The Visions of Mrs. E.G. White

OBJECTION 21. — THE FATHER’S PERSON

“The Father’s person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light covered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself. He said he had, but I could not behold it; for, said he, if you should once behold the glory of his person, you would cease to exist.” A few words further on, the objector fancies he finds a contradiction as follows: “And I saw the Father rise from the throne and in a flaming chariot go into the Holy of Holies, and did sit. Experience & Views, p.43. VEGW 78.1

How any person could bring forward as a contradiction, testimony which so evidently explains itself, we are unable to perceive. It illustrates the statement made in the commencement of this work, that the objector, in order to make his objections appear respectable as to numbers, will seize upon the least point where he thinks he can palm off upon the inattentive reader his misrepresentations. If a cloud of glorious light enveloped the Father, and she knew that it was the Father who was thus veiled from her sight in his unapproachable glory, when that cloud passed into the holy of holies, would she not know that it was the Father who moved? Could she not properly say that she saw the Father rise up from the throne and go into the most holy place? Who would think of questioning this but he who was under a desperate pressure to make out his case? VEGW 78.2

But the objector may say further, the Bible declares that no man hath seen God, and not one can see him and live. John 1:18; Exodus 33:20. Very true; but yet the prophet Daniel saw the Ancient of days, and has given us a description of his hair and his garments, and the appearance of his throne. Daniel 7:9, 10. But there is no contradiction here; for seeing God in vision is not seeing him in our natural condition and with our natural eyes. It may be proper to add that the Lord is represented as clothed with majesty and light as with a garment. Psalm 104:1, 2. This cloud of light, then, if we may so speak, was his clothing. A person may be clothed so as to conceal the form, but we have no difficulty, nevertheless, in telling when he moves. It is with just such cavils as this that infidelity attacks the Bible. VEGW 78.3