 It's pretty clear that when we study the history and actually the text of the Christian Bible as well, that neither Jesus nor his actual followers, his disciples, believed that he was God in the flesh. It also seems that even the writers of the Christian Bible, who composed it decades after Jesus died, probably only saw Jesus as some kind of elevated intermediary to God, but not God himself. However, by the second century, this belief that Jesus was God spread among the Gentile churches that were founded by Paul, and the doctrine was formally accepted by Christendom at the Council of Nicaea and subsequent Councils beginning in the fourth century. The idea of Jesus being God that created the world is clearly counterintuitive, and it tortures the imagination. The famous church father, Tertullian, famously quipped, I believe because it's absurd. Of course, church apologists went into overdrive to defend the idea that Jesus could be God, and they asserted that, yes, God can be physical because they said we see many places in the Hebrew Bible that seem to describe God as having physical attributes. Now, the problem for the Christian idea is that the Torah clearly states in Deuteronomy chapter 23, I'm sorry, in Numbers chapter 23, verse 19, that God is not a man that he should be deceitful, nor a son of man that he should relent. And this idea is repeated in 1 Samuel chapter 15, verse 29. So if God was going to come to our world in human form, why would the God that composed the scriptures tell us that he is not a man? It seems pretty clear that anyone that studies the Hebrew scriptures would walk away knowing that no human being can be described as God. In Exodus chapter 33, God says to Moses, you cannot see my face for no one can see my face and live. It is impossible to see God. And clearly, if Jesus was God, it's hard to imagine how anyone, his family, his disciples, his opponents were able to live for more than a second after seeing him because God says no one can see me and live. So it's impossible to really assert that Jesus was God in the flesh. The prophet Isaiah tells us that God says in chapter 40, verse 25, God says, to who will you compare me? Who are you able to compare me to? So obviously, if God were physical, you could compare God to any human being. But God says, no, you can't compare me to anyone or to anything. The clearest revelation of God in history was at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago. And there in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 35, God says, Moses says, I'm sorry, Moses says, you have been shown in order to know that Hashem, the Lord, he is God, there is none beside him. Now this chapter of Deuteronomy is a critical chapter. And Moses emphasizes how important and vital it is never to forget the revelation at Mount Sinai. It is the foundation of Judaism. And he warns us twice in this chapter, not once, twice in verses 12 and verses 15. You shall greatly beware for your souls. Very, very careful, he says, that you did not see any likeness or form on the day that Hashem spoke to you. You only heard a voice. You did not see any form or likeness. God is emphasizing to us that he is not physical, is nothing to see. And it's one of the reasons why throughout the Bible, especially if you look at a chapter like Deuteronomy 13, idolatry is always defined as serving a God that you did not know, serving your God that your fathers did not know. And the reality is that when we define God, as Deuteronomy says, to you it was shown that you should know that Hashem is God. It was shown, it was revealed to us at Mount Sinai. And the question is, what did our ancestors who stood at Mount Sinai experience? Did they experience a trinity? Did they experience God in human form with any form? No, we're told there was no form that was revealed. So the Bible defines idolatry as embracing any concept of God that our ancestors were not shown, were not experienced at Mount Sinai. Of course, there are passages in the Bible that speak of physical characteristics of God, and they clearly have to be understood as anthropomorphisms. For example, Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 12 says about the land of Israel, the eyes of God are always upon it. Now, how are we to understand that? Are we supposed to understand that, you know, in the same way that I'm hard of, I don't see well, so for me to see I'm going to put my eyes on the paper? Is that what we're supposed to imagine? That God has eyes and that the eyes are somehow, you know, looking at the land of Israel, or it says here they're on the land of Israel? Clearly, what the passage is meaning to tell us is that God always pays attention to what's going on in the land of Israel. If you read the book of Ezra, Ezra says repeatedly that the hand of the Lord was upon me. Now, if you were back then at the time of Ezra, do you think you would have seen a humongous hand coming out of the heavens and placing it itself upon the head of Ezra? Is that what people would have seen back at the time of Ezra? No! Obviously, when Ezra says that the hand of the Lord was upon me, he's expressing the idea that he felt supported by God in everything that he did. So we have numerous passages in the Bible that speak about God redeeming the Jewish people from Egypt with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm. Obviously, the Egyptians didn't see any manifestation of big hands coming out of the heavens. To say mighty arm is again an anthropomorphism to be understood allegorically of God's might and his power and his strength.