Today in Omnibus class we discussed whether angels can have physical/human bodies. Now before you think, "Oh dear, what useless speculation" let me argue in defense of these kinds of questions.
To arrive at an answer to a question like this (if you take the question seriously), you have to summon up all your theology that is relevant to the question. What this does is reveal what you think about God, and what you are willing to say about God to argue for your position. So, what I learned from this question from one of my students is that he does believe angels have physical, human bodies, and to get there he argued that God Himself must have a human body, face, back, etc., because God said as much when He revealed His back to Moses in the cleft of the rock. He further claimed that, since we are made in the image of God and have physical bodies, so must God, otherwise it is basically dishonest to say that we are made in the image of God. I tried to explain anthropomorphic language and the like to this student, but I am not entirely sure he was disavowed of the notion that God has, according to His very nature, a physical body like we do (note we are not talking about God the Son taking on flesh, that was brought up; the student really meant that God, in His essence/nature, has always had a physical, human-like body).
Further, we've discussed in class the possibility of fallen angels taking on human flesh, or at the very least appearing very much like humans (which we know angels can do) and how, particularly in the OT, this may explain the prevalence of idolatry. It wasn't that people were making wooden images that they just thought up out of nothing, but they very possibly actually saw demons that appeared like gods to them, and they crafted images after the fashion of what they actually saw. This is part of Satan's work of deceiving the nations, but glory be to God through Christ's atoning work, Satan is now bound and this kind of deception is not allowed to run so rampant among the nations today!
It's like in Bible college when one professor asked us, "Can God make a rock so big that He cannot lift it?" Or "Is God incomprehensible?" These are not dumb questions. They force us to summon all that we know about God and Christ from Scripture to bear on these questions. The first question addresses the omnipotence of God, the second the finitude of man (and infinitude of God).
I had a previous class discussion where another student was convinced, two students in fact (and that was all the students in this class), that in heaven we would come to know God exhaustively, that we would know everything about God, since Scripture says in glory we will know God fully even as we are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). The student could have busted out a logical syllogism (I also teach Logic, barely) saying that if God knows us fully, and Scripture says we will know God as He knows us, then we must be able to exhaustively/fully know God, to know every last detail about Him, and to know Him perfectly so. In fact, one student added to his argument that since heaven is for eternity, eventually we will catch up and contain God, knowing everything we can know about Him.
The problem with that reasoning is that God is infinite, and we are finite. The finite cannot contain the infinite (can't remember the fancy Latin phrase for that at the moment). In heaven, we do not become infinite (but of course my students initially thought that we did). We are still creatures, and God is ever and always Creator. We will always grow in knowledge of God in glory, and we will in fact know God fully, but that fullness is according to our natures, our capacities, our finitude. We will know God as fully as our finite minds can know God, and because God is infinite, there will be an ever increasing fullness to our knowledge of God in heaven. Our minds are like an expanding balloon. In glory, it will always be full of air/full of the knowledge of God, but the balloon will forever stretch and stretch/our minds will forever stretch with more knowledge of God, but all the while our minds are "full" for the balloon is always full of air/knowlege. So we will ever be amazed with God, passing form glory to glory, and giving Him all the glory.
Anyhow, I find these questions incredibly helpful for getting at what people really believe and think about God, and then having a good discussion/debate about it edifies everyone (assuming it doesn't degenerate into anger of frustration, which can happen if you aren't careful). It helps you check to see if others are really understanding the theology, or if their concepts of certain theological terms are slightly off-base.
And, sometimes in the midst of discussion and debate, I find myself having to make sure that my theological ducks are in a row, or some student makes some brilliant insight that I hadn't considered, and it adds to the discussion; then we together see something more of the glory of God, and we worship and praise Him for it.
So questions like, "do angels have bodies" and "Is God incomprehensible" can lead to sharpening our Theology Proper, Christology, Angelology, and our Anthropology. Maybe other things as well. And best of all, it can lead to a deeper love for God, and worshiping Him in true awe and adoration. That's not to say it always works out like that (often I am finding that students have such strongly held views that often border on heresy that I can't always persuade them otherwise, at least not in one fell swoop) but it at least gets the ball rolling and it gives the student something to think about.
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