What does it mean for God to be a person?

Question

What does it mean when Christians say that God is a person? (Representative example here.) Does this mean that Christians believe that God is human?

My experience is with Judaism (in Judaism, God is not referred to as a person).

This is at least closely related to http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/5792/when-talking-about-the-trinity-what-does-persons-mean and http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/15659/what-do-we-mean-by-person — Ben Dunlap, Apr 17 '13 at 22:32
@svidgen, why does God need to be a person to refer to himself in first person? — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 04:28
God speaks. Isn't that enough evidence that He's a person? When Christians use the term "person," we don't mean human. Please do yourself a favor and visit the supplied links by Ben Dunlap. Your question has already been answered there. Also, have you known anything but a person --- a rational individual --- that refers to Himself in the first person and can express that using a developed and logical language? I'd be willing to see that! — , Apr 18 '13 at 06:11
@Daniel He doesn't need to be. But, the name God reveals indicates I-ness, not it-ness. — svidgen, Apr 18 '13 at 13:33
@H3br3wHamm3r81, you are presupposing that I know what a "person" is. My understanding of the word is that it means "human", which is clearly not what God is. The whole point of the question is to find out what a "person" is to Christians. The way I see it, there could be two different groups that can refer to themselves in the first person: people, and God. (P.S. I read the links above, but don't really understand them because they are very jargon-y.) — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 14:10
@H3br3wHamm3r81 http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/15698/is-god-a-person?noredirect=1#comment38388_15699 — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 14:14
@Alypius, I don't think your edit really reflected what I was trying to ask. I think the current version is more accurate. — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 14:16
@Daniel In your original question. And implied in this statement: "I do not think that a Jew would ever refer to God as a person." — svidgen, Apr 18 '13 at 15:16
@svidgen, My original question certainly did not refer to God as "it". And that statement does not imply that God is an "it". Jews do not refer to God as a person, but we still call God "him". It seems, though, that you have a more general definition of the word "person" than I do (and perhaps than the dictionary does), which includes anything that is not referred to as "it". That is exactly what I am asking about in my question. What does it mean for God to be a person? — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 15:38
@Daniel Opposite of what you're saying. Not that anything which isn't "it" is a person. Rather, any "thing" that can accurately refer to itself as "I" is a person. And all else is an "it." — svidgen, Apr 18 '13 at 15:44
@svidgen, Please post that as an answer to this question with relevant sources. — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 15:49
@Daniel My point is in reference to Judiasm, primarily. And while I'm not an expert in Judiasm, my comment is only intended to challenge that notion Judiasm doesn't perceive God as a person, since the very name of God [the Father?] in Judiasm implies supernatural personhood. — svidgen, Apr 18 '13 at 16:44
@svidgen You're probably right that Judaism considers God a person according to your definition of "person". But the dictionary definition of "person" is per·son /ˈpərsən/Noun 1.A human being regarded as an individual So, that excludes God. I am wondering about your definition of personhood such that it includes God. According to the dictionary definition, "supernatural personhood" is self-contradictory. — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 16:46
@Daniel While I mean it in the theological sense of the word, non-human senses of the word certainly exist in many, if not all, reputable dictionaries. In the legal sense, a person is generally an individual subject to law, which includes most homo-sapiens, excludes others, and includes things that are distinctly not homo-sapien. I think it's only often assumed that a person is a human. — svidgen, Apr 18 '13 at 16:59
@Daniel: There are other definitions besides the one you supplied. For example, dictionary.com also states, "Philosophy . a self-conscious or rational being." Is God self-conscious? Sure. Is God a rational being? Sure. That means He possesses reason (λογος). Boethius wrote that three are considered "persons": God, angels (and other spiritual beings, like kruvim), and humans. — , Apr 18 '13 at 21:34

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '13 at 07:09

If we are strict with our terminology, God is not a person. God is an infinitely-perfect being. But God is a personal being:

When we say that God is a personal being we mean that He is intelligent and free and distinct from the created universe. Personality as such expresses perfection, and if human personality as such connotes imperfection, it must be remembered that, as in the case of similar predicates, this connotation is excluded when we attribute personality to God. It is principally by way of opposition to Pantheism that Divine personality is emphasized by the Theistic philosopher. _(source)

Your concern, however, is valid:

Yet sometimes men are led by a natural tendency to think and speak of God as if He were a magnified creature — more especially a magnified man — and this is known as anthropomorphism. Thus God is said to see or hear, as if He had physical organs, or to be angry or sorry, as if subject to human passions: and this perfectly legitimate and more or less unavoidable use of metaphor is often quite unfairly alleged to prove that the strictly Infinite is unthinkable and unknowable, and that it is really a finite anthropomorphic God that men worship.

When we refer to God as a person, we mean that He is personal, not that He is a magnified human.

When speaking of God, we usually try to reserve the term "Person" to one of the three Divine Persons of the Trinity. There is one God, who is a Trinity of three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son is Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man. When speaking of Jesus being a person, we say that He is a Divine Person, not a human Person, and we say that He is God, in perfect unity with the Father and the Holy Sprit.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 17 '13 at 22:08

That God is referred to as a Person is, first, in contrast to the idea of some that the universe was created by some impersonal force--a force that has no personal being, but just some kind of cosmic energy. Such a creative force would have created something greater than itself--beings with Personhood--so this is not reasonable.

The idea that God is a Person refers to the how He Himself describes Himself in His Word as well. God feels, loves, and relates to His creation. As A.W. Tozer wrote:

God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may.

If God were not a Person, He could not love, as that is something only a Person can do. The doctrine of the Trinity is interesting in this aspect, because God reveals one of His attributes is love. However, if it is an attribute (and not a behavior) of God, it has to exist apart from anything else. As the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father; the Father loves the Spirit, etc. Thus, only as a Trinity can God be love from all eternity.

So, what is meant is that God is the source for the personal attributes that we as His creatures share in--that of loving, feeling, knowing, etc. In this we bear the image of God.

Who says that if God were not a person, he could not love? Also, who says that a being with personhood is greater than a God without personhood? — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 04:27
Let me be clear, I am not asking whether God is a person. Clearly, Christian doctrine teaches that he is. I am asking what it means for God to be a person. — Daniel, Apr 18 '13 at 14:14

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 02 '24 at 18:12

Scriptural references to the fact that we are children of God are ubiquitous (see Romans 8:16-17, Acts 17:28, 2 Corinthians 6:18, Galatians 3:26, and many other passages). The statement that man is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) is entirely literal. Moses saw the back of God, and talked with Him face to face; God has hands, eyes, feet and so on. The Savior testified with clarity while in His mortal body that "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:7,9).

Modern prophets including Joseph Smith and Ezra Taft Benson taught:

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by his power, was to make himself visible,—I say, if you were to see him today, you would see him like a man in form—like yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God. King Follett Sermon

and

When the Savior shall appear we shall see him as he is. We shall see that he is a man like ourselves. And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy. enter link description here

When the Resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples, He said:

Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me to have (Luke 24:39).

The notion that His body evaporated or dissolved and He turned into some sort of platonic, unknowable and disembodied thing is a patently false tradition of anti-Christians. He still lives in that same body today, and greatly resembles His Father as He said.

If we believe that He is without a body today then we are effectively perpetuating the lie told by the Roman officers to the soldiers, that Jesus is not risen, but that His body was merely stolen away by His disciples. But He is risen and lives forevermore. He does indeed have a face, a mind, and a complete and perfect body, lacking nothing. His presence is just as physical and real as that of any embodied person now on the Earth.

What does it mean for God to be a person?

3 Answers3