The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 2 – 6
This may be the hardest lesson yet – not because it’s hard to understand, but because it’s hard to unlearn the traditions and superstitions you already believe! It’s hard because you must simply BELIEVE what the Bible plainly says! People today categorically state things that God is or isn’t. Things like “God doesn’t have a body”, “God is everywhere and nowhere”, “God can’t learn”, and many other things like that. But what gives them the right to be so dogmatic? How do they know?
They have never met God. God doesn’t talk to them like He did to Moses. The great religious leaders like Calvin and Luther had never been in heaven; John Calvin did not even have an angel visit him and tell him “God is like this…”. These men all had the exact same source of information you do. A Bible. Yet when the Bible tells them God has a body – one which we are copied after – they casually dismiss it by saying “oh, that’s just spiritual, it doesn’t actually mean that!” Why not? HOW DO THEY KNOW?
When the Bible tells them God died, they wave their hand and say “Of course He didn’t actually die, because God CAN’T die!” – again, HOW do they know?? What gives them the right to dismiss the revelation of God as symbolism when God clearly says it isn’t? The fact is, they have no right, and neither do we. God told us exactly what we needed to know in the Bible, and as you’re beginning to see, He made no secret about it – most of the important stuff is right out in the open and easy to see. You just can’t see it if you already know everything!
You can’t hear God tell you who He is because you’re too busy TELLING HIM who He is! The Bible makes it very clear EXACTLY what God is, if you will simply BELIEVE IT when you read it! But if you go to the Bible trying to PROVE something – that God is a woman, that Jesus was just an angel, that God is outside of time… sure, you’ll find a few verses that might “prove” almost anything. And since that’s what most people do, it’s no surprise that there are a thousand ideas on what God is!
But if you go to the Bible humbly, trembling before the word of God (Isaiah 66:2), interested only in what it DOES say, the answers are easy. But you can’t find them if you’re trying to confirm a doctrine you accepted on blind faith! Nor if you are trying to find a compromise between the Bible and some other book you read! Who God is and what He is like is not hard to understand; it’s not a mystery, it’s not incomprehensible,
it’s not inherently beyond us. It’s as easy as “who was Abraham Lincoln” or “who was Queen Elizabeth”. But to understand Him, you have to close your mouth and open your ears.
WHAT IS GOD?
People will tell you that God can’t be imagined, can’t be known, can’t be described – that God is everything and nothing. Again – what makes them so sure? Why is God inherently incomprehensible? Why can’t He be something we can grasp? Seriously, why is that automatically impossible? Especially when the Bible clearly says it ISN’T impossible! 1 Corinthians 13:12. Does God have trouble comprehending us now? Does He have trouble seeing us as we are, now? Of course not. And Paul expects to know God as well as God knows him! Think about that!! (1 John 3:2).
“BUT GOD DOESN’T HAVE AN ACTUAL BODY!” How do you know? It’s shocking how many people exclaim this, but how do they know what God doesn’t have? Why must God be nebulous and unknowable, everywhere and nowhere? Why not just ask Him what He looks like? Revelation 1:10- 16. All the recognizable human parts are there – God has hair, a mouth, feet, and so on! There are hundreds of verses in the Bible that mention God’s heart, loins, head, eyes, and so on. Which makes sense, because we were made according to that same pattern!
Most people dismiss these descriptions as “spiritual”, but why not just believe God when He describes Himself?? When Jesus walked this Earth, He had a definite human form, right? And when they saw Him, they saw a man with arms, a nose, and hair, right? And that was His physical body. His earthly body. But after He was resurrected He received His spiritual body. The one that the disciples saw, in a vision, in Matthew 17:1-9, and which we see again in Revelation 1. It still has all the normal parts, it’s just made of light instead of dirt! Why is that so hard to believe, when it’s plainly written all over the Bible?
