Does anyone seen god

This could have been an angel, a theophany, or a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ, wrestling with him.

Jacob was wrestling with God spiritually, as well as physically. That is when he comes to know Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Then in a very real way that sinner comes face to face with God, though never really seeing His face. He cannot be perceived by sense and intellect:. Getting closer to Him means entering into darkness. Philo often speaks about two main powers: Kingly and Creative, 59 but he also mentions three other: Injunctive, Prohibitive, and Gracious.

When the faithful ascends towards God, he first encounters the prohibition of sin Injunctive Power , then obedience of the Law Prohibitive Power , and then repentance in the face of mercy Gracious Power ; next he acknowledges the sovereignty of God Kingly Power ; and he finally discovers creative love Creative Power.

Philo claims that this is not the knowledge of the powers themselves, which stay incomprehensible, like the essence of God, but rather of activities which are the effects of those powers.

We can see it in the following fragment of De posteritate Caini :. There seems to be no separation between power and action yet, but in his discussion of powers, Philo clearly points out that they must be taken into account when we try to see the Creator and Governor of the Universe because otherwise we must admit that we can gain the knowledge of the essence of God, who stays incomprehensible.

However, the defence of the Christian religion in the Roman Empire brought about a new background to it. Apologists must face pagan religions and answer serious accusations of atheism, immorality, and even cannibalism.

Since Romans refuted anything that was new, including new religions, Christian writers try to argue that Christianity is nothing new. The only possible way to do it was to find something in ancient pagan cultures that could be seen close to Christian beliefs. As Benedict XVI notes, Christians did not see any connection between Christianity and pagan religions, but they saw such a link in philosophy.

Their fault was only not giving worship and thanks to such Deity. However, showing that Christianity was a philosophy was not enough — it was presented as the only true philosophy. St Justin Martyr is probably the best example of such argumentation.

Droge points out, the background of this claim could be found in the writings of various Greek philosophers of his time, who viewed philosophy after Aristotle as the history of corruption and decay. Posidonius of Apamea claimed that philosophy was given to humans by gods in primordial times, but later became corrupt and lost its unity by splitting into various schools.

The true philosophy of Plato can be restored only by tracing it back to Pythagoras and from Pythagoras to the most ancient barbarians. Justin shows this clearly when he recounts his philosophical journey through various schools Stoic, Peripatetic, Pythagorean, and Platonist , which ended in his conversion to Christianity — the true philosophy. It is significant that Platonism of young Justin, which could be seen in the famous scene of meditation by the sea, was corrected by the old man who used Moses and prophets, but the young Platonic was converted to Christianity, not Judaism.

Justin describes the Incarnation of Christ as theophany and epiphany, and also transforms some pagan models to describe it. Nevertheless, there is one place where negative theology seemed to be indispensable. It helped to distinguish the true Christian God from the false pagan gods, which often appears in a wider perspective of the accusation that Christians are atheists and negative theology is used in the writings of Apologists almost exclusively in this context.

Therefore, it is not of human origin and this opinion could be seen as an earlier formulation of the theory of names, which was the key doctrine of Anomeans during the Arian controversy.

It is not clear whether Justin builds negative theology here, or simply wants to refute the accusations aimed at Christian beliefs, but we can observe a similar pattern in the writings of other Apologists. He divides the answer to the charge into the consideration of theoretical and practical atheism. He also makes a distinction between the statues of gods and gods themselves, and claims that the gods of myths are perishable and, therefore, they cannot really exist.

He asked Theophilus to describe to him God in whom he believes; therefore, he starts his discussion with the presentation of the Christian idea of deity. Thus, Theophilus writes:. Theophilus then testifies that at this early stage of Christian reflection on God to know His nature is possible through His attributes. He also seems to suggest that even the attributes of God are only vaguely known to us. We rather know how an attribute is connected with the corresponding activity in created world.

Saying that God is light we rather say something about how it is visible in His works, calling Him word means rather His sovereignty, etc. He is Elijah who is sent from God, to prepare the way.

Jesus himself was thrown violently into the wilderness by the Spirit of God, and for forty days he struggled as he was being prepared for his vocation and mission.

However long John was in the wilderness, it must have been a time of intense wrestling, as he too was being molded and formed by the life-giving Spirit of God for his mission. What did he see? No, this man, who had spent so long alone with God, had been changed by God. He must have radiated the very holiness of God. Just as the skin on the face of Moses shone after he had been with the Lord, so John, after all this time with the Lord, must have spoken with a divine authority which drew people magnetically to him.

This man had clearly been with the Holy one, and before the holy, they fell down and confessed their sins, and clamored to be baptized by him in the river Jordan. But John saw more. He had been with God, and he recognized God.

And so, amidst all the hundreds of penitents, wading into the waters of baptism, John suddenly see the One. And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. John, who knew God intimately, turns his head and looks into the face of Jesus, and there, he recognizes the very face of God.

John the Baptist was the culmination of a long line of seers. These great figures, striding so majestically through the pages of Scripture — Jacob, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, all came to new sight through desert or wilderness experiences.

And I believe that this is still true today, and for us. I personally recognize these past months of pandemic as an experience of the wilderness such as they describe.

Maybe you do too. One day merging into the next, and for how long? And yet, I too have seen new things. The Spirit I believe has opened my eyes in new ways.