For the first time ever, I visited Samaria, Idaho just off Interstate 15. Long ago, President Lorenzo Snow proclaimed, “This place shall be named Samaria.” (He was thinking about how kind the citizens were to travelers and natives like Chief Pocatello.)
Traveling northward along the Samaria road, I felt like I had been transported back to the days of the early LDS pioneers. It reminded me of the historic LDS community of Chesterfield in Southeastern Idaho. But where Chesterfield is now museum territory, Samaria is alive and real.
Along the base of the Samaria Mountains (Big Canyon Peak at 8,500 ft, is the highest of the seven peaks), I drove through open range. Old corrals, rustic barns, gnarly cottonwoods, abandoned shacks, and junk cars dotted the landscape. My pulse quickened. This is truly – rural Southeastern Idaho at its best.
The Spirit of God in John 4 brought me to Samaria. I am sure of it.
Slowly, I started knocking on doors, passing out John’s Gospel and Romans to the neighbors.
At ten homes, no one was home. So on the door step, I left a gospel booklet and a business card containing the address of this website.
But among ten other homes, I introduced myself, explained my scriptural study in John 4, and asked what each one thought Jesus meant when he shared in John 4:24, “God is Spirit.”
Notifying them that this was a survey, here are the responses from the ten homes.
1. “He has a body just like us.”
2. “He has an immortal spirit. But it doesn’t mean he is just spirit. He has a body.”
3. “Don’t know” [btw, I appreciated the honest, friendly vulnerability of this LDS mother.]
4. “He is spirit in many ways . . . in your heart, soul, and mind, etc. He can be everything.”
5. “You need to also understand young man that in John’s Gospel, it is also written, ‘And the Word was made flesh.’ As the Father has a body, He also has the same spirit as you and me.” [Mr. Chambers also wanted me to mention to all the saints that he is the one that has the peacocks in Samaria. 🙂 ]
6. “This verse is right to an extent. It is a half-truth.”
7. “He does have a body, but it is not a mortal body. The Father has a different existence.” [This grandfather told me about his great grandpa, John E. Price, who after being called by the Church to pioneer a new LDS settlement came here in 1868. Secondly, he spoke of when he gave the closing dedicatory remarks at his father’s graveside. He was terrified over what to say. He prayed and these words from John’s Gospel came immediately to him, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” At first, he was confused. What does this have to do with a graveside dedication? He got on his knees and prayed some more. In answer to his prayers, he mentioned how both his deceased father and Jesus spoke to him, saying, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. Follow these words so that you too can join us and be a part of the family someday.”]
8. “I’m LDS and I think differently.” [I hadn’t even shared anything or asked any question. But this small grandma did take John’s Gospel from my hands before she headed into her house.]
9. “I wouldn’t be interested. We have our own religion.” [It was a frank and honest LDS declaration to my attempts at any discussion in John 4.]
Finally, I arrived at the Blue Goose, a one room store and central headquarters for Samaria. I bought some lunch and looked at all the historical pictures and Church newspaper clippings hanging on the wall. Because of my curiosity, Clarence (most have been in 70s), gave me a photocopied article, “THE LEGEND OF THE IRON DOOR (as told to Monique Price by Ralph Hughes).” I soaked in all the historical lore.
I asked the wife at the cash register before heading out the door, “What do you think Jesus meant when he said to the Samaritan women that God is Spirit?” She didn’t answer at first. I got preoccupied by something else and other customers arrived through the doors. But eventually, I asked her again.
And here is the tenth response:
10. “I believe he is a person, myself.”
Next week, I would like to post some more thoughts on John 4:24. And sometime, I would like to visit Samari, Idaho again. Maybe, I will bring my family to the Samaria Days Celebration in July.
Jesus in Idaho Falls 
Yeah, those are pretty standard answers. “God is a spirit, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t also have a body, the same as how we are spirits but we have bodies, too” is the response that Latter-Day Saints learn in early morning seminary classes.
Kullervo, I just read this.
Taken from The Four Gospels (2006) by D. Kelly Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner. On pages 135-136 . . .
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“The first phrase, “God is a Spirit,” is perhaps better understood from the Joseph Smith Translation, as the Prophet rendered the teaching in perfect harmony with the surrounding text: “For unto such hath God promised his Spirit. And they who worship him, must worship in spirit and in truth.”
“Yet even the King James Version translation of the Greek text is acceptable with proper understanding: “God is a spiritual Being” or “God has a spirit,” just as Doctrine and Covenants 93:33 notes that “man is spirit.” That isn’t all he is, but man, too, has a spirit, and, in a sense, is a spiritual and eternal being. Stephen E. Robinson explains: “Actually John 4:24 should be translated ‘God is Spirit’ rather than ‘God is a Spirit,’ for there is not indefinite article (a, an) in the Greek language, and it is always a matter of subjective judgment as to when the translator should add one. The consensus among biblical scholars is that there should not be an indefinite article at John 4:24. C. H. Dodd insists that ‘to translate [John 4:24] “God is a Spirit” is the most gross perversion of the meaning” (Are Mormons Christians? 80).
“President Gordon B. Hinckley recounted an “occasion of more than 50 years ago when, as a missionary, I was speaking in an open-air meeting in Hyde Park, London. As I was presenting my message, a heckler interrupted to say, ‘Why don’t you stay with the doctrine of the Bible which says in John [4:24], “God is a Spirit”?’
“I opened my Bible to the verse he had quoted and read to him the entire verse: ‘God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’
“I said, ‘Of course God is a spirit, and so are you, in the combination of spirit and body that makes of you a living being, and so am I.’ . . .
“Jesus’ declaration that God is a spirit no more denies that he has a body than does the statement that I am a spirit while also having a body” (Ensign, March 1998, 2).
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Here are my questions for Gordon B. Hinckley: Is God just one among many spirits? Does God the Father need a body to be a living being?
What do you think, Kullervo?
How can I be dazzled in worship toward God when the answers are in the affirmative?
And I think the renowned BYU profs are completely missing the meaning of “worship in spirit and truth”. Here is my interp.
Are we missing a vital portion of this discussion? If we look at the bible as a collection of coherent ideas, then we can see that there is a striking difference between spirit and flesh:
In Luke 24:39, Christ says, “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 have.”
In John 4:24, Christ doesn’t say that God has a spirit – He says He is spirit. In Luke 24:39, He seems to make a distinction in that He says that He (Christ) has flesh – something that a spirit doesn’t have: a hint that He is fully man – and fully God.
Why would Christ say emphatically that “a spirit hath not flesh and bones” if he knew that the Father, which He Himself proclaimed is spirit (using the same word), does have a body of flesh and bones?
Hey. My name is Libby, i am 15 and I just came back from a fantastic service at ‘Soul Survivor.’ In the service, I was really praying hard that God would show me the plan that he has for me. At the end of the service, a girl came up to me and said that i was a beautiful child of God, and that I should listen to what He said. After that, I prayed again and just as I was getting ready to leave, i found a clothing peg in my boot. Inscripted was the verse John 4:4.
I ran to the nearest computer and searched on the internet the issues in Samaria and i came across this site.
please comment back your thoughts on what i should do.
Thank you.
Libby
Libby, read all of John’s Gospel.