God does not lose any who would come have to him

While some of the specifics about our judgment day remain a mystery, there are some things we can be assured of. One of those things is that God will not lose any who would come to Jesus. God’s judgment is not arbitrary but instead is based on wisdom and certainty. And so we can be certain that there is no scenario where God knows given a certain circumstance, a person would have believed, but he condemns them anyway. Paul affirms this when he writes,

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28–30, ESV)

God knows every scenario we might encounter and how we would respond

The scripture assures us that as we stand before God’s throne, we will be “naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13, ESV). This should bring us comfort, knowing that if there is a circumstance where we would believe, he knows it. The scripture is clear God prefers mercy to judgment and seeks to provide a way for us to come to him. He who knows all things is able to sustain anyone who would come to him given another circumstance other than the one they lived. Because of God’s love, we need not fear missing his grace due to a fleeting moment or dying right before we would have believed or even the circumstances of our life. We can have confidence that no one who would have come to God under different circumstances will be cast out. God knows the heart of all of us, understands all our circumstances, and will judge faithfully in righteousness and equity. No one will be able to bring charges against God and accuse him of being unloving or unfair. But because God takes all circumstances and scenarios into account when he judges, his judgment once rendered, is final. The door is shut.

Steadfast love and faithfulness go before the throne of judgment

The scripture tells us of God that “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you” (Psalm 89:14, ESV). God’s judgments are neither malicious nor arbitrary; they are rooted in righteousness and justice and on this strong foundation steadfast love and faithfulness go before him as he judges. Pause on this: in ALL God’s judgments even condemnation, steadfast love and faithfulness go before his verdict. This means that before any judgment is made, one must encounter and get through the flood of His steadfast love and faithfulness. On the day of judgment, those who are condemned will know that their condemnation was preceded by God’s steadfast and exhaustive pursuit. Their mouths will be shut knowing that their fate is all their own. They have rejected the love that has gone before them. The Gospel which comes first offered them reconciliation, but instead “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10b, NIV).

This is why their condemnation is so sure: They have been given every opportunity to leave the kingdom of darkness and come into the light, but because they love the darkness more than the light they have chosen darkness.

Who are those who are condemned

God does not condemn the innocent. But of course, none of us are innocent. So let us rephrase this. God does not condemn those who come to him in repentance and faith. I am not aware of anywhere in scripture that says this is only a temporal truth that stops. However, the scripture does warn that our hearts can become so hardened that we will choose to never repent regardless of how much God pursues us. Gehenna is described as a place of “gnashing of teeth”, a term symbolizing hostility and anger. And this hostility is directed at God. Those who reject Jesus do so because they love their deeds more than the desire to come to God. God opposes the kingdoms they have made (more here). Those who are condemned are described as those who chose to persist in their wickedness, despite being offered hope through repentance and faith in the work and worth of Jesus. Here are some scriptures that describe this:

and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. (2 Thessalonians 2:10, ESV)

In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” (Psalm 10:4, ESV)

If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the LORD. (Isaiah 26:10, ESV)

She listens to no voice; she accepts no correction. She does not trust in the LORD; she does not draw near to her God. (Zephaniah 3:2, ESV)

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 7:11-12, ESV)

But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:24, ESV)

O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent. (Jeremiah 5:3, ESV)

For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD; (Isaiah 30:9, ESV)

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this. (Hosea 7:10, ESV)

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8, ESV)

And those who are in Gehenna remain there because they continue to love darkness and continue to refuse to turn to the light.

Daniel is told, “Many will be purified, made spotless, and refined, but the wicked will continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand” (Daniel 12:10, BSB)

Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” (Revelation 22:11, ESV)

No one who is condemned desires to repent and come to God. If you continue to reject God, the only source of love, beauty, and goodness, what do you have left? Many of us have suffered the agony of lost or unrequited love. How much more is the agony of those who have rejected the very source of love and are hostile to it. The weight of their own rejection of goodness, beauty, and love is unimaginable. It is hell.

In Jesus’s discussion with Nicodemus, he confirms these things, when he states, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18, ESV). But this in of itself does not tell us the full story, for we already know that belief in Jesus is what distinguishes those who are saved from those who are condemned. But who is preventing those who are condemned from believing? Is it life events, circumstances, or others? None of these external factors keep the condemned from God. Instead, as our hearts stand naked before God, it is our hearts that condemn us. Jesus goes on to say that it is our own stubbornness that keeps us from the love of God.

Jesus describes those who are found guilty before the throne of God, “And this is the verdict: Light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19, NIV). Why are people condemned? It is because they love the darkness so much that they refuse to come to the light. There are no circumstances under which those who are in Gehenna would have or will turn to God. For them to do so would be to go against everything they love and treasure as good. They do not want God to be near because he is a threat to all they hold dear (more here).

Though they are at enmity with and reject God, those who are condemned will long for the goodness that those in the light have and so there will be “weeping” at this loss alongside their “gnashing of teeth” as there was with Esau. But this weeping is not accompanied by repentance or turning to God. Paul warns us, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death” (2 Corinthians 7:10, NIV). They will long for the light, but not at the price of relinquishing the darkness they cherish so dearly. They are so ensnared and enslaved by their own desires that their love for the “drug” surpasses their desire to be healed.

And so the scriptures teach that it is those who both continue to walk in unrighteousness and refuse to come to God that are condemned. Those who repent and come to God are freely welcomed into the love of God. God does not keep those in Gehenna from repenting and coming to him, they are stuck there by the chains they have forged for themselves. We can have confidence that those in Gehenna would not have repented under any circumstances. Part of what makes Gehena so devastating is this: those who go there do not abandon their wickedness, but continually choose to separate themselves from God. They continue to choose to walk in wickedness continuing to incur further wrath. Gehena is not for the hypothetical person in Alex O’Conner’s imaginary scenario who if only given a few more moments would have believed, but died just before that. Gehena is for those who stubbornly and eternally continue in disbelief.

This is why the scripture urges us not to harden our hearts, for it is not death that will seal our condemnation, but rather a hardened and unrepentant heart. And this state can come long before we die, leaving us without hope both in this age and the age to come. This is why the scripture says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Psalm 95:7-8, Hebrews 3:7-8,15; 4:7). The scripture warns that we should not assume that we will one day in the future change and have a repentant heart. Today is our opportunity. Again it is not death that finalizes our state, but a hard and unrepentant heart of unbelief. This can happen now at this moment, before death, so do not linger to come to God when you hear the call of the Gospel.

God exhausts his pursuit

Earlier, I mentioned that Alex O’Conner did not ask an appropriate question. The reason is that there will never be anyone in Gehenna who would have repented under other circumstances. However one might ask if the steadfast love and faithfulness that go before God’s throne is exhaustive. Has God done everything possible to bring this person to repentance? The scripture would support an affirmative answer. God’s readiness to forgive is an inherent part of God’s nature. When God’s glory came near to Moses, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). God was declaring this is who he is. Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” Other verses support this as well.

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18, ESV)

Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:7, ESV)

Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10, ESV)

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:18-19, ESV)

the LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:3, ESV)

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (Psalm 103:8, ESV)

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34, ESV)

“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, (Proverbs 1:22-25, ESV)

God is eager to embrace the rebel

Not only is God slow to anger and patient, but he is also ready and eager to forgive the rebellious.

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (Ezekiel 18:21-23, ESV)

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. (Joel 2:12-13, ESV)

“Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: You are saying, ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:10-11, ESV)

“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. (Isaiah 55:6-8,ESV)

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (Isaiah 1:18, ESV)

To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him. (Daniel 9:9, ESV)

who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4, ESV)

They refused to obey and did not remember the miracles you had done for them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to take them back to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love. You did not abandon them, (Nehemiah 9:17, ESV)

Our death does not change God’s character

It is foolish for us to think that something like our death would change the nature of God. Death does not separate us from God. Not even our sin and rebellion alone separate us from God. It is a hard, unrepentant heart who refuses to come to God under any circumstances that ultimately seals the fate of those in Gehenna.

Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. (2 Kings 17:13-14, ESV)

Yet the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against His people, until there was no remedy. (1 Chronicles 36:15-16,ESV)

O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent. (Jeremiah 5:3, ESV)

You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the LORD persistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, saying, ‘Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and evil deeds, and dwell upon the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ Yet you have not listened to me, declares the LORD, that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm. (Jeremiah 25:4-7, ESV)

But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” (Romans 10:21, ESV)

He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31, ESV)

What about Sodom?

