What exactly does that mean? does he have a human form? if so, why? he doesnt need legs to walk...he doesnt need eyes to see or ears to hear. Why would he have any form at all? I am not a "religious" person, and I apologize if I offend anyone with my question... Its not my intention, I am just curious and like to learn.
2007-07-13 05:00:17 · 29 answers · asked by jackie 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I think the question is, why give yourself an appearance when there is no one around to see you. More religious crap.
2007-07-13 05:04:05 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
Hello Ms.Jones. You have opened the age old can of worms with this! Brave! Isn't this a "which came first-chicken or egg" argument afterall? I have resolved the question the only way any of us really can, I think; What do YOU want to believe, Ms.Jones? Matenmoe wishes to believe that humanity is more than the sum of its parts. I want to think that we humans are something beyond another animal form on this miraculous planet home. If I am just some mutated form of hairless ape, then I can excuse myself for being lazy, selfish, lustful, greedy or even muderous, can't I? But if I try to keep the idea that "We are better than this", I won't be so eager to do something stupid to another human, will I? (I hope not - but animals don't 'hope') It is not so important what are orgins are. (no one can answer) It is COMPLETELY important how we are going to live with each other today, however.
2016-05-21 13:37:31 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It would seem so:
Tselem
(From Forerunner Commentary) Genesis 1:26-27 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The word "image" is translated from the Hebrew tselem, and it means "shape, resemblance, figure, shadow." There is nothing abstract in it. This same word is used in Genesis 5:3:
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image [tselem], and named him Seth.
Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness, after his shape, after his resemblance, after his figure, after his shadow. There is absolutely no argument from anyone anywhere about the meaning of "image" here. There is nothing abstract.
Even as the animals reproduced after their kind, so did Adam and Eve reproduce after their kind. What was reproduced was in the form and shape of Adam and Eve. It was in their image. It is only when we apply this to God that people begin to question. All go on the assumption that God really does not have any shape—it is only something that He uses when convenient. However, that is not what the Bible testifies.
If we want to be accurate with the scriptures, we must be consistent with the way these words are used in the Scripture. The same word is used of Adam and Eve as is used of God.
This word is also used in Exodus 20:4—right in the commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image [tselem]. . . ." This is the same word as Genesis 1:26. Does anybody contend that these images do not look like eagles, dragons, snakes, or men or women? No, the image, the idol, looks like something that is a resemblance, the shape, the form of what it is being copied from. This word can also be found in Leviticus 26:1; Psalm 106:19; and Isaiah 40:18-20; 44:9-17.
Seventeen times the word tselem appears in the Old Testament, and even the liberal Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, which goes to great lengths to avoid saying it, admits that concrete form and physical resemblance must be considered for Genesis 1:26-27: "Perhaps we may conclude that, while much of the thought that there is an external resemblance between God and man may be present, Ezekiel, who was a priest, has it" (vol. II, p. 684).
The Scripture cannot be broken; they do not contradict one another. They have to grudgingly admit that it is there in the Bible. Man looks like God. Continuing the quote: "However cautiously he states it, P [P stands for priestly, one of the four different groups of people who edited the Bible] seems to have reached a measure of abstraction."
2007-07-13 05:18:30 · answer #3 · answered by Emperor Insania Says Bye! 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Genesis 1:27 of The Holy Bible, King James Version, states: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
What does this really mean? What is this image? What is the nature of God? God is a spirit (John 4:24). Do you know that this is what we are like God? As spirit! We are spirits like God, if you will believe it. And God put our spirit in a box or a container. This box or container is our physical body. God joined the spirit and the physical body. This is the true meaning of “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mark 10:9)
The physical body is from the earth and when we say we physically die, this body will decay and return to earth. The water in our body will go back to water. The air in our body will go back to air, that is why our last breath is expiration—breathing out the air in us. And the spirit that God breathed into the physical body will go back to God once the physical body is destroyed. Ecclesiastes 12:7 states: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
That spirit will live forever—like God. And that spirit will live either in Heaven or in Hell. Jesus said that He is the way to go to the Father in Heaven. No other way. The choice, therefore, rests on us where we would like to go after our journey on this earth. We will all go abroad—there to the spiritual world, to our true homeland.
