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Response to Misha'al Al-Kadhi: John 14:8-9 (hath seen the father)
A response to 1.2.2.9
John 14:8-9 (hath seen the father)
- 8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
- 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been
among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, `Show us the Father'?
- 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is
in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the
Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
- 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;
or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
- 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have
been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am
going to the Father.
Mr. Al-Kadhi cites only verses 8 and 9, probably because the rest of the
chapter provides him with more information than he is able to dismiss or
attempt to explain, and then proceeds to create his thesis : "But they
were listening to Jesus' voice and looking at him standing before them!
Jesus was simply telling us 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."
Unfortunately for Mr. Al-Kadhi, this interpretation cannot be made when
the verses are read in context.
Mr. Al-Kadhi then builds the following argument: "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, John 5:37... etc. are all lies." In other
words, either John 14: 8-9 is wrong or the other passages are lies.
Let's look at the verses cited by Mr. Al-Kadhi in which he claims that
no one can ever see God, and therefore allegedly proves that John 14: 8-9
is false:
1. John 1:18
Mr. Al-Kadhi, as usual, does not quote the entire verse in context.
He quotes: "No man hath seen God at any time," John 1:18. The full context
is:
18 No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
2. 1 John 4:12
Once again, Al-Kadhi selects an excerpt from a verse and attempts to make
his point: "No man hath seen God at any time," 1 John 4:12 Reading this
verse in context provides Mr. Al-Kadhi with more problems that he believes
he solved when he cited it:
- 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives
in us and his love is made complete in us.
- 13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us
of his Spirit.
- 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be
the Savior of the world.
- 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in
him and he in God.
3. John 5:37
Mr. Al-Kadhi (once again) quotes one verse out of the context of the
chapter.
- 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.
You have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
- 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.
- 39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them
you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify
about me,
- 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
In this passage, Jesus is telling the people that they have never heard nor
seen the father, Jesus is is speaking about the father and not about the Son.
Obviously, Jesus does not deny that they have seen the Son - he was standing
in front of them, he also does not deny that they have seen God in the form
of his Son. Why does Jesus say that they have never heard nor seen God the
father? Because (verse 38) "you do not believe the one he sent".
4. John 8:19
John 8:19 is self explanatory : "Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father?
Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor my Father: if ye had known me,
ye should have known my Father also."
5. John 12:44
Mr. Al-Kadhi, once again, cites an excerpt from John 12 to attempt to
make his point: John 12:44 "Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me,
believeth not on me, but on him that sent me." When we read the verse
in context, a very different meaning emerges - one that I am sure Mr.
Al-Kadhi would reject.
- 44 Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not
believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.
- 45 When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me.
- 46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes
in me should stay in darkness.
6. John 15:23
Al-Kadhi sites John 15:23 "He that hateth me hateth my Father also",
which simply implies that Christ and God are one - something Jesus said
all along!
7. Matthew 10:40-41
Mr. Al-Kadhi cites Matthew 10:40-41 "He that receiveth you receiveth
me (Jesus), and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He that
receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous
man shall receive a righteous man's reward." This does not make Al-Kadhi's
case since it was God who sent Jesus and the person who receives Jesus
also receives his father - God.
8. Judges 13:20-22
Mr. Al-Kadhi concludes this portion of his argument by quoting from
Judges 13:20-22: "For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward
heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the
flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on [it], and fell on
their faces to the ground. But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to
Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he [was] an angel of the
LORD. And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have
seen God."
He, as usual, does not complete the story through the omission of a key
verse:
23 But his wife answered, "If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would
not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands,
nor shown us all these things or now told us this." Incidentally,
Manoah and his wife saw the Angel of the Lord, not God.
Mr. Al-Kadhi moves on with his argument by asking: "Well, is Philip
the only one who ever "saw the father"?" and he cites several passages
to build a case. Al-Kadhi begins with John 6:46 :"Not that any man hath
seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father."
Mr. Al-Kadhi continues by saying "Who is this who "is of God" and had
seen the Father you ask? Let us once again ask the Bible:" and cites
John 8:47: "He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear
them not, because ye are not of God."
Al-Kadhi then quotes 3 John 1:11: "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" and then concludes by asking the rhetorical
question: "Have all people who have done good also physically seen God?"
The flaw in Mr. Al-Kadhi's reasoning is that God can also be seen in the
flesh in the form of Jesus Christ.
The Rebuttal to "What Did Jesus Really Say?"
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