God in the form of a man

I was sitting around this morning just mulling some random thoughts through my head and for some reason I got to thinking about the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Specifically, if these cities were being destroyed because of their wanton acts of same gender sex or as we so elegantly like to call it homosexuality. I was going to elaborate on this in this post but that will have to hold off for a bit because I found out something fascinating about the tale just before it and thought I would share that with my readers instead.

One of my favorite words in the English language is anthropomorphism, and I feel that this word is useful and relevant to much of what we read in the stories of the bible where God is described as having human traits or taking human form. My trusty Sage dictionary and thesaurus defines anthropomorphism as: 'The representation of objects (especially a god) as having human form or traits.' In Genesis 18 we find a perfect example of this. Not only that, but that the incarnation of God as a man in the form of Christ was not the first time that he had actually done something like that before!

¹ Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.² He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground. (Gen. 18:1-2) As you read a little further you'll find out that the "him" that they are referring to is of course Abraham. It's interesting to see that when he looks up he sees three men. Who are these three men? Well, the bible wastes no time in identifying them for us. We know from the first verse that one of these three men Was Yahweh aka God! Verse 22 of the 18th chapter says that the other two men that accompanied Yahweh went on ahead to Sodom. Genesis 19:1 identifies the other two men as angels. '¹ When the two angels reached Sodom in the evening, Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. As soon as Lot saw them, he stood up to greet them, and bowed to the ground.'

So as you can see according to this tale God accompanied by two angels took on the form of men and not only that verse 8 of chapter 18 says that Abraham had his servants prepare them a meal and that they ate! This story has several problems that I would like to highlight here. The first problem is that God took on the shape of a man to give Abraham a message regarding his wife and their future. But the real reason he was there was given in verses 20-21: '²⁰ Then Yahweh said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grave,²¹ that I shall go down and see whether or not their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then I shall know.'

The biblical God, creator of the universe and the world as we know it had to come down to Sodom and Gomorrah personally to verify whether what he had heard about them was true! Do you see the implications of this verse? This means that God contrary to popular beliefs is not omniscient ( all knowing)! Another piece of self refuting evidence against one of the alleged traits of God. I have been saying this for years; that if you study the scriptures fervently with an open mind you can literally take it apart and demonstrate that it is not divinely inspired nor the word of God. The bible contradicts itself at every turn. This is the reason for so much doctrinal disagreements with the thousands of church denominations the world over.

Now I know there are going to be some theists that are going to nitpick at this post and point out that God did not take the form of a man in the same way that he did when he was Christ. So I will jump the gun and say that I agree with you. On the visit to Abraham he took on the form of flesh but he did not bear the sins of the world upon that flesh he was completely divine. Whereas in Christ he was born of a woman and conceived by the Spirit making him of a dual nature. By being born of flesh he also bore the curse of sin on his flesh. I'll elaborate on this more in a future post. The point of this one is that he took on the form of a man and that he did so to verify some information which being God I don't see how he could not know this information given the claim that he is omniscient.

Note: All bible quotations are taken from the New Jerusalem Translation

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