(This is an essay in progress, and it comprises part of a chapter of volume two of my Systematic Theology of Love. A portion of this chapter is free to all, but paid Substack subscribers get entire chapters as they’re written. And paid subscribers can suggest changes and additions. Paid subscribers also get their names in the book’s acknowledgments and receive a signed copy of the published book in hardcover. At only $8 a month or $80 for the year, please consider a paid subscription!)
Does Anyone See God?
Although biblical writers make diverse claims, most portray God as a personal agent who communicates with creatures. God reveals. They also portray creatures as at least sometimes able to perceive divine revelation. We experience God.
Biblical descriptions of revelation vary, however, and if we take them literally, contradictions abound. To propose a coherent account of divine revelation that aligns with scripture, systematic theologians must choose among competing biblical claims about divine communication and creaturely perception. They must decide which language to regard as symbolic or figurative and which is more straightforward or descriptive.
Many biblical passages say the Spirit is invisible.[1] God is quoted as saying, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Ex. 33:20). The writer of 1 Timothy says “no one has seen or can see” God (6:16), and John’s gospel and letters say the same: “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18; 1 Jn. 4:12). These passages and others suggest that God, in principle, is not someone whom creaturely eyes can see, not now and not in the past.
Other scriptures, however, describe humans seeing God. Jacob claims to “have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered” (Gen. 32:30). Aaron’s benediction refers to God’s face: “The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you, and give you peace” (Num. 6:25-26).[2] Isaiah says he “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up” (6:1, 5). And God says that Moses “shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen” (Exod. 33:23).
So… can we see God or not?
Manifests in Physical Forms?
Some theologians say God occasionally manifests in physical form. These alleged appearances are theophanies. In them, says Wayne Grudem, “God took on various visible forms to show himself to people.[3]” Theologians Guy Duffield and Nathaniel Van Cleave put it bluntly: “He who made all beings and things can, for His wise ends, assume any form that suits His purpose.[4]” Many who affirm this view say creatures can’t see the divine essence, but the Spirit can take on a body to accomplish a task.[5]
If the Spirit can take on forms, the problems of evil and divine hiddenness escalate. After all, a loving Spirit who can manifest in physical form should do so often to stop genuine evil. A loving God would also take on forms to reveal wisdom in obvious ways. The deity who does not take on forms to stop evils is guilty of negligence, and the God who voluntarily hides is culpable for allowing creatures to embrace harmful ideas about deity. If divinity can take on physical forms, God doesn’t love consistently.
Other scholars say biblical passages that describe humans seeing God are figurative or symbolic expressions of intimacy. They’re not literal sightings of the Spirit.[6] Expressions like “face to face” suggest relational closeness. Passages that say God is “high and lifted up” don’t describe actual viewings of an elevated deity; they’re symbolic expressions of worship and awe.[7] And biblical passages about seeing the Spirit’s back express the inability to know deity fully. They don’t mean Moses saw the God’s butt.
I side with those who interpret scripture as saying no one sees God. Creaturely eyes can’t detect an invisible deity. Never. Biblical passages that describe sightings reflect intimate experiences with or partial knowledge of God. They aren’t literally true. Even passages that talk about seeing God face to face in the future (e.g., 1 Cor. 13:12) describe increased intimacy, not future viewings.
I also reject the notion that God sometimes manifests as a body or shapeshifts to take a form.[8] Theophanies are symbols that describe an increased awareness of the divine presence; they’re not physical manifestations of deity. I take this stance because the problems of evil and divine hiddenness compel me to portray God as steadfastly loving and uncontrolling. And because this stance enjoys good biblical support, although not every biblical passage fits.
The Spirit communicates, but no one literally sees God.
Does Anyone Hear God’s Voice?
A great number of scripture passages describe God speaking. And many biblical writers attribute verbal communication to divinity. They also describe creatures hearing from God. The Bible includes a great deal of divine speech and human hearing.[9]
Despite the number of biblical passages that describe humans hearing God’s voice, some passages object to the idea. In John’s gospel, Jesus says, “You have neither heard [the Father’s] voice at any time nor seen his form” (Jn. 5:37). The Apostle Paul (apparently quoting Isaiah) says, “No ear has heard…what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Many passages describe God as silent or refusing to speak, so humans do not hear God’s voice, at least temporarily.[10]
Far more frequent are biblical passages that say deity speaks and creatures hear. Adam and Eve hear God’s voice in the garden (Gen. 3:8), for instance. Abraham hears the angel of the Lord’s call from heaven (Gen. 22:11-12). God speaks the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:1), and Moses recorded them. Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” (6:8) At Jesus’ baptism, a “voice from heaven” says, “This is my son…” (Mt. 3:16-17), and at the transfiguration of Jesus, disciples hear something similar (Mt. 17:5). While the church worships and fasts, the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul…” (Acts 13:2). An angel says, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev. 3:22).[11] From Genesis to Revelation, we find examples of God speaking and humans hearing.
Saying that creatures hear God’s voice leads one to wonder how divine speaking occurs. How could a bodiless Spirit talk? An incorporeal deity would have no mouth or body parts associated with speech. To my knowledge, no scripture passage says God has vocal cords, and none mentions divine sound waves. The Spirit does not seem to have the bodily capacities needed for verbal communication.