In Matthew 11:24, Jesus states, “And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day” (ESV). Does this mean that people who are in hell would have repented if they were given a different circumstance? No, this verse is not about the individual, but about a city and a temporal situation not about the age to come. Even though this Sodom would have responded to the works of Jesus, this does not mean that individual hearts would have changed or that it would be more than an outward change. In the Gospels many times scripture refers to those who believed outwardly in Jesus but did not have saving faith. We see this with Ahab who is described in these words, “(There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.)” 1 Kings 21:25-26, ESV). But after Elijah spoke and warned Ahab of God’s wrath, “when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house” (1 Kings 21:27–29, ESV). Despite Ahab’s superficial repentance, God readily relented putting Ahab to death, demonstrating his eagerness to show grace even to one of the worst kings of Israel. Sadly, it does not appear that Ahab responded to this act of grace. Jesus words about Sodom shows the eagerness God has to show kindness despite our hardened hearts. God extends love even to his enemies who reject him. To this kind of heart Paul aptly writes, “Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:4-5, ESV).

But not everyone has the same knowledge of who God is

But you might say, “But not everyone has the same revelation”. And I would agree this is the case. However, this does not mean that God does not exhaustively pursue us or take all this into account as he judges us. Those with less knowledge will not be held to the same accountability of someone who has extensive knowledge of God. They will be judged based on their obedience to the knowledge of God they have been given. Paul states, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30, ESV). God knows our hearts and he will judge us by what we do know, not by what we do not know. But he has made himself known to us all, and so we are without excuse if we are not obedient to the revelation we do have. It is also clear that God is found by all who seek him with sincerity and that God is quick to bring us to himself. Paul in his address, “standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said:

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22–31, ESV)

Also consider this: God is loving even toward his enemies. He will not vindictively pile on judgment. For those who have already hardened their heart, more revelation would only bring more judgment. In the Gospels, there are occasions when it is clear that the hearts of those around Jesus were hard and he simply walks away, refusing to give himself to them. In some cases, this is the most loving thing for God to do. God in his wisdom knows how to give enough revelation so that those who are condemned are left without excuse, but then backing away when that revelation would only cause more condemnation. No one will stand before God and be judged by what they do not know. And no one who is condemned will accuse God of not pursuing them exhaustively. Their mouths will be shut and no accusation will be brought before God because they will acknowledge that his judgments are just and fair.

before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity. (Psalm 98:9)

before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. (Psalm 96:13, ESV)

then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness.” (Isaiah 16:5, ESV)

God is patient and slow to anger, never quick to condemn. Those who face condemnation have first had to come through the flood of the unwavering steadfast love and faithfulness of God that go before his throne and precede his judgment. The only ones in Gehenna are those who have rejected God’s love.

A word of warning about bad questions

In the case above, Alex O’Conner posed a poorly framed question. Sadly, this is common among “atheist apologists”. It is easy to be skeptical and to phrase questions in a way that gives the appearance of wisdom on the surface, but upon closer examination only reveals our foolishness. I wrote more on this here. But my word of caution is this: If you find yourself asking these kinds of questions, take a moment to examine your heart. Persisting on asking foolish questions, even though there are good answers out there, suggests a deeper issue. Contrary to what some atheists will try to make you believe, there are good answers out there for these questions.

As Christians when dealing with these kinds of foolish questions, we must be aware we cannot know the hearts of those asking them. Those asking these questions may be sincere and we should to be patient with them. But we also should encourage them to examine their motives behind the questions as well, while addressing any genuine inquiries with gentleness and respect.

FURTHER SCRIPTURE READING: Luke 14:12-35 & 15

“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

Is God all-loving? 

Many people read the verse above and question: How can God be perfectly loving? If knowing God is required for eternal life, why has God not made himself more evident?  Why does God hide himself? Indeed, if all it takes to save us is for us to know God, it would be easy to save the world. All God would have to do is show up. After all, if God revealed himself to me distinctly and unmistakably, I would believe. I would acknowledge that he is God. I would even acknowledge that he was sovereign. An all-powerful God could make himself known if he wanted to. Why would God send so many to eternal damnation if all he had to do is show up and say, “I am here”? And if he does not want to make himself known in this way, how can he be all-loving?

And so these kinds of questions make us question the existence of a perfectly-loving God. For although it is within his compacity, he has not revealed himself in a manner we believe would be appropriate. We reason; a God of love would make his existence unquestionable. Therefore, either God is not perfectly-loving or God does not exist.

Square peg into a round hole 

Questions like these punch us in the gut, searing their way to our very heart and soul. It grinds against our concepts of love, goodness, justice, and beauty. There is a struggle to reconcile these inner longings for love with what we are told about the God of the Bible. We have a tough time wrapping our brain around it. And it seems that these things are incompatible. Is there any way to reconcile these things?

Have you ever watched a child sort shapes with differently shaped pegs that are associated with shaped holes? A child will spend a lot of time and effort trying to get a square peg into a round hole. Sometimes, the child will quit in frustration because they deem it impossible. We are like this child. Sometimes, when we can’t figure out how to get the puzzle to come together.  We are determined to get a square peg into the circle shaped hole. We are so focused and resolute to accomplish this that we fail to see our error and often quit in frustration. And yet, when we step back and see things from a proper perspective, the puzzle easily falls into place. 

Faulty Foundation 

Sometimes, our questions can lead us down the wrong path. There are many things in life where if your foundation is faulty, it cascades, and everything you build on it becomes skewed. Often, this happens when we question God. An honest investigation into many questions atheists or skeptics have will find that their beliefs are based on faulty presumptions and that their arguments topple as soon as the cracks in their foundation are exposed. They base their criteria of evidence for God on their own imaginations of what they think God would be like. They challenge a god in their own image. They have a closed view of what god, if he exists, would be like. And yes, I would agree a god or gods as they frame it do not exist. But God is more than the gods they have debunked. And is this not what we ought to expect. If there is a God, would he be able to be confined or boxed in by our imagination? When we approach God in this way, are we not just like a child trying to get a square peg into a round hole and giving up in frustration when there is a much wider picture?

What does it mean to know God? 

One of the things implied by the questions people have about the hiddenness of God is the idea that all we need to have eternal life is to know that God exists. The proposal that God ought to make his existence absolutely clear and evident to all humanity, through miracles or by simply saying “Hi” or by some other means, presumes that having knowledge or acknowledging the existence of God is enough to save us. But is this true? Is believing God exists all it takes? Some might clarify and say – Well, not just believing; we must also acknowledge God’s authority over us. Again, is this true? Or are we trying to get a square peg into a round hole? Are we being like the person who asks foolish questions of a friend because of faulty presumptions, only to embarrass themselves, when their questions only show their lack of understanding of the situation and the person?

We have to ask ourselves the question, if knowing God is required for eternal life, what does it mean to “know” God? The word “know” can mean many things. We can bring our own definition into the conversation. But a good listener does not assume definitions but inquires to understand the intent of the one who is speaking to them. Understanding comes from laying down our presumptions. If “knowing” God is needed to keep us from eternal damnation, then we ought to be very clear on what the word “know” means according to the scripture. We ought to be cautious about coming up with our own definition.

Love does not submit to a child’s demands

Yes, God could show up, and if it would work, if it was an effective means for bringing humanity to himself, because he is perfectly-loving, he would. We have seen that God is willing to take upon himself shame to bring people to himself (read more here). God is not pridefully keeping himself away from us, but does so to protect us (read more here). We have also seen that it would only be to our detriment if he listened to us. We are like children who think they know what is best for them but are unaware of the dangers of their desires. If their parent succumbed to their demands, knowing it would cause serious and permanent harm, are they being loving? It sounds like a good and noble request to ask God to show up and say, “Hi”, but in the end, we would be left empty and hollow, and eternally without hope. Sure, God breaking open the sky and showing up might convince us that he exists, we might even acknowledge his sovereignty over us, but it would not save us . . . quite the opposite. We would be condemned in our unbelief. We have seen (read here and hear), that God hides himself for our protection, not his. For the Bible is clear that believing in the existence of God and even acknowledging his sovereignty is not enough to change the corruption and pride in our hearts. No, this would not be enough. James writes, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (2:19). James’ words ought to cause us to pause and caution us in our presumptions.

A child trying to get the square peg into a round hole has a better chance if they stop and step back and relax, and allow themselves to be open to other possibilities and get a better handle on the whole picture. We should do the same. If the demons believe and acknowledge God’s authority over them and shudder, we ought to pause, sit down and be willing to listen, for there is more to the story . . . 

