All About Mormons

Scripture-Study List: God has a Physical Body

The fact that man was created in God’s image suggests that God is not some mysterious force or immaterial being; rather, God is a physical being, and we were made physical beings in His likeness.

Genesis 1:26-27:

• 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.

The Old-Testament prophet Jacob saw God face to face, suggesting God has a physical body.

Genesis 32:30:

• And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

The Old-Testament prophet Moses not only saw God face to face but spoke with Him.

Exodus 33:11:

• And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

Additionally, Moses also saw God’s hand and back parts, further suggesting He has a physical body.

Exodus 33:21-23:

• And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
• And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
• And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Moses (and others) also saw God’s feet.

Exodus 24:9-11:

• Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
• And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
• And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Mormons believe that when Moses wrote that God has a mouth, he was not speaking allegorically.

Numbers 12:6-8:

• And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
• My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
• With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

Moses also mentioned God’s mouth elsewhere.

Deuteronomy 8:3:

• And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Moses even saw God’s finger.

Deuteronomy 9:10:

• And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.

The psalmist also implied that God has a physical body when he wrote of God’s hands, arms, and countenance.

Psalm 44:3:

• For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.

The New Testament described a vision of God’s right hand. The fact that God has a right hand suggests he has a physical body.

Acts 7:55-56:

• But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
• And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

The apostle John described God’s face, again suggesting He has a physical body.

Revelation 22:3-4:

• And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
• And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.