When Jesus was asked to describe the Father’s appearance, what did He say? John 14:7-9, John 12:45. Why did Jesus say that? Hebrews 1:3. Was Jesus made in the form – the mold – of the Father? Philippians 2:5-8. When Adam had a son, did it look like him? Genesis 5:3. And was Adam the son of God? Luke 3:38. Was Adam the spitting image of HIS Father? Genesis 1:27, Genesis 9:6. Many people will still say “Yes, yes, but that’s just spiritual, He didn’t actually MEAN that!
But let’s say, hypothetically, that God DID want to say that He looked JUST LIKE US. How could He POSSIBLY have said it in such a way you would have believed it?? He said we look just like Him; He said He looked just like Jesus, who looked like us; He described His body on several occasions. He said Adam looked just like Him.
Finally, Moses even SAW His body! (Exodus 33:18-23). How can Moses SEE a body that doesn’t exist, that is ephemeral and transcorporeal? How can Adam be created according to a pattern (the image of God) if there IS no image of God, because “God has no body”! It’s not possible! But what exactly does that body look like? God plainly told us in the very first chapter of the Bible! Read Genesis 1:26 and this time keep reading into verse 27. So if you want to know what God looks like GO LOOK IN A MIRROR! Because your body is a COPY of His!
So when God made Adam IN HIS IMAGE, it means Adam was shaped like, APPEARED LIKE, God! Just as Adam’s son was made in HIS image, just as you are in your father’s image, so Adam was made in GOD’S image! When you see yourself in a mirror, that mirror creates a copy which proves the existence of the original! So why can you believe the mirror, but not believe God’s own words? The only way to harmonize all these scriptures is by simply believing them!
THE SUBSTANCE OF GOD
God made Adam shaped like His own body, the only difference was that Adam was made of different materials than God! Read John 3:6-8. Ask yourself which of your born-again Christian friends fit this description? Can you see them? Can you feel them? Then they are not born again! This is the only clear description of a “born again Christian” and no human has ever fit that description while they were alive on this Earth! But this is what God is like! Can man look at God? Exodus 33:20. But did Moses see God? Verses 21-23. Does He also have fingers? Exodus 31:18. If we could see God’s face – through a solar filter, so to speak – what would God look like? Daniel 7:9.
Jesus, as a man, appeared just like the Father; if someone looked at Jesus, it was like looking at the Father, He said. But notice that after His transfiguration, it said His face was “as the sun” and His clothes were “white as light”. This is a key to the substance of which God consists. Does God dwell “in light”? 1 Timothy 6:16. Or would it be more proper to say that light dwells with Him? Daniel 2:22. Do the Father and Jesus actually produce a source of light? Revelation 21:23-24.
So then God and Jesus, in their glory, are made of light? John 1:4-9. Is there a verse that says “God IS…”? 1 John 1:5. Paul explained this difference in 1 Corinthians 15:35-52. Paul compares our life to a wheat seed (as Jesus did in John 12:23-25). When we plant that seed it looks tiny, dead, and lifeless. But after it’s buried in the soil and gets watered, it sprouts up into a plant two feet tall, full of energy and life! If you compare the seed to the full grown plant, it’s easy to see the plant is MUCH more alive and powerful than that tiny, dormant seed!
Paul uses this analogy to explain that now we have a flesh-and-blood body, but that when we are resurrected we will be given a SPIRITUAL body! We will still be us; we will still be shaped as we are. We will still have arms, legs, hair, and so on. All the same blueprints will be followed in building that new body as were used in building this present body, with ONE difference – the base material! Is there a single word that sums up what God IS – what material substance He IS – what makes up His form? John 4:24. Paul calls our new body’s material “spirit” as well (1 Corinthians 15:44). Our present bodies are made out of clay (Job 33:6). But when resurrected, our bodies will be made out of light like His (Colossians 1:12, Ephesians 5:14).
WHAT IS SPIRIT?