Part of this written dialogue is below:

At this point, I think it would be helpful to clarify where our approaches agree and disagree, so I will summarize from my perspective, and you can comment on anything you think I got wrong. This will be a long post, so I have broken it up. Here is the outline

1. WHAT IF QUETZALCOATL WROTE, “I AM GOD IN THE STARS”?
   1. Summary: God showing up would not be enough. “Empiricism” alone will not tell you whether or not God exists.
2. WHAT DOES SCIENCE TELL US?
   1. Summary: We agree that there is an all-powerful, all-creative, infinite non-contingent cause
3. WHAT WOULD WE EXPECT IF THE CAUSE WAS PERSONAL?
   1. Summary: A personal non-contingent cause must also be relational for us to know him.
4. SHOULD WE BRING OUR OWN ASSUMPTIONS
   1. Summary: Because we have flawed brains, we should not bring our assumptions into the question of God’s existence.
5. WE CANNOT ASSUME GOD’S GOAL IS FOR US TO BELIEVE HE EXISTS
   1. Summary: God’s goal is not for us to believe, but instead to have a relationship with him through the Gospel.
6. GOD IS RELATIONAL AND SPEAKS
   1. Summary: God has given us a means to test the veracity of his existence – the Bible. And this is the pivotal point where we disagree.
7. WHAT ARE THE STRONGEST ARGUMENTS FOR GOD FOR ME
   1. Summary: At the moment, atheist arguments are the strongest proof for me that God exists
8. YOU MUST PROVE GOD EXISTS
   1. Summary: Blind skepticism will not accept evidence, but seeks a way to not have to deal with the evidence. Christian scholars because of the eternal consequences work hard to face the strongman arguments atheists have.
9. BEST EXPLANATION FOR THE EVIDENCE
   1. Summary: The Christian God is the best explanation given the evidence that when all are added together approaches 100%.

WHAT IF QUETZALCOATL WROTE, “I AM GOD IN THE STARS”?

I appreciate your understanding that we cannot trust our brains alone. Although I do not hold to solipsism, where we agree is that our brains are severely flawed and that we are often faulty interpreters of the world around us. I think this is why you hold “empiricism” in such a high esteem. The scientific method is something outside of ourselves though not independent of the brain that helps to hold us accountable and helps to mitigate these flaws. Though not perfect it provides checks and balances and helps us to get a better foundation on what is true. Because of this we both believe that the scientific method is a reliable means of finding truth. But “empiricism” alone has its limits. You asked, “What if the stars read, ‘I am Quetzalcoatl, the flying serpent, creator of all’? would you accept this?” No, I would not. I have told you that I understand this skepticism that atheists have. My point in presenting this example of atheists saying that even if God showed up they would not believe was not to show that a certain amount of skepticism here is inappropriate, but that “empiricism” alone could not tell you the difference between whether or not this being was God or just a vastly superior being with greater technology or whether you have gone mad or not (although mass hallucinations like this don’t happen, so this really is not possible). The “Three Body Problem” fictional story even posits that a sufficiently advanced civilization would be able to alter our ability to do science. So, regardless of what “miracles” were performed or what great physical feats were presented “empiricism” will always allow for a means to not believe in God. Or in other words the “science in the gaps” will always allow for another possible explanation. If you have the perspective that as long as one can provide a “science in the gaps” argument, that that one should not believe in God, then “empiricism” will always lead to atheism. This kind of criterion is not an open-minded query, nor does it allow for the best explanation based on the data. We have both demonstrated this weakness of “empiricism”. Given this fact, it would be unwise to hold onto only “empiricism”, for it can only lead to one closed conclusion. It is clear that we need to look to more than “empiricism” to fully explore this question. In order to explore a question, one must allow for the full range of possibilities. I do believe that science provides evidence that is consistent with and points to the Christian God. But I would also argue that scholarly arguments outside of science but are well established and accepted lines of inquiry and evidence in academia provide sound evidence that the Christian God exists and give us a fuller picture of what that might mean and is a fuller explanation of the data we find, without having to appeal to an “in the gaps”.

WHAT DOES SCIENCE TELL US?

What can we know with science? I think it would be helpful to qualify what we both agree we can know through science about the creation or eternal existence of our universe. The more we learn about our universe, the more we discover that our universe has fine-tuning and design. Despite that this has been used to bolster the argument for God, an argument that has its beginnings long before we knew what we know today in science, but has grown stronger the more and more we do learn about science, because of the repeatable and measurable evidence for fine-tuning it is something that is generally agreed on within the scientific community, though the terminology may be different. This growing evidence for fine-tuning has forced atheists to address this issue and grapple with what it means. Saying fine-tuning exists doesn’t establish a cause and obviously the atheist and theist have come to different conclusions.  But both atheists and theists would agree that there must either be an eternal non-contingent cause or an eternal cyclical cause and effect. And this is where the atheists and theists look to try to explain fine-tuning. Another condition that must be met is that this non-contingent cause must be able to explain the probability that we see within the fine-tuning and design within our universe without falling into the gambler’s fallacy. This gets into a more complicated argument than we have room for here, but all this is without calculating the probabilities needed for evolution to occur or for the information found within the universe, which from what we can tell most likely cannot be preloaded into the universe at the beginning and so would be outside of the physics and cosmological constants that existed at the beginning of the universe. Here is a summary of the probabilities that must be overcome:

• Must be able to explain fine-tuning at every step.
• Must be able to overcome the gambler’s fallacy.
• Must be able to explain the directive nature of evolution and information, which from what we can tell cannot be pre-loaded into the universe at the beginning.
• Must be able to explain the information found in our universe.
• Must be able to explain design or apparent design at every step.
• Must be able to explain either the beginning or eternal aspect of nature

But to put it simply there are a lot of odds to overcome that go beyond the beginning of our universe without falling into the gambler’s fallacy. But here we come to another point where both atheists and theists agree. In order to overcome this, the non-contingent cause must be all-powerful, capable of creating infinite universes, but not only infinite universes but be able to generate a full spectrum of universes in sufficient amounts to overcome the probabilities. This can be done by either having a full spectrum infinite multi-universe generator or using a process that weeds out all other possibilities but our own before creating our universe. Currently with what we know the first option could be both impersonal or personal. The second option is most likely personal. But let’s pause on where we do agree for a moment. We both agree that our universe was created by an invisible, eternal, all-powerful force. Interestingly, this conclusion reminds me of a quote from the agnostic Robert Jastrow, “He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. God and the Astronomers” (1978), p. 116; (p. 107 in 1992 edition). What we can agree on and what we know to be true reminds me of the verse that says, “By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Neither the atheists nor theologians have specific 100% proof within science for their positions here. We just don’t know enough about science yet. But despite not having 100% proof both the scientist and the theologian believe or have faith that something eternal, all-powerful, and invisible created our universe. We agree that our universe “has not been made out things that are visible”. And we both believe that our universe was made out of something eternal and infinite. Science shows us that there is an all-powerful, eternal, invisible cause to our universe, but we still have to ask ourselves whether or not there is a personal cause behind this. Atheists believe that evidence will come to show that a self-existing multi-universe generator is possible. A directive force or a specific beginning is not something that atheists at this time support. Theists are open to either a self-existing multi-universe generator or a directive force behind our universe. I do think there are good arguments that show that science does point to God and has stronger explanatory power than that the atheist’s position, but I feel that I am not yet equipped to argue these points yet. I am still in the middle of my research, so I would rather leave the argument here, where I feel like we both have agreement. Regardless, the question remains whether or not the initial non-contingent cause of our universe is impersonal or personal. We cannot prove a non-personal or a non-relational personal cause, but if the cause is not only personal, but is also relational, we would suspect that this non-contingent cause could be found and known. But then we must ask how would this personal and relational non-contingent cause reveal himself?

WHAT WOULD WE EXPECT IF THERE IS A PERSONAL GOD?

If the non-contingent cause is personal, we would only know this if that non-contingent cause chose to reveal himself. An all-powerful being could make a universe purely using science. Therefore, for us to know God, one of the things we could expect is that this God is both personal and relational. If this personal non-contingent cause were not relational, it would also probably be a moot point, since neither the atheist nor theist could have a relationship with this kind of god. So, I would argue that if there is a God, for us to have a relationship with this god, it would be important that this god be relational. And if the cause of the universe is relational, we have to ask ourselves, how would we come to know this creator? Afterall, we have both concluded that if God showed up “empiricism” would invalidate such an attempt. Though showing up would be a means of revealing himself, we would want more, since we are dealing with our flawed brains. So how would we come to know God given our flawed brains?

SHOULD WE BRING OUR OWN PRESUMPTIONS?

