Muslims in particular, frown at the thought of God appearing as a man. If God appeared to Moses as a burning bush, is there any good reason why he cannot appear as a man? Is it impossible for God, who has a divine nature, to be both divine and human at the same time? Can God who is holy and forgives sins—divine qualities Jesus had—not dwell among men? Scripture refers to this union of God’s divine nature and the nature of man, for the purpose of God’s secret plan of salvation, as the ‘MYSTERY OF GOD’.
Those who undermine God’s ability to possess both qualities inaccurately point to verses like Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29 and Malachi 3:6 in which God says he is not man or son of man. In these verses however, God is making the point that the nature of God is not the same as the nature of man. When it pleases God however, he can take on BOTH natures as he did when Jesus became flesh and dwelt among men. Testimony of this union was that Jesus was sinless (holy), forgave sins and is called the Word of God—attributes which no prophet or human ever possessed.
Yet Jesus human nature shown when he became hungry, thirsty, sorrowful and when he was tempted of the devil—who was defeated in every temptation by Jesus’s wisdom.
Jesus stated that he existed before Mary gave birth to him as flesh:“Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” [John 8:58] This demonstrates that Jesus exists in eternity
Jesus said to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” [John 8:56]
Why would it be unthinkable for God to appear as a man? After all, isn’t man the ONLY being—out of all creation—that God created in the image of God and to man was given dominion over everything that creepeth over the face of the earth? Rather, a more sensible question would be: if God created man in his image, why would he appear in different and less glorious forms but NOT in the form of a man—created after His own image and glory?
I’ll use many verses from the Tanakh Jewish scripture untouched by CLAIMS of corruption and already in place before Rome, the Popes or Nicea!
“And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”
Tanakh Jewish Bible Genesis 1:27
A reason some would be disgusted at God appearing as a man is not the fault of God. The fault is in us. God blessed us with dominion over everything but we have all fallen short of his glory.
“All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath made to light on him the iniquity of us all.”
Tanakh Jewish scripture Isaiah 53:6
“for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23 KJV
Didn’t God once dwell and walk among men? This is what he said to Moses about having the Israelites make a sanctuary/house for him :
“for I have not DWELT in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have WALKED in a tent and in a tabernacle.”
Tanakh Jewish scripture 2 Samuel 7:6
Jesus/Yeshua is the ‘ARM of the Lord’ and ‘glory of the lord’ who brings salvation. His name means God is salvation. Salvation from what? From the fallen human condition of sin, for we have come short of the glory of God. “All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath made to light on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:6 Tanakh Bible]
“And He [God] saw that there was no MAN, and was ASTONISHED that there was no INTERCESSOR; therefore His OWN ARM brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him;”
Tanakh Jewish Bible Isaiah 59:16
And God fulfilled his promise by sending himself and REVEALING himself to mankind for the world to SEE him and to bring salvation:
“Hark! one calleth: ‘Clear ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make plain in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain; and the glory of the LORD shall be REVEALED , and all FLESH shall SEE it together; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Tanakh Jewish Bible Isaiah 40:3-5
From this verse—without a shadow of doubt—God himself was coming to the earth and would be SEEN in a human body (flesh) by man. But who was to prepare the way for ‘the Lord’/’our God’?
The following is a prophecy of Jesus as the covenant:”I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a COVENANT of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
Isaiah 42:6-7
“Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall clear the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple, and the messenger of the COVENANT, whom ye delight in, behold, he cometh, saith the LORD of hosts.”
Tanakh Jewish Bible Micah 3:1
In the above verse, God is speaking, and He says that the messenger (John the Baptist) would prepare the way “before Me.” So, it is the LORD God Himself who was coming! Then, God says it is “the Lord” who will come, “the messenger of the covenant.” So, God is EQUATED with the Lord who was to come. It is one of many occasions where Jesus is called “God” The use of the word “delight” shows that God coming in the flesh would be a joyous celebration for mankind.
In announcing the news of his birth the angel says:
‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.’
Matthew 1:23 KJV (see Isaiah 9:6)
Zachariah, overcome by the Holy Spirit, prophesies that his son John would prepare the way for Jesus ‘the Lord’ “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
Luke 1:76
What did John—the messenger preparing the way for Jesus—say when the Jews sent priests and Levites to ask if he was the Christ?
He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord ,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
John 1:23
So indeed God—through his Son Jesus—came in the form of a man/flesh— after God’s own image and glory.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made FLESH , and DWELT among US, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
John 1:1, 3, 14 KJV
All things were made by the Word— Jesus. He IS the Creator. Your Creator.
John the Baptist said:
And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
John 1:34 KJV
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29
The above verse of Jesus taking the sin of the world upon himself is a prophecy made in Isaiah:
“he bared his soul unto DEATH, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made INTERCESSION for the transgressors.”
Tanakh Jewish Bible Isaiah 53:12
Jesus’s own words before the crucifixion reject the claim of Qur’an 4:157:
‘And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and CRUCIFIED, and he will be raised on the third day.” even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:17-19, 28)
‘Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”
John 20:27-29
ON THE DAY OF THE APPEARING OF CHRIST IN THE END OF DAYS, according to the prophet Zechariah, there will be great mourning among the Jews when they are faced with the sudden realization that they rejected and crucified him:
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have PIERCED, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a first-born.
Zechariah 12:10
“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the FLESH is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the FLESH is not of God: and this is that spirit of ANTICHRIST, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
1 John 4:2-3 KJV
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
Speaking of Jesus, Timothy says:
“And without controversy great is the MYSTERY of godliness: God was manifest in the FLESH, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
1 Timothy 3:16 KJV
In the book of Revelations, written no later than AD 96 (from which Muhammad plagiarizes A LOT) speaks of the ending of time when the MYSTERY OF GOD —God manifesting in the flesh—will be finished:
“.. but in the days of the voice of the SEVENTH angel, when he shall begin to sound, the MYSTERY OF GOD should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
Revelation 10:7 KJV
‘Then the SEVENTH angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Revelation 11:15
This is the MYSTERY of GOD: that Jesus— as God and YOUR Creator—walked and dwelt among us in the form of a man (after God’s own image and glory) and was rejected and despised, yet, as Jesus said: “Greater LOVE hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John [15:13].
Clearly, even with many Bible translations into many languages and as English has changed dramatically, the MESSAGE of God both in the old Jewish scripture and in the Gospels has remained the SAME: that of the Messiah who ‘bared his soul unto DEATH, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many’ Tanakh scripture Isaiah 53:12
If you reject that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh, the ANTICHRIST spirit dwells in you right now! Accept Jesus Christ as Lord and become part of the coming EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF THE CHRIST. Stay safe. God loves you. May God bless you!