God is SPIRIT!

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Dear All:

I would really love to have some information. I believe I know the answer, however, I want to be sure I am accurate.

THANKS!

Do most, if not all, Christians denominations believe God is a SPIRIT?

At least formally, I think that do, even if the young members might not hold that teaching.

THANKS!
 
You mean other than the Second Person of the Holy Trinity who became Man Incarnate?
 
Jim_Baur said:
Dear All:

I would really love to have some information. I believe I know the answer, however, I want to be sure I am accurate.

THANKS!

Do most, if not all, Christians denominations believe God is a SPIRIT?

At least formally, I think that do, even if the young members might not hold that teaching.

THANKS!
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Mormons believe that God the Father and Our Lord are separate Gods and that God the Father has a body of flesh and bones because God in Genesis said we were created in the image and likeness of God. They take this verse literally even though in St. John it says God is spirit. Mormons didn’t always believe this though. In the 1835 edition of their D and C it said:

“… the Father being a personage of spirit, glory and power, possessing all perfection and fulness, the Son, … a personage of tabernacle …” (Doctrine and Covenants, 1835 Edition, page 53)

Everything in Mormonism is a contradiction. :eek:
 
Jim_Baur said:
Dear All:

I would really love to have some information. I believe I know the answer, however, I want to be sure I am accurate.

THANKS!

Do most, if not all, Christians denominations believe God is a SPIRIT?

At least formally, I think that do, even if the young members might not hold that teaching.

THANKS!
Click to expand...
There are 3 persons in God.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God the Son, at the incarnation, became man, to be man forever, while still being God.

So, to answer your questions, Christians as Trinitarians do not subscribe to the over simplification that God is Spirit because it is counter to the dogmatic contention of the existence of the Holy Trinity.
 
Neofight said:
There are 3 persons in God.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

God the Son, at the incarnation, became man, to be man forever, while still being God.

So, to answer your questions, Christians as Trinitarians do not subscribe to the over simplification that God is Spirit because it is counter to the dogmatic contention of the existence of the Holy Trinity.
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But remember, there is only ONE GOD!
 
Here is is from John 22–Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman…

22"You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."…
 
The Church teaching:

CCC 370 In no way is God in man’s image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective “perfections” of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband.
 
thistle:

THANKS!

Next, am I correct that most Christians denominations, if not all, officially teach the same?

THANKS!
 
Jim_Baur said:
thistle:

THANKS!

Next, am I correct that most Christians denominations, if not all, officially teach the same?

THANKS!
Click to expand...
I can’t speak for all but I was a Methodist before converting and of course Methodists believe in the Holy Trinity and that God is spirit. I assume all do.
What could anyone who believes in God possibly think God is if not spirit?
 
The reason that I ask is that we are made in His image and likeness.

This is important for the first chapters of Genesis.

So many times I have forgotten it; I suspect many other people do the same.

If all Christians and Jews hold the dogma that God is a Spirit, then the Bible is filled from end to end with figures of speech. I constantly forget it.
 
Jim_Baur said:
The reason that I ask is that we are made in His image and likeness.

This is important for the first chapters of Genesis.

So many times I have forgotten it; I suspect many other people do the same.

If all Christians and Jews hold the dogma that God is a Spirit, then the Bible is filled from end to end with figures of speech. I constantly forget it.
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I still don’t get your point. What do you suspect other people have forgotten? Nobody could think God is not spirit.

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 26. Let us make man to our image. This image of God in man, is not in the body, but in the soul; which is a spiritual substance, endued with understanding and free-will. God speaketh here in the plural number, to insinuate the plurality of persons in the Deity. (Challoner) — Some of the ancient Jews maintained that God here addressed his council, the Angels; but is it probable that he should communicate to them the title of Creator, and a perfect similitude with himself? (Calmet) — Man is possessed of many prerogatives above all other creatures of this visible world: his soul gives him a sort of equality with the Angels; and though his body be taken from the earth, like the brutes, yet even here the beautiful construction, the head erect and looking towards heaven, &c. makes St. Augustine observe, an air of majesty in the human body, which raises man above all terrestrial animals, and brings him in some measure near to the Divinity. As Jesus assumed our human nature, we may assert, that we bear a resemblance to God both in soul and body. Tertullian (de Resur. 5.) says, “Thus that slime, putting on already the image of Christ, who would come in the flesh, was not only the work of God, but also a pledge.” (Haydock) See St. Bernard on Psalm xcix. (Worthington)
 
I know some people that would tell me God has an arm, hand, sits on His throne.

Also, He has a mouth and uses physical or audible words.

Some of those individuals are my blood brothers.

Some even go so far as to interpret that God has a body because we are made in His image and likeness. They think I am crazy to think that God did not come down to earth and walk in the Garden with Adam and Eve.

To push it a step further: Psalm 5: 7 “God hates sinners.” They really struggle with that one, and so did I.
 
Jim_Baur said:
I know some people that would tell me God has an arm, hand, sits on His throne.

Also, He has a mouth and uses physical or audible words.

Some of those individuals are my blood brothers.

Some even go so far as to interpret that God has a body because we are made in His image and likeness. They think I am crazy to think that God did not come down to earth and walk in the Garden with Adam and Eve.

To push it a step further: Psalm 5: 7 “God hates sinners.” They really struggle with that one, and so did I.
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If they are Catholic tell them to read the CCC 370 and Scripture (John 4:24) and if they are non-Catholic Christians tell to read Scripture (John 4:24).

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.
 
THANKS!

Many times people are fearful of being tricked or deceived. They also think I have been duped.

It is a tough issue.
 
Well, he’s not a single spirit. He’s three. The Holy Trinity. Father is Spirit, Son is Spirit, Holy Spirit is Spirit… Now the Son has flesh, so I guess both for the Son. The Father and Holy Spirit don’t have flesh at all though.

I know most Christian denominations teach God is Spirit, (Trinitarian and non-Trinitarian) except Mormons… in a way. I know Mormon theology pretty well, I’ve been studying them for a long time.

So, Mormons believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God just not in the way we Catholics and most Christians who hold orthodoxy believe. They teach God is three persons, three beings, but he is one in purpose. That the three beings are united as one God because they all have the same purpose. They believe God the Father was once a man on another planet, or universe, depending on what Mormon you talk to. (Some Mormons may not know their church teaches that God the Father was once a man so that’s why some may deny it because of their ignorance.) They believe that he worshiped his own god, and when lived a good life following his god. They believe he was exalted by his own god, and got godhood. Because he was exalted he got his physical body back. They believe that somehow by his godhood he got the privilege to create another planet, (or universe) with life on it. They believe he and his wife, who also got exalted, had spirit children and that Jesus Christ was his first child. Then they believe that he became a man and got a body, kind of like we do. Only difference is we teach Jesus is the same being as the Father and Holy Spirit and that he is eternal. Then Mormons teach they don’t claim to know the origin of the Holy Spirit, just that he was a Spirit chosen by the Father to serve with him and his Son in the godhead and help humans out. They believe the Holy Spirit is pure spirit and has no body.
 
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