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One non-LDS work noted of this verse: | One non-LDS work noted of this verse: | ||
− | :That God ''is spirit'' is not meant as a definition of God's being—though this is how the Stoics would have understood it. It is a metaphor of his mode of operation, as life-giving power, and it is no more to be taken literally than I John i. 5, "God is light", or Deut. iv. 24, "Your God is a devouring fire". It is only those who have received this power through Christ who can offer God a real worship.<ref>{{book|author=Joseph Newbould Sanders|title=A Commentary on the Gospel according to John, ed. B. A. Mastin|place=New York|publisher=Harper & Row|date=1968|start=148|end=149| | + | :That God ''is spirit'' is not meant as a definition of God's being—though this is how the Stoics would have understood it. It is a metaphor of his mode of operation, as life-giving power, and it is no more to be taken literally than I John i. 5, "God is light", or Deut. iv. 24, "Your God is a devouring fire". It is only those who have received this power through Christ who can offer God a real worship.<ref>{{book|author=Joseph Newbould Sanders|title=A Commentary on the Gospel according to John, ed. B. A. Mastin|place=New York|publisher=Harper & Row|date=1968|start=148|end=149|isbn=9780913573556}} {{eo}}</ref> |
The absence of God's body is thus only present in this scripture if one approaches it with that preconception. There is nothing which requires such a reading, and much that does not. | The absence of God's body is thus only present in this scripture if one approaches it with that preconception. There is nothing which requires such a reading, and much that does not. | ||
− | Even the presumption that ''spirit'' means being immaterial is not scriptural, and is the product of later thinking: "in Scripture...there is no indication that by spirit and soul were meant any such principles as form or immateriality."<ref>{{book1|author=Harry A. Wolfson|title=Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam|place=Cambridge|publisher=Harvard University Press|date=1948|start=2:95| | + | Even the presumption that ''spirit'' means being immaterial is not scriptural, and is the product of later thinking: "in Scripture...there is no indication that by spirit and soul were meant any such principles as form or immateriality."<ref>{{book1|author=Harry A. Wolfson|title=Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam|place=Cambridge|publisher=Harvard University Press|date=1948|start=2:95|isbn=9780674021143}}</ref> |
== == | == == |
Is the doctrine of God the Father and Jesus Christ have physical bodies not Biblical?
To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, [[../CriticalSources|click here]]
In John 4:24 Jesus says:
It is sometimes claimed that this verse proves that God is non-corporeal: i.e., a spirit, and nothing but a spirit.
However, there is no indefinite article in Greek (the indefinite article in English is "a," as in "a spirit." The New International Version (NIV) translation of the same verse reads:
One non-LDS work noted of this verse:
The absence of God's body is thus only present in this scripture if one approaches it with that preconception. There is nothing which requires such a reading, and much that does not.
Even the presumption that spirit means being immaterial is not scriptural, and is the product of later thinking: "in Scripture...there is no indication that by spirit and soul were meant any such principles as form or immateriality."[2]
Notes
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