Read Genesis 2:7. God formed Adam from the dust of the Earth. At that point, he was just a statue made of clay. Adam was not alive until God breathed into Adam “the breath of life”. Notice it was at that moment that man “BECAME a living soul”. Before then, Adam was a statue – a beautiful one no doubt, but not alive. There was no spirit in Adam! No energy to power his body! He had no thoughts, no will, but the breath of life changed that by giving man the POWER to be alive; the energy to start his heart beating, his lungs breathing, his blood flowing. It wasn’t until that moment man became alive!
Does the exact opposite happen when someone dies? Genesis 35:18. Does the soul leaving cause death? 1 Kings 17:21. Does its returning resurrect someone? 1 Kings 17:22. But does anything else leave when someone dies? Luke 23:46. [Note: if your Bible says “ghost”, it means “spirit” – check another translation, such as Weymouth or YLT]. So when you die, your body gives up both the soul, and the spirit. So there are BOTH in the body?
Hebrews 4:12. The word translated as “spirit” is also translated as “breath”. And when that breath or spirit leaves, what happens? Psalms 146:4. If God takes away your spirit (breath), what happens? Psalms 104:29. And if He gives it to a statue, what happens? Psalms 104:30. And where does our spirit go when we die? Ecclesiastes 12:7. God breathed into Adam the breath of life. God gave man one of His own breaths, a piece of His own spirit. Did that make man alive? John 6:63. So did the spirit CAUSE the soul to live? Job 33:4. And what happens when the spirit leaves again? Job 34:14-15.
The spirit is the energy source for our life! When God created us in His image, in order to give us life He had to give us a spirit to power that life! (Micah 3:8). God IS spirit; He IS energy. It is by Him that we ALL live! (Acts 17:28). When God created Adam, it says He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). This breath of life is later explained to be “the breath of the spirit of life” (Genesis 7:22 KJV margin, or NKJV). It was the spirit of life – the spirit of God – that made Adam alive!
The spirit is our battery, that mysterious “spark of life” that continues to elude science! In order to exist we must have that energy! And when that energy disappears, it’s like pulling the battery from a radio – it simply stops working. Does every living thing have a soul and a spirit? Job 12:10 [remember, breath=spirit]. Is the spirit of God in our nostrils the source of our breath? Job 27:3. What is the body without the spirit? James 2:26. Does everyone have their own individual spirit? Haggai 1:14. Is God the Father of all these spirits? Hebrews 12:9.
So it is that spirit-battery which makes us alive and gives us consciousness. But the spirit is much more than simply an energy source; it communicates with the body and manages its functions, rather like a basic operating system in a computer. Does the spirit directly affect health? Proverbs 17:22. And if it’s strong, it can overcome illness? Proverbs 18:14. But does the spirit also interact with the mind? Proverbs 20:27. Does our spirit search our hearts (i.e., for sin)? Psalms 77:6. And is it through our spirit that God gives us understanding? Job 32:8.
Our spirit is what makes us alive. And because it is the operating system, it knows everything about us – what we want, what we think, what we are deep inside. And believe it or not, God has a spirit that is EXACTLY like ours – in pattern at least! You just read that our spirit is like a candle that searches our hearts; now read 1 Corinthians 2:10-11. Do you see the connection? God’s spirit knows the things of God! IN THE SAME WAY that OUR spirit knows the things of US! The spirit of God is to God as the spirit of man is to man! Because WE ARE MADE IN HIS IMAGE! So of COURSE we are just like Him in construction!
We are a direct copy of God – made in His image, and in the process of being made after His character. We are a physical copy of God and are working to become a spiritual copy. You’ve read many scriptures that say “there is a spirit in a man”, and that we each have our own unique spirit powering and operating our bodies, and knowing everything there is to know about us! And God has His own spirit doing the same thing for Him!
