Abraham Met God in Person 4,000 Years Ago
Abraham met three Angels according to the Bible:
Gen 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Gen 18:3 And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
Gen 18:7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2004/20040412.htm)
And, according to the Bible, one of the Three was God.
From a certain view point, this is the first recorded direct encounter of a man with God. Compared with this drastic contact with God in person, Moses was not so much privileged, and St. Paul was very humbly treated by God.
Could you see a situation that God accompanied by two Angels bothered to visit or come to see one man in one hot daytime? But if Abraham had not been able to see sanctity in the Three around Hebron, south of Jerusalem, 4,000 years ago, no Judaism, no Old Testament, and hence no New Testament exist today. Even there should not have been Islam. In other word, the total fate of mankind depended on this moment: the encounter of Abraham with the Lord and his two Angels, which was only possible by the ability of Abraham to discern special holiness of God in one of the Three strangers.
Conversely, other people must have failed to find God in a man they met so many times, unlike Abraham. It is because they lacked the ability to discern special holiness of God in a certain man they encountered like Abraham did. There must have been a countless number of cases where people encountered God and his Angels but they failed to identify God due to the lack of ability to recognize extreme holiness.
If there had been another man who could find God in such a situation, a new global religion should have been created with the man as the originator or the progenitor of the religion like Abraham.
But why were there Three, God and the two of His Angels? It seems to have implied that three religions would be created from Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But one of three religions must be directly linked to God. Judaism's highlight was Moses' encounter with God in the form of fire but not of a man. The founder of Islam was only spoken to by an Angel. However, Christianity claims that Jesus is the Son of God and secretly God Himself.
One hot day somewhere around Hebron, a man named Abraham was resting in a tent. Then he saw three strangers came by his tent. However, Abraham instantly understood they were extremely holy. In case that one of the three was God, he called one of them "My Lord." And then the history of mankind started to evolve to one certain direction, which is today proved by the fact that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam were established with the common primogenitor Abraham.
The point at issue is that we have to think whether we can encounter God in a form of a man and whether we can discern extreme sanctity in him.
For example, even the Pope might not be able to find God in a plain man walking in or around the Vatican if he did not cultivate this ability to find God in a man sufficiently.
It is time that somebody must shout "My Lord" to God walking in the shape of a man somewhere on the earth, for example, in Gaza.
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Mar 6:15 Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets.