No man has ascended into heaven

This is one of the better questions that is asked in Deedat’s book. It is the kind of question that can be asked with an honest and open heart to get to the truth. Nothing Deedat ever said gave me the impression that he wanted to get to the truth but this is still a good question that needs some serious investigation. An example of his dishonesty is him only giving half of the verse he quotes from John 1:18 but I will get into that shortly. In my opinion the answer to Deedat’s claim is actually not that complicated.

 

Firstly it is true that no one has every seen God. Deedat gives us John 1 verse 18 which states that “No man hath seen God at any time” King James Version. Deedat should have called it verse 18a because he only gives the first half of the verse and it is the second half of the verse that destroys Deedat’s argument, but more on that shortly. There are many verses in the Bible that confirm this fact about seeing God and some even warn of death if we do. Take for example “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:20). So that is that settled then.

The reason we can not see God is because he is Spirit and we are a human in a body. Even if we could see him, we would die because he is so Holy and pure and unapproachable and we are so sinful (even the best of us) and if we came to him in that condition, we would not be able to stand the sight of him or his presence.

Now back to John 1:18. The full verse says “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” You see now why I mentioned that Deedat did not mention the rest of the verse – in doing so he would have destroyed his own argument.

What we have with Jesus is that he is both the Son of God and also the Son of man. So the only way we can approach God is through Jesus. The Bible identifies Jesus as being the same as God “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” (Colossians 2:9), and there are many other verses that repeat that theme. So we are able to see how important Jesus is to us because He is the only way to approach God (John 14:6 no one comes to the Father but by me). If Deedat had given the whole verse we would see the dilemma disappear. I have no doubt that him leaving the rest of the verse out was not an accident.

There are actually many events recorded in the Old Testament where people meet God but do not die. Some do expect to die after they realise that it is God they have been speaking to“We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” which is what Samson’s father said after God had appeared to them. Some of the other recorded events of God meeting with men are Abraham, Moses, Jacob – who wrestled with God – and of course Adam and Eve. So what are we to make of this because on many occasions the Bible makes it clear that the person is meeting with God and not just an Angel and yet the Bible clearly says that man can not even see God without certain death. The answer is obvious. God has to become man and that man is of course Jesus. We can fellowship with God in the Spirit because we are part spirit but the deepest fellowship for us will be when we see Jesus face to face. There are aspects of the God becoming man in Jesus event that are hard for us to grasp but it is as Jesus said to Nicodemus “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” Deedat seemed happy to say Allah knows best when he didn’t understand something in Islam but did not extend the same courtesy to the God of the Bible. His position was that if there is something beyond his understanding then the Bible must be wrong. He was saying, in effect, that he knew better than God.

 

I think a good way to end this section is with 1 Timothy 6:15-16 “which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.”