Is God visible or invisible?
If he is invisible how can understand some people saw God face to face so how can we understand ?
Discussion
50 comments
-
God can be anything he wants to be.
-
He is immaterial, but can take on physical form if he desires, hence Jesus.
-
Are X-rays visible or invisible? Our eyes have evolved to receive the information we need from our surroundings, like “is that fruit ripe?” or “look, there’s a tiger!”. A supernatural God, by definition, would not be visible to us. Unless, of course, God manifest as Jesus.
-
?John 4:24 ” God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth ” (KJV) ? This shows that God reveals Himself In The Dimension Of The Spirit To Us, Its not About Seeing Through The Naked Eye. See Also ? 2kings 6:17.?
-
Does God have a face?
-
God manifests in various way and various forms.
-
Visible and invisible with respect to God is dimensional and based on time and eternity. Also one must be granted permission to see what is normally invisible.
-
This is an excellent question Uma! I will do my best to answer.
My reply is predicated on the fact that the bible is indeed the inerrant, immutable word of God. I do not say this in a hopeful blind faith leap, but from the bible itself being logically proven to be God’s only absolute truth via inductive reasoning. No book in all the libraries of man-kind has been able to duplicate the astounding feats of fore-telling that the bible has. The bible was written by 40 different men, in three different languages, on three different continents over a period of 1500 years. During this time God had recorded beforehand Messianic and historical events in spectacular detail as many as 1000 years before the events took place. In addition, God also orchestrated a very specific plan from Genesis to Revelation, during this 1500 year period. This plan is coherent, cohesive and far beyond the capabilities of the wisest of men. Messianic and historical prophesies prove someone was outside the realm of time speaking accurately future events and as if that were not enough, Carried out a purposeful plan over many, many generations through the Old and New Testament making the bible one complete inseparable unit. With these in mind we know for certain that the bible is indeed the word of God. This is just a very short explanation of the structure of an amazingly enormous and complex building. I am open to personal study via Messenger for more.
To answer your question…..John 4:24 States “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Man is body, soul, and spirit.”
By this verse we know God is Spirit.1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
From Thessalonians we understand man is body, soul, and spirit.Exodus 33:20 “But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”
Note here that God (who is Spirit) is telling a man of flesh (Moses) that he can not see Him and live.
John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
Again, mere man has never seen God in the spiritual realm and lived. But John saw Jesus in human form.Because of Exodus and John we know for certain that no mere man can see God and live, but many saw Jesus. But in order for this to happen Jesus laid aside privileges. (Philippians 2:7-9)
Moses did ask God to see His Glory, God put Moses in the cleft of the rock and Moses was able to see the very back of God’s glory and as a result Moses face shone brightly enough that he had to cover it for the children of Israel (Exodus 34:35)
Yet Jesus walked the earth in both the New Testament and the Old ( when the OT says “The Angel of the Lord” it is Jesus. When the OT says “an angel of the Lord” it is an angel!!, and people saw Him. But in order to be seen, Jesus took on a fleshly body. In order to do so, He laid aside some of His privileges. Philippians 2:7-9 “but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,”
No mere man can see God and live, God used the OT to communicate some spiritual realities available in the New Testament to Christians alone! God was able to take human form, and man could look upon Him. But in the Spiritual realm with God’s glory shinning brightly, mere man would immediately perish. This is just a hint of a larger study. Questions and comments are welcome!
-
He is able to display what what he wants seen. Like the burning bush by which he showed himself to Moses.
-
Manifestation.
-
God is a Spirit that cannot possibly be comprehended by the human mind. Because God is so OTHER then anything we know!
That’s why we can’t see God.
But scriptures is clear that many SAW GOD !
These are literal events. Not symbolic or dreams.
God who is eternal & incomprehensible, can take on, or appear as a visible form that we can understand with our human senses.
In the Tanakh, we see this Word of YHWH appearing & speaking to the prophets. He speaks exactly as if He is God- because He is!
In 1 Samuel chapter 3, at the end, a brief explanation is given of how God appears in visible form. It says “God revealed Himself by the Word of YHWH”!
And when Jesus came, John took this Word of YHWH, and said, “and the Word became flesh, & tabernacled among us….”!
That’s how the invisible God, becomes visible for our sake.
Praise God for His love & mercy & patience with us evil people!
-
Our Heavenly Father has a body of flesh and bone, the Savoir Jesus Christ also has a resurrected glorified body. Message me if you want to learn how! 🙂
-
He is visible and takes many forms
-
Both
-
God is eternal Mind, invisible Thought. Logos was initially begotten (manifested) in the beginning from God’s Mind as Speech and could be seen. In Christ, Logos was made flesh. When we speak of Logos we are speaking of the many appearances of God The Father. Wherever God is seen, it is Logos that is seen, and wherever Logos is seen, it is the Logos of God The Father being seen.
-
” No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” 1 John 4:12
-
I’m not sure either answer is correct because God exist outside of, and is not bound by, time and space and can come and go as He pleases in and throughout His creation.
