What's the background behind the taboo of seeing God's face?

Will we see God's face?

Yes! In heaven we will actually see the Lord face to face. This is impossible in the earthly realm. After all, God said, "No man can see Me and live!" (Ex. 33:20, NASB). John 1:18 and 1 John 4:12 both say, "No one has seen God at any time." First Timothy 6:16 declares that God "alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see." Indeed, God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness" (Hab. 1:13). As long as we are tainted by sin, we cannot see God. The view of such perfect righteousness would destroy us.

God is therefore inaccessible to mortal man on a face-to-face basis. This is what made Christ's incarnation so wonderful: although no man has ever seen God at any time, "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1:18). Christ "tabernacled among us" (John 1:14)-"and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." He came to our world to dwell among us, and He did it in order to redeem us and take us to heaven, where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will dwell in our midst in perfect fellowship. What a breathtaking reality!

In heaven, since we will be free from sin, we will see God's glory unveiled in its fullness. That will be a more pleasing, spectacular sight than anything we have known or could ever imagine on earth. No mere earthly pleasure can even begin to measure up to the privilege and the ecstasy of an unhindered view of the divine glory.

Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The Greek verb translated "see" (horao) is in a tense that denotes a future, continuous reality. In heaven we will continually be seeing God. Kings generally seclude themselves from direct contact with their people. It is a rare privilege to have an audience with a king. But believers in heaven will forever have perfect, unbroken fellowship with the King of Kings!

This has always been the deepest longing of the redeemed soul. The psalmist said, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. 42:1-2). And Philip, speaking for all the disciples, said to Christ, "Show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us" (John 14:8).

Revelation 22:3-4 seals the promise: "The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve him. They shall see his face" (emphasis added).

David wrote, "As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness" (Ps. 17:15). What really satisfies you? New clothes? A new job? Promotion? A new house or car? A great meal? A fun time? A vacation? Don't set your heart on such paltry earthly pleasures. The redeemed will be able to see God.

Most likely it got started because the original "god" was the sun. Sun worship. When early man realized that they go blind looking at the sun, they came to the conclusion that you went blind because the "god" didn't want you to look directly at it.

Eventually this carried over into other beliefs as well, and was exaggerated to say that you would actually DIE if you looked at the face of "God". It then turned into a convenient excuse for the fact that no one ever saw "God". It must be that he loves us so much that he won't let us see him because seeing him would kill us.

I'm pretty sure that a "god" wouldn't have a face, or if he did, would have no problem showing it.

"Look Moses, you just get back to building that boat and herding animals. If you're good. Really good. Maybe, just maybe, I'll turn into a burning shrubbery or something. Until then just be happy w/ my voice in your head and shut up."

In the mythology of many cultures, seeing God's face would indeed be so fear-inspiring and/or awful that the shock would kill an ordinary mortal. In Islam, depicting the face of Allah is considered sacrilege.

If you saw God's face your mind would melt.

Seriously, your mind is not capable of comprehending the glory of God.

Remember what happened to Moses after witnessing the burning bush?

hoser!!! hoser!!! Moses did not build an ark!!! It was Noah!!! Why anyone who sees God's face will die is because God is so pure and holy and we are sinful. The intense of the holiness will burn us and consumed us!!! Jesus has come and he has shown us God's face and therefore now, when we see God's face, we will live!!!

Don't look behind the curtain, Dorothy... Bad things will happen if you do. Ignore the old man, he's unimportant. -- Wizard of Oz.

This IS a serious answer. Anything that would help to prevent believers from seeing the truth of the bible - that it is lies - was put in by the bible writers.

Genesis 33:17 And Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “This thing, too, of which you have spoken, I shall do, because you have found favor in my eyes and I know you by name.” 18 At this he said: “Cause me to see, please, your glory.” 19 But he said: “I myself shall cause all my goodness to pass before your face, and I will declare the name of Jehovah before you; and I will favor the one whom I may favor, and I will show mercy to the one to whom I may show mercy.” 20 And he added: “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live.”

21 And Jehovah said further: “Here is a place with me, and you must station yourself upon the rock. 22 And it has to occur that while my glory is passing by I must place you in a hole in the rock, and I must put my palm over you as a screen until I have passed by. 23 After that I must take my palm away, and you will indeed see my back. But my face may not be seen.”

Jehovah told Moses: “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet live.” (Ex 33:20) And centuries later, the apostle John wrote: “No man has seen God at any time.” (Joh 1:18) The Christian martyr Stephen told the Jews: “This [Moses] is he that came to be among the congregation in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai.” (Ac 7:38) So Jehovah was represented on the mountain by an angel. Nevertheless, such was the glory of Jehovah as manifested by Jehovah’s angelic representative that the skin of Moses’ face emitted rays so that the sons of Israel could not bear to look at him.—Ex 34:29-35; 2Co 3:7, 13.

So, when Deuteronomy 34:10 speaks of “Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face,” it could never mean that Moses saw Jehovah’s very own face or person. And as the mouth is a part of the face, then when Jehovah said, “Mouth to mouth I speak to him,” it could not mean that Moses saw God’s face or was in direct, immediate contact with God. He merely had personal audience with God, by means of angels, who, as Jesus said in Matthew 18:10, “always [at necessary times] behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

The manner in which Jehovah dealt with Moses was so impressive that it was as if Moses actually had beheld God with his own eyes, instead of merely having a mental vision or a dream in which he heard God speak, which was the usual way in which God communicated with his prophets. Jehovah was never actually seen by Moses, and it was through angels that God spoke to him, but Jehovah’s dealings with Moses were so real that Moses reacted as if he had seen “the One who is invisible.” (Heb. 11:27) And the way in which the description was written down sounded and read as if Moses had seen and heard Jehovah God himself.

Only a spirit being can be in the true presense of God. Those who go to heaven are changed from "mortals" to "immortals" and can then join the angels there.

Moses probably made this up

since people wanted to know what god looked like

and he couldnt tell them

Gotta love the irony that if you see god's face, you will die...