Divine Hiddenness
I keep running across the question (or objection, depending on how it’s phrased), “Why does God hide himself?” or “Why does God reveal Himself to some people, but not to others”. In reply my answer is, ‘I’ll have to think about that’. Which in part means that I’m not going to accept out of hand that God hides himself, as I think that presumes too much, namely, that I know every way which God reveals Himself (also that I’m capable of recognizing them). As for why God reveals Himself to some but not to others, well, I think there are a number of reasons for that, probably most common is, “some people aren’t listening”, followed by “God doesn’t exist”.
I’ve also hard it said that if God revealed Himself, He would be doing us a favor by clearing up all our religious confusion and misunderstandings of Him. But according to ancient Israel, that doesn’t seem to be the case (the same ancient Israel which refutes the free will explanation). For instance, what is to stop someone from asking, “How do I know this is God, and not some extremely powerful being?” That’s assuming we’re able to fully comprehend Gods revelation. Who is to say that such a revelation will end religious diversity? It hasn’t so far.
Indeed, this is a deep question, but I’ve yet to come across a deep consideration of the issues involved. Perhaps something to consider and write on in the future…
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I saw you post this at BF over the weekend.
What I thought of immediately was the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Although it is not a request for God to appear, but rather a raised Lazarus, to warn the rich man’s brothers. Of course Abraham’s reply is that if they failed to listen to Moses and the prophets, even a raised man will not convince them.
My 2 cents.
I’m not convinced God’s appearing and saying, “I’m God” or His arranging the stars to say “I’m God” would convince anyone of anything. It might — *might — remove some of the religious confusion in our world, but I suspect that since most people disbelieve for reasons other than ‘I haven’t seen God’, not much would ultimately change.
Agreed, although I don’t even think it would remove religious confusion — it would probably only make it worse. I would almost discount such an occurrence based on the fact that any actual manifestation as such would effectively remove faith from the equation.
I think for that reason, when the actual appearance of Christ does occur, that is it — history is complete, there will be no chance to analyze or be skeptical or cynical. Everyone will be faced with the reality.
I wonder, though — what sort of faith is it God wants? I often hear it said that God desires two things; (1) Our faith that He exists and (2) Our faith in Him ‘personally’ (i.e. trust, love, etc.). However the way I see it, (2) entails (1), such that (1) isn’t the concern, or isn’t God’s concern in so far as it’s distinct from (2). To perhaps be more clear — God cares of our acknowledging He exists only so far as He desires our having faith in him such that we trust, love, etc. Him. Otherwise — if I understand you — God’s revealing Himself to ancient Israel would have effectively removed faith from the equation, yet the OT saints are still said to have faith (even great faith).
I agree with you otherwise.
I may have to go through that list of OT saints in Hebrews to see how God revealed himself to those. Their faith, IIRC, was rooted in a/the promises of God. Certainly God needed to reveal himself in order to make the promise, but I don’t know how spectacular they were outside of the Exodus and Elijah. God seems to reserve his most telling displays for those instances of displaying his sovereignty (in particular over the other ‘gods’).
An interesting discussion, nonetheless.
Indeed; and I have to rotate my picture *puzzled. It’d be interesting to think about what ways God revealing Himself ‘count’ as an unequivocal revelation (i.e. do burning pillars of fire in the sky count).