What Does God Look Like?

It should now be clear who the God Beings are. But some may wonder if we can know what these Personages actually look like. Men have concocted every conceivable thought, idea and theory about the form and shape of God. Trinitarians believe that it is not possible for physical man to comprehend what the spiritual Creator of the universe looks like.

Notice the following examples of how the world sees God: “It says in the Bible that we were made in His image but it’s hard to imagine this big man in the sky, as it were. Does He really sit on a throne? Does He have a beard? If He’s omnipresent and omniscient then how can He be confined to a finite area, i.e., a body, an image? The infinite defies the finite, and our earthly perception really limits what we can comprehend.

If we were in a room with Him, He probably wouldn’t extend a hand and say ‘how do you do’ like another person. A direct encounter would be nothing like what we might imagine it would be. It might be like finding ourselves inside the sun, or the centre of a hurricane or some other overwhelming natural force” (www.worldcommunity.com).

Amazing! In the first sentence, the author acknowledges the biblical teaching on the subject of what God looks like. However, in the same sentence, he basically rejects what the Bible says. The writer accepts the biblical teaching that God is omniscient and omnipresent, but rejects what God’s Word reveals about God’s form and shape. It is astonishing that approximately two billion professing Christians simply do not believe the bible on this matter!

Another writer views the subject this way: “When the writers in the Bible talk about God, they speak in metaphors. The experience of knowing God is inexplicable in normal human terms—we don’t have the language for it—so they speak of fire and light, of huge thrones and God’s robe filling a gargantuan sanctuary. Mysterious creatures like the seraphim surround God. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. There are intimate metaphors as well, God as a father or mother, God as shepherd. But there is no one single picture that can contain who God is. They are just glimpses. Hints. Clues” (www.morningstarchurch.org, emphasis ours).

It is true that the Bible uses symbols, anecdotes, metaphors and parables. Yet, Scripture also makes many literal statements. The book of Revelation is filled with metaphors and symbols of events that will take place in the near future. But God always explains what the metaphors mean. He does not leave His servants in the dark about them—or leave them open to human interpretation.

For example, Revelation 17:1 describes a “great whore that sits upon many waters.” Throughout the rest of the chapter, God reveals who and what the great whore is, and, in Rev 17:15, He reveals the meaning of the “waters.” This is the pattern throughout the Bible.

We may ask: Would it make sense for God to hide His form and shape in a metaphor and then not explain what it means? Why would the great Creator of the universe reveal the meaning of metaphors and parables in every area except who and what He is, including what He looks like? This makes no sense.

It is interesting that when God means something metaphorically, men seem to turn it into a literal statement. But, when He wants something to be taken literally, men invariably seem to turn it into a metaphor. When people turn literal statements by God into metaphors, they are severely damaging the Word of God—and their own understanding. Whether they know it or not, they are changing God’s meaning. How many ever think of it this way?

God admonishes all men who study His Word not to add to or take away from it. He promises severe punishment for those who do (Prov. 30:5-6). Notice this concluding warning just to those who alter the book of Revelation: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18-19).

This is a very serious matter—and trinitarians should consider it well. To change the meaning of what God states violates this instruction. None should want to be guilty of such an offence. We repeat yet again: Always permit the Bible to interpret itself. As we saw the scripture states, “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psa. 12:6).