Gherman Titov, the U.S.S.R. astronaut, made the above remark in San Francisco during a tour of the United States. Men were beginning to listen to him. U.S. News and World Report carried his views in their People of the Week column.
But we are told in 1 John 5:9, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." The "witness of men" is what Titov says; the "witness of God" (the Bible) is what God says.
People who read the Bible know that man cannot see God the way Titov spoke of. To prove this yourself, read Ex. 33:20, "For there shall no man see Me, and live," or 1 Tim. 6:16, speaking of God, "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see."
Finally, John 1:18 says, "No man bath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."
This last scripture is very encouraging. It tells us that if we want to see God, we must look at His Son Jesus Christ. He Himself said, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," John 14:9, and "no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." John 14:6.
Man can only come to the Father because God's Son opened up the way by dying on the cross for the believer's sins. It was at the cross that Christ was made sin, and suffered the judgment of God against my sins. "Christ died for the ungodly." Rom. 5:6.
If you admit that YOU are ungodly, and that Christ died for YOU, you will be saved. You will never be saved by denying this and talking about your "good life," for God says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23.
When we all stand condemned as sinners, we find the death of Christ meeting our need. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8.
Now no man thinks about accepting Christ as his Savior until he realizes he is lost. Titov, for example, says he believes in man, his reason, his possibilities. Man's "reasonings" and "possibilities" have resulted in the slaughter of many, many thousands of innocent people in two world wars and countless smaller conflicts. To believe in man, then, is to refuse God's message.
The truth is that all men are lost and need a Savior. "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. 45:22. If you do not look NOW by accepting Christ as your Savior, you WILL look LATER and meet Him as your judge.
Balaam predicted this thousands of years ago in these words: "I shall see Him [God], but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh." Num. 24:17.
And where will this take place? The Bible says in Rev. 20:11,12: "And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.... And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God."
There is no hiding place for the man who dies without Christ. He has left this world forever, yet he is not fit for heaven. So Christ (John 5:22) who sits on this throne has to say, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness." Matt. 22:13.
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. 20:15.