Someone said, The Bible says that God has no form, no image.

[other one]

Gen 18:20-21

20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
KJV

 

[HAZARD]

Correct, God's angels told God that Sodom was going down the tubes and so God decided to go and see for Himself if it was so, and as He said, then He would know for sure before he destroyed Sodom.

Now if God talking about Himself like this offends some people's shallow, simplistic, backwoods, approach to the Bible.  I guess that is something that can't be fixed.

Luke 8:12, "Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."

God does not personally take care of every detail of His vast business in all the kingdoms throughout the universe. His angels help Him and they are found in every part of the universe on missions for God. Certain angels are responsible to God for carrying out His will in almost infinite detail concerning the billions of suns, moons, planets and all free moral agents on them. God does not personally do everything that is done in all acts and events, nor has He known, elected, chosen, or predestinated all acts and events from all eternity past. Several times God, Himself said of certain events that they did not come into His mind (Jer. 19:5; 32:35; 44:21)

God sends messengers throughout the whole of His vast creations to find out for Him what He wants to know, the same as any head of any other business  would be likely to do, so that plans may be made and actions taken accordingly. Examples of such agency constantly reporting to God can be found in (Gen. 18:21-22; Dan. 10:13-21; 11:1; 12;1; Zech. 1:7-11; 6:1-8; Matt. 18:10-11; Heb. 1:14; 2:2; Rev. 1:1; 7:13; 8:2-13; 9:1; 14:6-20; 15:1-8; 16:1-21; 18:21; 22:6. 8-9, 16).

Quote

Gen 18:20-21

20 And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know"[/quote].

[Ezra]

2 hours ago, HAZARD said:

In John 1:18, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

We need to get a proper understanding of this verse.  It is true that no man has seen God the Father in the full blaze of His glory and majesty at any time. That would mean instant death.

Yet Moses, Daniel, and Ezekiel saw likenesses or resemblances of God, and Ezekiel even calls it "the likeness".  Moses was told that he could not see the face of God, but he did catch a glimpse of Him.  Daniel and Ezekiel saw Him in visions seated on His throne, yet not fully revealed.  So God the Father always hides His full glory, but reveals it in the face of Jesus Christ. 

But to claim that there is no Spirit Being seated on the throne of God is to reject what Scripture clearly reveals. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, so we cannot confuse one with the other.

[HAZARD]

17 minutes ago, Ezra said:

 

But to claim that there is no Spirit Being seated on the throne of God is to reject what Scripture clearly reveals. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, so we cannot confuse one with the other.

That's what I have been saying the Scriptures reveal all along. Sadly there are some who defy Scripture and believe otherwise.

[post]

10 hours ago, other one said:

more and more as a group it seems that we are promoting that no one can read an english Bible and understand the Gospel...    and that's kind of disturbing when you think of it.

i hope i don't give that impression -- though i believe that there is some truth to that the gospel is not comprehended & accepted without the Spirit both drawing and enlightening a person, and also giving, enabling and enlarging faith. ((so a person can for sure read the Bible in plain English, a faithful translation of it, and without the Spirit, not comprehend it))

the scriptures do say that the Spirit teaches us all things -- and in the example of the eunuch that Philip evangelized, he said 'how can i understand it unless someone guides me?' 

our guide is the Spirit, and we don't have to comprehend Greek or Hebrew to have understanding - but we do need the Spirit, because God has decreed that the world should be blinded, and the evil one works to do this. we should never say, 'you must learn Greek before you can read the Bible' - like the muslims say about reading their koran in Arabic. i suspect that many islamists would say that statement is unfair tho - that it should better be said that in Arabic the full meaning is rendered, in a way that is necessarily lost through translation into other languages - because it is absolutely true that nuances of language are always lost in translation. 

these nuances -- the Spirit reveals to us. not even native speakers of the languages the scriptures were written in, in the day they were written, could understand the fullness of the Word without God revealing it to them. 


there are two real dangers with all this language talk -- one is like you say, that we make the mistake of implying that no one can comprehend the gospel by reading the Bible in their own language, unless it happens to be koine Greek. the other danger is that with the prevalence of available Greek & Hebrew resources all over the internet -- we all think we're experts, even though probably less than a dozen active posters here ((by active meaning someone who still has an account and posts once a month or two)) have actually received formal training and have a good working understanding of these languages. 

i am not one of these people -- i do not know Greek and i do not know Hebrew - and i'm afraid i'm probably very much guilty of coming across as though i do. what i know is how to look things up, and even though i always try to be careful about it, i am quite sure that i stand to be corrected the majority if not all of the time, if even only on some fine point, but probably i'm way off sometimes. 

so we get a little bit of knowledge, because it's all over and easy to grab - but we just have enough to be dangerous, and we sound all scholarly, so we're convincing, and people don't know any better if we are completely wrong. that is dangerous too, really dangerous - we could be fooling both ourselves and anyone that listens to us. 

i think what goes on is that people won't listen to plain truth, reuse to be corrected ((talking to myself here too)) and so in an effort to 'unblind' those who heaven has ordained should be blind, we vainly go into arguments using tools we don't really comprehend. we appeal to the Greek because it is the correct thing to do, but we don't really have the training to read it. 


it's not that reading these original languages is bad, or that we aren't blessed by having all this readily available to us these days - it's that we're prone to misuse it, and forget that even if we could use it properly, it's the Spirit that teaches -- we can have full comprehension of the text in 10 languages, and without God enlightening our understanding, we can still completely miss the boat. 

[Kan]

On 5/30/2016 at 9:42 PM, shiloh357 said:

God does not have a "spirit body."   That is not anywhere included in Scripture.   God does not sit on a throne because God is a spirit.  God is an omniscient spirit which precludes him being limited to the confines of any kind of body.  I mean come on, this basic doctrine/theology about the nature of God.  "Sitting on a throne"  is an anthropomorphic reference to his authority and nothing more.

The trouble is not the words you used, but the understanding of Spirit, which I suspect is something along the lines of a ghost. We have to remember that materials such as we are made of is mostly space, and quite transcient compared to other things God has creaated like angels, which are called spirits.

Spirit does not suggest a weaker wafty kind of existance at all, but a strnger more permanent substance which can by pass our materials.

[Guest shiloh357]

1 minute ago, Kan said:

The trouble is not the words you used, but the understanding of Spirit, which I suspect is something along the lines of a ghost. We have to remember that materials such as we are made of is mostly space, and quite transcient compared to other things God has creaated like angels, which are called spirits.

Spirit does not suggest a weaker wafty kind of existance at all, but a strnger more permanent substance which can by pass our materials.

No, I did not say God is a ghost.  I don't see how you get that from my posts.

[Kan]

3 minutes ago, shiloh357 said:

No, I did not say God is a ghost.  I don't see how you get that from my posts.

I did not say you said that either, I said something along the lines of a ghost. Formlessness etc, no body etc, you made it very clear to the OP.

[HAZARD]

10 hours ago, shiloh357 said:

No, I did not say God is a ghost.  I don't see how you get that from my posts.

You said in another thread on this board,

 

"The Bible says that,

"God has no form, no image"

.

 

You may as well have said God is like a ghost.

You still have not given me with one Scripture where God says of Himself;

"I have no FORM," or "I HAVE NO IMAGE,"  Your word's not mine. Is it because you cannot find one?

[WilliamL]

On 5/31/2016 at 3:35 PM, HAZARD said:

You are a heretic hunter and proud of it or you would not keep up your accusations against me.

You are lost in your hatred towards me and in so doing, all of the truth's revealed by God.

Somebody else figuring this out... This is why I blocked his posts.