Why God Does Not Appear?
Many atheists and agnostics mock Christians for believing in a "sky daddy" or "imaginary friend." They say that an outrageous claim (such as the existence of an invisible divine being) must be supported with incredible evidence in order to be believed. They often say they would believe if God would appear to them or write messages to them in the clouds.
Christians often sidestep this difficult question of why God remains invisible, maybe out of the embarrassment that might come from believing in an invisible ruler God. Some Christians apparently think it is just a mystery that must be accepted. But the Word of God makes it clear, God is not showing Himself for good reason. Consider the following three passages:
John 20:24
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Here, Jesus (who is God) made it clear that not seeing and believing anyway is important to God. In other words, this is the way God has set up the system and He has a special purpose in setting it up this way.
I Peter 1:6-8
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Here it is very clear that our faith in what we are not allowed to see leads to the "praise" of Almighty God. God desires His own glory above all things. This is why He does appear before us or write in the sky "Jesus Saves." He wants us to believe without seeing. It is not a mystery, it is a fact, belief without sight brings a maximized glory to Almighty God. Thus Paul writes:
II Corinthians 5:5-7
Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
When Christians are moved to doubt God because they cannot see Him or when they are challenged from non-believers, it is best to turn to the Scriptures where God makes it clear why He has constructed a system that operates in this fashion - He is interested in making the most of Himself, and all His glory.
By the way, it is good to note, that God has manifested Himself several times throughout history, not the least of these was in the Person of Jesus Christ. Those who refuse to believe God, however, will not accept the eye-witness accounts of those who saw Him. What makes them think they will believe if God were to appear today? I don't think they would. Belief in Christ is a matter of the heart, not of the eyes.
Christians often sidestep this difficult question of why God remains invisible, maybe out of the embarrassment that might come from believing in an invisible ruler God. Some Christians apparently think it is just a mystery that must be accepted. But the Word of God makes it clear, God is not showing Himself for good reason. Consider the following three passages:
John 20:24
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing."
And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Here, Jesus (who is God) made it clear that not seeing and believing anyway is important to God. In other words, this is the way God has set up the system and He has a special purpose in setting it up this way.
I Peter 1:6-8
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Here it is very clear that our faith in what we are not allowed to see leads to the "praise" of Almighty God. God desires His own glory above all things. This is why He does appear before us or write in the sky "Jesus Saves." He wants us to believe without seeing. It is not a mystery, it is a fact, belief without sight brings a maximized glory to Almighty God. Thus Paul writes:
II Corinthians 5:5-7
Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight.
When Christians are moved to doubt God because they cannot see Him or when they are challenged from non-believers, it is best to turn to the Scriptures where God makes it clear why He has constructed a system that operates in this fashion - He is interested in making the most of Himself, and all His glory.
By the way, it is good to note, that God has manifested Himself several times throughout history, not the least of these was in the Person of Jesus Christ. Those who refuse to believe God, however, will not accept the eye-witness accounts of those who saw Him. What makes them think they will believe if God were to appear today? I don't think they would. Belief in Christ is a matter of the heart, not of the eyes.
posted by Jason Dollar | 12:39 PM
9 Comments:
Using the Bible's existence to confirm the Bible's 'truth' is a false and cirular logic. It has no value except to deceive those who cannot see past theological trickery.
By the same logic as the above post, one could use the Star Wars DVD as proof of the reality of Darth Vader's existence, or Homer's Iliad to prove that Achilles was real. Neither were.
A more accurate description of the point of the post would be to say that 'faith' is 'belief in the absence of evidence'. Yet today, such faith is in fact 'belief in the face of immense evidence to the contrary'. The existence of a super-natural deity cannot be proved nor disproved, yet the burden of proof remains upon those who do believe, not those who don't. The Bible has been thoroughly discredited over the last two hundred years as a false record, both historically and scientifically. To retain faith in it, ir indeed any holy text, requires by definition a deliberate ignorance of genuine knowledge.
That is why blind-faith has always failed to achieve anything except providing a false sense of security to those who cling to it, and the unbiased endeavour of rational thought and learning has achieved so much in our world.
Jason,
Good to see you back! -and nice post.
Using the Bible's existence to confirm the Bible's 'truth' is a false and cirular logic.
