Why Do Humans Have an Anthropomorphic View of God?

A little brown ant looked out from under a blade of grass which was still damp with morning dew. Its eyes followed the homeowner as he burst out the front door, turned to blow his wife a parting kiss, hurried down the sidewalk, hopped into the driver's seat of his car and started the motor. The insect saw, but didn't understand. Its brain is not wired to comprehend the ways of humans. It knew only that the being existed and that it was great and awesome.

Other ants in the area chose to ignore the human. To acknowledge its presence would be too stressful, too traumatic. Still others followed a policy of deny, deny, deny. They knew that something big and powerful must cause of the sudden movements of air currents and unusual sounds, but until the creature's existence could be proven to them beyond any doubt, they refused to believe.

So it is with God and us. Our human brains just don't have the capacity to understand the true nature of Almighty God. He is Ultimate Mystery. Yet within every human being God placed the inclination to worship, so throughout history, we have persisted in trying to get to know him better. On our own, it was impossible. Humans have worshiped the sun, animals, and objects in nature at various times.

Often we tried to imagine God in human terms. He was pictured as an old man with a long grey beard, because after all, he had been around forever. Since he was the creator and king of the universe, in our minds, we placed him on a gold throne high above the clouds. Yet God is a spirit, and spirits don't use thrones. Because of our limited intellectual abilities, our imaginings of God were bound to be inaccurate.

Finally, at the appropriate time, over 2,000 years ago, Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, came to live among us. At last, humankind was able to see God with a human face. During his time on earth, Jesus cured the sick, raised the dead, commanded the forces of nature, forgave sins and worked all kinds of miracles. As definite proof he was who he claimed to be, Jesus rose from dead, and was seen by many for forty days after his crucifixion.

His Apostles and friends were so convinced of his divinity, most of them suffered martyrs' deaths rather than recant their faith in Jesus' divinity. Some of their contemporaries were compelled to write the story of Jesus' life for future generations. The best known accounts today are the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

In John's Gospel, one of the Apostles, Philip, asked Jesus, at the Last Supper, to show them the Father. Jesus replied:

Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not
know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
John 14: 9

In his wisdom, God knew that we needed an anthropomorphic view of the Deity in order to worship effectively. Our purpose on earth is to know, love and serve God in this world and be happy with him in the next. We can only fulfil this purpose because Jesus showed us God in human form.

Now, we are no more able to grasp the reality of God's nature, than the little brown ant is able understand a human. However, there is a major difference between its plight and ours: the ant will never understand us. Humans, if we succeed in getting to heaven will see God face-to-face at last, and we will have all eternity to get to know him as he really is.