6061. THE IDEA OF GOD AS A MAN. ZINZENDORF. There was discussion amongst spirits as to whether it is implanted in man to view God as a Man. Some said, that they who, in the world, viewed God, in their thought, as a little cloud, or as light, or as the inmost of nature, are not able to view God as a Man. Wherefore, this was tested with some and also, once, with Zinzendorf, and with an elder of the Moravian communion; both of whom, in the world, viewed Him, in the sight of the thought, as something cloudy. They were let into their spiritual state; and they then inquired where God the Father was, and then thought nothing else than of seeing Him as a Man. They inquired also where He was; and when they returned into their natural state with me, they regarded Him as something cloudy. Hence they were convinced that it is rooted in man's spirit to look upon God as a man. There came to Zinzendorf some of the gentiles in western India, with whom he there spoke. He talked to them concerning God, saying, at that time, that God sent His Son, who saved us from hell. They believed, because they held the idea of God as a Man; but, when they now gathered together in the spiritual world, they discerned that he had an idea of God, as being, as it were, in a cloud. Being astonished at this, they said, What is this? You think of God as not a Man? when yet they had believed that he thought of God as a Man when he spoke to them about the Lord.