Is God A Spirit?

[Veggietales]

My Sunday School / Bible Study Teacher told me that God is a Spirit. She said that it is in the Bible, I said "where?" She said that it was the verse that said:

John 4:23

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." But I thought that this meant that this is WE ought to do????

In any case, I disagreed because I've always thought of God as something that no words could describe. I still don't really understand what she meant by that. Can someone help to shed some light on this subject? TIA

Edited February 9, 2006 by Veggietales

[Guest Lonni]

My Sunday School / Bible Study Teacher told me that God was a Spirit. She said that it is in the Bible, I said "where?" She said that it was the verse that said:

John 4:23

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." But I thought that this meant that this is WE ought to do????

In any case, I disagreed because I've always thought of God as something that no words could describe. I still don't really understand what she meant by that. Can someone help to shed some light on this subject? TIA

to answer your question: "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth". John 4:24 When you are confused about something and a passage is quoted to you, read the rest of the verses in context. That will help you understand better.

[Ovedya]

The correct translation of the verse should be "God is Spirit," not "God is a Spirit."

There is a big difference between saying "God is Spirit" and God is a Spirit." Spirit denotes God's essential nature - what He is. When you say, "God is a Spirit, what you are implying is that God is one of more than one Spirit. See what I'm getting at?

Some have erroneously translated John 1:1 the same way. Instead of it saying, "..The word was God," they translated it to say, "...the word was a God. Well, Jesus, who is the Word of God, is not a God; He is the God.

Also, saying that God is Spirit does not mean that God does not have physical form; Spirit denotes only His essential nature - what He is.

[Veggietales]

Oh great, now I see, thank you everyone for clearing this up, I understand now.

A special thank you to WhySoBlind for listing those wonderful scriptures.

Edited February 9, 2006 by Veggietales

[Andrew Withall]

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

[Gerioke]

God created the universe. This indicates to me that God is everything.

[Gerioke]

God created the universe. This indicates to me that God is everything.

Careful. That is not really right, but leans toward pantheism.

God has no beginning and no ending. The universe had a temporal beginning just a few thousand years ago, and it will have a temporal ending just over a thousand years from now.

Isaiah 65:17

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

Revelation 21:1

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

God created me, but I am a seperate being from God, and no part of my "self" is a part of God. God inhabits me, because I have repented of my sin and believed on the name of Jesus Christ and what he did at the cross, but he is not me and I am not him.

God created animals, but there's no evidence in scripture that the Lord even lives inside animals as he does man, and God isn't my cat and my cat isn't God.

God created the Universe, but the Universe is not God and God is not the Universe. He inhabits the Universe in a temporal sense, but he exists outside the universe, and before and after the universe as well.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

"created" is defined as "cause to exist" in this context. "heaven and the earth" is literally refering to the entire universe. So we see God existed "before" the temporal universe we live in, and the universe is not God, and it isn't "part of" God.

John 17:24

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Revelation 13:8 (Whole Chapter)

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

pan

[ColleenLovesMischief]

Yeah God is Spirit. For we are to worship Him in Spirit and worship Him in truth! We cannot worship the Spirit of God carnally (fleshly with fleshly things).