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Scriptures Teaching That God Can And Has Been Seen By Men BY RYAN HICKS © 1999 Ryan Hicks |
People that claim to teach the Bible today have many times fallen for doubt and unbelief concerning the plain reading of the Scriptures. They cling to so-called "orthodoxy" and the traditions of men while rejecting the holy Scriptures. They mock people that believe the Bible for what it says. They will call you a hyper-literalist for believing that God is intelligent enough to express Himself in clear terms and that we should only take things in the Bible as figurative or symbolic when it is clear that such language is being used. Yet, the common trend of these Bible doubters is to take whatever verses that do not line up with "orthodoxy" and make them figurative or symbolic in order to escape the conclusion that their traditions of men are anti-Scripture.
When they are confronted with the truth of God having been seen numerous times by men they will call it a mirage or quote John 1:18 (while ignoring the last part of it which explains what it meant by "seen"). John 1:18 reads, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." What does the word "seen" obviously mean from the context here? It plainly means "to understand" just like it is used in Romans 1:20 and other places. They ignore the context and plain reading of the verse in this case where they would not do such in other cases, only because they seek to defend what they have been taught by men, rather than what the Lord taught in His holy word.
Another verse used in defense of spiritualizing all of the verses that plainly teach God appearing to men and having a spirit body with bodily parts is 1 Timothy 6:16 which says, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." As long as God is "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto" then no man can see Him, nor has any ever seen Him in this light. Moses asked to see this glory and was refused because no one can see the Lord's face in His glory and live (Exodus 33:18-23). Outside of this glory Moses did see God's face (Exodus 33:11). Yet, those seeking to spiritualize these Scriptures, refuse to practice proper hermeneutics when it comes to this issue. They just teach that all the numerous Scriptures teaching of God being seen are just symbols and figures, and they teach such based on John 1:18 and 1 Timothy 6:16.
We should all know that when a few Scriptures seem to contradict numerous other Scriptures, we must determine if we are applying those contrary Sriptures to the right subject or are confusing their points with the points of the other Scriptures. This is the case, where John 1:18 talks about understanding God and Jesus declaring Him to us, and these people take that verse out of context and apply it to the issue of the ability or inability for one to see God. They take 1 Timothy 6:16 which testifies majestically of the great glory of God and how no man has ever beheld our Lord in this light, and apply it against all the times men saw God out of this glory and light. This is how numerous false doctrines arise, and is generally caused by men seeking to prove what they have always thought or been taught, and all the while ignoring what the Lord has always taught about Himself to His creation.
One of the main arguments used by people who refuse to believe the word of God is that a belief that God has a body and can be seen makes Him too "knowable." It must be noted that just because we know that God has a bodily shape (John 5:37) and that He is a person (Job 13:8; Hebrews 1:3) in no way makes Him too "knowable." We are but men and cannot understand all there is to know about God, BUT we can understand what He has revealed in His word about Himself (Deuteronomy 29:29), and to deny what the Lord says in His word about Himself is to deny Him. Would these people rather be like those of Athens who worshipped "the unknown God" (Acts 17:23), rather than like Paul who explained to them who the true God was?
There are times when figurative language is used in reference to God having body parts, but why would this cause people to assume that every time God is said to have a body part that it must be figurative language? There is a saying that some people "rule with a iron fist." Does the fact that this is a figurative saying expressing hard and controlling rule mean that these people do not have literally have fists? Of course not. We should not rip verses out of their context and make them figurative and symbolic in order confirm orthodoxy. Let orthodoxy fall to the ground dead if it must, but let us believe what the Scriptures say!
The Scriptures below are so plain and obvious that it makes the Bible doubters furious when people see them. Just from a simple reading through of these verses it becomes clear that the Lord must have a body with bodily parts. (For more studies on this see Anthropomorphism, Disbelievers In God's Bodily Parts, and Is God Omnipresent?.) This is not a complete list of Scriptures teaching that God can and has been seen by men, but it is many of them.
ORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.Genesis 2:7
7 And the L
It is clear to the fair reader and those that seek to believe the word of God over the Scripture-voiding traditions of men (Mark 7:6-13) that God not only has been seen before but can be seen. To deny this is to call God, Who inspired the Scriptures, a liar; Jacob a liar (Genesis 32:30); Moses a liar (Exodus 24:10-11); Manoah a liar (Judges 13:22); Amos a liar (Amos 9:1); and numerous other people liars. Otherwise you must accept the truth of God's word and the testimony of His saints and believe that God has been seen before and can be seen.
Matthew 11:25
25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
God has hid these things from those prideful "wise and prudent" people and has revealed them unto babes. So it is not surprising that these unbelievers would rather have their creeds, councils, and theological books to believe than the word of God. The simple people receive the truth while these unbelievers are shut out from the simple truths.