Summary: The Bible tells us there is only one God, and it is also believed that since God created all things, therefore, nothing existed except him before he began his work of creation. Yet, in the book of Genesis we read that during the creation of the earth God said, “Let us make man in our image.” If there was no one else but this one God before he began creating all things, then who was he talking to? This article takes a closer look at how the Bible answers this question.

In the book of Genesis, we read about the creation of the earth, beginning with the formation of water and land, then plants and animals, and culminating with the creation of man. There we read, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26,27).

This statement has presented biblical scholars with a dilemma. The Bible tells us there is only one God (Deuteronomy 6:4;1 Timothy 2:5). It is also believed that since God created all things, therefore, nothing existed except him before he began his work of creation. In that case, who was he talking to when he said, “Let us make man in our image” if there was no one else except God before he created man?

Another problem this statement creates is defining what it means when it says God created man in his image. Since nearly all Christians believe that God is a spirit (John 4:24) and that he is invisible (Colossians 1:15), they therefore conclude that God has no shape or form. If that is true, then how can God make man in his image if he has no image? Furthermore, he made both males and females in his image, so is God a male or a female, is he both, or is he neither?

Scholars have argued over these questions for centuries. On the other hand, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that God has a human form and he made us to physically look like him. In addition to this, he has a begotten Son who was with God when he began his creation.

Latter-day Saints also believe it was the Father who planned to create this earth and assigned his Son, Jesus Christ to implement his plan. Thus, when we read that God said, “Let us make man in our image, it was the Father speaking to his Son.

However, this is contrary to what nearly all other Christians believe. For this reason, it is said that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn’t believe what the Bible says but instead reinterprets its words to make it say something it doesn’t actually say.

The question then becomes whose interpretation is correct? To find out, we need to take a close look at what the Bible says and what it doesn’t say.

All Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God based on the words of Paul when he told Timothy that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

The Greek word we translate as “God inspired” is theopneustpos. The word theo in Greek means God, and the word pneustopos comes from the Greek word meaning “to breath.” Thus, theopneustopos literally means “God breathed.” The way most people understand this word is that men wrote down the words that God breathed into or inspired them to write. Thus, what nearly all Christians believe is that God himself wrote the Bible using man as his writing instrument.

To reinforce this interpretation, they turn to the words of Jesus himself who said,“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18). A jot and title are like the dot over an i or a comma or period. Therefore, Christians believe that not only is every word in the Bible the exact word God intended to use, but even the punctuation is God inspired.

But the Bible has been translated into so many different languages that the original words God inspired to be written have been changed countless times, therefore, the words we have in our Bibles today are not the words God originally used. In fact, there are a plethora of various translations on the market today and not one of them totally and completely agrees with any other..

Therefore, to know the exact words God inspired men to write, we have to look at the words of the original language the Bible was written in. The Old Testament was first written in Hebrew, while the New Testament was originally written in Greek, so we need to examine the meaning of those words

The word for God in Hebrew is El. When we put the word him on the end, we make it plural. Thus, the word Elohim literally means Gods, plural, and there is no disagreement on this among biblical scholars. In the very first sentence of the Bible we read, “In the beginning, God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth.” Therefore, the correct translation is: “In the beginning the gods created the heaven and the earth.”

However, since the Bible says there is only one God, translators have decided that the Hebrew word “gods” must not be correct, so they decided to change it to read “God” (singular) so it agrees with their understanding of what they think the Bible teaches.

In the 26th verse of the first chapter of Genesis we read, “And God (Elohim) said, Let us make man in our image.” Here we clearly see that God is talking to someone other than himself and the question scholars have asked is, who is this one God talking to? But in Hebrew it reads “And the gods said, Let us make man in our image.” This statement makes sense and eliminates all confusion, but because translators didn’t like this wording, they rewrote it according to the way they thought it should read. Then, they claim that anyone who disagrees with their translation doesn’t believe what the Bible says.

Yet, in the New Testament we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

In the beginning, when Elohim created the world, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” All Christians teach that “the Word” spoken of here is Jesus, and John says that Jesus was both with God in the beginning as well as also being a God himself. If we believe there is only one God, this sentence makes no sense. How can someone be God and yet be with God if there is only one God? But if there are two beings, each of whom are a God in their own right, then this sentence is easy to understand.

But if that is true, then why does the Bible say there is only one God? The apostle Paul explained, “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (1 Corinthians 8:5,6).

Paul affirms that there is only one God and he clearly states that this one God is the Father. On the other hand, throughout the New Testament, Jesus is continually referred to as “Lord.” In fact, in nearly all of Paul’s letters, he begins by saying, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and [also] from our Lord Jesus Christ,” thereby telling us that the Father is God while telling us that Jesus is our Lord, thereby making a distinction in title between these two separate and distinct individuals.

But if Jesus is the Word and was with God in the beginning, yet he is not the one and only God, then how is he also God?

When Jesus first rose from the tomb and Mary Magdalene went to embrace him, he said to her, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20:17).

Jesus told Mary that he hadn’t yet ascended to his Father, which he says is the same Father in heaven we have. But more than this, Jesus clearly states that his Father is also his God, which he says is the same being who is also our God. The clear inference here is that God, the Father is not only our God but is the God of Jesus. That clearly infers that the Father’s authority is greater than that of Jesus and that Jesus is as obedient to the will of God, his Father as we should be.

Paul explained “For he ([the Father) has put everything under his (Christ’s) feet. Now when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God (the Father) himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him (the Father) who put everything under him, so that God (the Father) may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:27,28, NIV).

