{"id":373,"date":"2012-08-22T10:07:08","date_gmt":"2012-08-22T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2012-08-22T10:09:18","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T17:09:18","slug":"no-one-saw-god-except-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/?p=373","title":{"rendered":"No one “saw” God except Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copied comment by Tim Cooper on a blog post by Steve Sensenick at beyondthebox that discusses our view of inerrancy of scripture. Link here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John the Baptist boldly heralds the arrival of Jesus with an earth
\nshattering statement. In the face of all the great scholars of his time,
\nIn the face of the Sadducee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Pharisees unsurpassed knowledge of
\nscripture the Baptist rips apart their theology in one sentence\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

John 1:18<\/a> No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.<\/p>\n

Have we overlooked the significance of this proclamation? The Greek
\nword for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the above verse means; (to know by experience, to
\nperceive or to be acquainted with). John the Baptist just dropped an
\natom bomb! He flat out told those that memorized the first five books of
\nthe Bible that they did NOT know God!<\/p>\n

For the first seventeen verses of Chapter One the apostle John gives
\nus a history lesson, a mini Bible as he sees it. Then he finishes with a
\nquote from John the Baptist, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No man has seen (to know by experience,
\nto perceive or to be acquainted with) God\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. John is telling us that up
\nuntil this point in history no one really knew God. Jesus His Son had
\narrived to declare and reveal the Father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true nature to mankind. When
\nJohn the Baptist said NO ONE knew God, did he mean it? Was John
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153inspired\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by God when he said it? When John said NO ONE had a clear
\npicture of who God was, wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that include the Old Testament writers?
\nIf this were just one isolated verse we could possibly explain it away
\nor symbolize it but the problem is it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an isolated verse, it is
\nrepeated over and over by Jesus himself.<\/p>\n

John 5:37<\/a>
\nAnd the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.
\nYe have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.<\/p>\n

John the Baptist proclaims to the world that NO ONE knew God before
\nJesus and here we see Jesus confirming John\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s message. NO ONE had fully
\nand completely heard or seen God before Jesus Christ<\/p>\n

John 17:25<\/a>
\nO righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known
\nthee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. 26 And I have
\ndeclared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love
\nwherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.<\/p>\n

Whenever the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153name\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is used in Hebrew it simply means nature or
\ncharacter. So when Jesus says; I will declare your name, He is saying I
\nwill declare (who you are). The fall had so blinded us and so twisted
\nour nature that it was impossible to see God clearly. Jesus is the light
\nthat came to help us see God for who He truly is. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The world has not
\nknown you, but I have and I will declare to them who you are!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

John 8:19<\/a>
\nThen said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered; Ye
\nneither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known
\nmy Father also.<\/p>\n

If you know Me, you would know the Father. Or we could flip this
\naround and say if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know Jesus you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know the Father.
\nDid the Old Testament writers know Jesus as well as a born again
\nbeliever? Jesus Himself said that the least in the Kingdom of God is
\ngreater than the greatest Old Testament prophet. \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Selah<\/p>\n

Mark 12:24<\/a> And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?<\/p>\n

Was Jesus actually saying that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the scriptures? Most
\nscholars agree and Jesus knew that this group of people did know the
\nscriptures from mans point of view. But once again He was telling them
\nthey didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really see, they still believed the lie and thus remained
\nbehind a veil.<\/p>\n

John 6:46<\/a> Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.<\/p>\n

What will it take before Christians agree with Jesus and simply say
\nthat NO ONE really knew God before He showed up? Is it possible we have
\nlet the writers of the Old Testament actually trump what Jesus said?<\/p>\n

John 5:39<\/a>
\nSearch the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and
\nthey are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that
\nye might have life<\/p>\n

Have we as New Testament believers become like the Pharisees and
\nSadducees? Will we remain behind a veil that Christ Himself removed?
\nWill we give as much weight to the Old Testament writers as we do to
\nJesus Himself?<\/p>\n

Over and over we are told no one really knew God, no one saw Gods
\ntrue nature. Jesus was here to clear that up, the express image telling
\nus that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father. Jesus was here to
\ntell us He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do or say anything He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the Father do. The
\nWord, God in flesh was here to say; look at Me, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m it. I am what you
\nhave been looking for in the scriptures. I am here in bodily form to
\nshow you exactly what I am like. All things written before, all things
\nseen before are just shadows; you did not see me clearly. Here, I AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copied comment by Tim Cooper on a blog post by Steve Sensenick at beyondthebox that discusses our view of inerrancy of scripture. Link here   John the Baptist boldly heralds the arrival of Jesus with an earth shattering statement. In the face of all the great scholars of his time, In the face of the … Continue reading “No one “saw” God except Jesus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-studies-in-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rodsawatsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}