Is God Hidden?

Is God hidden?  Yes and No.  God doesn’t hide Himself.  In people’s experience, He remains hidden.  That doesn’t mean He is in fact hidden.  They experience Divine hiddenness.

In scripture, people experience Divine hiddenness.  Job said to God (13:24):

Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

The Psalmist says in Psalm 10:1:

Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

Unbelievers claim the hiddeness of God in Isaiah 45:15:

Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.

God Himself says that people say He hides Himself.  They are Egyptians, Ethiopeans, and Sabeans (Isaiah 45:14).  This isn’t new at all.

Argument for Atheists

Divine hiddenness is a hot new argument for atheists.  It shows up in the most recent material of philosophical atheism:

However, “divine hiddenness” refers to something else in recent philosophical literature, especially since the publication of J.L. Schellenberg’s landmark book, Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (1993). In this context, it refers to alleged facts about the absence of belief in God’s existence, on the basis of which one might think there is no God.

For example, Schellenberg argues that, since there are nonbelievers who are capable of a personal relationship with God and who do not resist it, there is no perfectly loving God, while Stephen Maitzen argues that naturalism better explains the “demographics” of nonbelief than theism and Jason Marsh argues that naturalism better explains “natural nonbelief” than theism. Understood in this way, divine hiddenness constitutes putative evidence for atheism.

Some people do not recognize the existence of God and they use as their basis the reason that God hides Himself from them.  Others acknowledge God exists, but He does not appear to them in their estimation enough for them to believe.  They live like He doesn’t exist.

The Crown Performance

People require God to give them, what I call, the “crown performance.”  They expect God to come to them like a traveling minstrel.  They hold Him hostage.  If He will not provide the necessary experience they require, they will not believe in Him.  What I’m describing is unbelief.  Unbelief requires more and then more revelation from God.

As an argument, Divine hiddenness contrasts with the sovereignty of God.  Men become sovereign.  If God does not accede to however unbelievers expect Him to appear, they can ghost Him.  God must obey their chosen methodology, because they are ultimately in charge.  It exalts their intellect, which is too lofty to accept God’s kind of evidence.  He’ll just have to do better, if they will acquiesce to Him.

Those who embrace the hiddenness of God set the terms for God’s revelation.  He must accede to their expectations.  If not, they justify their unbelief with hiddenness.

Sincerely Seeking?

Many of those who use Divine hiddenness as their reasoning for unbelief proclaim their own sincerity.  They really want God.  These unbelievers truly seek for Him, based on their own testimonies.  If He would give them but a glimpse, a brief flash of light from Him, they would believe.

God says, I’m not going to hide.  I’m revealing myself to everyone (Rom 1:19-21).  It’s not that people can’t know God.  They refuse the means by which He reveals Himself.  Rather than receive His revelation of Himself in the manner He gives it, they want something else.

Unbelief makes excuses for not believing.  To the unwillingness to receive what God shows of Himself, Jesus says in Matthew 12:39:

An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it.

Then He says it in Matthew 16:4:

A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it.

The gospels record this teaching of Jesus again in other places (Mark 8:12, Luke 11:29).  A sign points to the reality of God’s existence.

God Wants Relationship, Not Mere Acknowledgement

On Divine hiddenness, I wrote earlier this year:

People may not use this exact language, but in essence they very often ask a question concerning God, “Why is God so hidden?” God could have made more evident His existence and the truth of Christianity. He could make his existence as plain as anything. First though, scripture doesn’t read like God tries to persuade belief in His existence. No, God manifests Himself toward free reception of a saving, love relationship with Himself.

God knows the evidence sufficient for people with open minds and hearts. If you seek Him while He may be found, He will be found (Isaiah 55:6-7). But that means you want Him. This is your first act of worship of God, an offering of your soul to Him. This is more than mere acknowledgment of His existence, like the demons (James 2:19).

Faith in God’s love and knowledge acquiesces to the superiority of His ways. He displays His goodness and mercy in the way He reveals Himself. First, God uses it to bring the most people to Himself and, second, He leaves suitable ambiguity against hardening hearts toward Him. God does not force lost men to believe. He gives ample time and opportunity to encounter the dramatic, true story of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His glorious resurrection and ascension. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, His weakness stronger than them.

A big difference exists between God hiding Himself and His revealing Himself in an unsuitable way to an unbeliever.  Just because someone says he’s sincere in his seeking doesn’t mean he is.  God judges that sincerity by His Word and that professing seeker falls short.