Using nature to confirum naturalism is a false and circular logic. *ROLLS EYES* Anyway...
This is a post that atheist Eddie Tabash should read. Many times I've heard in his debate how he literally wants to see God.
Peace to all.
Here's an approach that I like:
From the time of the creation of the world, His invisible qualities are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, things like His everlasting power and divinity. (based on Romans 1:20)
What would the appearing of an inconceivable (or hard-to-conceive) God look like, and how would His qualities be perceived? In my opinion, it would look a lot like the universe we see and the life we now live. How would God live on earth? I think it would look like Jesus of Nazareth.
anaonymous said...
Using the Bible's existence to confirm the Bible's 'truth' is a false and cirular logic. It has no value except to deceive those who cannot see past theological trickery.
I don' think Jason was trying to prove the Bible's truth by the Bible as you suggest. He wasn't trying to prove the Bible at all. Jason's post can be taken as responding to a particular objection to belief in God known as the "Divine Silence" or :"Divine Hiddeness" argument. The argument, presented formally, looks like this:
(1)If God exists, he would reveal himself more clearly than he (apparently) has.
(2) God has not revealed himself more clearly.
Therefore, God does not exist.
What Jason was pointing out is that the Bible (and the Christian faith) has something to say about the first premise of this argument. The Bible gives us some reasons why God might jstifiably not reveal himself more clearly.
These reasons are plausible and stand on their own merits regardless of the fact that they come from the Bible. It doesn't matter whether the Bible is divinely inspired or historially reliable or not--these reasons for God's hiddeness can be assessed rationally in any case. To dismiss them because they happen to be found in the Bible is to commit the genetic fallacy.
So, the burden of proof for the Divine Silence argument actually lies now with anonymous. We have offered some reasons why the first premise of that argument is not true. It is up to anonymous and his friends to show us why those reasons don't work, if they can.
That's a well put point, but I'm afraid that the burden of proof always resides with the believer, not the atheist/agnostic. The theist *adds* the existence of a god, whether based upon holy books or not, to his or hers life. There is nothing at all to suggest that such a divine being is required for the existence of life, the universe and everything.
Of course, there *could* be a god. But any speculations about such a being are merely the feeble extrapolations of human beings. Those of us who do not require the 'sky-daddy' need no explanations one way or the other. "Preaching to the converted", I believe the orginal post could be described as, or even "self-delusion".
A god, if one exists, by definition evades description or understanding. Shifting the burden of proof via warped-logic doesn't hide that fact. And the original post ends with bold-statement - that faith is more important than evidence - not speculation. That statement, as history quite clearly and indeed irrevocably shows, is erronous.
How does believing without seeing bring 'maximized glory to Almighty God'? Does this mean I will love my earthly father more if I never saw him? What if he was in a far country and I related to him only by letters that he had written to me in the dim past? I don't understand how our love of God or how our faith in him can grow in his absence.
In response to Anonymous:
Faith, at least from the Bible's standpoint, is defined as "The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen". If
the Bible is true, then its concept of faith is far from blind.
As far as the legitimacy of the Bible, I would just say that there are very credible scholars who could present excellent counterpoints to your position.
God's existance isn't hinged on a single postulate.
What is your understanding for the human concept of morality? Where, especially from an evolutionary standpoint, does a sense of something being "better" or "worse" come from? Where does human life derive its value?
ah beautiful. i was hoping for a comment like this. so did you think murder and torture was ok before you read the bible? you shouldn't have. God personally murders over 300,000 people in the bible, and orders the israelites to kill over 2 million + 65 entire cities. and to take their virgins. no doubt for sex slaves. (what other purpose would they take them for??) is that moral? is that the actions of a just and loving god? the god of the bible is a baby killing, genocidal, racist murderer. If jesus is god, that makes him the worst serial killer in the history of the known universe.
Game theory pretty accurately and convincingly shows how altruism can evolve. its more beneficial for organisms to work together. it offers a much higher survival rate.
Myself personally, I dont want to die. I dont want my loved ones to die. I dont want my stuff to be stolen. I would like to live in a cooperative society where everyone follows these rules. Murder, considering there is no afterlife, is absolutely appalling to me, and i would never murder anyone else.
If you were in a position to choose whether jesus dies or not, would you save him and doom the human race, or murder him and 'save' us?
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