On Thursday, we considered a question related to the inspiration of the Bible, and how God used human authors to convey His written will for humanity. To that, someone might wonder:

Why doesn’t God take bolder and more obvious steps to reveal Himself to the world? Why “hide” behind pages on an old book?

The short answer is: “That’s not the point of the Bible, and even if God did reveal Himself in that way, it wouldn’t matter.”

Right now, one of the most widely-circulated arguments against God is this: “If God is real why is there so much evil in the world?” Now, imagine if God blasted His voice from on high, declaring to all: “I am God. I am real.” What then? Immediately, the arguments against God would change. They would not go away! They would change, from “if God is real why is there evil” to “Since God is real, why doesn’t He care about all this evil?” And, again, God could shout again from on high and say “evil exists because sin exists; turn to Me, obey my commands, and I will remove sin and evil. If the whole world turns to Me and obeys Me, there will be no evil left!” If God said that, immediately the arguments against God would change. They would not go away! They would change from “why doesn’t God care about evil” to “why does God insist on bossing me around?”

The fact is, there will always be something that keeps a hard heart from submitting to the Lord. In the days of Jesus, some Pharisees personally witnessed miracles which He performed, and yet they refused to believe He was Divine, despite the evidence being revealed to them.

God is not “hiding.” God is not refusing to reveal Himself. In fact, He HAS revealed Himself. Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation of God (John 14:9). The trouble people have is not acknowledging His existence, but submitting their hearts to Him. Yes, there are many who refuse to acknowledge His existence, but it is unfair to say they do so due to a lack of revelation. God has made Himself more than apparent to any who look for Him (Hebrews 11:6). The real question is not “where is God” but “why are you pretending He’s not there?” Is it because you don’t WANT to see Him, because you don’t WANT to obey Him? If that’s the case, then it’s not God who is hidden. It’s you.

~Matthew