BBI II:10 No one has ever seen God; they saw His Son
The prologue to John’s Gospel closes with a claim that all personal appearances of “God” in the Old Testament were actually His Son, His personal Agent. John 1:18 (LGV) “Never before has anyone seen God. The Only-Begotten Son, the one being unto the Father’s bosom, that one declared Him.” This summary statement was intended to amplify what was stated in verse 10, that the same one through whom all things originated also interacted with man as God’s Agent. “He was in the world, and the world originated through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
This creates a serious problem for Unitarians who deny that God’s Son was begotten at the beginning of creation. In order to escape this problem, they claim that the word “seen” means perceived with the mind and not seen with the eyes. While this Greek word is occasionally used that way, many other statements in the New Testament, some even from Jesus Himself, prove that John meant seen with the eyes in the above statement. Consequently, the second statement — “the only-begotten Son … that one declared Him” — answers the question, “Who then did the patriarchs see?”
Please post comments or questions below the video on the YouTube channel. Click “Watch on YouTube” link in the video above.
5 thoughts on “BBI II:10 No one has ever seen God; they saw His Son”
Tim,
What are your thoughts on Daniel 7:
9“I watched till thrones were put in place,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame,
Its wheels a burning fire;
10 A fiery stream issued
And came forth from before Him.
A thousand thousands ministered to Him;
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.
The court was seated,
And the books were opened.
Sean Griffin (of Kingdom in Context) shares a very similar view to 4winds on the relationship between the Father and Son. He also believes that the Father has a spiritual body (consisting of water and spirit) and all other spirit beings. Daniel 7 is a text he’ll go to to establish his belief.
Would you be open to further interactions/discussions on YouTube with other apologists on these issues? I’m seeing more folks questioning/abandoning Trinitarianism due to the influx of a few other solid teachers arguing effectively against Trinitarianism (Chris LaSala being another). I think you could definitely add to the discussion from an exegetical perspective.
Brian
Brian,
On Dan. 7, it is clear that Daniel saw a vision of God, not God Himself. Same with John in Rev. 4-5. Both of these were perceptions of the mind not the eyes. The statement in John 1:18 refers to seeing God with the eyes. I am not sure where one would get the idea that God consists of “water” and “spirit.” The only place I am aware where “water and spirit” are connected is John 3, but the “water” there has to do with baptism, and in John 7:38, where “water” is clearly a metaphor.
I am not sure what kind of discussions you have in mind. I try to answer comments on my YouTube channel.
Brian,
I took a look at the YouTube channels of the two people you mentioned. I am not interested in that kind of “apologetics.” I have one goal — “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15 NASB). My goal is to provide teaching materials for home fellowship leaders on a wide variety of topics, not get into mud-slinging, conspiracy theories, self-promotion, or getting the most “followers.”
Hi Tim,
Why do you believe John is referring to a spiritual pre-incarnate Jesus in verse 1.18 that he never witnessed, rather than the resurrected Messiah who he heard, touched and gazed upon, and who was highly exalted and seated at the right hand of God when John wrote verse 1.18?
Best regards,
Joel
John’s comment “the only-begotten Son … has declared Him” uses the aorist indicative verb “declared” which sums up all past activity in a single snapshot. Since John’s view of Jesus described in 1 John 1:1-3 was that He existed from “the beginning” and that the Apostles had heard, seen, and handled Him, John was including ALL of His interactions with humanity in John 1:18, both before He became flesh and after He became flesh. It is not an either-or comment.