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Where is God?

Where is God?. The Problem of Divine Hiddenness. Matthew 11:25. I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. . The Problem. Friedrich Nietzsche N.R . Hanson Bertrand Russell. Knowing God.

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Where is God?

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  1. Where is God? The Problem of Divine Hiddenness

  2. Matthew 11:25 • I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

  3. The Problem • Friedrich Nietzsche • N.R. Hanson • Bertrand Russell

  4. Knowing God • Acknowledging God’s existence is not enough, the demons acknowledge God as real (Jas 2:19) • God declares that we are to seek him as a hidden treasure (Prov 2:4) • Pascal: for whole-hearted seekers God gives ample grace and presence, for the half-hearted or hard hearted he gives sufficient ambiguity

  5. Reshaping the Problem • Sufficient evidence will not necessarily lead to seeking God and repentance • Plato: to know the good is to do the good • Our disposition may resist/suppress evidence • We have sufficient evidence (Lk 16:31) • Jesus performed miracles that even those witnessing them rejected (Mt 11:24-31)

  6. Evidence may bring more hate • Thomas Nagel: I have a cosmic authority problem • The point: a relentless fight for autonomy

  7. William Earnest Henley’s Invictus • Out of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.

  8. InvictusCont’d • Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll.I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.

  9. What does God demand of me? • A humble spirit, not a demanding one • We don’t become worshippers of God by having mounds of evidence and having all of our questions answered

  10. What would a proof look like? • What if Hanson’s Zeus appeared? • Willing to appear openly to those who seek him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from him with all their heart, God so regulates the knowledge of himself that he has given signs of himself, visible to those who seek him, and not to those who seek him not.

  11. Reasons for Obscurity • He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6) • God hides from believers to give a deeper appreciation for his presence, to foster a sense of dependency, to encourage gratitude, to humble our pride

  12. Obscurity • Pascal: • The will, which prefers one aspect to another, turns away the mind from considering the qualities of all that it does not like to see; and thus the mind, moving in accord with the will, stops to consider the aspect which it likes, and so judges by what it sees.

  13. Doubt • I do believe, help now my unbelief (Mk 9:24) • Words of direction • It is hard to move toward belief when you surround yourself with unbelief and skepticism (Ps 1:1-2)

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