Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. (1 Tim 6:16)
This verse is a common proof-text against (1) God the Father being embodied and/or (2) man being able to see God the Father, and by extension (3) the historicity of the First Vision. Such has been soundly refuted by James Stutz in his article in response to Matt Slick of CARM:
Can a Man See God? 1 Timothy 6:16 in Light of Ancient and Modern Revelation (cf. my blog posts: Some comments on Matt Slick's Attempt to Refute James Stutz on 1 Timothy 6:16; Insights from D. Charles Pyle, "I Have Said Ye are Gods"; Lynn Wilder vs. Latter-day Saint (and Biblical) Theology on Divine Embodiment)
As many Latter-day Saint apologists have noted, Trinitarians like Slick who use (read: eisegetically abuse) this verse against our theology, absolutising it in the way they are wont to do would result in it being only a valid “proof-text” for an Unitarian, not Trinitarian theology, where the person of the Father can be the only divine person and only person who is intrinsically immortal. Indeed, such has been used in like manner. John Carter (1889-1962), a well-respected Christadelphian author (he was the editor of The Christadelphian, the main magazine for Christadelphians [their equivalent of the Ensign]) wrote the following about this verse to support their Unitarian theology and belief in conditional immortality:
The Bible consistently proclaims that God is ONE . . . On this, as on all other subjects, the Old and New Testament agree. Jesus not only endorsed the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4, 5, but added his own testimony: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).
In the proclamation of the gospel by the apostles the same essential truth of the unity of God is emphasized. Paul wrote: “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him” (1 Cor. 3:6). “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
This is reasonable, understandable and satisfying. There is one power in the universe—the power of the One Creator, the One God. He has no peer: He is the One Uncreate, who only hath immortality, dwelling in light which no man can approach unto (1 Tim. 6:16) . . . The word “immortality” is not of frequent occurrence in the Bible, although the idea involved in the word finds frequent illustration. But the five occurrences of the word yield so much information that all are here given. Together they present a good outline of the teaching of the Bible on the subject.
(1) 1 Tim. 6:15, 16. Paul affirms of God, “who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can see”. In these words Paul cannot mean that God was then the only one possessing immortality, for at the time he wrote Jesus had been raised from the dead and given everlasting life; the angels also possess immortality, for on the testimony of Jesus (Luke 20:36) they “cannot die”. But both angels and Jesus have received their immortality from God. He has immortality inherently. It is, however, the purpose of the gospel to invite men to become heirs of this life of God. Peter says that God has given us “exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the word through lust” (2 Pet. 1:4). (John Carter, God’s Way: A Restatement of the Full Christian Gospel [Birmingham, U.K.: The Christadelphian, 1948], 38, 66-67)