People of faith often say God speaks through creatures, especially humans. The creatures through which God speaks convey revelation in their own voices and words. Jesus makes this claim when he tells his disciples, “it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt. 10:20). This view makes sense only if we think the creatures involved must discern what the uncontrolling Spirit is communicating. Unless one believes God controls, saying creaturely voices and words convey divine revelation simply pushes back the question of how these communicators perceive the voiceless and mouthless Spirit.
Overcoming the Problem?
One theory about divine speaking overcomes the problem. It says that what people identify as God’s voice is actually word-thoughts, intuitions, or voices in our minds.[12] Hearing God’s “voice” is like sub-vocal thinking, something budding readers do when they mentally vocalize. And it’s like what most people do when they talk to themselves in their heads. Biblical scholar C. H. Dodd describes this phenomenon when says the biblical writers firmly believed that God spoke “to the inward ear.[13]”
This theory fits much of, if not all, the biblical witness. Often, biblical writers say humans hear God’s voice in a dream or ecstatic state. But they’re not saying divine sound waves hit human ears. Think of Samuel hearing God while sleeping, for example, or the Apostle Paul hearing a voice on the road to Damascus (1 Samuel 3:4–10; Acts 22:6–9). Or think of Julian of Norwich, who in solitude wrote Revelations of Divine Love.[14] Each of these people likely heard voices, but those voices were at least partly generated by their minds. This “hearing” didn’t involve divinely-generated sound waves hitting their ears.
Saying that past and present claims about hearing God’s voice are actually thoughts and voices in our heads does not mean humans entirely fabricate revelation. If the Spirit always influences all creation, this influence would include the thoughts and voices in our heads. We can rightly believe, therefore, that voices in our heads may communicate messages that reflect what the Spirit intends. Our intuitions, impressions, ideas, hunches, nudges, and inaudible voices may reflect divine revelation. We might also believe that what other creatures say reflects well the inner voices and hunches they have about the Spirit’s communication.
Of course, creaturely voices and thoughts sometimes don’t reflect the Spirit’s communication. At least not reflect it well. Sometimes, they reflect other influences more than deity, whether self-derived or external. And we can’t be certain the inner voices and thoughts we and others hear express God’s communication perfectly. Christopher Cook is right when he says, “There is a danger in too much self-confidence in one’s own experience of hearing God’s voice, or in certainty of one’s own ability to identify or interpret God’s voice correctly.[15]”
Even biblical writers were sometimes not confident the revelation they received was from the Spirit.[16] “Test the spirits to see whether they are from God,” says John on this issue (1 Jn. 4:1). And the writer of 1 Thessalonians tells readers to “test everything” (5:19-22). Even when our confidence in divine revelation is rather strong, we may misunderstand. We’re fallible.
God communicates, but a bodiless Spirit can’t literally speak.
Other Puzzling Language
Perhaps most puzzling are the biblical passages that, if taken literally, portray divine revelation and human perception in confusing ways. The writer of Ephesians, for instance, talks about “the eyes of your understanding” or “eyes of your heart” (1:18). Hearts don’t have eyes; eyes don’t understand. Paul says that through the natural world, “God’s invisible qualities . . . have been clearly seen” (Rm. 1:20). But if something is invisible, it can’t be seen, let alone clearly. Jesus is recorded as saying “the pure in heart shall see God” (Mt. 5:8). How does having a pure heart enable literal eyesight? Biblical writers sometimes identify God as light, but they also say deity can’t be seen.[17]
The same is true of biblical language about God communicating. Yahweh answers Moses with a voice of thunder (Exod. 19:19), for instance, and divinity speaks out of fire (Deut. 4:12). But thunder and fire aren’t voices. God talks to Moses from a burning bush, but bushes have no mouths (Exod. 3:2-6). A disembodied hand writes a message on a palace wall, but severed hands can’t do this (Dan. 5:5-28). Yahweh “speaks” and Elijah hears a “still small voice” or “the sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:11-13). But silence has no sound, and a still voice can’t literally be heard.
This language is not just in scripture; we use it today. We’re told to “listen to” our bodies, for instance, which means we should assess our pain, passion, or fatigue. This doesn’t mean listening for sound waves by our bodies. When our bodies are “telling” us something, they’re not using words. To describe trying some new activity, some say they want “a little taste.” This doesn’t mean they’ll lick it. And when we overcome confusion, we might say, “Now, I see.” This doesn’t mean we were previously blind or were closing our eyes.
These examples indicate that biblical writers and everyday people use sensory language in non-literal ways. I take these statements to be clues about how we should regard biblical references to God speaking or creatures hearing a divine voice. Just as we don’t take literally the idea that hearts have eyes, we shouldn’t take literally descriptions of God talking. Humans can’t actually see God’s face, smell the Spirit, and so on. And when people talk about “the hand of God,” they shouldn’t mean a literal hand. Thomas Aquinas was right: “It is impossible for God to be seen by the sense of sight, or by any other sense.[18]”
We cannot perceive an incorporeal God with our senses.
Despite this, I believe creatures do experience God. I think we directly perceive divine revelation. Part of my explanation for this involves recognizing that much of what we know doesn’t come from our senses. It comes from nonsensory perceiving.
(This is an excerpt from a fuller essay available to paid subscribers on Substack. See this link for info.)
