Why Does God Hide Himself?

[morbo3000]

So the original question was, why not?

To be clear. You, and the OP are asking about theophanies, right? Revelations of divine power manifested as a personality. A being. Not a force. This rules out spirit and Jesus. Or, as you have offered, angels. Which I will define as benevolent beings with power and personality, though not divine.

These are what you are wondering why they are hidden. Yes?

[steve7150]

To be clear. You, and the OP are asking about theophanies, right? Revelations of divine power manifested as a personality. A being. Not a force. This rules out spirit and Jesus. Or, as you have offered, angels. Which I will define as benevolent beings with power and personality, though not divine.

These are what you are wondering why they are hidden. Yes?








What I meant to say was why doesn't God reveal himself to us in a natural way , which is how most people recognize things. But when I say "God" that would include Jesus,The Holy Spirit and even Angels because I think most people would assume Angels were sent by God.

[morbo3000]

This can be a dangerous slippery-slop-ish question.

YHWH/El/Allah seems to do less and less appearing as verifiable history gets more and more accessible. We can make a claim that God appeared to Noah, because the evidence of whether he did or not is buried in thousands of years of history when records were kept poorly, and it was common for stories to be told about gods talking with men.

When we get closer in time, with Jesus, we have multiple documents that we can compare, but we still don't have independent sources who could say "the seafood platter with French bread the disciples were serving was superb."

Fast forward to the present. The manifestations of unexplainable phenomenon we have, are healings, demonic possession, and Marian appearances. Each of these can be investigated with independent sources. The fact that enough of them happen, and that smart people believe in them, leads me to believe there are legitimate supernatural things that happen. But I've never experienced them myself.

All of that to say, (I've never even admitted this thought to myself) I'm fairly skeptical of OT accounts of divine theophanies. Because to your question, I would ask "why would God only reveal himself at a time in history when we can't prove the claim true or false, but doesn't now, when it could be verified." The uncomfortable answer is he didn't appear then either.


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[dizerner]

Christian apologists call this crisis the "god-shaped-hole," common to all humanity. Christianity claims that hole can only be filled by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And yet for some of you, that god-shaped-hole apparently isn't filled. Why is that? Doesn't that make Christianity a lie?








Certainly not but it shows we as humans are very flawed and very different in some ways, but in other ways very similar. Mother Theresa is an interesting example of someone who could on one level be the most giving and charitable and kind person demonstrating Jesus love yet on another level not feel God's presence. I'm just guessing that what she missed from God was an emotional connection but the giving part of her was a spiritual calling. But if Mother Theresa couldn't feel or see God often then it's safe to assume the average Joe doesn't either and the question was , why not? After all God doesn't have to appear himself, he could just send Angels to people to preach the gospel, to tell them he is aware of us etc.

This is not quite true, from what I understand. Not only was a lot of her money from shady sources, most of it went unaccounted for. Here infirmaries were all shoddy and left people in pain, though she always managed to get her name on them. I'm not exactly sure what went on there, but she doesn't seem to be the saint people assume.

[steve7150]

All of that to say, (I've never even admitted this thought to myself) I'm fairly skeptical of OT accounts of divine theophanies. Because to your question, I would ask "why would God only reveal himself at a time in history when we can't prove the claim true or false, but doesn't now, when it could be verified." The uncomfortable answer is he didn't appear then either.










Well it's not uncomfortable if you accept the fact that Jesus referenced the OT many times and never implied or hinted anything was untrue, so I accept his judgment. But I even accepted Angels as suitable messengers from God that would impact most people, so the main question has not been addressed.

[morbo3000]

Oops. I forgot to include angels in my post. That's fascinating. I'd love to hear your story.

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[steve7150]

Oops. I forgot to include angels in my post. That's fascinating. I'd love to hear your story.



Nothing very exciting. I stopped at a Post Office and parked in the lot and headed into the Post Office. On my way back to my car a tall lady dressed in a long green dress asked me to look on her dashboard at a red warning light. It happened to be an oxygen sensor light for the exhaust pipe which I only learned about 2 weeks earlier when my own mechanic diagnosed the same thing for my car. I told her about it and recommended she go to my mechanic. She thanked me and called me "such a nice young man." (Anyone calling me young is on my fav list).
So I walked to my car which was 15 feet away from her car. Mind you she was an old lady, standing outside of her old green car and previously moved very slowly and gingerly. I got in my car , looked in the rear view mirror to see how she was doing, (all of 15 seconds) and she was gone, the car was gone. I looked up the service road leading into the Post Office and then up and down the main road and there was no sign of her.
As soon as I didn't see her, I knew it was an angel because she didn't even have time to pull out of her parking spot yet she was gone. Yet nothing dramatic happened as all she did was take up some of my time.

[dwight92070]

I'm not saying that could not have been an angel but it does sound somewhat suspect to me. All the angelic appearances in the Bible had a specific purpose. I cannot imagine what the purpose of this "visit" would be. Not only that, but I don't think any angel in the Bible ever appeared as a woman but always as a man.

[Jason]

When I was around 13 years old, I took a severe beating from a bunch of older kids at a school lock-in event. This is where parents drop you off on a Friday night and everyone gets picked up the following morning. After the assault, I was able to slip away and hide but they were still looking for me. I was approached by another kid my age and his mother, neither of whom I'd seen previously, and both seemed to know a lot about what had happened, despite them not being present at the time. They told me to stay where I was and everything would be fine. I never saw the kid and his mother, nor the assailants, again after this. And I remained safe until dawn.

Now, I'm not claiming this kid and his mom were angels, but there were a number of issues that I still can't resolve to this day (I'm 37 now). Where did the boy come from and how did he and his mother know what happened when there was no one else around? How did they know the bullies wouldn't find me when the area was so small? Where did they go after this since the place was locked until morning and I actually went looking for them? Lots of weird stuff going on there.

[steve7150]

Now, I'm not claiming this kid and his mom were angels, but there were a number of issues that I still can't resolve to this day (I'm 37 now). Where did the boy come from and how did he and his mother know what happened when there was no one else around? How did they know the bullies wouldn't find me when the area was so small? Where did they go after this since the place was locked until morning and I actually went looking for them? Lots of weird stuff going on there.

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Jason





You need not claim anything as it seems obvious they were most likely angels unless you discover a natural explanation.