Where is God Hiding?
For many the theological equation is simple: “if God would simply show Himself to be real, in an obvious, sensory way, then I would believe.” Simple. And yet God does not seem the least interested in accomodating the request. He doesn’t take the bait.
He has His own terms, it seems - terms which require humans to seek Him wthin the universe. He is find-able, it appears, but only to those who are truly looking. As much as that sounds lik a convenient bit of circular reasoning, maintain it could be true.
At least for now.
If God is real, He is invisible. But can be found by those who believe. If you do not find God, it is because you are not looking. Or perhaps you are looking in the wrong places. How much belief is required initially we can not yet know.
But where can God be found? There must be intersections of His invisible presence in the physical, visible world that spark such belief. Interestingly, spoken words are invisible, yet can sneak into and through the earhole to activate the human heart.
Words can incarnate presence. This is a sacramental understanding of revelation.
But most people are not ready for that. They would rather psychologize God and argue about about His hiding (even behind words or sacraments). Does God hide out of some fear of over-exposure or simply a desire to remain anonymous and undisturbed?
Most today are not even interested in that question. But oh to those who begin this journey that is unlike any other. This pilgrimate is the quest of a lifetime. If a Supreme Being truly exists, then by definition, discovering them is worth everything.
Duh.
If there is a Creator-God who formed the universe, who breathed life into the nostrils of man, who designed the tulips, architected the mountain ranges, hand crafted the ant, named the stars and so forth, He probably has some insight into life on earth.
Again, that is obvious. But the many versions of “God” out there can be a distraction. It need not be. By definition, God must transcend human experience and limitation. God must eventually have acces to the omnis: omnipresence, omniscence (knowledge), omnipotence (power).
If God is God, He is not limited by space, time, or other natural constraints.
We can agree on that. But is God one or many? That is different. Greek’s had Zeus and his many underlings. Hindu’s Brahman: One God with millions of incarnations. Hebrews and Islam: God is One, only One. Christians One God (substance) three persons.
The disagreements are not about God’s qualities (omnis), but His nature.
Two religions offer a hybrid to straight mono or poly-theism: Christianity and Hinduism. Each has multiple gods or natures yet One substance. One God, multiple forms. Unity and diversity. And usually the omnis of the One are distributed to the various forms.
Brahman is described as the single binding unity behind the diversity in all that exists. The unity of God’s millions of forms quickly becomes a pantheistic unity of all reality. Reality itself becomes God. There is no seperation of God and creation.
For Christianity this is not so. Its complex monotheism insists God is still outside nature. Yet God enters this earthly realm in the God-man Christ, the Word made flesh. Not Christ the man only but Christ the binding unity of nature—second Person of the Trinity.
This universal and timeless nature of Christ is not understood by most, but is the essential lynchpin of Christianity (though many Christians don’t fully appreciate it). The divinity and humanity of Christ make Christianity the tie-breaker of world religions.
It is the way that God hidden behind the universe makes Himself known to the world.
Christ is essential the doctrine of the Trinity. If he is God, he was and is and is to come. He is not reduced to His life on earth. His cosmic work carries on. From breathing creation into existence to making all things new, there is no end to the world Christ redeems.
