What Does God Look Like?
Good News Magazine
January 1986
Volume: Vol XXXIII, NO. 1
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What Does God Look Like?

The Bible gives us a fascinating, clear picture! When God first created human life on earth, He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). And God did just that: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him" (verse 27).
   But does that mean we really look like God? What, after all, does God look like?
   Early man, say historians, believed God was the life or spirit of nature — that essence that exhibits itself as anger in thunder, movement in wind, weeping in rain, gentleness in the flow of rivers, mysteriousness in deep woods, restlessness of the oceans.
   To at least one Christian group, God is a divine principle, a rule or code of ethics that governs good conduct, ruling over all as eternal spirit and infinite mind.
   Evolutionists believe God is an ancient idea, a fictitious being created by primitive, ignorant humans to explain phenomena they could not understand. People down thro ugh the ages have imagined God as looking like almost every conceivable kind of animal, combination of animals and combination of human and animal attributes.
   It is time we get the facts — time we learn what God tells us about Himself!

God tells us!
   We need not be confused about what God looks like. God tells us plainly in the Bible. God called our first ancestor, Adam, man. Eve was called woman. Together they were called man (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:22-23). They were not some lower, primitive form of human. Adam and Eve looked like we do, although they were undoubtedly perfect physical specimens.
   Later in history, when God, with two of his angels, appeared to Abraham, He appeared as a normal man (Genesis 18:1-3). Still later, when Ezekiel saw a vision of God on His throne ("the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord"), God had "the appearance of a man" (Ezekiel 1:26-28).

People down through the ages have imagined God in hundreds of different shapes and forms. Some early people believed that God was the spirit or essence seen in nature.

The image of God
   From these scriptures, we can know God looks like a human. Many other scriptures tell how, whenever God appeared to humans, He always had the form and shape, size and features of a normal man. But let's take a closer look.
   God has one face. He talked face to face with Jacob and with Moses (Genesis 32:30, Exodus 33:11, Deuteronomy 34:10). His eyes are always upon the land He personally cares for (Deuteronomy 11:12), even as
   His eyes are upon the righteous and His ears are open to their cry (Psalm 34:15).
   Hebrews 4:13 says, "There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account."
   God has a body. Paul tells us that, in the resurrection, our vile, physical bodies will be fashioned like Christ's glorious body (Philippians 3:21). Christ Himself said those who enter the Kingdom will have two eyes, two hands and two feet (Matthew 18:8-9), giving more clear indication of what God looks like.
   God has a mouth, and we are to live by every word that proceeds from it (Matthew 4:4). God spoke to Moses (Numbers 12:8); occasionally He thunders with a mighty voice (Psalm 68:33). Zophar speaks of the lips of God (Job 11:5), and Isaiah tells us that when God becomes angry, "His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue like a devouring fire; His breath is like an overflowing stream" (Isaiah 30:27-28).
   With His voice God laughs at those who try to outwit Him (Psalm 2:4) and at the heathen who plot against Him (Psalm 59:8).
   God has a nose; He smelled the sacrifice Noah offered on the altar (Genesis 8:21), and with a blast from His nostrils He divided the Red Sea (Exodus 15:8).
   God has arms, hands and fingers like we do, not hoofs, claws or paws. God has a mighty arm; strong is His hand, and His right hand is lifted high in glorious strength (Psalm 89:13). The Israelites did not gain possession of the promised land by their own sword or strength, but the right hand and arm of God gained it for them (Psalm 44:3). Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of the God on high (Hebrews 1:3), and all the host of heaven stand on His right hand and on His left (II Chronicles 18:18).
   With His own fingers God wrote the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone for Moses (Exodus 31:18, Deuteronomy 9:10), and on two more tables after Moses broke the first set (Deuteronomy 10:1-2). The heavens are the work of God's fingers (Psalm 8:3).
   When God restores all things, the government shall be upon His shoulder (Isaiah 9:6).
   God permitted Moses to see His back as He walked by in His glory (Exodus 33:18, 23), and David speaks of a time when God shook the earth, bowed the heavens and came down, when darkness was under His feet (Psalm 18:9). God also has a waist (Ezekiel 1:27).
   Jesus Christ said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), indicating that both God the Father and Christ have the same form and shape, and undoubtedly much the same looks and features.

The human potential
   Man is made in God's shape, form and image. By contrast, the creatures who serve God around His throne have multiple faces, wings and animal-like, features (Ezekiel 1:4-10, Ezekiel 10:1-22). Satan, the former archangel Lucifer, now appears as a dragon or serpent (Revelation 12:9).
   But why is man made in God's image, with a mind similar to God's? The incredible answer is more fantastic than you have ever dreamed!
   The truth is that humans have the stupendous potential to actually be born into God's own Family as immortal, brilliant, spirit-composed beings like God Himself as God's children!
   At Jesus Christ's return, God's servants throughout history will be resurrected and, with true Christians still alive, will be changed in the twinkling of an eye into the exact form and composition God has now (I Corinthians 15:51-53, I John 3:2).

God Himself reveals that He made humanity in His own image and likeness, with a similar mind. The Bible offers many specific details about God's form and appearance.

   There will no longer be any confusion as to who or what God is or what His plan is! Everyone will see! No church, other than God's one true Church, understands this amazing knowledge. For more information, send immediately for our free book The Incredible Human Potential and our free booklet Your Awesome Future — How Religion Deceives You.

God in all His glory
   The book of Revelation reveals what the glorified Jesus Christ looks like now. This is the image we ourselves shall share if we overcome and endure to the end (Revelation 21:7).
   Christ is "clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet' were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters" (Revelation 1:13-15).
   The apostle John was shown, in vision, God the Father sitting upon His throne (Revelation 4:1-11). God, the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9-14), is the ever-living God who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15). He endures forever (Psalm 9:7) and has eternal youth and strength (Isaiah 40:28-31).
   In all these accounts and many more in the Bible, God is never pictured in any form or shape other than the same image He, the Creator, gave to man. God truly made us in His own image, to someday soon share fully In His eternal glory and power!

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Good News MagazineJanuary 1986Vol XXXIII, NO. 1