Does God Have Emotions?

Well how 'bout it webdog, we agree! :thumbs: Amen my brother. If we look at Jesus we see God the Father, moved with compassion, anger, kindness, gentleness, joy, excitement, et.

:thumbs:

 

Right, but we are not spirits or spirit beings. Angels are spirits.

If we were spirits, we would never have a body again.

I was in the New Age a long time and into Buddhism - the view there is that the body will one day be gone and we live as ethereal disembodied beings usually merged with the Source/Universe/God, etc. or our bodies are illusions that disappear (buddhism) since the self does not exist at all.

 

What do you think we are? How do you understand the Scriptures on this subject?

 

Please explain to us what Paul is saying then in 2 Cor 5:1.

Thank you.

 

DHK,

I agree with your take on the body of man, now and in glory.

Yes, God is immutable, and yes, his emotions are tied to his nature, but is it possible that our understanding of his immutability is somewhat lacking?

Notice what Zephaniah says:

"The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing." (3:17, NIV, emphasis added)

Now as a child of God and a reader of Scripture, I have to be that God taking delight in me is real.

Whatever we understand about God's immutable nature does not negate his ability to express genuine emotions.

Maybe the answer is in what you said: "What can we say then? A finite mind cannot understand an infinite God."

But I don't think we can deny God of the emotions Scripture shows he displays.

 

Yes, I believe we need to reject the God of deism as seen in Islam.

Yep, at the end of the day, it does come down to semantics.

"It might be safe to say that his 'emotions' however they are defined are 'perfected' in their nature." I quite agree.

 

As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day...



























I'm referring to you, btw :laugh:

 

2 Cor 5 is about how our mortal bodies will be changed into a glorified body ("our dwelling from heaven" verse 2). We will still have physical bodies one day, so we are not spirit beings. A spirit being is disembodied.

Did not Jesus show Thomas the scars of nails in his body after his resurrection? Jesus' body was resurrected; his human body before death was not annihilated. A glorified body is still physical, it's just not mortal. We don't yet understand excatly what it is like, but it is our former body made new.

We will not be disembodied in heaven (after the resurrection of our bodies). Surely you do not believe this?

DHK said:

But it's still the same body, just made new. Jesus' body was resurrected; it was changed but not annihilated, and made new/glorified. So it will be for us. This is why we are not spirit beings like angels, and angels are called "spirits" in the Bible. Men have spirits (or souls or souls and spirits depending on your view) but we are not spirits as angels are.

Since becoming a believer, the bodily resurrection of Jesus into a glorified body, and our future of this based on Christ, has meant so much to me because of my past beliefs that the body was a denser form of energy, or an illusion (I had a mixture of beliefs on this); the "spirit" is always exalted in New Age thinking, which is one reason they love the word "spiritual" so much, and are into "spirituality."

One of the great things about Jesus is that he not only had a human body but this body was resurrected and made new, not destroyed or annihilated. He did not rise from the grave like a spirit being, disembodied, or in a body that appeared physical (a la JWs teaching), but it was the same body he had before death, but transformed. This is such a revolutionary teaching and idea, and totally in contrast with New Age and Eastern (and Gnostic) belief systems. It is something to really celebrate and rejoice in as a Christian!

 

Marcia,

Does anyone disagree with you?

 

I was answering your question, and responding to the other 2 comments.

I was trying to explain why I do not think man is a spirit being, but a body-soul-mind unity. If we were a spirit being, our bodies would not be resurrected. Clearly, the Lord believes our bodies are important.

 

So who denies our bodily resurrection?

 

Please re-read all the posts that led up to what I said.

I never said or implied that anyone here denied the bodily resurrection. I was simply referring to that as evidence that we are not spirit beings.

 

Fair enough!

So between a person's death and his or her bodily resurrection, What state do they exist in?

 

I assume one without a body - but that is only temporary, of course. That is the important point. I never denied that. We will have a resurrected body at some point and it will be forever. That is very different from those other views I was talking about. We will not be disembodied forever.

(I got a little excited on the bodily resurrection of Christ because of my past beliefs and that is how I feel about it).

 

Then we are all on board. :thumbs:

 

It Is Possible!

The Scripture tells us that God made man in His image! And, if this is factual, and I believe it is...than God must have emotions. Jesus, the Son of God, incarnate, displayed anger with the money-changers in the Temple, and He was deeply moved to tears when he heard that Lazarus had died.

Thus, if we are created in His image, and Jesus, the Son of God, could weep or display anger, than the evidence points to God having emotions. I feel good knowing that God has emotions, because I'd feel more comfortable serving a God who has the capacity to "feel!"

Shalom,

Pastor Paul:tear:

 

Yay! Thanks! :wavey:

 

Man is often driven by his emotions.
God's emotions are driven by what he is, his attributes.
His attributes don't change.

Rob