Objection · Case 11 · Mormonism
The Bible describes God with a face, hands, eyes, and a back (Exodus 33), and says humans are made in God’s image. Latter-day Saints read those literally; classical Christians call them anthropomorphism. Who’s to say which reading is right?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
That is the LDS reply, and the classical Christian answer is that the same Bible says God is spirit (John 4:24), that no one has seen God at any time (John 1:18), that he fills heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24), and that he is not a man (Numbers 23:19), and that anthropomorphic language sits alongside those statements without contradiction because it is figurative. The LDS reading has to treat the second set of texts as figurative instead. Put the two sets side by side and ask which is harder to read as a figure of speech.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Doctrine and Covenants 130:22.
This canonized verse records Joseph Smith teaching that the Father and the Son each have a physical body, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit. It says, “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as…