-
God is spirit. Appearances in the Old Testament are theophany. Face to face is figurative connoting intimate relationship.
-
No man has seen God at any time. Moses hid in the cleft of a rock so as not to look uoon His face. Jesus said that He and the Father are one and “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father “
-
Love is invisible and yet you can come face to face with it. It is an expression of an encounter, not necessarily a physical one counts as face to face.
-
God is visible in the spiritual realm but not visible in the physical realm. God supernaturally gave spiritual vision to several people to see into the spiritual realm. Remember Elisha and Elijah seeing the chariots and armies of the Lord? Every angelic encounter was through a glimpse into the spiritual realm. At the transfiguration, the same spiritual vision was provided. Isaiah saw into God’s throne room. I believe that Moses met face to face with God in the spiritual realm meaning that God anointed him to see. That anointing comes with increased intimacy and fellowship with God.
-
I like to compare it to the metaphor of wind. God is invisible (like wind), but you see the impact it causes. (Impact on cirumstances, the lives of people, and to believers, spiritually discerning the message God is sending to that individual).
I hope that makes sense
-
There are 44 appearances of God in the Bible
-
Our Almighty God is literally invisible for if we literally see Him we will literally die. But He is discerningly visible. If one devotes self and seeks to see Him He avails Himself literally to one.
-
Both
-
God became visible when Jesus came to earth in a human body for 3 years He told us the way in the 4 gospels
-
Very interesting to read your all answers thank you for your response
-
Visible
-
Nobody has seen God face to face and lived. This is what Scriptire says. Nobody can make that claim. Moses mount Sinai only saw God’s back and he was glowing.
-
I believe we can see the attributes of God. For example: an act of selfless love. Isiah 43:7 says we where made for his glory. Genesis 1:27 says we were created in his image. Did you ever meet a Christian who was so full of love, peace and joy, that it was blessing just to be around them. That’s exactly the type of person God used to share the gospel with me. It was contagious, and I wanted what they had. As Christians should not others see just a glimpse of Gods glory through us? Yes God has revealed himself through his Son, word and spirit. But to see God in all his Glory, I couldn’t handle that. It would be to overwhelming. Just my opinion though. God Bless!!
-
I see and hear God and there is only one way to do it.
How? -
Whenever man has encountered God “face-to-face”, it has been either the pre-incarnate Christ, or Christ. God the Father is spirit and unable to see with our yet-to-be glorified bodies
-
God is spirit , so you see with spiritual eyes.
-
We get to read the Bible, many people saw it but in reality they did not see
-
They did not see God completely They only saw the glory of God
-
We all have faith and the Bible says that God is Spirit
-
Uma yes, it is God’s will that all mankind come to the knowledge of God.
It is God who gives the increase of His Word to those who ask, seek and knock, so God can open the door unto them.Christ promised the Holy Spirit, even the Spirit of Truth and it is the Spirit of God who teaches and guides us in all things as we can do nothing of ourselves.
John 14:16- 26
26
But the Comforter, which is the HolyGhost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. -
God is Spirit (John 4:24). Since God is Spirit nobody can see Him. But in the Bible many people have see Him. Those who have seen God in the Bible actually they all have seen second the person of Trinity not the first person.
In the Bible wherever it’s written that people have seen God, they have seen the second person of the Trinity. -
No one living has ever seen Gods face and lived
-
Christofony. The word is worth a study.??
-
If God is big enough to hold the entire universe in His hand, how would He be “visible” to us tiny humans?
-
It is interesting that throughout the Bible you can see cases of God being personified. I think this is quite revealing to the true nature of God. He is a real, being with an exalted, resurrected body. Where God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are three distinct separate beings with the same purpose and goal which is to bring about our own salvation and exaltation. If you want to talk about it more I’d love to feel free to dm me! ?
-
Personifications, theophanies. Not God in His Glorious presence. Any how this was before the fall. Precisely because humanity is separated from God due to sin is that God sent us Jesus. That is why Jesus said: whomever has seen the Son. Has seen the Father. Jesus is God incarnate, but no human has seen the Glory of God and lived. We are sinners that is why in order to see him face to face as He truly is, we need first to be born again spiritually and then to be resurrected like Jesus.
-
God is all things can’t be one thing.
Genesis 1:1-3
1:1 God
1:2 Spirit of God
1:3 The Word of God.1:1 God will and purpose.
1:2 The Spirit of God, the power behind the Word to bring all things into action in the will and purpose of God
1:3 The Word of God that became a manifestation and expression of God’s Word, light ?Genesis 1:4 note that Darkness was already existing and that light was not created but allowed to enter that darkness and God divides the light from the darkness meaning law and Order from lawlessness and chaos, the deep.
Christ Jesus is that light in the Old Testament, the Image of the invisible God and the Word Christ Jesus became Flesh in the New Testament, the Image of the invisible God.
So in other words, the Invisible God is manifested and expressed by Christ Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
-
God chose to reveal himself. Look up the word theophany
Comments