Question: Jesus taught in John 6:46 that no one has seen God except the One whom the Father has sent, namely only Jesus himself. How, then, do we reconcile this text with 2 Kings 2:11, which is the account of Elijah being caught up in "whirlwind" and taken to heaven bodily? If Elijah was taken to heaven, how could he not have seen God?
Answer: Greetings and thank you for your question. I really appreciate your desire to understand the Scriptures and make sense of the whole.
I guess by way of an answer, we can say several preliminary things to set the stage.
- Scripture is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. As God's "breathed out" word (2 Timothy 3:16), we believe that Scripture speaks with the voice of God Himself. Since God cannot lie, Scripture does not err.
- In the history of the Church, we have believed a doctrine that has been called the Analogia Fidei, or the "Analogy of Faith." This doctrine states that the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. When one part of Scripture seems confusing or potentially contradictory, we must endeavor to see these passages in light of the rest of Scripture.
- We need to understand passages such as 2 Kings 2 and John 6:46 in light of doctrine of the Trinity and the nature of God.
Considering that last point, what do we know and understand about the Trinity and the nature of God? Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God exists as one in essence and three in person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The one, divine essence of God is shared equally and fully among the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Such that we can say, "The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God." Yet, the three persons are distinct, such that we can also say, "The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father."
Concerning the nature of God, we can say along with The Belgic Confession of Faith (1561) that God is one, simple, and spiritual. We believe that God is one (the Trinity is not three Gods, but one God in three persons). We believe that God is simple meaning that He is not a complex being who is made of or composed of parts. Finally, we believe that God is spiritual meaning that He is immaterial, not composed of or consisting of matter; God is not a physical being. Furthermore, this one, simple, and spiritual being, we confess, is also eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good (this is all taken from article 1 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, one of the first confessions of the Protestant Reformation).
Now, I highlighted "invisible" because this gets to the point of your question. By nature, God in His essence is invisible (1 Timothy 1:17). This stands to reason since God is also, in His essence, spiritual, or non-material. Yet, we also know that God has manifested Himself in physical form (these are called theophanies, or physical manifestations of God). It should be clear that in a theophany, God is accommodating Himself to the creature. In these theophanies, the full glory of God is not on display, or put another way, the full glory of God is veiled.
Think of the story of Moses on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 33. Moses asks to see the glory of God, and the LORD says "You cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me, and live" (Exodus 33:20). Yet, God does veil His glory, right? He hides Moses in the cleft of the rock and passes by Him and allows Moses to see His "afterglow" (Exodus 33:22-23). So, we have many recorded theophanies in Scripture in which men have seen the veiled presence of God in human (or, as in the case of the burning bush, physical) form.
So, we've established that God, in His nature, is invisible, but has, at times, accommodated Himself to the creature to appear in physical/material form. How does this explain the apparent inconsistency between 2 Kings 2 and John 6:46? Let's look at those two passages:
- [11] Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11 NKJV)
- [46] "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. (John 6:46 NKJV)
The first thing I want to say here is that there is an assumption in your question in the first place. You assume that since Elijah was taken up into heaven, he must have seen God. In fact, in your question you say, "How could he not have seen God?" That is an assumption. Scripture does not explicitly say Elijah saw God. We should be careful when we speak where Scripture has remained silent. I'm not saying it's an unwarranted assumption, but we need to be careful in making claims in cases where the Bible remains silent. We also don't know if Elijah has a physical body. Can we say for certain if Elijah (or Enoch for that matter) has been glorified? I don't think so. Jesus Christ is the first to experience the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23), and thus, is the first to be glorified. It is more likely that Elijah is like all of us who die before the return of Christ: absent from the body and present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). This is what theologians refer to as the Intermediate State. Basically, at death, our bodies go into the ground and our spirits go to be with the Lord (Philippians 1:23). In this disembodied state, there are no eyes to speak of, so I don't think you say we see God so much as we are spiritually in His presence.
Secondly, as it pertains to the verse from John, note carefully what Jesus says, "No one has seen the Father." In other words, no one has seen the first person of the Trinity. I would argue that this has been, is, and always will be the case. No one has seen, or ever will see, the Father. Yet, many have seen, and all believers will see, God. How can I say that? Jesus, several chapters later in John's Gospel, will say to the disciples in the Upper Room, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father?'" (John 14:9). The second person of the Trinity, the Son, is the one who makes the Father known (John 1:18). That means all of the OT theophanies are probably better understood as Christophanies. The incarnation is the consummation of the Emmanuel principle (or "God with us"). Jesus is the "express image" of the person of the Father (Hebrews 1:3).
So, in answer to your question, I don't think Elijah, Enoch, or anyone who has died, has seen the person of God the Father. Even now, those who are asleep in Christ are spiritually in His presence, but are not "seeing" God in any physical sense. Yet, many people have and will see God in the person of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. The disciples saw Christ veiled in His humanity. When Christ returns, we will all see Him in His glorified humanity. In the New Heaven & New Earth, we will forever be in the presence of the glorified Son of God enjoying blessed communion with Him.
I hope this helps.
