THE INVISIBLE GOD

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 18, 1901

THE INVISIBLE GOD.

“Now unto the King eternal, immortal, INVISIBLE, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” It is only to ourselves, cursed by sin, and degraded by its practice, that God is the invisible God; we have no evidence that He is invisible to the sinless inhabitants of other worlds.

God’s invisibility to us is the result of our sin and its consequent weakness. The God who was plainly perceptible to innocent Adam, could not be seen by fallen Adam; but praise His name, He will again be visible to redeemed Adam, when “his servants . . . shall see His face; and His name [His sinless character] shall be in their foreheads.”

I believe that God has been sorrowful for six thousand years, or ever since the man whom He created for His pleasure, foolishly and ungratefully cut himself off from the divine companionship, by distrust, unbelief, and disobedience. It is not an arbitrary decree that makes Him an unseen God, but it is a logical sequence, running in parallel lines with the entire incompatibility of sin and righteousness.

His eternal purpose is to wipe out the thing that has led men to misunderstand Him. He longs for the companionship in Eden once more, but till every trace of sin, of distrust, and of disobedience is removed, He must, against His will, remain the invisible God. He is more anxious to make himself visible to us, than we are to see Him, but He dares not, He can not, for He is love; and if He should reveal himself to us, in our sins, we should be destroyed “by the brightness of His coming.”