« Hey, how are you doing? » we say.
« Whoah. What is this? » he says out loud. I’m not sure you’re really there. I can’t see you. First of all, if you’re there, prove it. I kind of think you must be but I’m not sure.”
So, I turn to you and say, « Let’s prove to him that we exist. Give him a hundred dollars. » You frown as if to say, « Why don’t you give him a hundred dollars,” but since you’re rich you pull out your wallet and give it to him.
“Okay, this is good so how can I be sure you’re really there? I mean, this is money. I can tell by the feel and smell. But it may have been the results of billions of years of changes. It probably started out as a penny. Yeah, that’s certainly it. So if you’re there prove it.”
It’s funny, if you’re speaking with me, I don’t ask you to prove that you exist.
Yet, God is constantly called to task because He won’t “prove” that He exists.
We want Him to show up to sign autographs after the ball game. We want Him to flash a PowerPoint presentation on the side of Mount Kilamanjaro–something spectacular. Or what about if He just walks up to us and says, “Hey, I’m God. Want me to do a fantastic miracle to prove it?”
The first reason God doesn’t reveal Himself like we ask is that it would kill us. We’d all be crispy critters if this frail body had a full revelation of God. A small peep of God to Israel at Mount Sinai scared them to death. Moses glimpsed Him from behind and that was all he could take. God is bigger than the universe and as small as the smallest organelles or quarks. A full revelation of God would obliterate us.
If God limited the revelation of Himself to what we ask, we would limit God to what we know. If God shows up on the mountain, fuming, shaking, and burning, we’d all behave for a few days (think of the aftermath of September 11 when churches were full the next weekend). After a while, we’d go back to doing what we do when He’s not revealing Himself like that.
We want God to reveal Himself but could we comprehend a full revelation in this life? He would have to reduce Himself to much less that what He is. We’d reduce Him to an idol, or a man and worship that, but God surpasses that tiny idea. It’s like comparing the light of a match to the sun.
He doesn’t reveal Himself like that because He is so much more than that. This visible earth isn’t the only reality that exists. God inhabits everything and reigns in all.
He has revealed Himself to those who think. Look at His Creation. I’m sorry, but it seems incredibly unscientific to think that something so intricate resulted from the earth winning a cosmic lottery. And where did the earth come from anyway? And the cosmic lottery that we won, where did that cosmos come from?
Want to know God? We can understand His soul by looking into His creation. We see what He loves. For sure, even the creation has been corrupted by sin but God’s beauty is still there.
Anthony Flew was a notable atheist for most of his life. But, as he considered the “big bang” and realized there was a start to all this he began to believe in the existence of God. According to him, he simply followed the evidence where it led.