Why doesn't God make himself more obvious?
The skeptic went on to note the seriousness of the issue: If the Christian God is real, believers will inherit heaven, unbelievers eternal, torturous hell.
In light of the high stakes involved, a truly loving God would make himself abundantly plain to every person on the planet.
But the Christian God is not obvious at all.
Perhaps it's because he doesn't exist at all. Perhaps he's imaginary.
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That's what the skeptic said. How would you have responded?
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Theologians tell us that God has chosen two main ways to show himself to us -- general revelation and special revelation.
General Revelation includes both nature and conscience.
Nature refers to the world around us. The Psalmist puts it best:
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands. *
"Conscience" refers to the law of God written on the human heart.** Having been created by God, we have a deep, built-in sense of morality -- even if we often ignore this intuition.
Special Revelation refers to the person of Jesus and the scriptures. Special revelation gives us more particularized information about God -- his triune nature, calling on our lives and plan of salvation.
Would the skeptic mentioned above accept these forms of revelation? Do they make God sufficiently obvious?
I'll offer some thoughts next week.
*Psalm 19:1. See also Romans 1:20.
** See Romans 2:15.
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