Did God also make angels out of spirit? Psalms 104:4. And are the fallen angels also called spirits? Luke 7:21. Can we see spirit? John 3:8. And are we made lower than the angels? Psalms 8:5. How much lower? (Same verse). And do angels die of natural causes? Luke 20:36. A being made of spirit need never die because they are themselves full of energy. With the energy of a strong spirit, you already read that the bones would be healthy (Proverbs 18:14).
This is the power of the spirit that healed people (Romans 15:19). This is the “power” (poorly translated “virtue” in mostBibles) that went out from Jesus to heal people (Luke 8:43-46). But while we have a spirit – that is, a tiny portion of spirit tied to a clay body – God IS a spirit. He is COMPOSED of this substance, through and through (John 4:24). For us, it’s just a tiny piece powering a clay body, but for God it’s His entire body.
HOW GOD WORKS
We are made of one substance – clay. But even though God formed us from one substance, He molded that clay into distinct parts. We have a liver and eyes and hands – all made from clay. God presumably sifted the clay to pull out the minerals He needed to make bones and separate them from the minerals He needed to make hair. But it’s all made from that one source – clay.
In a similar way, tractors are made of one substance – metal. But just because they’re all made of one substance, it doesn’t mean they’re one solid lump of metal, or all of the exact same type of metal! Far from it! There are thousands of differently shaped parts, made of different types of metal, each a separate, self-contained “package” that fits with the others to make the whole tractor function.
God is also made of one substance – spirit. But rather than picturing God as a man-shaped ball of light, stop and remember: we are made IN HIS IMAGE. That cannot be stressed enough. We showed above that God has all the usual external organs – eyes, hair, hands, and so on. But God also has INTERNAL organs as well! Does God have a heart? Genesis 6:6. Does God have “bowels” (organs in the belly)? Jeremiah 31:20. Does God have tears? Isaiah 16:9. Does God have internal organs? Verse 11. Does He have ears? Numbers 14:28.
Just because you’ve never thought about God having a spiritual counterpart to your kidneys, it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. There are many other verses that speak of God’s internal and external parts. Most people just read over these without stopping to think what they mean; God has ears… do they not hook up to anything on the inside? Is God’s hair attached to anything? I’m serious! You are made in God’s image, how different do you suppose He is?
You can’t know what God is unless you read it in your Bible! You have no way of knowing what He looks like EXCEPT from what He said in your Bible! Men today don’t have any idea what God is; they say He is incomprehensible, vague, undefinable – because every time they read one of these verses that says God has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, heart or chest, they dismiss it!
Every time God TELLS THEM what He is like, they sweep it aside and say, “Oh, that’s just symbolic” or “He was just speaking metaphorically”. So to them He IS incomprehensible, vague, and undefinable! But He doesn’t have to be! They don’t understand God because when God described Himself, it was too simple for them! Because they needed a mystery! They couldn’t accept that God looked no different than we do, only made of vastly better stuff! They wanted a complex, unknowable God who was totally unlike them, so they invented one! But God is quite knowable, and EASY to understand, if you just LISTEN when He tells you what He is like!
God is made of spirit. One substance. But just like your clay body, God’s body is made up of individual PACKAGES of spirit. Individual spiritual organs He used as a pattern for yours and mine. I don’t pretend to know what these are used for, but the Bible is clear that they exist, and that’s enough for me. To understand it better, think about it like this; suppose spirit is like lightning. Imagine if you could shape lightning into the shape of a hand, and hold it there, trapped in that shape. Suppose you had the control over the energy and could direct it to do exactly what you wanted it to do.
Now multiply that for all the organs, put them all together, and you’d have a spiritual statue; made like a spiritual copy of Adam, but a statue that still isn’t alive! It is made of an immortal substance, but for it to be alive it must have CONSCIOUSNESS. And it must have a method whereby all of its parts can communicate with one another to start the spiritual heart beating and the spiritual blood flowing. So it must have a SPIRIT to tie all of these spiritual PARTS together, just as your clay body needs a spirit to make it alive!
