Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
About
Christology
Israel/Palestine
Publications
KermitZarley.com
Archives
Categories
- Angels
- Blog Description
- Book Reviews
- Christian Living
  - Unconditional Love?
- Christianity
- Christology
  - Deity of Christ?
  - Holy Spirit
  - Incarnation?
  - My Change
  - Trinity?
- Church History
- Current Events
- War on Terrorism
- Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
- Eschatology
- Ezekiel 38-39
- Last Empire
- Primitive Weapons
- Film Reviews
- God
- Golf
  - Billy Graham
  - Karsten Solheim
  - Lee Trevino
  - Major Championship Winners
  - Masters
  - Purpose
  - Ryder Cup
- Gospel Harmonization
- Interview
- Islam
- Jesus
- Literary Announcements
- Monotheism
- My Books
  - The Restitution of Jesus Christ
- Old Testament
- Politics
- Society of Biblical Literature
- The Bible
- Trinitarianism
- Uncategorized
FREE NEWSLETTER

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
Since God Almighty Is Invisible, Jesus Being God Is Impossible

Since God Almighty Is Invisible, Jesus Being God Is Impossible

Last updated on: November 23, 2018 at 12:36 pm by Kermit Zarley

Since God Almighty Is Invisible, Jesus Being God Is Impossible 2018-11-23T12:36:15-07:00 Kermit Zarley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Bible says no sinful, mortal human has ever literally seen God. For example, the Gospel of John says, “No man has seen God at any time” (John 1.18). The Bible further declares that sinful people literally cannot see God and continue to live. Yet most Christians have believed that Jesus was God. How could Jesus have been God if many people saw him and didn’t instantly die?

The Bible relates several incidents in which people thought they literally saw God when they really saw “the angel of the LORD.” (This is further evidence that “the angel of the LORD” in the Old Testament is not actually God.) When it happened, they thought they would die because they believed that human beings cannot literally see God and live. Because of this and other biblical data, scholars describe God as “transcendent,” that is, separate from, or beyond, the material universe.

For example, right after God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt he told Moses he was going to send his angel to guard Israel on its way to the promised land and taking possession of it (Exodus 23.20, 23; 33.2 NASB). But Moses asked God to personally accompany the nation. God replied, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are an obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you’” (33.5).

Then Moses said to God, “show me Your glory” (Exodus 33.18). God replied, “no man can see Me and live” (v. 20). Then God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and showed part of his glory to Moses, but he did not show him his face (vv. 21-23; 24.5-6).

God’s glory is covered with an intense light that is unapproachable to sinful mortals. The psalmist states, “O LORD my God, You are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak” (Psalm 104.2). The Apostle Paul echoes this truth by saying that God the Father “alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see” (1 Timothy 6.16). And Paul describes the Father as “immortal, invisible, the only God” (1.17). So, God, who is the Father, is invisible to mortals; whereas Jesus was visible to them. This truth proves Jesus that could not have been God. Notice further that Paul says the Father is “the only God,” so that Jesus cannot also be God.

In the prologue of the Gospel of John the author writes, “No man has seen God at any time” (John 1.18). And in the author’s text he quotes Jesus as saying, “Not that any man has seen the Father” (John 6.46). Then Jesus adds to this concerning himself, “except the One who is from God, He has seen the Father.”

So, Jesus said that no human being except himself had ever seen God. Due to such claims, Jesus’ opponents sometimes questioned who he was (e.g., John 8.25). One time, he answered his interrogators that he was “a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God” (v. 40). In this saying, Jesus clearly identified himself as a man and distinguished himself from God.

The New Testament (NT) often affirms that Jesus was a man. The main reason is that during that first century, incipient Gnosticism existed in the Hellenistic world. It advocated a Greek philosophical dualism—that physical matter is evil, or the cause of evil, and only spirit is pure and good. So, Greeks generally regarded the human body as evil.

Out of Greek Gnosticism arose Docetism. It asserted that Jesus “seemed” (Gr. dokeo=“to seem”) to have had a body of flesh and blood, but he really had only a spirit body. So, Docetists alleged that Jesus’ crucifixion and death were an illusion. The NT refutes this grievous error (John 1.14; 1 John 1.1-3; 4.14; 2 John 7), which is perpetuated in the Qur’an (4:157).

Nicene and post-Nicene Christians, in identifying Jesus as God, have deemphasized that Jesus was a man. Scholars agree that in doing so, such Christians have tended toward Docetism.

Many Christians repudiate the idea that humans will ever literally see God. But they misunderstand the spiritual realm in rightly claiming that God is spirit (John 4.24).

Angels do not possess a fleshly body. Yet, the Bible records many incidents in which they instantly appeared and disappeared to humans. They always appeared human and even could eat food (e.g., Genesis 18.2, 8). Jesus said of children that “their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 18.10). Thus, Jesus affirmed that God the Father has a face and that angels in heaven literally see his face.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth about the future resurrection because some church members denied there would ever be a resurrection (1 Corinthians 15.14). Others questioned the nature of the resurrection body (v. 35). Paul mentions different types of flesh, different glories of stars, and a difference between the heavenly and the earthly (vv. 39-41). Then he states that at the resurrection the human body will be “raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (v. 44). Paul adds that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (v. 50). So, he calls the resurrection body “a spiritual body,” saying it is not made of flesh and blood. But he does not mean that it will be ghostlike, i.e., an apparition that cannot be touched.

The several post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in the NT gospels show what Paul means. The risen Jesus instantly appeared and disappeared, just as angels do. Perhaps the risen Jesus has a body like that of the angels since Paul said there are two kinds of bodies: natural and spiritual. Yet, the disciples sometimes touched the risen Jesus (Matthew 28.9). Once, Jesus said to them, “touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24.39). Then they saw the risen Jesus eat some fish (vv. 41-43).

But the future resurrection of the righteous will enable us to literally see God. Job said of that time, “Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God; whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see” (Job 19.26-27). David wrote of that blessed event, saying to God, “I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake” (Psalm 17.15).

Then Jesus’ beatitude will ultimately come true—“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5.8). It will occur in New Jerusalem, where God’s people “will see His [God’s] face, and His name will be on their foreheads” (Revelation 22.4). Then God’s people will dwell with him forever–God’s ultimate goal for his creation.

…………….

To see a list of titles of 130+ posts (2-3 pages) that are about Jesus not being God in the Bible, with a few about God not being a Trinity, at Kermit Zarley Blog click “Chistology” in the header bar. Most are condensations of my book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ. See my website servetustheevangelical.com, which is all about this book, with reviews, etc. Learn about my books and purchase them at kermitzarley.com. I was a Trinitarian for 22 years before reading myself out of it in the Bible.

Previous Post

November 12, 2013

Birthrates in Israel Have Switched

Next Post

November 18, 2013 Joe Dey (Part 1 of 2)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Angels Billy Graham Blog Description Book Reviews Christian Living Christianity Christology Church History Current Events Deity of Christ? Disarmament Eschatology Evangelicalism Ezekiel 38-39 Film Reviews God Golf Gospel Harmonization Health History Holy Spirit Incarnation? Interview Islam Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Jesus Last Empire Literary Announcements Major Championship Winners Masters Monotheism My Books New Testament Old Testament Politics Primitive Weapons Ryder Cup Science Society of Biblical Literature The Bible The Restitution of Jesus Christ Trinitarianism Trinity? Uncategorized Unconditional Love? War on Terrorism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who became king after David and built the first Temple in Jerusalem?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Rehoboam Adonijah Solomon Absalom

Books by This Author Books by Kermit Zarley Blog

See All Titles »