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<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=90 BGCOLOR="#CC9900" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="043005a0dwnjzk.gif"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="EDWARD WATSONS WEBWORLD"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B> | </B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>EDWARD WATS</B><B>ON'S WEBWORLD</B></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION"><U><B>SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id62.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1"><U><B>1</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2"><U><B>2</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="3"><U><B>3</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="4"><U><B>4</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id55.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="5"><U><B>5</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="6"><U><B>6</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="7"><U><B>7</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="8"><U><B>8</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="9"><U><B>9</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="10"><U><B>10</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>11</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id74.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="12"><U><B>12</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="13"><U><B>13</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="14"><U><B>14</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="15"><U><B>15</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="16"><U><B>16</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id79.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="17"><U><B>17</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="18"><U><B>18</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="APPENDIX"><U><B>APPENDIX</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id82.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="SECTION 1: CONCLUSION"><U><B>SECTION 1: CONCLUSION</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ABBREVIATIONS"><U><B>ABBREVIATIONS</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>[MORMONISM. The Faith of the Twenty-first Century. Volume 1. Edward K. Watson. (Liahona Publications. Copyright © 1998 Edward K. Watson.) pp. 115-116. MORMONISM: Section 1, Chapter 11. All rights reserved.]</B></div> <bR> <div> <U>CHAPTER 11</U></div> <bR> <div> <B>Many Early Christians Believed God Has a Physical</B></div> <div> <B> Anthropomorphic Body </B></div> <bR> <div>      Traditional Christianity rapidly abandoned the scriptural view of an anthropomorphic God when it was saturated with the Greek philosophical ideas that existed in the world of the second and third century Apologists. They were Greek philosophers who converted to Christianity and were trying to make Christianity respectable and successful. They interpreted Christian theology in a manner that was harmonious to the unquestioned assumptions of Greek philosophy about God. They then packaged Christianity in a manner that was appealing to the intellectuals.</div> <div>      The idea that God is a nonmaterial spirit entity didn't originate from the Christians but actually originated from the  Greek philosophers (see MORMONISM: Section 4). The early Christians for the first three centuries believed God had a body and wasn't a nonmaterial spirit. This view was eventually abandoned as Neoplatonism (Greek Philosophy) became the dominant worldview of Christian thinkers. Origen himself, condemned the “simpleminded” Christians who believed  God had a body in anthropomorphic form. He stated that since they haven't received the philosophical training necessary to conceive God as a  nonmaterial spirit they are among “the most savage and unjust of mankind.”<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >1</FONT></div> <div>      Irenaeus mentioned the early Christians believed in God having a physical body.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >2</FONT> The Christian philosopher, Clement of Alexandria stated in the beginning of the third century that the early Christian Church believed God had a physical body.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >3</FONT> He was among the first to attempt to change this view because such a concept wouldn't influence the Greeks who were steeped in philosophy.</div> <div>      Melito, the bishop of Sardis (fl. 160-180) believed  God was in anthropomorphic form.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >4</FONT> So did Audius the hermit of Mesopotamia.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >5</FONT> Augustine didn't want to become a Christian because he knew the early Christians, including his mother, believed in God having a physical anthropomorphic body and it wasn't until encountering Christian philosophers that he even heard of the Christian God not having a body.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >6</FONT></div> <div>      Tertullian also believed that God had a physical body.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >7</FONT> He is considered to be the Father of Western Theology and a heretic because he joined the Montanists in affirming that Christianity was becoming more corrupt and was compromising to Greek philosophy.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >8</FONT></div> <div>      The early anti-Christian Celsus wrote a book called “True Doctrine” around 180 A.D. attacking the Christian religion. He believed in a nonmaterial God,<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >9</FONT> and attacked the Christian view of an anthropomorphic God as highly blasphemous (sounds familiar?) and argued God doesn't have any human characteristics; therefore, he didn't make man in his physical image.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >10</FONT></div> <div>      Why did the early Christians believe God had a body i n anthropomorphic form? This was due to the early belief of the ancient Israelites in the anthropomorphic nature of God. The God of Moses was an  anthropomorphic God. No one can read the Pentateuch and avoid the conclusion that God is in a human form.<I> It is furthermore impossible to think of a personal God as a being without form</I>.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >11</FONT></div> <div>      Judaism in turn, can trace its current theological formulations of God to the Hellenistic Jews of Alexandria, starting with  Aristobulus around 170 BC. These Jewish thinkers steadily dehumanized and allegorized the passages in the Hebrew Scriptures to eliminate any anthropomorphic references to God because such a concept is abhorrent to Greek Philosophy. Philo of Alexandria was especially zealous in modifying the ancient anthropomorphic belief in God,<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >12</FONT> and this tendency was continued by the later Rabbinical writers.<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >13</FONT> </div> <div>      It is enlightening to realize that the entire edifice of the current conception of God that exists in Traditional Theism is based upon Greek philosophical modes of thought that are actually foreign to the biblical texts themselves. Mormonism is very fortunate to avoid this adulteration that has distorted the real biblical teaching of God. </div> <bR> <div> <B>[ENDNOTES]:</B></div> <bR> <div> 1.PCF. 1:76.</div> <div> 2.ANF. 1:465.</div> <div> 3.Clement of Alexandria.<I> Frag</I>. ANF. 2:585. </div> <div> 4.RC. p. 240.</div> <div> 5.HCC. 1:334.</div> <div> 6.Augustine. <I>Conf.</I> 5:10; 7:1.</div> <div> 7.Tertullian. <I>Ad. Prax</I>. 7;  <I>De Res. Car.</I> 7 ANF. 3:1023 (Sage); <I>De Anima.</I> 5; ANF. 3:467; IGIC. p. 254; PCF. 1:104; JQ. 2:321. A spirit has a bodily substance.</div> <div> 8.PCF. 1:105-107.</div> <div> 9.OBPTCC. p. 216.</div> <div> 10.Origen. <I>C. Cel.</I> 4.36,38,48-50; 6.49-50,58,61-63.</div> <div> 11.SMM. pp. 92-94.</div> <div> 12.BJ. pp. 24,182,281-282,287,292-293.</div> <div> 13.MI. p. 122.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mailto:ewatson@shaw.ca" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ewatson@shaw.ca"><U>e-mail me!</U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>