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God created man in his own image, what does that mean?

royol

Member
That statement is really confusing, does it mean because he gave us a mouth through
which we eat and breath, God also needs to eat and breath?
 

Mike182

Flaming Queer
i can only guess at the symbology behind that verse, but ultimatley, due to the very nature of God, it is impossible to say for sure
 

kai

ragamuffin
to me it means that man could not possibly think of his god looking any other way
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
royol said:
That statement is really confusing, does it mean because he gave us a mouth through
which we eat and breath, God also needs to eat and breath?
God is Spirit (John 4:24), so to me it means that our spirits reflect god's, and consequently we can look to our spirit to understand god. It has nothing to do with physical formation, behaviors, or concepts like morality, but simply with understanding (literally, "standing under") god.
 

Fluffy

A fool
I've never really understood it either but if I had to comment on it, I think it would be roughly similar to what kai has said.
 

gramps

Member
In one of the Mormon books contains this passage of what they consider as scripture;
"Pearl of Great Price" Moses; 1: 39 "The worlds I have created are without number to man, but they are numbered unto me as the hairs of your head are numbered unto me.
That has a very interesting question that is posed with that verse. If we were to ask God as something as so foolish as to ask, "Could you please measure the endlessness of space and provide us with an answer as to how many miles or kilometers it was?"
Could God answer that question? To me he could not. Space cannot have an end to it and if it did, by our finite way of thinking, there would also have to be an end to the end. So even in our finite way of thinking, we eliminate the possibility of there being any end to space.
The question that that verse brings to light is; "if God cannot measure the endlessness of space then how is HE able to number the worlds HE has created?"
The premise I would choose is that there was a first earth along with a first Adam. And from that first of the human family sprang all of life as we now know it. In some way, it appears, that an entity of pure knowledge created a biological computer by the shear power of mind, and utilizing that computer the entity was enabled to speak.
St. John 1: 1 IN the beginnning was the word. The word was with God, the word was God.
Perhaps we could view that verse in a completely different viewpoint than what we have ever viewed it before. What if that entity lacked any power that would be common to human kind, but only had the power of mind. Then HE would not be able to speak, to hear, to touch, to taste, and so on. But if by chance or by plan, that single entity broke the awesome silence of his world by vocalizing that one single word GOD?
With the power of speech, any being, with enough intelligence, would know how to construct or prehaps command. I would say that since we know that man was made from the elements of the earth, then that would be the vehichle to this being who would be able to create this biological computer, MAN.
Not let's also say that perhaps the first of the human family became the same name as the word He first spoke as a notice to all after that the word GOD itself is sacrad.
I would venture to say that the Adam of the very first world, if indeed there are other worlds, would be the only kind of its kind that would have to be created in the manner that we read in the book of Genesis. All other people on all other worlds, would simply be procreations of the original being.

If God said that He made man after his own image, I would say that the image was the goal of God, not the creation. However, we know that God could not fail to arrive at the final prototype. So after the first earth, God fashioned man in such a way as to be self creative so that once the female DNA was taken from the Male DNA, it would be no longer necessary to ever create another specie of human kind again from the dust of the earth.
So, at least to me, which is only food for thought, we all have the blood of God flowing through us. I do not believe that we are the exact make, only likeness, of the original human. He would have to have created his own body in such a way as never to suffer, or die or go hungry, or any of the faults in our society.
To go one step further we would have to say that God and us are of the same spirit entity from which all mankind came.
However, we have to ask ourselves, if we were like God in the beginning but had no other power than that of mind; what would happen to us when tested with all the desire, appetites, and passions that are common to man but uncommon to God.
Has not God created this great plan to teach us, His children, to honor and obey his laws. Was the Ten Commandments given to man to keep him from enjoying the life to the fullest? or were they given to us by God as the only way to live a life void of guilt, heartache, grief and so on?

I would most certainly like to know myself

Gramps:faint:
 

royol

Member
God created man in his own image.
Why does everything said or written in the bible turn out to be a coded message, it can never be taken on face value, it always seems the words used are never what the speaker or writer meant to say or write,they meant to say this or that, but never what they actually said or wrote?
Why is that????????????????????
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
royol said:
God created man in his own image.
Why does everything said or written in the bible turn out to be a coded message, it can never be taken on face value, it always seems the words used are never what the speaker or writer meant to say or write,they meant to say this or that, but never what they actually said or wrote?
Why is that????????????????????
"Face value" is the literal interpretation. There is much in the Bible that is obviously meant to be taken literally --the book of "begats" comes to mind. But some parts are meant to deliver another message.

People in those days used a language full of non-literal imagry, so they used that imagry a lot. Metaphor, allegory... It's not a "coded" message intended to make things hard to understand; it wasn't hard for them at all.
 

royol

Member
Why can everything it says in the bible be read ten different ways, it allows you to read anything and interpret it any way you want.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
royol said:
Why can everything it says in the bible be read ten different ways, it allows you to read anything and interpret it any way you want.
Everything in the world can be interpreted "any way you want."

The Oilers lost the Stanley Cup this year in the seventh game of the play-offs. Many of my friends were crushed, but at the same time they "read" it as being something good for hockey in general to have the cup in South Carolina.

How we interpret things is up to us. How it should be interpreted is another matter that mostly involves context, both within the language and the culture. A lot of people read it wrong to suit their own needs, and don't care that it's not read right.

