How Do You Perceive God? - Why Can’t We See God?

How Do You Perceive God? - Why Can’t We See God?

The question is sometimes asked, if God exists why can’t we see Him? It is a reasonable question? Like most things to do with God the best place to look for the answer is in what God says on the matter. Religious art has depicted God in many ways and forms, and it is often in some likeness to man. As noted earlier, this is quite contrary to what God has said on the matter. The two pictures below show the similarity between man’s perceptions in both ancient Greece and later in Christian art. God is depicted as a big man or a big angry man, and sometimes as being both fickle and unreasonable. 

Our perception of God is often affected by our cultural or religious background, our education or experiences, or even our personal or peer group prejudices. If we truly seek to understand, then we need to abandon these preconceptions altogether. The apostle Paul faced this same challenge when he came to Athens, the capital of learning in his day. 

In the Book of Acts (Acts.17:22-33) it is recorded that Paul spoke with the Athenians and introduced God to them. He said that God is the one whom they ‘ignorantly worship’ on their altar to ‘The unknown God’, and that He was the one who ‘made the world and all things therein’ and ‘gives to all life, and breath, and all things’. Paul says that ‘though He is not far from everyone of us’, He yet remained ‘unknown’ to them. Although God was within their reach, He remained outside of their field of vision or perception. They were like blind men who could not find God. Paul is not speaking only of the senses here, but of their thinking and understanding. 

As noted earlier, God cannot be seen by man. God has clearly revealed this to us the word. 

Deut.4:12 And the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire: you heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; you only heard a voice.

Exod.33:20 You cannot see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

John.1:18 No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

In conclusion then, it is therefore important that we note the difference between the creator and the created. We must not try to perceive God in a form or way that we are comfortable or familiar with, that is either as a man or as one of the lesser creatures. If we are to perceive God then we must see Him as He has revealed Himself, and as the greatness of the creation testifies. God cannot be seen because He is not of this order of things, but precedes it and is greater than it. We will look at this again in Chapter 9 when we look at Faith more closely, for as we will see, faith is designed to give us a form of ‘super-natural sight or perception’.