Our Lord and Savior wants to be known. He wants to be sought after…and He wants to be found! The scriptures and other writings contain many passages that speak of those who have been in His glorious presence and seen Him while they lived in the flesh. They have each left their witness with us that we might believe, and that we might come to the faith in Him that they possessed.
Believing is seeing!
For this series of posts, I want to share many of these written eyewitness accounts. There are certainly so many which are not written. And even all those that are written will not be cited here. But the large amount of these magnificent accounts puts all the world under obligation to consider and investigate His divine reality. Every soul may choose to not believe in Him, if they wish, but because of the many testimonies which have been given of Him, all men who have access to them are left without excuse.
ADAM and His Righteous DESCENDANTS
“Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah…with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there….the Lord appeared unto them….And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam” (D&C 107: 53-55).
ENOCH
“Enoch….saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually” (D&C 107: 48-49; Moses 7: 4).
ABRAHAM
“I, Abraham…prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord appeared unto me, and….after the Lord had withdrawn from speaking to me, and withdrawn his face from me, I said in my heart: Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee” (Abraham 2: 6-12).
JACOB
After Jacob wrestled with the Lord for a blessing, he “called the name of the place [the face of God], “for” said he, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Genesis 32: 30).
MOSES
“Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness” (Exodus 24: 9-10).
“And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exodus 33: 11).
SOLOMON
“…the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and…said, Ask what I shall give thee” (1 Kings 3: 5).
Later, “…the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time” saying: ”I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication” (1 Kings 9: 2-5).
ISAIAH
“I saw…the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up…Then said I…mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts” (2 Nephi 16: 1-7).
DANIEL
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7: 13).
“…I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and [beheld] a certain man clothed in linen…and his face [was] as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire…and the voice of his words [was] like the voice of a multitude….and there remained no strength in me” (Daniel 10: 5-8).
AMOS
“I saw the Lord standing upon the altar” (Amos 9: 1).
The BROTHER of JARED
“Jesus showed himself unto [the brother of Jared] in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites. And he ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this, that this man might know that he was God” (Ether 3: 17-18).
EMER
“…and [Emer] saw peace in the land; yea, and he even saw the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day” (Ether 9: 22).
NEPHI and JACOB
“…my soul delighteth in [the] words [of Isaiah]….for he verily saw my Redeemer, even as I have seen him. And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11: 2-3).
LAMONI
“For as sure as thou livest, behold, I have seen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name” (Alma 19: 13).
NEPHITES and LAMANITES
The Nephite and Lamanite multitude “saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him….And…he stretched forth his hand…saying: Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world” (3 Nephi 11: 8-11, 14-15).
And Jesus “did teach the people, for the space of three days” (3 Nephi 26: 13).
And “after having healed all their sick, and their lame, and opened the eyes of their blind and unstopped the ears of the deaf, and even had done all manner of cures among them, and raised a man from the dead, and had shown forth his power unto them” He ascended unto His Father (3 Nephi 26: 15).
“…and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them” (3 Nephi 26: 13).
MORONI
“I have seen Jesus, and…he hath talked with me face to face, and…he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things….And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus” (Ether 12: 39, 41).
HIS APOSTLES and DISCIPLES
On resurrection morning, Jesus showed Himself to Mary Magdalene at the tomb and to other women who had been with Mary, who had been told by angels that He had risen from the dead. These women, “as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me” (Matthew 28: 9-10).
After that, He showed Himself unto Simon Peter, and to two others as they walked on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-34).
“Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them [for] their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen” (Mark 16: 14).
“After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15: 6-7).
The APOSTLE PAUL
Then says the apostle Paul, “And last of all he was seen of me also” (1 Corinthians 15: 8-9).
(to be continued…)
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Love this, such great motivation for my mission. Cant wait to read the rest next week!
Glad to hear it Lauren! And…wishing you a most awesome mission. :)
Thanks Kenneth. This reminds me of the Lectures on Faith (excelent BTW, used to be in the scriptures) where Joseph teaches that we first get the the idea of the existence of God from those who have seen him. This is very logical. Obviously we are greatly blessed to have a living witnesses today as well, who testifies that he lives:
“I testify to you this day that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, live. They are real! They are there! You are not alone. Your Father in Heaven cares about you and desires to bless and uphold you in righteousness. Be assured that God speaks to mankind in our time. He will speak to you!”
—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Why of Priesthood Service”
Yes, Sean…I can see that with the Lectures on Faith…we can even think of believing because of those who believed before us…And, as I will try to demonstrate, there are more today who have seen than we realize. :)
While eye (and hand) wittnesses are certianly powerful and important (as with the 8 wittnesses, Nephites, Thomas, others), and appeal to the fleshly needs we have (or over rely on), the spiritual wittness is even more powerful, and comes to all who seek it properly. I love this form James Faust: “a spiritual confirmation by the power of the Holy Ghost, …is more powerful than all the senses combined.” Something to ponder!
Yes, Sean! No doubt the powerful witness from the Holy Ghost is more general…but also more publicly spoken of…however, to be in the presence of the Lord as He appears in glory, is to also know by the Holy Ghost’s witness that Jesus is the Son of God; and it appears from what is written in scripture, that the Lord is most willing, according to His timing, to show Himself to those who, through His grace, are purified enough for such a blessing. More blessed are those who believe WITHOUT seeing, but Christ is most willing for men to SEE Him as well. :)
This reply box is getting pretty narrow! I have no idea how you have time to talk about Jesus with some geographically distant fellow disciple. Your post makes me feel that it is not wicked or faithless to seek a personal visit. Thomas did amid doubt, BUT! THe Lord still most graciously granted a doubting disciple to satisfy his desire. Whether before or after death or the Second Coming, I will seek, and those who seek will find, in the Lord’s way and time. D&C 130:3
“John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance…”
I just realalized that it is tell/us/Cope. Very clever. Both the name and the post.
Thank you
:) !
This is wonderful!!! I didn’t remember some of those references.
Several years ago, we happened to be spending a Sunday in Yosemite, and they have a LDS worship service, in the little chapel there, so we attended. It was a testimony mtg. A middle aged man (lets call him, George) stood and talked about how he had been in the choir that performed in the Celestial room of a new temple as it was being dedicated. The choir was standing behind Pres. Hinckley and other General Authorities of the church. Suddenly Pres. Hinckley pulled out a pen and piece of paper, wrote on it and began to pass it down the row of General Authorities. As it passed in front of George, he was able to read what the note said, “The Lord has been seen in His Temple.” Wow…it’s wonderful to know He is still being seen by His righteous servants in our day.
I feel so blessed to have the restored gospel in my life, and know within my heart that He lives, and if I can be faithful, I will one day see His face as well.
Thanks You Kenneth for your constant edifying words. Just one of the reasons I love calling you My Brother.
Thanks for this, Lynda! A very great example of Jesus being more visibly among us than we tend to think… :)
What a blessing it is to know that God is no respector of persons. The blessing of seeing the face of Christ is not something just meant for after this life. We can seek that audience with Him while in the flesh, in this life.