12/16/2023
CAN A MAN SEE GOD AND LIVE ❓️
🔥✅️Exodus 33:20 and John 1:18. These two verses read that there is no man who can see God and live.
🔴"Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.” So we learn here that you must be “of God” to have the privilege of seeing Him. John later explains what he means in 3 John 1: 11; “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God.”
🟡In the Joseph Smith Translation we learn that John 1 :18 helps us to understand that: "No man hath seen God at any time, except he hath borne record of the Son; for except it is through him no man can be saved”
💥John 1:18 can have another meaning as well. In the scriptures, particularly the Gospel of John, the word "see" can sometimes mean “perceive with our minds” or “understand.”
There are numerous instances in the Bible where God has appeared unto man. We’ll start out in the very beginning:
1️⃣Genesis 3:8-10—“And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” God was visiting Adam and Eve in the garden. They obviously hid themselves so that He wouldn’t SEE them.
2️⃣Genesis 17: 1—“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto, I am the Almighty God”
3️⃣Genesis 32:30—“And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”
4️⃣Numbers 12:6-8—“…The Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, … and he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth…”
And many others ....
President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) explained: “All revelation since the fall has come through Jesus Christ, who is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. In all of the scriptures, where God is mentioned and where he has appeared, it was Jehovah who talked with Abraham, with Noah, Enoch, Moses, and all the prophets. … The Father has never dealt with man directly and personally since the fall, and he has never appeared except to introduce and bear record of the Son”
Credit photo : Edwardo Marques