One certain way to not know this God is to trust our flawed brains. Since a non-contingent cause is powerful enough to create a universe that is so far beyond us, that we are just getting started in exploring its depths, we cannot assume we can fully understand this God on our own power with our flawed brains. We would need this God to condescend and reveal to us who he is. One of the flaws of the atheist is that they bring in their own presumptions to this question. They trust their flawed brains and determine for themselves what this God ought to be like. You will often here questions phrased in the format of

1. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving etc., then he would . . . (fill in the blank)
2. Since God has not done . . . (fill in the blank), God does not exist.

Some examples are (fill in the blank) God would . . .:

• not be hidden.
• God would be clear in his revelation of himself
• would reveal himself in such and such a way.
• want me to believe.
• find a way to get me to believe.
• Prove himself 100% through empirical means.
• provide one definitive argument for God.
• not allow . . .
• not allow for suffering or evil
• not have done this.
• has not made the church I believe he said he would.
• have perfect church without disagreements on theology.
• conform to my interpretation of scripture.
• fit my expectations of what a god ought to be.
• Etc.

Like “empiricism” this approach presumes or forces a conclusion rather than performing an objective and open query. God must meet these made-up arbitrary requirements in order to exist. This is a deeply troubling approach for a group that states that they have a scientific approach and who state that we cannot trust our brains because they are flawed. These presumptions are flawed because they start with what our flawed brains assume God would be like. In my communication on the topic of the hiddenness of God I demonstrated that these presumptions are flawed and cannot stand up to scrutiny (for more go here). A scientific approach would not presume that we could bring our presumptions into this query. An all-powerful, all-creative, infinite relational being is not a “one-dimensional” being that we can presume to understand either what he is like or how this being would reveal himself. We are having enough difficulty understanding the physical universe or relationships in our lives. These are flawed arguments from flawed brains. As in science we can’t start with pre-conceived criteria or have an unmovable conclusion and expect to get anywhere. Because we have such flawed brains in order to know God, we would need something outside ourselves which like the scientific method would allow for accountability, evaluation, and testing.

WE CANNOT ASSUME GOD’S GOAL IS FOR US TO BELIEVE HE EXISTS

We will get back to the question on how God has revealed himself, but first we need to address one of the errors atheists make first. They assume the goal God has for humanity is for them to believe that he exists. Or that there ought to be some definitive absolute evidence they can look to. This is a fallacious assumption. Atheists argue that God would know how to prove that he exists, with no effort. I agree, but that is not his goal. Atheists also argue that the Bible ought to be clearer. Again, you assume God’s purpose is to be clear. It is not. His goal is not for us to believe he exists or for the church to have perfect doctrine. His goal is to bring a people into relationship with himself through the power of the gospel. In our dialogue earlier on the “hiddenness of God”, I demonstrated that these assumptions atheists make would not be the goal of a perfectly loving God. I won’t go into it and rehash those arguments here. You can reread what I sent you (or go here). But for God to be both perfectly loving to those who come to him and to those who reject him, he must be “hidden”. And this fact in itself, his “hiddenness”, is evidence for God’s existence, for only a perfectly loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God could accomplish this.

 GOD IS RELATIONAL AND SPEAKS

If God is relational, we can assume he would reveal himself. And I would argue he has in many sundry ways, some of which includes science, logic, philosophy, beauty, and personal experience. And for many this revelation is so extraordinary that it is enough for them to believe. But though he has revealed himself in these ways, these things alone can only tell us so much. For us to know God in a relational way, God must reveal himself in a relational way and in a way that does not violate his “hiddenness” which protects us. We intuitively know this in our own relationships with others. “Empiricism” is not relational. Even though we would not expect science to be inconsistent with God, if God were to reveal himself, certainly it would not be through “empiricism”, for as shown earlier “empiricism” would not be an effective means. We have both agreed that just showing up and even writing in the stars would not work. But we have also agreed that because of our flawed brains, we would want something outside of ourselves, something that can be evaluated, scrutinized, and tested. I have talked with my children on how personal experiences or hearing a “voice from heaven” would not be a valid means in of itself for God to reveal himself, since it is limited in the ways it could be evaluated or tested. People are flawed. There are conditions where people here voices that are not real. Many have “heard god”, only for it to be clear that they had not, whether from madness, selfishness manipulation, or from other voices. And our feelings and experiences as well can skew our thinking. And from these experiences there are many religions in the world. How do we know which one is true?

We must be careful not to take this too far and on the other side to say things like science and experience are not useful in coming to know God. Like science, experiences can point us to God, and we would expect these things to be consistent with God, but also like science because of our flawed brains we would need to be cautious. For example, the fine-tuning, design, and information arguments are extremely powerful arguments for God that have only grown stronger the more we have learned about science. But I think for the both of us, we would like to something more, we want something that takes into account our flawed brains, something that is subject to scrutiny and rigorous analysis and evaluation, after all how would we distinguish it from all the other religions as the true religion. Thankfully, God does not intend for us to rely on our flawed brains. The most powerful means by which God has revealed himself to us is through the Bible. The Bible is something that can be scrutinized, evaluated, and tested to see if its claims hold up and are true. It can be evaluated against other religions. It can be evaluated against science, logic, philosophy, and academia. It is something that can be evaluated outside our flawed brains. The reason I would not believe in Quetzalcoatl in the scenario above is because there is no such evidence. If Jesus showed up on the other hand I would already have enough vast and extraordinary evidence to believe.

And here is the pivotal point where we disagree. You do not believe that the Bible holds up to scrutiny. I believe it does. You don’t believe that the Bible conforms with the world you see around you, with science, or even is consistent with itself. I on the other hand do believe that the Bible is consistent with the world I see around me, with science, and is consistent with itself.

WHAT IS MY STRONGEST ARGUMENT FOR GOD – ATHIEST ARGUMENTS

You asked me what my strongest argument for God is. For me it is the integrity of the Bible. A follow up question might be what for me is the strongest argument for the integrity of the Bible. At this moment, for me, the strongest argument for the integrity of the Bible are atheist arguments. I have mentioned to you before that I believe in putting the strong men in the ring and letting them fight to the death. Atheist arguments rather than doing this stick a strawman in the ring and fight against that. Within this group though I have not read everything posted, from what I have read, I have not seen one argument that actually attacks the Christian faith or the Bible. We have both determined that the brain is flawed and is often not a reliable interpreter of the data. There are both atheists and theists who believe in a “flat earth” and they claim to have science to back them up. You will say that they are not using science correctly. Bingo! This is my point. When atheists make claims against the veracity of the Bible, they fail to use the Bible correctly, just as flat earthers fail to use science correctly. This is why when coming to the scriptures we must rely on proper hermeneutics and rigorous scholarship and an open mind. It is clear when atheists talk about the Bible, they have no clue what they are talking about, nor does it seem that they are willing to do the arduous work to understand. You state that there are 1000s of inconsistencies in the Bible. Let’s be honest, we both know that there are only a handful worth talking about, and of those none of them touch doctrine or faith. What I have found in atheists’ arguments is a very narrow understanding of the Christian faith and a lack of engagement with the robust scholarship within Christian community to the point where most of the arguments I have come across can only be described as slander. Sure, perusing the internet or social media you will find poor Christian answers, but I am talking about the well-studied, professionally researched, scholastic work that has been done. The stuff that requires more than a casual engagement and requires years and years of challenging work. When I sent you a link to videos, you said there were a lot. The reality is you will probably not do the hard work. And I understand the challenge and the difficulty of what I ask, you are a busy person. And what I sent was basic stuff, it would only begin to touch the work done to answer atheists’ questions. But this is the type of scholastic work that atheists fail to address against the Christian faith, because they don’t have the inclination to do this kind of work. Because you have not done the work, you have not been able to present a legitimate argument against the Bible or the Christian faith.

And this is why I believe the Bible; it has been tested. It has been tested by the harshest critics, the strongest strongmen atheists have to offer, and it has stood up to that test. You have not been able to provide not even one valid argument against the Christian faith but insist on believing that you do have a good argument. On the other hand, Atheist arguments have consistently demonstrated errors in logic and scholarship. Here are a few.

