Ever since man has walked on the earth, one of the most asked questions has been “What does God look like”? All too often, God is described through drawings/art depicting him as an Olympian man with thick locks of platinum hair, muscular body and wearing something akin to the Roman Toga (Think Zeus here).
As a child, you grew up seeing artists renditions as such in every bible, art museum, and in religious periodicals. But is this correct? Is this an accurate illustration or a fantasy created by Cecil B. Demill? The fact is that no one has ever seen God. Many have had visions and dreams, but the recounting of such visions and dreams didn’t provide a complete full picture and understanding of God. When they tried to explain his appearance in words, they couldn’t. There were no equivalent words in our language.
This article may be disturbing to you as you discover who or what God is? It might be the first time you heard this? My hope is that this article sparks a passion to go deeper in your journey to find out more about God. This isn’t meant to be controversial; my ideas will be reinforced with biblical text and footnotes from Rev. George Leo Haydock.
In our limited knowledge of the physical earth, we become frustrated trying to explain God; we turn to non-corporeal and abstract methods. This only adds to the mystery and makes God nonexistent; not being able to define him, he could slowly dissolve from our lives. We become vulnerable to false idols and might be tempted by Satan to honor them.
What God Is…
We often think of God as looking like us, but what does this mean? What does the Bible say about God? Luckily, we have several passages in the Bible that reference God’s appearance. Colossians, Exodus, John, and Genesis provide definition and guidance to formulate God.
In Genesis 1:26-27, “Make man to our image and likeness” “God made man in his own image”. In John 4:24 “God is a spirit and you must adore him in spirit and truth”. In Exodus 33:20 “Thou can’t see my face: man shall not see me and live”. Colossians 1: 15-17 “The first born will magnify the invisible image of God”, (Rev. George Leo Haydock’s Notes Douay-Rheims Holy Catholic Bible, 1859/2024)
The verses I referenced make it very clear how God presents himself to us. While you still have to read between the lines, there are enough explicit details to draw a logical conclusion. I conclude that God isn’t a human. While he created us, the earth and all the galaxies/Milky Way; he is not from our planet or universe.
First there isn’t one verse in the bible that gives a concrete depiction of what God looks like. In addition, no one person has ever look upon God’s face and physical appearance. However, there is no question what God looked like. If you decipher the scripts succinctly, you will come up with one universal concept.
Bearing Witness to God
God isn’t a social construct, he isn’t a movement, a trend, nor a thing you recognize and honor on a specific date in the year. Look at the Gospels of John: “God is a spirit”, a supreme being. Because of our limited intelligence and capability to comprehend the complexities of God’s creations, he gave us free will and the curiosity to push us to expand and develop our minds.
Spirits are usually something you can’t see, but with developed senses you will know his presence without seeing him. John tells us in the scriptures that we must adore him in spirit and truth. And Colossians says man may never see God, and yet they will live.
So, let’s reflect on what we have learned so far. God is a supernatural being or spirit. God doesn’t appear physically in the flesh. No one has ever actually seen God. We have no written reference of anybody seeing the physical form of God in the flesh. So, I say that you and I will not be any different. You and I will not see God when we die nor after we are in his kingdom.
Yes, I am saying whether on this earth, or in the next realm, we will never see God.
He won’t be there waiting at the end of the” long bright light”, he won’t be waiting at the pearly gates, and he won’t have St. Peter call “your number” to take you upstairs to see The Holy Father. I honestly believe this. His force and power terrifying, his light so luminous and bright; surely blinding us. Did I burst your bubble? Before you stop reading this article, please, just hear me out.
God gave us the capacity of knowledge and the ability for us to learn and grow intellectually. He wanted us to be unique and special; he surely didn’t want copies of himself all over his newly designed earth. God also wants us to be free. For us to be free and uniquely different; everyone special in our own way, God gave us free-will.
We all are presented with similar scenarios and situations in life. In free-will you are faced with options on how you’ll react to it. It’s those choices you make that set your path on earth and the path to God. No two people will react the exact same way, and it’s the variables of outcome that create the uniqueness of our being.
God and his love are the purest of anything on earth or beyond. His strength and knowledge go beyond our earthly limitations. In order for us to be in his presence, we must meet God on those levels of purity. To be that pure we must be free from any sin…. ANY SIN.
Even the covenant (the Holy Tabernacle) that held God’s commandments/scripture had phenomenal power. In the book of Numbers 4:15, 2 Samuel 6:5-8, and 1 Chronicles 13:8-12; all tell of unauthorized men looking into or touching the covenant and then dying. (Rev. George Leo Haydock’s Notes Douay-Rheims Holy Catholic Bible, 1859/2024) This isn’t meant as a paradox, but a way to make you humble.
I also believe the “unauthorized men” referenced in the scriptures were men that weren’t holy in spirit or action. Their purity was diluted with sin and when they came in the presence of God’s purity, it overtook the evil of sin and destroyed it. You and I are like those “unauthorized men” and would suffer the same fate if we saw our Holy Father.
You might be saying but what about Genesis – and the scripture of God made man in his own image? Many people use current knowledge intellect to decipher this sacred scripture and therein lies the problem in man’s understanding of biblical writings. In Genesis, God used imagery to create man. That is to say, imagery is a representation not an exact replica.
The creation reflects attributes of God, such as kindness, empathy, altruism, benevolence. He didn’t make us look like him. In Genesis, John, Exodus and Colossians (referenced at the beginning of this article) specifically and explicitly explain in the Holy Scriptures that man can’t see God. Even though we can’t see him, we will live. Blessed be those that can’t see but still believe.
God created us and understood our capacity to learn and comprehend. If God came to earth in his truest, awesome being, we would be repelled, scared, and surely skeptical. He came down to earth in a form so that we could relate and accept him (this human form was Jesus). In Jesus’ form God made the Holy Spirit present; allowing the Spirit to be a guide and teacher. The Holy Spirit gave man the ability to learn and fully comprehend God’s message that was given by Jesus while on earth.
That is how, even though we can’t see God we know his existence through the gift of the Holy Spirit and our intellectual senses. Call it faith, that’s what sustains us on the path to God. The choices you make when at the crossroads of life shape your journey. Those choices, given to you by God as free-will, are what make your journey full of joy or full of woe. It’s your faith and belief in God that sustains you and get you over the finish line.
I think that our time on earth is a dress rehearsal before entering Heaven. Your lifespan in the physical world is finite; measured in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. When you die, the transfiguration of the body into the soul occurs. You are no longer bound by physical elements and your soul that was being formed inside you while on earth, takes over and you become infinite.
While on earth, we should be focused not on the physical appearance of what God looks like, but rather what God is. Love, kindness, compassion, sympathy, empathy, selflessness, patience, morality, and forgiveness. I’m sure you can add more to the list, but the point I want to make is this. If we focus on those attributes we will slowly become more like God, we will truly understand his message and make it easier to stay on the God path till we reach his kingdom in heaven.
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Written by Carl Francis Miller, copywriter/content creator.
*Founder of The God Path website
* Path to Solemnity (blog with new published articles every 11 to 16 days).
Citations
Rev. George Leo Haydock’s Notes Douay-Rheims Holy Catholic Bible. (2024). Loreto Publications. (Original work published 1859)