Melanie asked if she could talk with me about faith in God. Or her lack of faith. More precisely, her former faith. I agreed. At dinner in a large cafeteria, we sat together. Six other college students gathered around to listen in. Melanie recounted how she’d been raised in the church and had once been a strong believer, but had fallen away due to being …
Why isn’t God more Obvious? Part 4
In my prior post I told of my conversation with Melanie the agnostic, and how she’d gotten a bit miffed at me for something I’d said. Spiritual conversation is an imperfect art for me, I admit. Melanie’s main claim was that her lack of belief in God was not her fault. Philosophers call this “inculpable nonbelief” — that is, non-belief for …
Why isn’t God more Obvious? Part 5
Last time I recounted how Melanie the agnostic was feeling stuck. She wanted to believe in God but simply didn’t. How could she get her former faith ignited and moving again? I agreed with Melanie that while you cannot make yourself believe, you can at least put yourself in position to develop faith. That is, read the Scriptures in community, stay in fellowship …
Why isn’t God more Obvious? Part 2
In my prior post I posed the question of why Jesus might not want to make himself known, plainly, to everyone. In Mark 4 and elsewhere he seems to indicate that one of the purposes of his parables is to partially obscure the truth about himself, “lest they turn and be forgiven.” Thus Jesus is sometimes referred to by scholars as the “hidden” …
Why isn’t God more Obvious? Part 1
A question (or objection) I hear regularly in my travels to college campuses is why God doesn’t make himself known to everyone, plainly and clearly. One skeptical student put it this way: “Your god sends billions of people to hell for not believing in him — but provides no clear evidence that he’s there at all. Why not just show …
The Hiddenness of God: Part 4
A Sampling of God’s Clues Last post I mentioned that God doesn’t offer proof of his existence. Rather, he leaves clues, of which I will mention three: 1. Nature God’s revelation in nature is open to interpretation. The believer sees the glory of God plainly in the vast heavens, in the DNA molecule and the like. The skeptic sees impersonal …
The Hiddenness of God: Part 3
In the prior post, I suggested that God probably does not attempt to make himself plain to every person on the planet. In his fine book, The Reason for God, Timothy Keller suggests that God doesn’t offer proof of his existence. Rather, he leaves clues. Why not proof? Why the cat and mouse? Why not make himself blatantly obvious to every …
The Hiddenness of God: Part 2
In my last post I asked the question of whether God’s two main forms of revelation — general and special — make God sufficiently obvious, to the point where you couldn’t miss him. General revelation, as you’ll recall, is God’s self-disclosure in nature and conscience. Special revelation is his disclosure through Christ and the Scriptures. The skeptic, however, can explain away these …
The Hiddenness of God: Part 1
A religious skeptic at a state school in the midwest asked me this question: 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 …