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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 18, 1867

The Infidel's Objections to the Bible, Answered. No. 1.

In commencing a series of articles under this heading, we need not remind the reader of the importance of the subject. Infidelity is boldly lifting up its head in these days. It talks glibly of the errors and defects of the Bible. It presents a confident array of what it styles the self contradictions of that Book, and on that, asks the superficial and unthinking to discard it, as the fabrication of designing men. Many of their objections are indeed so weak that any one outside the pale of idiocy, should blush to present them; but as they are urged confidently and persistently, it may be well to notice them. Every lover of the word of God must prepare himself to meet the cavils of the skeptic. It is not enough to know that this has been done by men of piety and learning, and that their testimony can in due time be searched up; we want it at hand, ready for use as occasion may require. We therefore propose to give from week to week, some of the more prominent of the infidel's objections, and full and candid answers thereto. To learn the meaning of scriptures between which there is a seeming discrepancy will be of interest to all, and especially useful to such as desire to be ready to defend the word they prize against the specious attacks of its unscrupulous foes. We will state first the objector's propositions and the texts upon which he relies to sustain them, and, second, the solution of the supposed difficulty on competent and reliable authority.

1. God is seen and Heard.—And I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my back parts. Ex. xxxiii, 23. And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend. Ex. xxxiii, 11. And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?—And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid.—Gen. iii, 9, 10. For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Gen. xxxii, 30. In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. Isa. vi, 1. Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel. . . . They saw God, and did eat and drink. Ex. xxiv, 9, 10, 11.

God is Invisible, and Cannot be Heard.—No man hath seen God at any time. John i, 18. Ye have neither heard his voice, at any time, nor seen his shape. John v, 37. And he said, Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live. Ex. xxxiii, 20.—Whom no man hath seen nor can see. 1 Tim. vi, 16.

This is one of the so-called “Self Contradictions of the Bible,” brought forward by the objector. But even the semblance of contradiction disappears, when we show that the “Lord” seen and talked with, was not Jehovah, but his angel, his personal representative, and the messenger of his will.

We may first remark, however, that Gen. iii, 9, 10, says nothing about seeing God; and there is no scripture which says that no man hath at any time heard his voice. The quotation from John v, 37, is therefore not pertinent, as the Saviour there speaks of only a particular class of persons then before him. The quotation from Isa. vi, 1, is only a record of what that prophet beheld in vision; whereas the passages which declare that no man can see God, evidently mean man, in his natural state, and in the use of his natural organs of sight. Moreover John says, xii, 41, that what Isaiah here saw, was a vision of Christ, not of the Father; so we may dismiss this passage also from the controversy.

On the declaration of Jacob, Gen. xxxii, 30, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved,” we remark that the prophet Hosea furnishes an inspired comment on that passage. Speaking of this event in Jacob’s life, he says, “Yea he had power over the angel and prevailed.” Hos. xii, 4. Thus the person whom Jacob called God, Hosea by inspiration here calls an “angel.” But does not this add to, rather than relieve, the difficulty? We answer, No; because it was customary in those days to apply the name of God to the angel of the Lord; as in Judges xiii, 21, 22: “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.” Here, the very being whom Manoah knew to be an angel, he called God. And that it was proper thus to call the angel of the Lord by the name of God, appears from Ex. xxiii, 21, where the Lord speaking to Moses of his angel, said, “MY NAME IS IN HIM.” But even the face of this angel Moses was not permitted to look upon when arrayed in his heavenly glory. Ex. xxxiii, 20. And let it be remarked that the talking face to face of verse 11 of the same chapter, does not necessarily imply visible presence. If a person is in such close proximity to another as to be able to easily counsel with him by word of mouth, he may be said to talk with him face to face, though by some means veiled from his sight. Just so with the Being who here talked with Moses. On this passage Dr. Clarke remarks:—

“That there was no personal appearance here we may readily conceive; we may therefore consider the passage as implying that familiarity and confidence with which the Divine Being treated his servant, and that he spake with him by articulate sounds in his own language, though no shape or similitude was then to be seen.”

We close the testimony on this point by the following quotation from a work entitled “The Bible Triumphant,” pp. 8, 9:

“The question will at once arise why the angel of God should be called Lord? The answer will appear from Ex. xxiii, 20, 21. ‘Behold I send an angel before thee . . . beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not for he will not pardon your transgressions, for MY NAME IS IN HIM.’—From this we learn that the angel of God bears his name. Hence the Lord that went before Israel, and was seen in the bush by Moses, and that Moses talked with ‘face to face’ on Mount Sinai, was the angel sent from the presence of Jehovah. In proof of this, we refer the reader to Acts vii, 35–38. ‘This Moses they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of his angel which appeared to him in the bush. . . . This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake, face to face, to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us.’ From this it is clear that the Lord seen by Moses and the elders of Israel was the angel of Jehovah.

“From the foregoing quotations we learn the following facts:

“1. God put his name in the angel that he sent to do his will, and the angel performed his mission in the name of Him who sent him.

“2. The appearances of the Lord as recorded in the Old Testament are the appearances of the angel or angels of his presence, who did visibly appear and talk with men. Hence all the supposed discrepancy of the testimony on this point is obviated. The New Testament affirms that God (Greek “*theos,”) has never been seen by man, which we believe is true, and the fact of the visible appearance of the angels to Moses and the fathers can never be made to oppose this great truth, or make the Bible appear contradictory.”