The Text:
Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. (KJV)
Exo 33:20 But he said, “You cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live!” (UASV, Updated American Standard Version)
My Comment:
I have been busy for almost a week discussing this verse and many other Bible passages with a Muslim friend who certainly has a different understanding of this passage than I do.
I think my Muslim friend makes a mistake in interpretation that is easy to make: he stakes his claim unbendingly upon his chosen interpretation, unable so far to understand that there is a better interpretation available.
The Musim challenge:
NO ONE CAN SEE GOD — BUT THEY SAW JESUS?
Exodus 33:20
“You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.”
Let’s stop here.
This is not a parable. Not poetry. It’s a direct statement from God Himself to Moses — a prophet Christians, Jews, and Muslims all accept.
And it’s clear:
No one sees God. Ever. And lives.
But then the New Testament says:
People saw Jesus.
They touched him.
They ate with him.
They beat him.
They killed him.
So… who was that?
Because if Jesus was God, then either:
This Old Testament verse is false, or
Jesus is not God.
You choose.
Even the New Testament writers accidentally confirm the contradiction:
John 1:18 – “No one has ever seen God.”
Thank you, John.
Now explain how people saw Jesus — and didn’t drop dead.
The real truth?
God is unseen.
Jesus was seen.
Therefore, Jesus is not the God of Moses.
So once again, the Old Testament buries the Trinity.
My response:
My dear friend, PixelMistakePicasso, may I kindly suggest there is a better and more accurate way to understand the Bible than I see you employing.
You are correct when you state that the Bible itself declares in Exodus 33:20,
Exodus 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. (KJV)
Yet, the Bible in both Old Testament and New Testament reports instances of people who saw God and lived:
Genesis 32:30
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
King James Version
Judges 13:22
22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
King James Version
Isaiah 6:5
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
King James Version
The answer to this question, has any human being seen God and lived, is YES.
Jesus explained in John 4:24 that “God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Since God is spirit, He is invisible, and Jesus taught that “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18, KJV).
For “he hath declared him” some modern English translations read “he has made him known.”
A careful study of Scripture demonstrates that when individuals saw God, it is Jesus in His pre-incarnate form that they saw.
I have included the following explanatory note in my Ultimate Cross Reference Treasury at John 1:18,
hath seen God. Note.—That is, hath seen God as He is in Himself, or apart from some form assumed to render Himself visible: and thus this passage and the following references are not contradictory to Gen 32:30, or Exo 24:9, 10, or Exo 33:11, or Mat 5:8. Moreover there is reason to believe that, on the occasions recorded in the Old Testament, it was The Word or Christ who appeared in the form of that nature in which he was afterwards to be revealed. Compare Isa 6:1 with Jhn 12:41, and 1Co 10:4; 1Co 10:9 (De Burgh, p. 226). Such pre-incarnate appearances of Christ are sometimes called Christophanies (Jhn 8:56; Jhn 8:58; Jhn 12:41). For Theophanies see +Gen 12:7 and +Gen 17:1). See also Gen 19:24 note and Gen 22:15 note.