> I'm not so sure he didn't create us in his physical image as well. Clearly Jesus' human body was human, and his resurrected body was recognizable, but I'm not convinced his physical body didn't "exist" prior to his resurrection. God the Son existed beforehand; I don't know why he wouldn't have had a body. But, then again, don't ask me where it might have been. Actually this particular debate isn't worth debating at all, beyond throwing out ideas.

To throw out another idea: God has existed, always. He isn't confined to time, which He created, but exists in eternity. Even though our minds may not be able to comprehend it, the fact is, God has never not existed. And that includes all three parts of the Trinity. We also know that God the Son was the specific Member who took the active part in creating the physical universe and everything in it. (John 1:1-3, 14) The Son, who later became known to mankind as Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, after his incarnation, was responsible for creating mankind IN HIS OWN IMAGE. But I still think that this means a spiritual image.

Here are my thoughts on this: I don't think that Jesus' physical body existed somewhere in limbo any more than you or I or any other person exists prior to our conception. Christ was conceived in the body of Mary, a virgin, by the Holy Spirit--the miracle of the Incarnation. He was 100% man, and he lived as a man, with all the trials and temptations that mankind goes through, but without sin. He died...and when he was resurrected, his old body was changed into the new, resurrection body.

You see, I don't believe that when you and I are resurrected, our old bodies will be discarded...but that they will be *changed*. I Corinthians 15:51-52 supports this view. Christ set the pattern for resurrection.

> But it makes sense to me that if we were created in God's image, the fact that we have a physical body would suggest that we were created in his image physically in addition to spiritually, rather than the alternative -- that Jesus' physical forms were created in our image. I actually have something more substantial to say about this later on in this post.

The way I see it, Jesus humbled himself, and took on the form of man, so that he could take on our sins and pay for them. I think I just partially quoted a verse from Romans. It was debasing for the Son of God to do this! That's part of the wonderful fact of salvation, that He loved us enough to be willing to do that!

> I would further submit, not as an argument or point of argument but as a stated opinion, that soul and spirit are truly separate entities. Biblically, people are sometimes called souls but never spirits. We have spirits, but we are primarily creatures of soul. Angels, on the other hand, are primarily spirits. When the Bible says "spirits," it never refers to people. Animals, to complete the picture, are primarily physical creatures: they have souls and spirits, but they aren't eternal. The difference between soul and spirit, as seems to be suggested by the Bible, is that our spirit is what allows us to communicate with spiritual beings -- hopefully God. Our soul seems to be our logical aspect: intellectual pursuits and logical thinking are handled by the soul.

I agree with your completely on this.

> But, wrapping back to the original point, our spirit, and likely also our soul, have a similar "image." There are several references to spirits having physical characteristics. The rich man in hell, for example, said his mouth was always dry -- but he was bereft of a physical body. It would seem that our spirits have the same sort of components that our physical bodies do. (It's my belief that Romans 10:9-10, which says that those who "confess with thy mouth" will be saved refers to the spiritual "mouth." It's consistent with other biblical passages that refer to spirits as having components we normally associate with physical bodies, and it's also consistent with the other salvation verses in the Bible, which do not mention physical, audible profession as being a requirement of salvation. It does, however, reinforce the notion that salvation must be a conscientious decision of the spirit, which is absolutely in keeping with other salvation verses.)

I would say that those references are more examples of anthropormorphizing something to help us understand it better.

> And so, if our spirit "looks like" our physical bodies, there is yet more reason to believe our physical bodies were fashioned after God somehow also.
>
> As for extraterrestrial life forms, well, that's a whole new can of worms. I'm not sure if I believe in extraterrestrial life or not. But whether there is or isn't, the Bible doesn't seem to mention it, and therefore I don't believe it's particularly important insofar as our personal spiritual relationship with God is concerned.

I think the Bible does speak of "extraterrestrial" beings. I would consider demons and angels to be extraterrestrials.

Gri"Jesus loves me, this I know"shny