Jesus claimed that whoever saw him saw the Father. Wouldn't that prove that Jesus is GOD Himself (i.e., the Creator of the Universe)?
The following article belongs to the Muslim-SA@acsu.buffalo.edu Islamic Student Organization.
Well, what about the verse
"He that hath seen me hath seen the father."
Let us look at the context:
"Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"
John 14:8-9
Philip wanted to see God with his own eyes, but this is impossible since no one can
ever do ever do that. The Bible says:
"No man hath seen God at any time,"
John 1:18
"No man hath seen God at any time,"
1 John 4:12
So Jesus simply told him that his own actions and miracles should be a sufficient proof
of the existence of God without God having to physically come down and let himself be seen
every time someone is doubtful. This is equivalent to for example
If we want to insist that when Philip saw Jesus (pbuh), he had actually physically seen
God "the Father" because Jesus "is" the father and both are one
"Trinity," and Jesus is the "incarnation" of God, then this will force
us to conclude that John 1:18, 1 John 4:12, ..etc. are all lies.
Well, is Philip the only one who ever "saw the father"? Let us read:
"Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father."
John 6:46
Who is this who "is of God" and had seen the Father you ask? Let us once
again ask the Bible:
"He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God."
John 8:47.
And
"Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God"
3 John 1:11.
Have all people who have done good also physically seen God?
In "The New Catholic Encyclopedia" (Bearing the Nihil Obstat
and Imprimatur, indicating official approval) we get a glimpse of how the concept
of the Trinity was not introduced into Christianity until close to four hundred years
after Jesus (pbuh):
".......It is difficult in the second half of the 20th century to offer a clear, objective and straightforward account of the revelation, doctrinal evolution, and theological elaboration of the Mystery of the trinity. Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as other, present a somewhat unsteady silhouette. Two things have happened. There is the recognition on the part of exegetes and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma 'One God in three Persons' became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought ... it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development" (emphasis added).
"The New Catholic Encyclopedia" Volume XIV, p. 295.
They admit it!. Jesus' twelve apostles lived and died never having heard of any
"Trinity" !
Did Jesus leave his closest and dearest followers so completely and utterly baffled and
lost that they never even realized the "true" nature of God? Did he leave them
in such black darkness that neither they nor their children, nor yet their children's
children would ever come to recognize the "true" nature of the One they are to
worship? Do we really want to allege that Jesus was so thoroughly incompetent in the
discharge of his duties that he left his followers in such utter chaos that it would take
them fully three centuries after his departure to finally piece together the nature of the
One whom they are to worship? Why did Jesus never, even once, just say "God, the
Holy Ghost and I are three Persons in one Trinity. Worship all of us as one"? If
he had only chosen to make just one such explicit statement to them he could have
relieved Christianity of centuries of bitter disputes, division, and animosity.
Top Harpur writes in his book "For Christ's Sake":
"What is most embarrassing for the church is the difficulty
of proving any of these statements of dogma from the new Testament documents. You simply
cannot find the doctrine of the Trinity set out anywhere in the Bible. St. Paul has the
highest view of Jesus' role and person, but nowhere does he call him God. Nor does Jesus
himself anywhere explicitly claim to be the second person in the Trinity, wholly equal to
his heavenly Father. As a pious Jew, he would have been shocked and offended by such an
Idea....(this is) in itself bad enough. But there is worse to come. This research has lead
me to believe that the great majority of regular churchgoers are, for all practical
purposes, tritheists. That is, they profess to believe in one God, but in reality they
worship three.."
The Encyclopaedia Britannica states under the heading "Trinity":
"in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament,… The Council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the Son is 'of the same substance [homoousios] as the Father,' even though it said very little about the Holy Spirit. Over the next half century, Athanasius defended and refined the Nicene formula, and, by the end of the 4th century, under the leadership of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus (the Cappadocian Fathers), the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since."
Muslim-SA@acsu.buffalo.edu
Last modified: Sun Nov 17 01:53:56 EST 1996
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