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Yes, as long as it is understood as \u201cartistic license\u201d. Literally speaking, the Bible teaches that God the Father is an invisible spirit (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). I think it is permissible to portray the \u201cidea\u201d of God the Father visually, just as the equally invisible Holy Spirit was portrayed (by God\u2019s express design) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":49642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,172],"tags":[4789,4790,182,1323,3469,3254,11476,11479,4788,11473,3583],"class_list":["post-49639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saints-purgatory-penance","category-trinitarianism-christology","tag-ark-of-the-covenant","tag-cherubim","tag-god","tag-god-the-father","tag-graven-images","tag-icons","tag-images-of-god-the-father","tag-invisible-god","tag-objects-in-religious-devotion","tag-paintings-of-god-the-father","tag-religious-images"],"yoast_head":"\n
Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings? Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bible teaches that God the Father is an invisible spirit (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). It's permissible to portray God the Father visually, just as the Holy Spirit was portrayed\u00a0as a dove at Jesus' baptism.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/should-god-the-father-be-visually-depicted-in-paintings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings? Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bible teaches that God the Father is an invisible spirit (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). 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Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings? Should God the Father be Visually Depicted in Paintings?","description":"The Bible teaches that God the Father is an invisible spirit (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). 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Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. 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