Mysteries, Speculation, and Reality
The description of Ezekiel’s prophetic calling is singular and strange. What kind of language do you use to articulate a vision of God in his element? There is nothing on earth to compare to the glory of God and his workings, which leaves a description impossible. What are we to make of the four living creatures, the wheels, and how they acted? We can speculate and assign meanings to the symbolic representations that may or may not be accurate, but is it necessary for our salvation or to satisfy curiosity? At least Ezekiel thought it was worth a try.
Let’s start with the realities of what happened. First, Ezekiel had a vision and understood what he was to do as a result of the things communicated to him. He saw wondrous creatures and noted how and why they moved. He saw God on his throne, heard his voice, and was overwhelmed at the sight.
We are left to find other experiential comparatives when we speculate about things we can’t grasp based on the descriptions given. Our knowledge and biases create our interpretations which are inevitably incomplete. However, speculation is not necessarily a bad thing as it leaves room for curiosity and further investigation.
I believe that Ezekiel’s and John’s visions have mysterious aspects to them as well. Because of the cryptic descriptions of the things they saw, we are left to wonder about the true meanings communicated in the visions. We are sometimes left to wonder if we are meant to decipher the mysteries. Are some things better left unknown?
Perhaps the greatest mystery of all time is understanding who or what God is. If you ask those questions, you will get as many answers as there are people brave enough to offer an opinion. When you get a bunch of religious scholars together, you get a doctrinal statement that is both correct and incomplete at the same time. If you look up the question “who is God,” you get a list of attributes, characteristics, and accomplishments that amount to what God is. No one outside of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to attempt to answer this question forthrightly.
Perhaps God’s communications to Ezekiel give us an end to speculation, answers to the mystery, and provide the reality of God’s true nature. The phrase “Son of man” is the key, and God uses this descriptor when addressing Ezekiel, which is also used in the New Testament, referring to Jesus Christ. The Savior used this phrase to describe himself many times. Some scholars say that when son of man is used in Ezekiel, it simply means human, but when used to describe Jesus means something more, such as the Messiah.
The scholarly message about the phrase son of man is that it must mean different things because Ezekiel and Jesus are fundamentally different in nature and mission. The reason these individuals are not comparable is because one was just a man, and the other, God incarnate. It seems to me to be quite a stretch to explain that a three-word phrase can mean two different things.
I will argue that referring to both Ezekiel and Jesus as “son of man” in the same way, with the same meaning, is the right way to look at it. Most people would say that this interpretation brings God down to the level of humans, but I believe that human men and women are more appropriately raised to the level of God through the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
This gets tricky in traditional theology because the word ‘man’ is used instead of God. That is because the world does not understand what is right in front of them. Jesus referred to himself principally as the Son of man but also, on occasion, as the good shepherd, the light of the world, the Lord, the Messiah, etc. What is not known to the world is that Man of Holiness is one of the names of the Father and that Jesus is appropriately, accurately, and literally the Son of Man. (see Moses 6:57)
When Ezekiel sees God on his throne, he says, “and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” This description of God is not ambiguous. Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus is possibly the most unambiguous reference to the argument that God is an exalted man, and he rebuked Nicodemus for not knowing it when Jesus said, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (John 3:10-13)
So, when God calls Ezekiel “son of man,” he is essentially saying that he is a son of God, and if that is true, all of us are sons and daughters of God. There are many, many other references and examples that are contained in the scriptures that echo the same doctrine.
The question “what is God?” is appropriately answered by those who attempt to describe his actions and attributes but lack the language necessary to capture the glory of God. The answer to the question, “who is God?” is not a mystery, and we don’t have to speculate. The objective reality is that God is our Father and our God, and we are his children.