How many Seventh Day Adventists are Anthropomorphite in theology?

JohnMarsten · Jan 2, 2012

Personally I think that it is very hard to grasp who God really is, I mean in the sense that no one has ever seen God, understand His personalilty is even more difficult, we can only imagine...

It shouldnt be something that is needed for salvation, on the other hand,however, if a denom, and that I understand from the posted scriptures, makes fundamental statements about, well, that in effect is dangerous... as it tempers with our mind and its understanding of God.

Pantheism is a religion that, as to my knowledge, that is based on some mystery stuff, however, one should note that God is indeed omnipresent, maybe that is because of His Holy Spirit, one way or another, visiting nature can bring a believer closer to the almighty God as it reveals His work of creation, talking to Him, however, can take place everywhere, I guess...

Pythons · Jan 2, 2012

Our finite minds cannot fathom our Infinite God and I doubt we will fully grasp what God is if we make it to heaven...
...What we can do is establish what God is not from what we know He is.
...Such things like knowing God is not a free-moral agent who can self terminate & eternally cease to exist.

Stryder06 · Jan 3, 2012

Stryder06 · Jan 3, 2012

Pythons said:
Stryder asked me directly in the thread to produce explicit proof....
...That to Seventh-day Adventists the phrase; "Personality of God".
...Was codified to mean that God the Father had a 'body w/ all the organs, members, parts of a perfect man'.

I simply demonstrated I wasn't bluffing or stretching anything when I said that was SDA teaching...
...From when Ellen was a child to past her death.

It was explicitly stated to be a foundational doctrine and was supported to the point....
...That Ellen quoted J.N. Andrews that to deny that the Father had a body.
...Was to destroy the Lord God Himself.

First, I didn't see anything in what you gave that showed that what you're saying is what Sr White believed. Of course I could just be slow to pickup what you're throwing. That happens. Second, SDA's didn't exist when Sr white was a child. Not sure why you said that. Third, you haven't presented anything that I haven't already believed. I don't think the Father has a body like us, nor do I believe that is what Sr White meant. But hey, I'm certain you'll show me why you know better

Pythons · Jan 3, 2012

Stryder06 said:
First, I didn't see anything in what you gave that showed that what you're saying is what Sr White believed.

"The Personality of God" was defined to mean; 'God has a body with ALL the members, parts & organs of a perfect man....
...That was the ONLY thing the term ever meant to SDA's.
...So we can be sure that's what Ellen meant when speaking as a SDA.

Stryder said:
Of course I could just be slow to pickup what you're throwing. That happens. Second, SDA's didn't exist when Sr white was a child.

True, Ellen came from a Methodist background and shortly after her initiation as a prophet....
...The SDA's started to repudiate the Orthodox Christian Creeds.
...Notice the article I linked started off with an open rebuke of the Methodist creed.
...Which affirmed the Substance that is God was w/out body or parts.

Stryder said:
Not sure why you said that. Third, you haven't presented anything that I haven't already believed. I don't think the Father has a body like us, nor do I believe that is what Sr White meant. But hey, I'm certain you'll show me why you know better

Yes, more to follow Stryder.

Stryder06 · Jan 4, 2012

Pythons said:
"The Personality of God" was defined to mean; 'God has a body with ALL the members, parts & organs of a perfect man....
...That was the ONLY thing the term ever meant to SDA's.
...So we can be sure that's what Ellen meant when speaking as a SDA.

Your assumptions are strong oh snakey one.

True, Ellen came from a Methodist background and shortly after her initiation as a prophet....
...The SDA's started to repudiate the Orthodox Christian Creeds.
...Notice the article I linked started off with an open rebuke of the Methodist creed.
...Which affirmed the Substance that is God was w/out body or parts.

I've always thought God had a body. Not a body of flesh and blood like ours, but a body which ours is fashioned after. Scripture does say "Let us make man in Our IMAGE, after Our LIKENESS.

Pythons · Jan 4, 2012

Stryder06 said:
Your assumptions are strong oh snakey one.

I'm not assuming anything with this - I establish what was promulgated...
...By pulling it directly off your own archives & matching the dates of those publications.
...With the dated utterances of Ellen White.

Thus,

If there was a question about Faith and Morals ( Doctrines ) for SDA's...
...What was the answer provided in the denominational publications.
...& was THAT teaching subsquently backed up by utterances of Ellen White.

On this issue I've done that & it's absolute that Ellen White ( in keeping with SDA theology at that time )...
...Promulgated that God the Father, Michael & Lucifer the archangel's.
..."ALL" had bodies of 'flesh' with 'ALL' the parts, members & organs of a perfect man.

EVERY publication that mentioned it, maintained that the foundation the 2300 evening and morning prophecy stood on...
...Was the Doctrine that God the Father has a literal body of flesh.
...Therefore He required a "dwelling place", i.e. the heavenly temple.

So no assumptions at all - I've backed everything up with SDA history...
...And provided the actual URL's for any who are interested to check up on me..

Stryder said:
I've always thought God had a body. Not a body of flesh and blood like ours, but a body which ours is fashioned after. Scripture does say "Let us make man in Our IMAGE, after Our LIKENESS.

Ellen said 'flesh' - Scripture using the words, "in our image and after our likeness"....
...Is simply a Jewish idiom to indicate that in a finite way man would Lord over creation.
...Compared to God being Lord over creation in an infinite way.

The Jewish concept has always been that God was "spirit" and not a literal body of flesh....
...Anthropomorphism is alien to Jewish understanding.

JohnMarsten · Jan 5, 2012

why does no one take a direct stance here?

WHat is the official position of the SDA?

Pythons · Jan 5, 2012

JohnMarsten said:
why does no one take a direct stance here?

WHat is the official position of the SDA?

Stryder has said that he has always believed that God had a body...
...I'm taking for granted that Stryder is affirming that the Substance.
...Which is equally Father, Son & Holy Spirit have always had bodies.

JohnMarsten · Jan 5, 2012

Pythons said:
Stryder has said that he has always believed that God had a body...
...I'm taking for granted that Stryder is affirming that the Substance.
...Which is equally Father, Son & Holy Spirit have always had bodies.

well, he rather said 'thought' and that Gods body didnt exactly match ours.

You know, this whole antromorphite theme goes a little bit beyond my personal belief system. I believe we humans are to small in size to able to discuss matters like that, I mean, who can know for sure and the bible doesnt explicitly say that, right? I always thought God is spirit (thats what I read in the bible) and that no one has ever seen God... well... cept for EGW maybe... that is...

The whole idea, though, that EGW and other SDAs made statements that God indeed had a body similar to ours and later forbade to talk about it... thats crazy IMHO, why tell the people at all if you dont want them to discuss the matter...

But one thing is for certain this thread has shown again how little SDAs know about their religion, basically people join the church because of the 7th day and a couple of other things, little do they know about anything else.

Stryder06 · Jan 5, 2012

Pythons said:
I'm not assuming anything with this - I establish what was promulgated...
...By pulling it directly off your own archives & matching the dates of those publications.
...With the dated utterances of Ellen White.

Thus,

If there was a question about Faith and Morals ( Doctrines ) for SDA's...
...What was the answer provided in the denominational publications.
...& was THAT teaching subsquently backed up by utterances of Ellen White.

On this issue I've done that & it's absolute that Ellen White ( in keeping with SDA theology at that time )...
...Promulgated that God the Father, Michael & Lucifer the archangel's.
..."ALL" had bodies of 'flesh' with 'ALL' the parts, members & organs of a perfect man.

EVERY publication that mentioned it, maintained that the foundation the 2300 evening and morning prophecy stood on...
...Was the Doctrine that God the Father has a literal body of flesh.
...Therefore He required a "dwelling place", i.e. the heavenly temple.

So no assumptions at all - I've backed everything up with SDA history...
...And provided the actual URL's for any who are interested to check up on me..

Again, your assumptions are strong. Unless I missed it, I don't recall Ellen ever stating that God the Father had a body with all parts and organs of a perfect man. You think that because some Adventists may have believed that during her life time, that all Adventists believed that. Thus, it's an assumption. It may be one you believe is strongly rationalized, but an assumption, nonetheless, it remains.

Ellen said 'flesh'

Where did Ellen say that God the Father had "flesh"?

- Scripture using the words, "in our image and after our likeness"....
...Is simply a Jewish idiom to indicate that in a finite way man would Lord over creation.
...Compared to God being Lord over creation in an infinite way.

The Jewish concept has always been that God was "spirit" and not a literal body of flesh....
...Anthropomorphism is alien to Jewish understanding.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that God had flesh and thus He gave man flesh. I'm saying that I believe that God has a form similar to the one He gave us. Not one of flesh and blood, but a form like we have.

How many Seventh Day Adventists are Anthropomorphite in theology?

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