promised, in their covenant, that they would ignore all the other deities and worship him alone. 
Karen Armstrong, A History of God, Bellantine Books, New York.

Monotheism

It would seem, at a casual glance, that a good argument against the plurality of the gods would be the verse, which reads, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord. Deut. 6:4. Mr Thiessen says, that there is but one God is the great burden of the Old Testament.

Lectures in Systematic Theology. H.C. Thiessen, Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.

To understand that verse as Mr Thiessen does is to overlook one basic fact.  That fact is that the Old Testament is a book written by the Jews and for the Jews.  Rather than arguing for the singularity of God, this verse indicates that each nation, including Israel, has its own god or gods.  

To make his statement read right, Mr Thiessen should have written, That there is but one God, for the Jews, is the great burden of the Old Testament.  Moses, speaking to Israel only, said, Israel, we have only one God, we are not like other nations which have many gods.  The Psalmist reiterated that statement with, Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. Psalm 33:12

The Psalmist also said For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods. Psalms 95:3. In reference to the word, gods, as used in the Bible, Mr Strong tells us that its meaning is mighty ones.  That definition does not fit the meaning of dead idols.  Asaph takes up this theme, he wrote, God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods. Psalm 82:1.  

Bible students, with a traditional mindset, of course, cannot allow the thought that God judges among other gods (since they believe that there is only one God).  Therefore, in the footnotes they write words such as, gods, as it is used here, is Elohim, which means judges.  

This would mean that Jehovah arbitrates among judges.  That, then, becomes an interesting subject because, Elohim, is the word that Christ used when, on the cross, He cried out, “Eloi (Elohim) Eloi (Elohim)…why have you forsaken me”?  Was Christ actually asking a judge, other than His father, why have you forsaken me?  Either this is true or the word, judges, in Psalm 95:3 refers to gods other than Jehovah.

Some modern writers claim that ancient religious books, including the Bible, speak of a myriad of gods (ET's) in the universe, and because the Bible also says so, Christians should accept that idea; at the same time, insisting that, for them, Jehovah is their only God. 

In opposition to the idea that there is a myriad of gods in the universe, or, even, in the Bible, there are verses such as. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Ps. 24:1  Or, For all the earth is mine. Ex. 19:5.  To find these thoughts in the Bible is not surprising because the Israelites were so overwhelmed with what Jehovah had done for them that they credited every awesome and wonderful thing to Him, even those things for which the Akashic field is responsible.