Since the Father is the only true God, when he put all things under the Son’s feet, it’s in this sense that Jesus is God since he has been endowed with and is acting under God’s power and authority. However, this doesn’t make Jesus equal with his Father because Jesus is still subject to his Father’s authority.

If the Father put his Son in charge of all things, then when the scriptures tell us that “all things were made by him (the Word); and without him was not any thing made that was made,” then we can see how it was the Father who put his Son in charge of carrying out the Father’s plan to create the world.

We also see this when the Father says to his Son, who was with him in the beginning, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.” In this statement we see that it is the Father who is telling the Son what they are going to do. In fact, everywhere in the Bible we always see it is the Father telling the Son what to do and never the Son telling or even suggesting to the Father what they should do. Throughout the gospels we repeatedly read where Jesus is always doing the will of the Father and never doing anything according to his own will, showing yet again that the Son is subordinate to his Father.

But there is a more profound change that Christians make to this statement. It says that God (Elohim) made man in their (not his) image, but if we say that God has no form because he is a spirit and is invisible, then how can he make us in his image?

The way nearly all Christians interpret this is to say that God has created us in the image of his divine attributes. As one person has explained, “The image that God referred to was obviously not the physical attributes of God, since God is a powerful and invisible spirit being in the heavenly realm. Humans, different from the ‘unreasoning animals’ (2 Peter 2:12), were created with the ability to reason and to have spiritual attributes like those of God and the angels. They had qualities such as love, a sense of justice and wisdom. They had the ability to understand why they existed and their Creator’s purpose toward them. So they, unlike the animals, were given the capacity for spirituality. This is the “image” that humans were created in.”

However, the Hebrew word we translate as image in this verse is salem. According to Strong’s concordance, this word means “a representation of something that has been carved out” Throughout the Old Testament, this Hebrew word is used to describe the image of pagan idols that have been carved out or formed to look like a person or an animal.

In Greek the word we translate as image is eikon, which means “the exact reproduction like an engraving.” When the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to Rome, he asked whose image (eikon) was on the coin? All Roman coins had a picture or an image of the emperor on it. Both the Hebrew and Greek word for image specifically refers to something that clearly physically resembles someone or something.

Therefore, when God said, “Let us make man in our image,” what the Hebrew version says is, “Let us make man to look exactly as we do,” or “Let’s make an exact duplicate of ourselves.” In the New Testament, when speaking of Jesus, we’re told “Who being the brightness of his (the Father’s) glory, and the express image of his (the Father’s) person.” (Hebrews 1:3).

The Greek word translated as “image” in this verse is charakter which means “an exact expression (image) of a person or a thing in every respect; a facsimile.” The Greek word we translate as “person” in this verse is hypostasis, which means, “That which has actual existence, a person or a thing, a real being.” In other words, what this Greek sentence is telling us is that the physical person of Jesus looks exactly like his Father in heaven both in form and in glory.

But God didn’t just make us in his image but he also made us in his likeness. The Hebrew word translated as “likeness” is demut which means, “similitude, or resemble.” In other words, man was made to resemble God. When God made man he created a three-dimensional living creature, but this physical man didn’t resemble a cow or a horse or a lion. In his human form, he resembled God!

Notice also in the first chapter of Genesis we read where God created animals of every kind both in the sea, in the air, and on the land, and told them to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth” (verses 21,22). In other words, they were to reproduce themselves after their own kind.

Then God created all creeping things and the beasts of the field which likewise were told to multiply and bring forth after their own kind (verses 24,25). It was immediately after this that God said, “Let us make man in our own image after our own likeness.” Then, once he had made man and woman, “[he] said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (verse 28). This clearly means they were to reproduce after their own kind.

Fish reproduce other fish that are in their own image and likeness. Birds reproduce other birds that are in their own image and likeness. Beasts of the fields reproduce other animals that are in their own image and likeness, and humans also reproduce other humans that are in their own image and likeness. When God made man, he too was reproducing a being that was in his own image and likeness.

But how can that be if God is an invisible spirit?

The first thing we have to understand is that it was an ancient Greek philosophy that said that a spirit has no form or shape, and as Greek Gentiles began to accept Christianity, their philosophy began to be incorporated into their Christian theology

The question we need to ask is, how does the Bible describe a spirit?

When the apostles were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee one night in a storm, they saw Jesus walking on the water towards them “And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.” (Mathew 14:26).

When Jesus appeared to his disciples in a locked room after his resurrection, “they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit” (Luke 25:37). What the disciples saw was someone with a human shape and thought it was a spirit. Furthermore, Christians believe that angels and even devils are spirits, and whenever the Bible talks about them, they describe them as having a human shape.

It was Jesus himself who gave us the definition of a spirit when he told his disciples,“ 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” (verse 39). What we see is that the Bible itself defines a spirit as someone having a human form but does not have flesh and blood. We would refer to such a person as being a ghost, which is an unembodied spirit.

Everywhere in the Bible where it talks about someone seeing God, they’ve always described him as looking like a human, with a head, eyes, a mouth, loins, arms, hands, and feet. When someone says that these are merely metaphorical expressions and shouldn’t be taken literally, there is no clear biblical text to support such an interpretation. Instead, this is a human explanation to make it appear that the Bible agrees with their already preconceived idea about God.

Someone might ask, “But what about God being invisible? Doesn’t that prove he has no shape or form?”

Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it doesn’t have any shape. For example, we can’t see heaven or hell yet Christians believe they physically exist. We can’t see atoms, even under the most powerful microscopes but we not only know they exist but know what they are made of.

Unlike what other churches believe, what we find is that the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints understand the teachings of the Bible better than what traditional Christians believe.

 

Related articles can be found at The Nature of God