The Face of God

According to the old Confessions of Faith, God is a Spirit without body, parts, or passions.
However, the Bible does mention the face of God, but it is referring to the presence and character of God.

April_Rose said:

I was just wondering does God the Father actually have a face? Others have claimed to have had a NDE and seen it. Is that real? Are they telling the truth?

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Any face that God chooses to reveal to us would be in a toned down form. God lives in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16). Therefore, we cannot approach Him nor can He approach us in His true form. Otherwise, we would be utterly consumed and destroyed. That is why the Bible describes Him making "Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2:7)." When God became a man, in Christ Jesus, that was Him showing us His "face" so we could begin to have a relationship with Him. We also see this in the Old Testament when God interacted with Adam (Genesis 2:19) and later when He visited with Abraham (Genesis 18). Nobody knows for sure what people saw in their near death experiences. Personally, I don't concern myself with what they say they witnessed, but if their experience matches up with the truth of God's word.

April_Rose said:

I was just wondering does God the Father actually have a face? Others have claimed to have had a NDE and seen it. Is that real? Are they telling the truth?

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God the Father is a Spirit, so does not have a physical body. In the OT where Moses, Elijah etc saw God they saw Jesus.
Need if real again would see Jesus.

God the Father is spirit (Jn 4:24) and nobody has ever seen the Father (Jn 1:18; Jn 6:46).

The "visible God" is Jesus only and because Jesus is "the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word" (Hebrews 1:3) he can say "who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).

You find the same in Colossians 1:15: "The Son is the image of the invisible God".

Whenever God speaks or acts in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, it is Jesus. If someone has a NDE and meets God it is Jesus who they see.

The judgement verses speak of a great white throne and one who sits on the throne. I think that God has a face, but it would kill us to look upon His face.

At our judgement, I'm sure we'll see Him.

Moses saw his back as God passed by when he hid in a cleft in the rock.

But once we're purely spiritual after we die, we can't be killed again, since we no longer have a body.

We can suffer eternal torment, but we can't be "exterminated" or become mere void. In a pure spiritual state, we would be able to look upon His face and not perish.

Mind you, I think it would be with a mixture of awe, shame and terror, especially if as unrepentant sinners we could not bear to continue facing Him.

If we're condemned, I think we will be appalled by the contempt He will display just before we depart into Hell, as intimated in Matthew 10:32-33 "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven" and in Matthew 7:23 "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

Since I'm Catholic, I believe in the existence of Purgatory. My understanding is that as souls advance towards the upper levels of Purgatory, they will be more and more willing to look upon God's face as part of the Beatific Vision, which will be their ultimate goal.

I think God has a face, which will only be revealed to us after we die.

April_Rose said:

I was just wondering does God the Father actually have a face? Others have claimed to have had a NDE and seen it. Is that real? Are they telling the truth?

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No. God is formless, invisible, incomprehensible. No one can see God.

We behold God's face in Jesus Christ, because the Father makes Himself known in and through His Son, who became flesh. So that to see Jesus is to see the Father, which is why Jesus says, "If you have seen Me you have seen the Father".

Anyone who claims to have seen the face of God, or to have seen God at all in His incomprehensible Essence, is at best mistaken.

-CryptoLutheran

April_Rose said:

Also, if God the Father doesn't have a face or body does that mean that we'll never be able to hug Him in Heaven?

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When you hug Jesus you hug God, April There is only 1 God, Jesus is the (only) visible and touchable "part" of God (part is not the right word but I don't know which fits better). Hugging Jesus is like hugging the Father.

April_Rose said:

I was just wondering does God the Father actually have a face?

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“Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 18:10 NKJV

April_Rose said:

I thought that meant just being in His presence though?

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Correct, when talking in human nature it can mean face, but it can also mean presence or countenance. I like to think of it as some form of fulness myself.

some translators do not handle it as face

G4383 πρόσωπον prosopon (pros'-ō-pon) n.
1. the front (as being towards view), i.e. the countenance, aspect, appearance, surface.
2. (by implication) presence, person.
[from G4314 and ops (the visage, from G3700)]
KJV: (outward) appearance, X before, countenance, face, fashion, (men's) person, presence
Root(s): G4314, G3700

example the NLT

“Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.

April_Rose said:

Also, if God the Father doesn't have a face or body does that mean that we'll never be able to hug Him in Heaven?

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I feel the same, I want to hug him, just crawl in his lap and hug him.

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. 21And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 22And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: 23And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen. Exodus 33:20-23 KJV

April_Rose said:

So what does that mean exactly?

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It means no human can stand before Him and live, commonly translated as "face" but it means stand in front of His presence, thus I believe the only way humans can see YHWH is through Yahshua.

H6440 פָּנִים paniym (paw-neem') n-m.
פָּנֶה paneh (paw-neh') [singular (but always as plural) of an unused noun]

1. the face (as the part that turns).
2. (with prepositional prefix, as a preposition) before, etc.
{used in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively}
[from H6437] Root(s): H6437

- Original: פּנים
- Transliteration: Paniym
- Phonetic: paw-neem'
- Definition:

1. face
a. face, faces
b. presence, person
c. face (of seraphim or cherubim)
d. face (of animals)
e. face, surface (of ground)
f. as adv of loc/temp

1. before and behind, toward, in front of, forward, formerly, from beforetime, before
g. with prep

1. in front of, before, to the front of, in the presence of, in the face of, at the face or front of, from the presence of, from before, from before the face of

- Origin: from H6437 *
- TWOT entry: 1782a
- Part(s) of speech: Noun Masculine

We are made in the image of God.

Who are we to say that God cannot have a face, a body? God is our creator. Our Father.

When we see Jesus, we see the Father.

Revelation 21:22-23,And I saw no Dwelling Place in it, for יהוה Ěl Shaddai is its Dwelling Place, and the Lamb. And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it, for the esteem of Elohim lightened it, and the Lamb is its lamp."