DAY 166
CHALLENGE
“God is simply an exalted man. The Bible says we are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27), and it refers to the strong right arm
of God (Deut. 4:34), his all-seeing eyes (Prov. 15:3), and so on.”
DEFENSE
Scripture is clear that God and man are fundamentally different.
Mormonism is known for teaching that God and man are the same species. Mormons frequently use the couplet, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.”
By contrast, Scripture states: “God is not a man” (Num. 23:19), “he is not a man” (1 Sam. 15:29).
God has always been God; he was never a man: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God” (Ps. 90:2).
There are no other gods. In Isaiah, God declares: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god” (Isa. 44:6). He also states: “Is there a God besides me? . . . I know not any” (Isa. 44:8).
Similarly, men do not become gods. In Isaiah, God states: “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me” (Isa. 43:10).
The “image” of God that Genesis 1 says we bear is an aspect of our rational soul, which separates us from the animals, which God created in the same chapter.
References to God’s strong arm, his eyes, and such, are metaphors referring to God’s power and knowledge. They are not to be taken literally any more than Scripture’s references to God having feathers and wings (“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge,” Ps. 91:4).
Other verses make the immaterial nature of God clear. In John 4:24 Jesus teaches, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” Elsewhere he notes, “a spirit has not flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39).
There is a difference between being a spirit and having a spirit. Jesus indicates that the Father is a spirit, not that he merely has one. This means that the Father lacks a body and is entirely spiritual.