Places where Atheists violate proper literary textual analysis

• Authorial intent errors
• Cultural
• Wooden literalism
• Assumption of presentism
• Genre Fallacy
• Contextual analysis error
• Etymology error
• Synchronic meaning error
• Syntactic Fallacy
• Symantec range Fallacy
• Argument of Silence Fallacy
• Description is not prescription
• Assume a different definition
• Assume a static scene
• False dilemma
• Fallacy of false equivocation
• Elephant hurling
• Species fallacy
• Sweeping generalization fallacy
• Subset fallacy
• Genetic Fallacy

YOU MUST PROVE GOD EXISTS

You will say, “Well it is on you to prove to me that God exists. I have a lack of belief, It should not be hard to prove your case”. Have you ever tried to reason with someone who believes in a “flat earth”? The reason people believe in the “flat earth” is not because they are stupid. The problem is actually the opposite. The problem is that our flawed brains are quite intelligent and able to come up with arguments to support what we believe. Despite the evidence you give “flat earthers”, and despite the fact that it is common sense evidence, they are smart enough are able to come up with an answer to why that evidence is irrelevant, without having to actually address the evidence itself. And this is often how blind skepticism works. Most of the arguments you have given me are reasons why you don’t have to evaluate the evidence. If skepticism is your foundation, evidence becomes a lot less relevant in the discussion. Whatever evidence is produced, blind skepticism can explain it away or ignore it, without facing and addressing the actual arguments or evidence.

You might ask, “How do I know that I have not done the same with my arguments for God?” Because I and other Christian scholars work hard to try to understand the depths of atheists’ arguments and represent them fairly. If I have misunderstood one of your arguments, I want to know. Remember we have stronger eternal motives in wanting to convince atheists to believe in God. We cannot do this well if we don’t understand what atheists believe and actually address the questions they are having. Good Christian scholars work hard to put the strongest man for the atheists in the ring. Not only do they try to fully address atheist strong man arguments, but they also try to make atheist arguments even stronger. Christian scholars work hard to allow atheists to put the strong man into the ring. I don’t see the same rigor among atheists. Again, I have not seen one post in this group that actually attacks the Christian faith. After seeing the Bible time and time again put these strongman arguments to death, you start to develop a trust in its veracity. When time and time again you see atheists putting strawman and fallacious reasoning into the ring, the less and less you feel like you can take their arguments seriously. I believe the Bible because there are objective means outside my brain that allow me to test its veracity. Christianity is probably the most scrutinized religion and the Bible the most scrutinized book. Both have held against that scrutiny. And I am not talking about the fact that Christianity still exists. I am talking about the fact that Christianity actually addresses strong man arguments put up against it. Take our conversations, I have been able to demonstrate several points of fallacious reasoning within your arguments. I don’t think my arguments are perfect either, but you have not been able to do the same with my arguments.

BEST EXPLANATION FOR THE EVIDENCE

Why do I believe in God. I believe in God because given the evidence in the science, in philosophy, in psychology, in history, in art, the presence of evil, morality, ethics, personal experience and the experience of others, and in the Bible, the Christian God has the fullest and best explanatory power for what I see in this world. I can’t give you one definitive proof that God exists, but all these things put together the probability that God exists approaches 100%.

How would I convince you that there is a God? I don’t know. I am not naive, just as “flat earthers” have their answers to evidence presented to them, so too atheists have their answers. The reality is I am not going to be able to provide you a one fits all definitive argument to suddenly convince you that God exists. This is not how our flawed brains work. This is not how you would convince a “flat earther” even though we both know that the evidence for the globe is overwhelming and is absolutely right. I think these things just happen over time as we dialogue.  But I suppose this is not surprising if God cares more about relationship than belief.

In reality all of us live in the real world not an imaginary one. And we all observe and experience things in this real world. As we observe and experience these things we gain data about this world that we live in. And from this data we come to assertions about what this world is like. Both the atheist and the theists are evaluating the data and coming to separate positions about that data means. Saying you have a lack of belief that there is a god or even saying you are agnostic is a position, and a conclusion based on one’s evaluation of the data. In academia when one evaluates data and comes to a conclusion, one must defend that position regardless of what that position is. Not only must they defend their position, it expected that they understand their methodology on how and why they have come to those conclusions and the strengths and weaknesses of their approach. You have highly intelligent people looking at the data and coming to starkly different conclusions. Academia cares not only with the conclusions but the epistemology – the “why and how” these conclusions were made. Academia cares about the process that led to the conclusions. It cares about why intelligent people are coming to different conclusions on this issue. This is why in academia atheists don’t get a “get out of jail free card”, they must both defend their position but also their epistemology, methodologies, and approach and demonstrate that they understand both the strengths and weaknesses of their position. This is just basic academia stuff and if atheists want to be taken seriously in the academic world they need to stop avoiding this with slogans like “I don’t have a belief, I have a lack of belief”. And the academic world needs to call them out for this. We must call both sides to rigorously evaluate and defend their conclusions with academic rigor.

If you pay attention to the arguments of atheists, particularly the “new atheists”, it is evident that many of their responses such as the assertion that they “lack belief”, are crafted to provide an escape from not having to defend their stance academically. Instead their arguments are lean more towards rhetoric and propaganda. With the rise of social media, sensationalism and the desire to cater to social media algorithms this has become more prominent. Consequently, arguments that resonate emotionally or consist of catchy slogans tend to overshadow intellectual dialogue. Sadly this approach along with cultural influence, frequently impedes any meaningful dialogue on the subject.

We find safety in our pride.

It is in our nature to hold on to our view, our own version of “truth” or to be conformed into the world’s viewpoint around us. In Genesis, the serpent tempted Adam and Eve to find their “truth” outside of God, to determine their own version of good and evil. We have become wise in our own eyes. Sin corrupts our hearts desires and drives us to pursue our own glory though a self-centered world view.

Whatever we pursue and look to outside of God shapes our version of “truth”. It shapes how we think, how we look at the world, and who we are. We identify who we are with these “truths” and they become integral to our “self”.

We build a world surrounded by our perceptions and experiences. We trust our interpretations and our ideas of how this world works. Our “truth”, this “worldly wisdom”, becomes our sanctuary for it explains the world around us. It makes sense of the disorder and protects us. It becomes ingrained into who we are. It is a part of us. To stray from it is to walk on insecure ground, to risk your own heart, to be shaken. To stray from it is to lose one’s very self.

So, instead of presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, we fight to hold on to our own “integrity”, our own “truth”, our own world view. “Worldly wisdom” becomes our refuge. Our interpretation of the world helps us to make sense of the world. It keeps us stable. It’s safe. It makes sense. And it’s comfortable. It doesn’t shake up our world. It doesn’t call us to die to our self.

It is a scary thing to have our world turned upside down, to find out that our “truth”, our world view has been a lie. To find out that who we are is a lie. However, that is what the Gospel does. It takes us into a world that is unknown, a world that strips away our “worldly wisdom” that strips the very essence of who we think we are and calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Our view of the world has become not just a collage of ideas, but how we see ourselves in the deepest part of our being. So the Gospel call is a call that feels like we are losing the essence of who we are. This is often why we fight. We don’t want to lose our stability.

So, when God speaks His truth into our hearts, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”, we are shaken. We are rocked to the core. What we held on to for security becomes shaky ground. Our “self” is in danger. And we fight and stubbornly hold on to what we know.

How does this affect our relationships?

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. – James 4:1-4, ESV

We have chosen our own world view apart God and have become enemies of God, wallowing in our adultery and rebellion. And our muck is splashed around on ourselves and others. Now our passions, our desires, our world views rule our relationships causing us to covet, to fight and quarrel, and to murder. Even our best relationships are fractured by our pride, lust, and greed. We are damaged.

• Conversations and interactions with others are centered around my world and my interpretations of reality.
• We pursue protecting our world view above truth in our interactions with others.
• We pursue protecting our world above loving the other person.
• We don’t make Christ the center of our relationship because His light exposes our faulty world and makes us unstable.
• We refuse to be corrected and broken, for these things destroy our world view.

In our pride, we don’t realize how evil we truly are. Jesus called us to die to ourselves. If we are willing to choose our pride over our relationships and let our pride destroy our relationships, is it no surprise that we would choose the things of this world over God. It is this holding on to our world and our desiring it above God that brings hell. Thankfully, Jesus has come to destroy our world and in him we can die to ourselves.

Safety is found in brokenness.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. – Psalm 51:17

Thus says the Lord,

“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where then is a house you could build for Me?
And where is a place that I may rest?
“For My hand made all these things,
Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord.
“But to this one I will look,
To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. – Isaiah 66:1,2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.   – Romans 12:1,2

To know Truth, we must die; we must be stripped of our glory.

In the scripture, when men came in the presence of the glory of God, they trembled. Their world fell apart in the light and majesty of God. In Christ, we boldly come to the throne room of God. And in the presence of God, we become broken. Our dependency on ourselves dies; our world views crumble and fall away, and the veil that keeps us from seeing Beauty is stripped away. And as our world crumbles away, we are held in the arms of our Father. God is our refuge, and we are loved. And in His arms, we truly become who we are.