This was what the Holy Spirit explained to us. It is just logical, isn’t it?
2007-07-13 05:36:06 · answer #4 · answered by Peace Crusader 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yours is a good question.
As far as I can tell, Abraham was a smart guy who put a new 'spin' on the idea of gods that look like men, which had been around for a long time. Abraham was pretty slick--he turned the concept 180 degrees and said that instead, men looked like God!
In fact, the God of Abraham behaves suspiciously like a fifth century BC Jewish patriarch, which is what Abraham was, himself.
Once I realized that (at about nine years old), 'God' was less important to me than even the Tooth Fairy.
2007-07-13 05:10:26 · answer #5 · answered by nora22000 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Some believe that your "spirit" is a 2nd body....not in a since that you have a head and legs and such. But that your Spirit is what he is talking about. The spirit is who you truly are. When they speak of in Gods image it is not a literal since.
The Bible and God is such a hard subject for mans mind to understand...that is why people give up and argue over it.
You have to treat it with simplicity and don't over think what it is....it just is.
I hope that helped! I hope I did not confuse you more...
It is about faith. To under stand the bible and the teachings in it you must first Believe what you are reading and believe in it...then God will open your eyes ( the eyes to your mind ) and you will be able to understand what you are reading.
2007-07-13 06:00:20 · answer #6 · answered by supergirlsls 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It refers to man being created in such a way that he has the spiritual and moral attributes of God. He is able to undertand the universe around him, is aware of his own existence, is aware of the existence of God, and can make moral decisions.
The Bible teaches that God is a spirit. So to make man in his own image he would have to make him first a spiritual being. The "body" is simple a vessel that allows man to interact with the physical universe. But the real man - made in God's image - is the spirit within that body.
Because man is made spiritually in the image of God, he is able to preceive that God exist and to have a relationship and fellowship with God. No other animal, plant, or object is able to do that.
2007-07-13 05:10:17 · answer #7 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is more to it than that, but the Bible clearly states that God is a spirit being, and interacts in the sphere of the spirit. Therefore the Father and the Son are spoken of as having spirit bodies, like all other spiritual beings, although the Holy Spirit is not set forth in corporeal form, but appears in heaven as a flame of fire.
2007-07-13 05:08:51 · answer #8 · answered by wefmeister 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Since man is made in God's image, every human being is worthy of honor and respect; he is neither to be murdered nor cursed. "Image" included such characteristics as "righteousness and holiness" and "knowledge". Believers are to be "conformed to the likeness" of Christ and will someday be "like him." . . . Since man was created in the image of the divine King, delegated sovereignty (kingship) was bestowed on him. [The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan]
Adam means "man" just as "Eve" meant "mother of all." Names are important in the Bible; they infer important characteristics about the person. When God made man (Adam) he gave him godly characteristics. Woman was made from man and therefore she also shared in those characteristics which I previously mentioned. The image of God includes the ability to be righteous, the trait of limited sovereignty, and freedom of choice. These characteristics were given to woman when she was made from man. God does not look like either a man or woman because God is spirit, but man and woman can reflect, in a limited way, an image of God.
2007-07-13 05:23:57 · answer #9 · answered by G 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The image is spiritual. God made us , A speaking spirit .Don't forget Adam screwed that up. And Jesus fixed it. As God spoke things into exists ,so do we. God said , Let there is light and it was. If you look in the word ,you can see all the times , God and Jesus said the power is in the words.
GOD BLESS
2007-07-13 05:12:38 · answer #10 · answered by TCC Revolution 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Genesis one is misinterpreted. The word used is Elohim, a Jewish word meaning "many gods". It is a plural word! It should correctly read, The Gods and Goddess created man in their own image, male and female, did they create them."
Genesis 2 is where Jehovah started the Jewish race with Adam. Jehovah did not create the universe or all mankind.
More proof?
After Cain killed Able, he went "east into the land of Nod and took a wife"... Cain had no sisters, and so his wife was one of the people the Elohim created... i.e. the pagans!
2007-07-13 05:15:01 · answer #11 · answered by Luinrandir 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