Now go back and read 1 Corinthians 2:10-15 again. God’s spirit SEARCHES the things of God – and according to your Bible, it does it in the EXACT SAME WAY as YOUR spirit searches the things of YOU! Your spirit KNOWS what you are. It knows what you think, and it knows what you do… because it IS you! It is what makes you alive!
And in the same way, God’s spirit IS Him; it knows what HE is, it knows what HE thinks, because it is what makes Him… Him! I know that’s a lot to absorb all at once. But it’s only hard to absorb because you have to UNLEARN decades of ideas borrowed from a false Christianity. Because what God is… isn’t that hard to understand. It’s quite easy, because we can use ourselves as a DIRECT pattern knowing we are made in the image of God! And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t know – because if you can look in a mirror and imagine yourself made of pure energy, any child can clearly grasp what God is.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
God’s spiritual body is compared to wind, light, lightning (Luke 10:18), and fire (Hebrews 1:7). What these all have in common is waves, which are the primary form of energy in the universe. While our physical body is held together by chemical connections, a spiritual body is held together by energy connections. The body would be the same, with all the same shape and all the same parts – hair, eyes, heart, and so on; but the materials would be upgraded. Yet a body of energy would never die of natural causes; it could travel at least as fast as the speed of light. It could pass through walls (John 20:26).
Such a body would be invisible just like your wifi signal, gamma rays, or satellite TV signals. It could even exist in the presence of other energy that would destroy regular flesh (Daniel 3:22-27). In short, most of the miraculous things the Bible says about angels and God could be explained simply by postulating a body of energy which the Bible said as plainly as was possible to a pre-industrial audience! (1 Timothy 6:16, Ezekiel 1:13-14, 1 Corinthians 15:35-54, Daniel 7:9-10).
But I’m not saying that spirit and light are the same thing. I’m saying that light is the best way to convey the idea to a modern audience. Spirit is, in fact, far more powerful than the strongest energy waves known – some of the things in the Bible require that to be true. You might say that Spirit is to light, as light is to sound. How much faster and more powerful are light waves than sound waves? That’s how much faster and more powerful spirit is than light. But even as light is greater than sound they follow the same set of laws, the same patterns, and to understand sound is to better understand light. So to understand light is to better understand spirit.
Let me use another metaphor, this time to explain how the resurrected Jesus could walk through walls. How does air pass through a window screen? How does water go through a strainer? Because the molecules of air or water fit through the holes in the screen! So why can’t air pass through a glass window? Because air molecules are too large to pass through a window! …but light passes through the window. This is because photons (or wavicles, if you prefer) are far, far smaller than air, and they can fit through the “holes” between the glass atoms! But light can’t pass through steel – the holes are too small! But gamma radiation can! Because gamma rays are smaller than photons!
But gamma radiation can’t pass through lead! But neutrinos can! Each of these particles is smaller, has a greater energy potential, and is capable of greater miracles! But if you continue this trend beyond known science, smaller and smaller – smaller than the Higgs Boson, probably several orders smaller – you’d find the very fabric of the universe itself. And God calls that “spirit”.
How could God have told Moses that? How could He have made John understand? He couldn’t – so He used metaphors, patterns He Himself had built into the universe specifically to convey the idea of what spirit was like. Even today, our experience doesn’t give us a proper vocabulary to discuss what God is; but we can come closer to imaging spirit than Abraham could have. God had to settle for words like “fire” and “wind” (Deuteronomy 4:24).
The best term for our modern times is “energy”, but even that is a poor shadow of the truth. But it’s the best we can do – God has a body shaped like ours that exists in a pure energy form. The Bible calls this form “spirit”. So imagine the difference between a statue made of clay, by the finest artist in history – that’s Adam; and then that same statue, made the exact same shape and with the same flawless perfection but crafted of an infinitely better material! PURE SPIRIT! That’s what God is like… and what you’ll be like if you’re in the first resurrection! (1 John 3:2).