In His loving presence, our daily walk is one of having our man-made “security” stripped away from us and nailed to the cross. We no longer need to look to our own “integrity”. We no longer need to uphold our glory. We instead behold the Lamb of God, who takes away our sin. It is in the cross that we find our true identity. In this act of presenting our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, we rest in God as our refuge, and He boldly takes us into His arms and brings us close to Himself.

Therefore, let this false wisdom fall away, let my world be crushed and my heart broken as God calls me into His Holy presence and I am changed and conformed into the image of Christ and brought into a love that will consume me and make me truly me.

How does this affect our relationships?

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. –  Colossians 3:12-17, ESV

Adam and Eve’s relationship fractured when they pursued their own world view and no longer found their safety in God’s Word. They no longer encouraged each other to trust in God’s Word, but instead sought to defend their own definition of “good and evil”. They were at odds with themselves and God. Through the work and worth of Jesus, God is working in us to learn to intimately find our life in His Word, to rest in Christ’s glory and not our own. The Gospel strips us of our own glory, our own safety, our own righteousness, our own truth and gives us the royal robes of Jesus. It also equips us to speak the Gospel into one another’s life and makes us vulnerable to hearing the gospel spoken into our own lives. Through the brokenness of the gospel, we pursue intimacy with Christ together and in that pursuit our love for one another grows.

• When Christ rules, it is no longer about defending oneself or world view
• There is security in having an authority that is higher than our views on a subject, in conflict we can agree to pursue God’s truth and not our own.
• God’s will is “good and acceptable and perfect”. Our will is not so much. God loves us and his will is safe.
• When God’s will rather than our own desires rule, we can truly pursue each other in freedom.

If we stubbornly hold on and are unwilling to have our world views crushed and broken, and that on a continual and ongoing basis, we will miss out on the goodness and the joy of the Lord, that are found in the wonders of the Gospel.

Questions to Consider:

1. How do you respond to those who bring correction? Do you put up walls or get angry with others who confront you? Do you rejoice in and delight in correction? Do you thank and value those who are willing to bring correction into your life?
2. Do you require people to bring correction in a certain way or jump through hoops before you will listen, or do you value hearing correction regardless of how it is presented?
3. Do you attack those who confront you? Do you admit you were wrong?
4. Do you blame others for your sin? Are you unwilling to be honest about your pride?
5. Do you look for people to affirm you in the midst of your sin, or do seek people who will confront you with the horridness of your sin? Giving God’s command to cut off those things that hinder us from God, which is more beneficial regardless of motives?
6. Is the sin you hold on to so tightly and love, more important than the relationships around you? How long have you allowed it to destroy your relationships? If it is more important to you than those around you, how can you say that it is not more important than God as well?
7. Being broken means being near God, do you pursue safety rather than God’s presence?
8. In a discussion, is your goal to win an argument or to pursue truth? Do you care about winning an argument, if so, why? What does this say about your heart and your pride?
9. What are you willing to do to win an argument? How does this destroy relationships?
10. In a relationship, is it ok if you’re the one who is wrong and the one who needs correction every time or do you want there to be equal blame, equal correction? What does this say about what your worth means to you, your pride?
11. Do you actively pursue where you are wrong? Do you seek out others who will rebuke you or those who will make you feel confirmed?
12. When was the last time your world was shaken to its core? When was the last time you allowed the trembling in God’s presence to restore and heal your heart?
13. Will you take all this lightly, or will you allow these words to sink deeply into your heart and destroy your world? How tightly will you hold onto your sin?

I was talking with my child the other day. She was telling me of a situation where she was told by someone that not everyone believes in Jesus. I let her know that she can be assured that I will not conceal this information or these kind of views from her or minimize what others say against the Christian faith. I also let her know it is ok to have questions about the Christian faith. I let her know that unlike those who will say things like this, who are only able to see one side, I will not hide things from her, not only that, I expect her to see both sides (for I have yet to see an atheist or agnostic, even former Christians or Christian leaders or pastors, that are able to articulate the Christian faith and present both sides or something that I recognize as the Christian faith, and they certainly will not teach their children the Christian faith). Nor do I want her to run away or hide in the sand. Unlike the opposition I expect her to have an open mind. I want her to fully understand the strongest arguments against the Christian faith, because we don’t have to fear them. Truth stands when buffeted. I want these ideas to be fully exposed so she can see them for what they are. Unlike those who oppose the Christian faith, it is also important as Christians that we endeavor to listen to the questions people have and understand them so that we can fully address them. We want to talk with people not past them. Atheist only present one side, while Christians by the nature of their call seek to understand both sides so they can clearly present the Gospel to others, meeting them where they are at. Because Truth is a person, it is relational. And because Truth holds us, we don’t have to be afraid of hearing people out and fully understanding their views. And yes, there is Truth, . . . and we know this instinctively as we try to make sense of this world.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. (1 Peter 3:14–16, ESV)

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:3–5, ESV)

We tremble and shrink back

As discussed earlier (here), God has postponed the Day of the Lord, the day of our judgment . . . by hiding himself. And because of this we have hope, despite the definitive verdict for our trespasses. But this is not the only reason God hides himself. . . .

For even if God were to come near without judgment as he did with Adam and Eve, we would shrink back, run away, and hide from his presence. This is our natural inclination, just as it is the natural inclination for roaches to flee for the darkness when the light is turned on. A fallen humanity cannot stand before the Lord, not just because God is holy, which is one reason, but also because we don’t want to be near his presence. We need to be clear; it is not God who does not want to be near for “He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27, NASB), but it is we who cannot bear to be in his presence. Let us look at Adam and Eve’s response when God came into the Garden.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8)

Adam and Eve shrunk back and hid themselves. Because this is our natural response, if God wanted a relationship with humanity where we would not flee, he had to condescend so that we would stick around long enough to hear his voice. God does not overwhelm us by his presence but comes to where we are and is gentle, treating us as precious and as the apple of his eye. Therefore, God’s hiddenness is an act of loving-kindness towards us, allowing us to come near to him.

And so, when God came to Adam and Eve after they had sinned, he did not come in the fullness of his glory, but instead he came hidden in gentleness and patient kindness for God is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness (Psalm 103:8, Exodus 34:6). The word “cool” in the passage above can be translated “wind”, rendering the phrase, “the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the wind of the day”. The words “wind of the day” is describing God coming in the clouds. When God comes near, he is often portrayed as being cloaked in clouds or cloaked in some other way, such as behind the veil of the tabernacle. As it is hard to see on a dense foggy day, this cloud obscures us from seeing God in his fullness. Likewise, the word “sound” is describing the fact that God’s face is not seen, but only his voice is present. When God shows up, we often see the term “the Word of the Lord”. This is more than just hearing an ethereal voice out of nowhere. Often, the “word” or “sound” is doing things like “walking in the garden” or “standing”. There is a real presence. But like the word “wind”, it is describing the presence of God that is hidden. We cannot fully see God. And so, the words “sound” and “wind” are significant words in the Bible, describing both a God who is hidden and who is intimately near us. In the Bible, when God makes his presence known after the fall, it is never by direct means but always hidden in a cloud of glory and through the word of the Lord. And so, by using the words “sound” and “wind”, this passage is describing a God who had already hidden himself before coming into the garden to meet with Adam and Eve. With these words, it is clear that their relationship has changed. God was no longer going to have direct and naked fellowship with Adam and Eve. And yes, by this act of hiding himself, God was postponing the day of judgment by hiding his throne and his face from us, but in love, he was also doing something more. . .. He was making himself approachable to humanity despite their sin.

Notice that Adam and Eve’s response is similar to the Israelites’ response when they heard the sound of the Lord and saw the clouds.

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. (Exodus 19:16, ESV)

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:18–19, ESV)

just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ (Deuteronomy 18:16, ESV)

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” (Hebrews 12:18–21, ESV)

Israel trembled and did not want God’s presence to be near. Just like Adam and Eve, the Israelites would prefer to be hidden from God’s presence. We may feel bold and shout up to the sky, telling God that he ought to reveal himself more directly to us, but even if he came veiled and hidden, we would not be able to handle it. We would fall on our faces, trembling. Instead of wanting to be in his presence, we, like Adam and Eve, would flee. And we, like the Israelites, would only harden our hearts in unbelief on that day. This is what Hebrews speaks of when it describes “those who shrink back and are destroyed” (Hebrews 10:39, ESV). And it is the very thing God is trying to avoid in hiding himself. If God showed up, we would run away and destroy ourselves, for we would flee even if that meant running to a place of darkness.

