God is a Spirit?

Question

We're all familiar with the Bible verse which says "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worhsip him in spirit and in truth."

But, in Genesis I've found something a bit different.
Genesis 18:1-4
And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre; and he sat
in the tent door in the heat of the day.
And he lift up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him
and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door and
bowed himself before the ground
and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass
not away I pray thee from thy servant.
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched and wash your feet and
rest yourseleves under tree.

It seems that not only did Abraham SEE God here, but he also thought
he was physical enough for his feet to be washed with water.

And...in the first verse I mentioned it says God is a Spirit, with a capital S. Doesn't that mean the Holy Ghost is God?

So God is physical yes?

Answer 1

A person needs to read this passage very carefully, and it really helps to read it in the Hebrew. The three men are never actually identified as God. A number of Jewish rabbis have noticed the same thing. It is *first* said that Abraham was sitting in his tent and had a vision of God, *then* he opened his eyes and saw three men. While Moses's narative style sometimes has an overview of events, and then more details, it's hard to say if that's what's happening here or not. In fact, it's almost funny to read if you take the stance that these three were angels in the last half of Genesis, because it has Abraham speaking to the angel that remained behind, and calling him "Adoni" (Lord) but never YHVH. But the one to reply is always YHVY and never Adoni. Also, in Genesis 18:22, it says that the men Abraham was speaking with turned and left, but Abraham stayed and pleaded with the LORD.

But even if you take the stance that one, or even all three, of these "angels" were in fact God Almighty, there is nothing to keep God Almighty as a spirit from creating a body and animating it himself. St. Augustine gets into that kind of an idea little bit in one of his 15 books on the Trinity, I don't remember which off the top of my head.

Answer 2

(Genesis 18:1-4) Afterward Jehovah appeared to him among the big trees of Mam′re, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent about the heat of the day. 2 When he raised his eyes, then he looked and there three men were standing some distance from him. When he caught sight of them he began running to meet them from the entrance of the tent and proceeded to bow down to the earth. 3 Then he said: “Jehovah, if, now, I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be taken, please, and YOU must have YOUR feet washed. Then recline under the tree.

The three men were angels sent by Jehovah as His representative. Jehovah himself was not present because of the scripture at
(John 1:18) No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten god who is in the bosom [position] with the Father is the one that has explained him.

No man has seen God at any time.
Abraham was addressing the reps. as if God WAS there. Abraham did not know those men's names but knew WHO they represented.
It is a scripture that cannot be taken literally.

Answer 3

To be honest with you, this IS indeed a tough question to answer. Yes, I believe that God IS a spirit, although He has shown Himself in the form of a human being to several people in the Old Testament. I believe you know this already. My guess is that before there was any written form of the Scriptures, God had to appear to humans as a human in order to better communiate. As for the question of the Holy Spirit, yes, He is also considered to be part or the Trinity--another tough question to answer. I don't really know how to answer your question, I could just tell you what my assumption is. Maybe you'd like to ask your pastor(s)??? Good lucki.

Answer 4

God is a spirit WITH a body, just like us. There are THREE gods that make up the Godhead: God the Father (Elohim), God the Son (Jehovah, aka Jesus), and the Holy Ghost. Of those three, the Holy Ghost works without a body due to the nature of his job. God and Jesus both have bodies as tangible as ours, but perfected.

So YES, God is physical, but the Holy Ghost is not God.

Answer 5

As a clue to what Abraham might have seen, examine God's words to Aaron and Miriam at Num. 12:6. It says: "If there came to be a prophet of yours for Jehovah, it would be in a vision, it would be in a vision I would make myself known to him. In a dream I would speak to him." So God could have been speaking to Abraham by means of a vision or dream that seemed so real, he thought he may have been fully conscious.

Abraham could not have actually seen God, because as God told Moses that no man could see him and live.

Jehovah is a spirit that no human can see.

Answer 6

I think that was a vision or just how God chose to manifest Himself then. There's another verse (in the NT though) where Jesus was transfigured and appeared with Moses and Elijah. The apostles wanted to make tabernacles for them all. But then God yelled at them and the visions of Moses and Elijah disappeared.

Answer 7

Yes God Has a Physical body as well It talks that Abraham saw his body parts backside ,hands Etc His body is only perfected.

Answer 8

The words Trinity and Triunity are not found in the Bible. However, the Triunity theological doctrine or teaching is found in the Bible to support one God, one essence, one being, one nature, and one divine Spirit who is indivisible which manifests Himself eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit three distinct equal substances. The three manifestations always act in unity and agreement, and they have an order of Father to Son to Holy Spirit. They are not divided since there is a qualitative unique oneness acting in three separate personalities. What is most important is God can not be divided into three persons (as humans) which is not found in the Bible. If you see Jesus, you see the entire Godhead bodily (see Colossians 2:9). He is one God eternally always Father, Son, & Holy Spirit who shows Himself in these three characteristic ways. God is seen in His creation as in Romans 1:19-20, but His unique oneness can not be compared to or conceived by observing the created or nature order. His oneness is seen by His word the Bible.

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirt are one.
Within Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single Being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a perichoresis of three persons (hypostases, personae): Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos or Word, incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth); and the Holy Spirit (the Paraclete or advocate). Since the 4th Century, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" or "hypostases," share a single Divine essence, being, or nature. Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism, and is opposed to the positions of Binitarianism (two deities/persons/aspects), Unitarianism (one deity/person/aspect), the Godhead (Mormonism) (three separate beings) and Modalism (Oneness) which are held by some Christian groups.

Answer 9

If Jesus is God with us (Emmanuel) then presumably every "appearance" of God in the Hebrew Bible is an early appearing of Jesus. It'd be really complicated if I tried explaining it so I'll just stop there and if you want to discuss it further you can email me.

Answer 10

i think he can be whatever he wants to be, he does control the universe. if he wants to be a spirit he can be a sprit, or a human, or a giraffe if he wanted.
if he wanted to appear to abraham physically he could just go
-POOF- physical

yes yes??