Questions tagged [theophany]
The appearance of God to man
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If God YHWH is “the Angel of the LORD” in the form of pre-incarnate Jesus in the OT, why does He not “rebuke” Satan Himself? (Zechariah 3:2)
Some Protestants and Catholics believe “the Angel of the LORD” frequently mentioned in the OT, to be God YHWH himself in the form of pre-incarnate Jesus. They use the unbiblical term of “theophany” ...
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For Unitarians? Since God is spirit per John 4:24 or a spiritual being and is invisible how is He able to appear physically by way of a Theophany?
The word theophany is a combination of two Greek words, meaning God and appearance. A theophany is an appearance of God. More precisely, it is a visible appearance of God.
According to Jesus at John 5:...
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What does it mean for God to appear physically (theophanies) if he's already omnipresent?
In the Old Testament, God reveals himself numerous times to the prophets in physical forms (Genesis 18:1-2, Exodus 24:9, Numbers 12:8, Isaiah 6:1). But according to scripture, God is omnipresent, ...
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According to the Jehovah's Witnesses what form did God take at Acts 7:2?
The whole verse of Acts 7:2, "And he said, Hear me, brethren and fathers! "The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran." God ask ...
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From a Christian perspective, what are "nonresistant nonbelievers" most likely doing wrong that prevents them from finding and believing in God?
From Nonresistant Nonbelief, by J. L. Schellenberg:
One might fail to believe in God even while God is open to a belief-entailing personal relationship if one prevents oneself from believing in God ...
user50422
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Does anyone know hòw many Christian groups believe the term 'angel of the Lord' means 'The Lord'?
Many places are cited 'angel of the Lord' as if whatever is said is said by the angel themselves not by the angel as messenger for the Lord.
Judges 2:1 and on is an example but there are several.
Then ...
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Which Christian groups or denominations believe in modern-day Theophanies?
Which denominations believe in modern-day Theophanies, i.e., that God still manifests/reveals Himself to individuals in extraordinary, supernatural ways today?
For the sake of having a common ...
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Has anyone claimed to have had a "Damascus Road" calling to ministry, which later received trust and ministerial support from fellow Christians?
Has anyone claimed to have been called by God to ministry (e.g. to serve as a missionary, pastor, evangelist, prophet, apostle, etc.) through some dramatic "Road to Damascus" encounter (like ...
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Are there published testimonies from people who had experiences with the Christian God of which they had no prior knowledge?
More restrictive version of the question:
Has the Christian God ever revealed Himself to someone who had never heard of Him before? By this I mean someone who never heard about the Bible, who never ...
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How common is it for revivalist preachers to testify of a dramatic life-changing divine encounter as the event that sparked their revivalist ministry?
I'm starting to read up on the biographies of some the most notable revivalist preachers in Christianity. Wikipedia has an article that lists many of them. What brought my attention to this topic in ...
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Contradiction or translation problem with Moses in Exodus?
Exodus tells of Moses meeting face to face with God.
Shortly thereafter there is a warning that nobody can see God's face or they will die.
So contradiction, translation problem, or other ...
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Is there biblical support for "feeling the presence of God" as reported by multiple Christian conversion testimonies? [duplicate]
A pattern I've noticed after watching many Christian conversion testimonies is that plenty of them report feeling the presence of God in a life-changing manner at the moment of conversion or maybe not ...
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Why at Judges 2:1 does it say the angel of the Lord would never break his covenant he swore to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?
"Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgad to Bochim, And he said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, I will never ...
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How did people know that their visions of God were not false before the Bible was as a book compiled?
I looked at many Christian apologist websites, like GotQuestions, which states that anybody who claims to see God can have their claims evaluated by Scripture. So far so good, but how would people ...
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Don't understand the Trinity doctrine [duplicate]
Tried to understand the doctrine deeply and in a broader way than it is taught in school, or presented in Wikipedia.
And no one can explain it to me in a simple way for my mind to accept it,
How it ...
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Do Jehovah's witnesses believe that Jesus appeared in the Old Testament?
Many Christian teachers as far back as the early church fathers have taught it was Jesus that appeared to Abraham before destroying Sodom and Gammorah, wrestled with Jacob in the dessert, and appeared ...
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What is the evidence that the Angel of the Lord in the old Testament is probably Jesus?
In Judges 6:11-12 we read:
The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it ...
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Is Genesis 18 regarded as a Theophany of the Trinity by any denomination?
Abraham addresses the three visitors as LORD. Is there any group of Christians that understands this as a theophany of the Trinity?
Genesis 18:1-2 NASB 1 Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of ...
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What is the Biblical basis that it was was the second person of the Trinity that walked in the garden of Eden?
Genesis 3:8 tells us:
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the
Lord God among the trees of the ...
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How well supported is the generic interpretation Rublev's Icon as being a depiction of the Holy Trinity as portrayed in Genesis 18? [closed]
This was produced in the 15th century by Andrei Rublev's icon of the Trinity, a highly regarded Russian orthodox artist:
It is generally taken to be depicting the three men of Genesis 18 as being ...
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Are there any reports or stories that the pope has seen God face to face in the last 200 years?
In the Old Testament, there are accounts of people (prophets) who saw God face to face.
Specifically in Genesis 32:30, it says
And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God
...
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What is the support for the idea that the "angel of the Lord" is actually God?
For many years, I've held the idea that every place where the phrase "an angel of the Lord" (as opposed to just a plain angel) appears, the angel is actually God taking the form of an angel. Is there ...
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How could God's form be seen prior to His incarnation?
In a seeker's Bible discussion last week, I had explained that God created the physical world and, therefore, existed outside the physical world. I stated that He entered into the physical world in ...
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Why did God wrestle with Jacob and why did this appearance not become a "big deal"?
During a recent small group meeting recently, several questions about the life of Jacob came up:
If God had already chosen Jacob to be blessed, why did God still chose to wrestle with Jacob? So that ...
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Are there any common themes in the dreams so many Muslims have that prompt them to come to Jesus?
I understand that a good number of believers, who were once Muslim, became Christians after having a dream where Jesus appears to them and tells them to follow Him.
Examples are recorded in books ...
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Why did God wrestle with Jacob? [closed]
Sorry for asking a question kid in my Catechism class asked, but I didn't know the answer and she is an expert level 7th grader.
Why did God wrestle with Jacob if they're both good?
Was God ...
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Does Genesis 3 tell of a theophany? [closed]
Genesis 3:8-9 (NLT)
8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. 9 ...
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What is the significance of the burning bush? [closed]
In Exodus 3, God reveals himself to Moses through the sign of a burning bush, which miraculously is not consumed by the flames. Here is Exodus 3:1-6 in the NRSV:
Moses was keeping the flock of his ...
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Who represented "the Lord" in Exodus 4:24-26, and what's the deal with the foreskin?
In Exodus 4:24-26:
At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely ...
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Is murder allowed if God tells you to do it? [closed]
The Bible pretty clearly says not to murder (Exodus 20:13).
But if we examine Numbers 25 or 1Kings 18:40, we see God (or more accurately, his prophets) telling us to kill people. Indeed, entire ...
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