Anti-Mormon Claims
Anti-Mormon Claimsnumbers 23:19hosea 11:9god not a manembodied

Numbers 23:19 — God Is Not a Man

God is not a man, that he should lie. Hosea 11:9 too. Doesn’t that destroy an embodied, exalted Father?

Bible

They quote this

Bible · Numbers 23:19

KJV + NRSVUE

Balaam is saying God does not lie or repent like men. Not ‘God has no form.’

King James Version

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?

NRSVUE

God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind. Has he promised, and will he not do it?

How we read it

Balaam is saying God does not lie. The next clause is “neither the son of man, that he should repent.” It is about truthfulness, not anatomy. Exodus 15:3 can still say “the LORD is a man of war.” Read the verse as a prophet slamming a hired curse, not as a metaphysics class against D&C 130.

The Bible answers

Bible · Hosea 11:9

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger… for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee.

NRSVUE

I will not execute my fierce anger… for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst.

Book of Mormon

The Book of Mormon answers

Mosiah 3:5, 8

The Lord Omnipotent shall come down and dwell in a tabernacle of clay.

The Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay… and he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth.

Faithful answers

FAIR

God is not a man

FAIR Latter-day Saints

Balaam’s point is that God keeps oaths. Hosea’s point is that God is not as petty as we are. Neither prophet is writing against the Incarnation or against a Father whose glorified body is the prototype of ours. Read the ‘that he should lie’ clause. That is the meaning.

God is not a man — that He should lie. The dash is doing the work. Critics saw off the dash.

  • Hebrew parallelism: not a man / that he should lie. Moral contrast, not species.
  • Jesus is a man. If the verse is absolute, the New Testament is over.
  • Embodiment of the Father is Restoration doctrine. It does not make Him a liar.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

What Mormons Believe about the Godhead | Now You Know

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