If God Exists, Why Doesn't He Just Reveal Himself?
By
Michael Lane, Executive Director, Delve Christian Ministries
As long as people close their hearts and minds to God, nothing He does will ever convince them. If you want to believe in God, there is more than enough evidence out there and you will find Him. If you don't want to believe there is a God, no amount of evidence will ever suffice.
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"In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony" Acts 14:16-17a
Nature and Creation
There are a number of different ways to reply to this question depending on what someone really means. The first is to simply say that God did reveal himself in the majesty and beauty of His creation. Paul writes in Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." This is perhaps our first and most important clue about God's existence. We were created and so there must be a creator. It's only natural as a child yearns to know it's father that we too should be curious about our Father in heaven.
The Bible
You may object that this is not what you had in mind. You may really be asking, "Why doesn't God talk to us and tell us about Himself?" Well, he did that. The Bible represents everything which God has revealed to man. Within the Bible, we can discover God's qualities, His nature and His plan for mankind. Everything we need to know for having a deep and meaningful relationship with God is contained within it's pages.
Jesus Christ
Others will object that the Bible is so impersonal. They may ask, "Why doesn't He just appear to us so we could see Him?" He did that too, in the form of Jesus Christ. Though Jesus was a man, He was also fully God and possessed all of the characteristics of God. When someone asks a Christian what God is like, we can point definitively to Christ and say, "There. That is what God is like."
How much Evidence?
Finally, you may object that Christ's appearance was so long ago and besides, you weren't there to see it. Why doesn't God appear to me, personally?
It's very tempting to say, "If I saw God personally, I would believe." In Jesus' day, there were many people who saw His miracles first hand but still did not follow Him. If Jesus appeared today and performed miracles, many would assume He was a skilled illusionist or a con-man operating a scam.
The point is simply that people will either believe or they will not. If someone is closed to the idea, no amount of evidence will ever convince them. There are many today who feel, as the late Scottish philosopher David Hume did, that miracles are simply impossible. Therefore, any time you see one, there must be some other natural explanation.
If Jesus Christ came and stood before you right now and performed a miracle, would you believe? Perhaps you would, or perhaps it would not take long before you started to think that it was dream, a hallucination, or that someone played a trick on you.
For some, it's very comforting to know that we have a loving Father in Heaven, so it's natural for us to reach out to Him. For others, it's frightening to admit that there is a God because that comes with an expectation of how He wants them to behave - and they don't want to change!
As long as people close their hearts and minds to the idea of God, nothing will ever convince them and no amount of evidence will ever suffice. For those who want to believe in God, there is more than enough evidence out there and they will find Him.
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God reveals himself everyday through answered prayers and healing miracles. Lately, there have been at least 3 healing miracles in my immediate community to which doctors have said, they can not explain why or what happened except it's a miracle.
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2/13/2008 12:07:13 PM
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JeanB, Member of Delve into Jesus since 2/13/2008
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John 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Jesus said the greater blessing comes by faith in God's Word. When God revealed Himself and spoke to Israel in the wilderness, they rejected Him. Men throughout history have repeatedly rejected God's prophets, miracles, signs and wonders. And God is far, far wiser than we are. If you accept Jesus as Lord and ask for the blessings of the Holy Spirit, He will convict you and come and take up residence within you. These are complex issues, but God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, will bless you and teach you if you ask and let Him do so. Get into a bible-believing church and learn how. And may God richly bless you.
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7/21/2008 11:52:33 AM
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anonymous
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The question I'm asking is "Could there be more people saved when God is revealing himself?" Or will people who don't believe now also will reject God if he reveals himself?
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7/22/2008 4:27:17 AM
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anonymous
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I think that it is possible that if god revealed himself more people would become saved but there is no way to know that unless he did.
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1/24/2009 12:17:42 AM
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anonymous
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