I say, if you want to know what it was the Jews wrote, go ask a Jew. ;-)
 

Polaris

Active Member
"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26)
"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3)

Based on the context and similarity in the wording of these passages, it makes perfect sense to conclude that we were indeed made after the likeness of God, both in a physical and spiritual sense. This implies that God has a body like ours with arms, legs, hands, a face, etc. I believe that God is a glorified and perfected man, similar to what Christ became upon his resurrection.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Polaris said:
"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26)
"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3)

Based on the context and similarity in the wording of these passages, it makes perfect sense to conclude that we were indeed made after the likeness of God, both in a physical and spiritual sense. This implies that God has a body like ours with arms, legs, hands, a face, etc. I believe that God is a glorified and perfected man, similar to what Christ became upon his resurrection.
How is the context similar? One talks about God creating mankind, which is a supernatural act; the other about a man begetting a man.
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
Willamena said:
How is the context similar? One talks about God creating mankind, which is a supernatural act; the other about a man begetting a man.
God created mankind in His image after His likeness and gave him the ability to procreate after his image and likeness. How does the fact that God created man by some means we don't fully understand (i.e. it was a supernatural act) change the meaning of the words "image" and "likeness"? I'm not following your line of thinking.
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
royol said:
Why can everything it says in the bible be read ten different ways, it allows you to read anything and interpret it any way you want.
The fact that something can be interpreted in any one of a number of different ways doesn't mean that every one of these ways is accurate. Give a bunch of kids a math test. Ask them what 7 X 5 is. You can allow them to give you any answer they want to, but that doesn't change the fact that the only correct answer is 35. God is what He is, and our choosing to believe He is something else isn't going to change a thing.
 

Polaris

Active Member
Willamena said:
How is the context similar? One talks about God creating mankind, which is a supernatural act; the other about a man begetting a man.

I said "similarity in the wording" not "similarity in the context". Though the contexts of both do have similarities. Genesis 1 is referring to the physical creation of the world so it makes sense that "let us make man in our image" includes the physical. Genesis 5 is referring to Adam having a son, Seth, which also includes physical "likeness".
 

gramps

Member
The truth that exists in the Bible can really be taken only one way. However, the Bible is written in such a way that it requires the reader to be obedient enough so as to have the Holy Spirit explain the meaning of any verse of book. For example!

1 John 2: 27 The anointing which you have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you. but the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

Also we have the book of St. James 1: 5 If any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.

St. John 8: 31 If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.
32. And you shall KNOW THE TRUTH, and the truth shall make you free.

It doesn't sound to me that too many people know the truth or who is supposed to teach it.

I have never asked my Father in heaven a question about the scriptures in which HE has not provided me, in some way or the other, sometimes, even by voice, the answer to the question I asked.

You really need to try it. It is not as difficult as one may think.

You have to ask yourselves; "Don't we really need a teacher to teach us?" But 1 John 2: 27 informs us that we do not.

I once asked God what it was that was supposed to cause the tribulation period; was it going to be atomic weapons or what. The answer I finally received, over a year's period, I wrote down in my computer which took up 251 type written pages. I am still bewildered.

I also know how we can survive the tribulation now, and what we have to do to survive it. I received all that information because I believed in 1 John, or John the Beloved.

If any of you would like to have an experience of actually communicating with God through His Holy Spirit, I can explain the steps you must first take to do it.

But then, no one is supposed to believe me, only God.

Gramps
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
royol said:
God created man in his own image.
Why does everything said or written in the bible turn out to be a coded message, it can never be taken on face value, it always seems the words used are never what the speaker or writer meant to say or write,they meant to say this or that, but never what they actually said or wrote?
Why is that????????????????????
It's not a coded message. It means exactly what it says, except in instances where the meaning is very obviously symbolic. People are determined to look for deeper meanings in straightforward statements like "God created man in His image, after His likeness."
 

bigvindaloo

Active Member
Katzpur said:
It's not a coded message. It means exactly what it says, except in instances where the meaning is very obviously symbolic. People are determined to look for deeper meanings in straightforward statements like "God created man in His image, after His likeness."

I agree it is not a coded message. If there was a code we would be able to decipher it unambiguously. It cannot be said that this statement has unambiguous content. There are 4 articles of substantive content in this phrase, 3 of which I have no description to relate to in my personal experience in this world. On the other hand, I do not agree with Royol that everything in the Bible is ambiguous. Plenty of things therein can be, and often are taken literally.
 

TashaN

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Polaris said:
"And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26)
"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3)

Based on the context and similarity in the wording of these passages, it makes perfect sense to conclude that we were indeed made after the likeness of God, both in a physical and spiritual sense. This implies that God has a body like ours with arms, legs, hands, a face, etc. I believe that God is a glorified and perfected man, similar to what Christ became upon his resurrection.

So you mean God is excatly like human being and he has human needs like marriage, children, a job and he must of course "if he is like us" to go to the toilet "God forbid" !!!

This will contradict with your statment ...

Polaris said:
I believe that God is a glorified

Where is glorifying him about what you have just said?

We read in Quran:

112:1 Say: He is God, the One and Only;
112:2 God, the Eternal, Absolute;
112:3 He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
112:4 And there is none like unto Him.

Do you think we as "human being" should think of God the one who made this universe as a weak normal needy human being or as somthing beyond our imagination?
 

TashaN

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Katzpur said:
The fact that something can be interpreted in any one of a number of different ways doesn't mean that every one of these ways is accurate. Give a bunch of kids a math test. Ask them what 7 X 5 is. You can allow them to give you any answer they want to, but that doesn't change the fact that the only correct answer is 35. God is what He is, and our choosing to believe He is something else isn't going to change a thing.

It's not the same because the teacher will be teaching again, again and again when those children do mistakes, but how do you think it would be if the teacher left them with that question abandoning them after that?

They will be lost !!!

Of course, if he wants to leave them alone with somthing, it must be somthing clear and somthing which represent the truth only, somthing perfect.
 
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