The God of the Bible is Spirit
The Bible says God is spirit. In John 4:24 the Bible says, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." God has substance but not a material substance and He is not a man nor ever was a man. John 4:24, defines God's substance as being spiritual. When Jesus appeared after His resurrection he explained to his disciples in Luke 24:39, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." God then is spirit and is not a material being. There are many expressions in the Bible which refer to God as having the body parts of a man, but these are all hyperboles and symbolic statements. For example, God is said to be a burning fire, an eagle, and other symbols which relate to his actions and not to his material essence.
The God of the Bible is Invisible.
The Bible says that God is invisible. Deut. 4:1-19, says that at Horeb God appeared to Israel. God reminds them that they did not see any form of God, but only heard His voice. God commands them not to corrupt themselves by making any image of Him referring to Him as either male of female, or after the likeness of any animal or after the sun, moon and stars. Isaiah 40:18 states the same truth, "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" God does not have gender as material men and women do. John 1:18, says that "No man hath seen God" In Romans 1:20, Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17, Paul refers to God as being invisible. 1 Timothy 6:16, says, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen." Thus the Bible is clear in teaching that God being a spirit is invisible and cannot be seen my material men.
The Bible does say however in some passages that men did see God. Is this a contradiction? The answer is no. God appeared to men in physical form so that men could see him, but they did not see God in his true essence, but saw only a reflection or manifestation of God. John 1:32, says that Spirit can be manifested in visible form. In Genesis 16:7-14, the Bible says the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar. This is referred to as a "theophany" which means an appearance of God in human form. Exodus 3:1f says that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush (Ex. 3:2). Thus, the flame Moses saw in the midst of the bush revealed God's presence, but not His true essence. The flame Moses saw did not represent what God looks like anymore that when God appeared as a man. God used these forms so as to appear to men in some visible form they could see.
[size=+1]The God of the Bible is the Self-Existing God.[/size]
The Bible says that God is Self existing. Man's existence comes from God who is life and the giver of all life. Man exists because of God's power. God "breathed" life into man and he became a living soul. God's existence is not dependent on outside forces. This is the meaning of God's statement about Himself in Exodus 3:14, "I am that I am." God is not created, but the Creator and called the eternal God, "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God" (Psalm 90:2). He is Self existing and does not exist because of some outside power. He is a power unto Himself. This is better understood by the next statement about God.
The God of the Bible had no Beginning and is Eternal.
The Bible says God is eternal. Genesis 21:33, says He is the "Eternal God." This means that God is not subject to time as are material men in a physical world. God created time when He made the heavens and the Earth (Gen. 1:1-2, Heb. 1:2, 11:3). Psalm 102:27, says "thou art the same, and thy years have no end" (see Heb. 13:18, James 1:17). God created time and space and exists beyond them, and is not subject to either.
The God of the Bible is Infinite.
The Bible says God is infinite. This refers to God in relation to space. God created the vastness of the space of the Universe and thus God must be greater that His Creation. Being infinite God is not limited to space in a material Universe. Note how the following passages present this truth: 1 Kings 8:27, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?" 2 Chron. 2:6, "But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?" Jeremiah 23:24, "Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD." Isaiah 66:1, "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?"
The God of the Bible is the Only God that Exists.
The Bible says God is the Only God. Note, what the Bible says about God in the following Scriptures: Deut. 4:35, "Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him." Isaiah 44:6, "Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God." Isaiah 43:10, "Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." These verses teach that God is the only God and not other gods exist in the Universe that He created. The Bible clearly reveals that there in only one God and He is the Creator of the Earth and the Universe. The Mormon god is not a creator. Although he is said in LDS literature to be the creator of human beings on earth, Mormon literature says that he with his wives "produce,"
not create, children through sexual relations in heaven. The people on earth already existed as a "intelligence" out in the Universe and later became "spirits in heaven." The LDS god only gave these intelligence's spirit bodies and set them on the road to "eternal progression" in which worthy Mormons can eventually become gods.
The god of Mormonism, as the LDS church literature presents him, is certainly not the God of the Bible. I would urge the LDS people to read the Bible, God's revelation to man and see for themselves who is the real God. Further I would implore them to believe God's word and believe in God and receive His Son the real Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and thus be forgiven of their sins and receive eternal life.
"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
- References:
(1) Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, V7, page 333.
(2) Joseph Smith, Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, pages 613-614.
(3) Orson Pratt, The Seer, page 23.
(4) Ibid., page 132.
(5) Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, page 93.
(6) Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel Through the Ages, Salt Lake City, 1958, p.104.