When the bible refers to man as being created in the image of God, does it refer to mans physical look?

Question

If God created man in his physical image wouldnt that be heresy?

God has a skin color?

Answer 1

when they say man is created in Gods imagine , i am sure it is reffering to the spiritual image ... the ability to think and feel

God would have no form ... why would an enlightened being look like us
i liken God to the sun ... a large bright energy that gives off sparks ... those sparks are our souls our own pieces of Gods light xx

Answer 2

The Bible is God's Word, and the main reason God gave it to us is so we could know Him and allow His truth to change our lives.

No, God doesn't have hands or eyes or feet; God is a spiritual being without form or body, and He is far greater than any physical being. Sometimes the Bible speaks about God's hands or eyes, but when it does, it is using symbolic language to convey some truth about His activity: "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

When the Bible says God created the human race in His image, it means that God put His character or imprint on our souls or spirits. We aren't God—but we are like Him (although limited). Because of this, we have the ability to love, and to know right from wrong. Because we bear God's image, we are different from the animals, and all human life is sacred.

The tragedy is that God's image within us has been defaced and twisted by sin (although not destroyed). But Christ came to make us whole, and someday "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). In the meantime, make it your goal to grow closer to Christ and serve Him with all of your life.

Answer 3

No. I don't think so.

I believe it has more to do with mankind's spiritual, emotional and intellectual make-up. Bible teachers often say we are a three-part being just as God is.

Man is made up of BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT. In strictly theological terms the representation of God's three part being (the Trinity) would be:

Jesus Christ - who represented the physical BODY that contained God here on earth

The Father - who (to me) best represents the "heart and compassion" or SOUL of a Living Creator who desired to have children to nurture, play with, and watch grow to adulthood

The Holy SPIRIT - That essence of God which has the ability to be everywhere and anywhere at the same time, including within any human being who opens themselves up to Him.

The Bible actually says that God created man in "his own image". In fact, it says that Jesus Christ was the exact image of the heavenly Father. In other words, if God the Father, put on a human-suit (and He did) the result would be Jesus Christ.

Skin color does not matter to God. He looks at the "heart".

Answer 4

You hit the nail on the head. If you apply logic to the question, you will also ask if God requires arms, legs, lungs, eyes. These organs are only useful on Earth, and all ill equipped for survival anywhere else in the known universe. Then there is the concept of omnipotence: If God precedes all else, and nothing came before God, why would he require a physical body at all? Would he have sexual organs? A brain that developed from a brainstem? A stomach to digest food? Would that mean God is dependent upon a food source for survival? If so, isn't that a sign of dependence and subsequently weakness?

There are passages in the bible that state humans are in reality two beings, a physical self and a spiritual self. I like to think that when Moses, the author of Genesis who was trying to describe a complex religious truth to a band of nomadic, uneducated interlopers, said that we are created in God's image, he might have meant that our spiritual core is in oneness with God, who is not a physical being but the essence of existance itself. We, like flames in a fire, are then at once individual in nature and part of a more complex spiritual whole, indistinguishable from our source. This is also a clever way of describing the afterlife. We would not be raised in our physical forms, but in our complete, uncorrputed spiritual forms.

Answer 5

God is a spirit & not a person as some people try to make him, God has always & will always be a Spirit, It is the SOUL of a man or woman that is made in the image of God.

Answer 6

God created man in His image means man's soul. Not His physical image.

Answer 7

Note where this scripture says "our image". This is referring to the God the Father, God the son, God the Holy Ghost.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

God placed the spirit of which man was made after, so God is spirit. When Jesus was born into this world, God the "son" came as flesh. What ever color Jesus was, and He was Jewish. that is what we have to go on.

Try living on faith and not on sight. You are gong to drive yourself crazy with questions like these.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Answer 8

No it isn't heresy, it isn't unthinkable for God to create man after his image (physically) and in the spirit.

God is a beautiful white, even whiter then the white people here on earth.

Answer 9

God, The Father,Son and Holy Spirit created man from the earth and breathed in his spirit and the two became a living soul. In this way Man is in the image of God He is body spirit and soul.Man is more than just flesh when you die and people visit you body at your funeral and they say here is Enise. it is somewhat true because it is your body but it is not all of who you are. You are more than just flesh you have a spirit that God breathed in to your fleshand the two joined to make a living soul the same is true of God when He said Let us create man in our image.

Answer 10

Genesis 1:26 should be translated like this according to Hebrew grammars -

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: SO THAT they may have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.



When we read it this way it is easy to see that the image has to do with being God's representatives not his representations.