We who do not want God near, though he comes near

Let us be clear. It is not because God is not good that we shrink back. It is because evil cannot survive in his presence that we shrink back in fear. Light is good, but darkness flees in the presence of light. For those who love the light, this is good. For those who love the darkness, this is terror, for the things they love cannot survive in the light. Jesus brings healing, for he is the way, the truth, and the life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4–5, ESV). Yet despite this, we reject him,

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19–20, ESV)

And so, because we love our sin, we shrink back in fear of being destroyed. Because this is our tendency when in the presence of God, God veils and hides himself. God lowers down the notch by infinite degrees so that his presence won’t overwhelm us. He comes in the shadows and in the things that go bump in the night; we just choose to shrink back and hide. The most repeated command in the Bible is, “Do not fear”. In our fear, God is gentle, kind, sensitive, and loving in the way he approaches us.

God hid himself in order to rescue us

Though God hides from us, God is not hiding from us in the sense that he does not want to be found, nor in the sense that he is difficult to find. That is so far from the truth. God hid himself to protect us from the judgment day and to keep us from shrinking back so that he might rescue us. And so, yes, there is a theme of hiddenness, a veil, a cloud throughout the Bible, that only allows us to see God dimly, as if in a reflection. And yes, we cannot see God directly, for we are carefully kept from this by a loving God who is gentle, patient, lowly, humble, and self-sacrificing in the way he handles us in our fallen nature. And he has done this not to hide himself from us, but instead that he might be approachable and might be found. And it is indeed his desire to be found by us and come to Him, despite our sin. Psalm 32 has the theme of God calling to the sinner to come near despite their sin. In this Psalm, God calls to the sinner,

     Be not like a horse or 
          mule,
       without understanding,
       which must be curbed
          with bit 
          and bridle,
       or it will not stay
          near you.
          (Psalm 32:9, ESV)

Because God has veiled himself, because of his hiddenness, it allows us to come near into his presence without shrinking back or being like a mule, and as we come near, we need not fear our final judgment because the veil keeps us from his throne and his face. Paul states that God set history “that [we] should seek God, and perhaps feel [our] way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27, ESV).  Moses describes God’s nearness,

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it (Deuteronomy 30:11–14, ESV)

Paul elaborates on this,

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:5–13)

Though God is hidden, he is not far from each one of us. The only wall between us is our willingness to call upon the name of the Lord. But instead of coming to God, we are the ones who hide ourselves from his presence despite his gentle kindness towards us. We, in our “unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). We actively hide God’s presence from ourselves, for his presence means we will be exposed and vulnerable. We love the darkness and don’t want to be exposed by the light. We love our world. God’s presence destroys our world, and we want to fight to keep it. And so, we shrink back and hide ourselves.

But God is only a call away from us. When we are ready to leave our world behind and come to him, we will find that he was already there with arms open wide.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth (Psalm 145:18)

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit. (Psalm 34:1)

Our Father is near. And if we go back to the words “sound” and “wind”, we will see this. Though they imply hiddenness, they also imply a deep intimacy and a loving faithfulness. And because of His love and kindness, an all-powerful, all-knowing God has chosen to use these means to reveal himself. We will discuss more about the “sound” and the “wind” in the upcoming articles in this series (The hidden God in an evil world). But before we discuss the “sound” and the “wind”, we will look at our response to the “obvious” means of evidence that atheists seem to want, for we must be careful what we wish for.

When dealing with someone who is struggling with the idea of Christianity and asking the question of why they should believe in the God of the Bible, we must realize that the struggle is rarely merely an intellectual one. And this is the case whether the person is an atheist, agnostic, going through deconstruction, or having doubt. As I have talked with people this is often the core issue. Even after giving what they agree to be a solid answer, they still don’t want to give up what they believe. They are often dealing with what they believe to be right and good, for without the King, every man does what is right in their own eyes. Sin often entangles us because we believe it is good. Psychologically we are often more persuaded by a good story than we are by facts. This is why slogans of those who attack Christianity often appeal to this condition and speak to the heart rather than the intellect. We hear things like, “Love wins” or “Love always”. After all who can argue with love, is not love the supreme good. Our responses though to these kinds of questions often deal with the intellect rather than the heart. I’ve seen many times where someone asks a genuine heart felt question where they are struggling only for the depth of their questions to be ignored by some intellectual response. The Bible though solid in its intellectual compacity does not ignore this flaw of human nature and how we often follow our hearts. In dealing with these kinds of questions we must follow the scriptures example. It is the word of God and the beautiful story of the Gospel that changes hearts. If we are patient and willing to listen to the depth of the questions that the person is having, we can have no fear, for the word of God is perfectly capable of handling a rowdy, struggling, sinful human heart. It sets the captives free. So instead of giving a solely intellectual answer that satisfies our own questions, we must dig deeper in our conversation with others and deeper into the word of God and let God’s words speak. The story of the Gospel is intriguing, compelling, beautiful, and awe inspiring. In the light of God’s beauty, the slogans of this world become a pale whisper and are exposed for the foolishness they are. The Gospel is far better than the silly slogans the world provides. It attacks both mind and heart. We need to be get better about not just giving an answer to the questions but entrancing people with wonder of the story. A story that unlike the slogans of this world stands on a firm and solid foundation. Unlike the fickle hearted ruled slogans of this world, thankfully there is not just beauty but also solid scholarship and intellect to back it up the Gospel, for only things in Christ can stand.

We often ignore the heart of the questions people are having because an unruly heart is so difficult to tame. It takes time, patience, struggle, and a willingness to get close and wrestle. We must keep in mind that the sword described in Hebrews 4 is not a long sword, but one meant for close combat and wrestling. It meant for this kind of struggle. So, we should not be surprised at this kind of warfare and be ready for close combat and wrestling with the enemy. We can stand against the enemy without fear, for it is easy to be brave when facing a foe, when there is a lion backing you up. As Augustine said, we need to uncage the lion and let the word of God roam free and stop holding it back. So don’t be afraid to intently and purposefully listen to the questions of those challenging Christianity, they are only whimper and pale in comparison to the lion. But also, do not attack them in your own strength or with what is right and wise in your own eyes. We do not depend on Egypt to win our battles. That glory goes to the Lord alone. Be patient and listen to their question and wait on the Lord and allow his word to conquer not your intellect. Let us gather around the fire of God’s word and experience the light and heat of the Gospel as we listen to the story and let it envelope us and sink into our hearts, breath, blood, flesh and bones.

The Problem of Futile Suffering

I listened as an atheist admitted that the most difficult quandary for him in believing in God is the presence of pointless suffering. He could not understand how a perfectly-loving God could allow pointless suffering in the world? He described a scenario of a tree that had fallen on deer in the middle of nowhere. Even though the deer cried out for help, there was no one to rescue the deer. This deer did not die instantly but languished for days before it finally succumbed to its wounds and lack of food and water and died. Because no one was there, no one ever knew what happened, it had no effect on anyone whether good or bad. Nor was it caused by foolishness or evil. It just happened. If you have experienced enough life, you have experienced this kind of futility. It is easier to take hold of the idea that suffering can in some way help us to grow or the fact that God can use evil in this world to produce good. We are easily captivated by the idea that God not only triumphs over evil, but ultimately thwarts the plan of evil for his own purposes, making a complete mockery of evil. After all this is ultimately what we see in the death of Jesus. But what about suffering that occurs where we look at it and it is just utterly futile. Do we tell people, “It is going to be ok”, “It will get better”, or “There is some purpose behind it”. We can try to paint a rosy picture on this kind of suffering, but I do not think that is what we find in scripture. The scripture is honest, yes, there is futility, vanity, and chaos in the world. Ecclesiastes declares, “’Futility of futilities,’ says the Preacher, ‘Futility of futilities! All is futility.” (1:2, NASB). And Paul confirms this, “For the creation was subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20a).

It is not surprising that we perform evil acts. We have rejected God and chosen to do what is right in our own eyes. God does not have the quality of goodness; he is the basis and source of goodness. God is good. So, when humanity rejects and abandons their only source of goodness, that goodness withers away and dies. God has made us in the image of God, but just as a rose on a branch withers away when separated from its source, so we too cannot maintain our goodness apart from God. The moment that branch is cut off it is decaying, and it is cut off from life. You might place it in water, but it does not change the essence of death. When we reject God, we too fall into depravity. The psalmist understood this when he wrote, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good besides You” (16:2, NASB). So, it is not surprising the horror that has resulted from humanity’s rebellion and hatred of God. When you abandon good you have evil. But does this explain why there is futile suffering?

Let us go back to Romans 8:20a and read it in its context,

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:18–24a, ESV)

Paul is clear that God has subjected creation to futility, but it is a futility with purpose so that the sons of God may be revealed and even creation itself will be restored as humanity is once again in their rightful place as royal priests presiding over creation bringing prosperity to creation. So, why did God subject creation to futility, and how does this accomplish the restoration of mankind?

When Adam rebelled against God by eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, he broke the command of God and his covenant. God had made it clear that if he broke the command, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17, ESV). The term, “in the day” refers both to the immediate fall of man, but also refers to the day of judgement when we stand before God’s throne and see him face to face. What we find is that though we experience the former, God postpones the later. Instead of bringing Adam before his throne, God veils himself and keeps his face hidden and then expels Adam and Eve from the Garden, keeping them from his throne. If God had not done this, you and I would not be here today. (For more on this, read here.) When God hid his face from mankind, he also hid his face from creation and this act has significant consequences.

We have noted that when we actively separate ourselves from God in our rebellion, because we have abandoned the only source of good, our hearts become depraved and evil results. Likewise, when God veiled or hid himself in order to save mankind, this absence of the fullness of his glory affected all of creation. Like us, creation requires God’s presence in his fullness to be good. Neither we nor creation work properly without the fullness of God’s presence. So, when God veiled himself chaos, decay, and futility occurred in nature. And so yes, there is futility in this world. But as Paul writes, God did this in hope. In hope he kept Adam and Eve from his face and from his throne room, because he had a plan to save both mankind and creation through the seed of the women, Jesus.

Though we groan inwardly, we have a great hope. And this is our hope, that both we and creation will once again experience the fullness of the presence of God. As the psalmist cries out, “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Psalm 80:3). It is in seeing God’s face that we are restored. And because of the work and worth of Jesus, those who put their trust in him, will see God’s face. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12, NASB). John describes how we will be healed when we see God’s face, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (John 3:2, NASB). And likewise, creation will be healed when it experiences the fullness of the presence of God. “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9, ESV). “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face,” (Revelation 22: 3-4a). God will not only conquer evil, but he will also conquer futility as well. God is a God that can bring order out of chaos. He is God over all, and he will truly use all things for his glory and for the good of those who love him. It is only an all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly loving God that can accomplish all this.

     On this mountain the LORD 
       of hosts will make for all peoples 
          a feast of rich food, 
            a feast of well-aged wine, 
          of rich food full of marrow, 
            of aged wine well refined. 
     And he will swallow up 
       on this mountain 
          the covering that is 
           cast over all peoples, 
          the veil that is spread
           over all nations. 
     He will swallow up death forever; 
     and the Lord GOD will wipe 
       away tears from all faces, 
         and the reproach of his people 
           he will take away 
            from all the earth, 
         for the LORD has spoken. 
     It will be said on that day, 

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him;let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
(Isaiah 25:6–9, ESV)

Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:3-4, ESV)

     The LORD bless you and keep you;
        the LORD make his face 
         to shine upon you and 
         be gracious to you;
        the LORD lift up his countenance
         upon you and 
         give you peace. 
         (Numbers 6:24–26, ESV) 

To read the series Hidden God in and evil world, click here.

Things go bump in the night

As a child, you may have woken up in the middle of the night with darkness all around you, and as the shadows creep into your imagination, you cry out in fear. . . .

Soon, you are held by loving arms that comfort you with their voice. But what if those comforting arms and voice never came. . . .

How can this be?

Many have wrestled with the idea of the “hiddenness” of God. This struggle is more than just an intellectual proposition. It bores its way deeply into our hearts and our understanding of love. If God is perfectly loving, why does he not make himself clearly known? Has he left us in the dark? No loving parent would leave their child in the dark. If God is loving, why does he not make his presence clearly and definitively known? If you love someone and want them to come to you, you don’t hide yourself. How crazy is that? More importantly, if we must know God in order to be saved, and not knowing him means experiencing his wrath, why does God hide himself? And if God is all-powerful, why does he not just make it happen? If he wanted to make himself known all he would have to do is just show up and say, “Hi” or make himself known clearly in some other way. Wouldn’t it be solved if He could just make himself known to everyone on earth? We would all believe. And everything would be great. Problem solved.

But more importantly, many struggle with the fact that they feel like God, if he exists has not revealed himself personally to them. The evidence against God’s existence is so overwhelming, they do not know how to tenably hold on to the idea of a God. Many also feel that despite seeking answers from God, they haven’t received any. They feel like if God does exist, then it is his fault that they don’t believe in him. After all, if God is loving and all-powerful, he ought to be able to make himself known with clarity to me. And what about the rest of humanity? We cannot know God unless he reveals himself, so he is the one responsible for making himself known, not us. Many who have asked this question find it difficult to see how God, if he exists, is loving, just, fair, or good. For if knowing him is so vital and necessary for our salvation, then why would he hide? We ought to wrestle with questions like these and not run away or hide from them. I have had sleepless nights struggling with questions like this. And it is in this wrestling between my own questions and the two-edged sword of the word that has grown and refined my faith as I come to see the beauty and wonder of the face of God more clearly.

We will find that there is more to the story and that God indeed does come wrapping his arms around us, but there are those who reject his love because they have come to love the shadows. And in loving the shadows, they have become the things that go bump in the night. When the father comes, he destroys the shadows and the things that go bump in the night to comfort his children. And so, having become the things that go bump in the night, they shrink back and hide from the father.

Before we discuss the hiddenness of God, I first want you to put a picture in your mind of Jesus weeping. Why is he weeping?

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! (Luke 13:34)

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:41-44)

Christianity demands that we believe based on the evidence. Atheism demands that you actively ignore evidence and scholarship.

The more I look at atheist arguments, the more I realize the lie that they have fooled themselves into believing, and their resistance to evidence. They have put their trust in poor arguments that ought not to even be heard among scholars.. . . They have blinded themselves.

Truth is not afraid of questions. Listening to questions people have should not dishearten us. I have found though; we don’t like how this process disquiets us. So, we might be quick to come to conclusions or find answers that don’t adequately address the question. I’ve been thinking about the movement of Deconstructionism, where people struggle with questions about Christianity and often leave the faith. I see two things happening. As someone is going through this process, there are not a lot of resources. The questions they have are difficult and deep and cannot be answered quickly. But because it is uncomfortable that is often what happens. They are given foolish answers that don’t even come close to addressing the questions they have. Because it is comfortable those giving these answers walk away thinking they have done their job. Maybe they think the person is stubborn. But really it is them that feel more comfortable walking on the other side of the road. Not many want to go into the trenches with them and stay there however long it takes. We don’t want to feel the struggle and the questions that it will create for ourselves. We don’t want to feel the weariness of wrestling through these questions.

Because this is a deep emotional place, one seeks relief. For someone who is honestly struggling with these questions, a quick foolish answer will only make the wound deeper. Their questions are real, and our answers need to be real. If you are seeking relief, there are those who will say, look at the foolish answers you have been given and by the way here are even more questions, the answer is not wrestling with the questions, but walking away from the questions all together, walking away from Christianity. The problem is that these also are quick and foolish answers to the questions people are having. They don’t answer the questions, only say they don’t exist. I have never come across an argument from this side that does not rely on poor scholarship or logic to make its point. The arguments look awesome on the surface, but only if you remain on the surface. But when you’re tired and in pain, these answers though foolish, provide relief. And many settle for relief, because they have already tried the church and have nowhere else to go. Relief is better than the quick foolish answers that make the wound deeper.

And this is the problem, we don’t like going deep when it is uncomfortable for us. We don’t like wrestling because it wears us out. In the end, we want relief and comfort more than we want Truth. We want both, but if we have to settle for one . . . . And once we have relief, we close our eyes and ears and mind. This is human nature.

But true healing comes when we lose our life and abandon comfort. Love requires it. Wresting is up close and personal, extremely intimate. The reality is we all have a lot of baggage to wrestle through. Wrestling feels like the opposite of rest but is necessary to find it. We must strive in order to find rest. Love enters in and wrestles with us, cutting away at the lies and our baggage, but not only the lies, but the places where we lack love, where we don’t love others well. We can only find rest in truth and love, and so we must wrestle.

Hebrews 4:11–13 calls us to find this rest, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. “

And Love, the intimacy of wrestling will bring healing. Gold and silver are refined in fire. It is the same with us. Let us not settle for temporary comforts that ignore our questions. Let us seek Truth and grab on to Love with confidence. And let us not let others walk alone, not looking for quick answers, but walking in this journey together.