Why Doesn’t God Just…
In 2023, Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett wrote a book titled The Deconstruction of Christianity. In it, they explain that deconstruction is a growing movement in which many young people leave the Christian faith, often for atheism and unbelief. In their discussion about how the deconstruction process begins, they wrote: “Deconstructed beliefs nearly always begin with questions.” Of course, we understand that there is nothing wrong with a good question. In fact, the authors readily recognize that questions are often a great way to get at truth, and that Jesus used questions in His teachings. The authors, however, make a powerful statement concerning questions. They write: “But not all questions are honest questions. When it comes to faith, some questions seek answers, and some seek exits. There are questions that seek after truth, but other questions seek to avoid truth.”
One line of questioning that often seems to seek exits instead of answers begins with the statement, “Why doesn’t God just…?” This type of question is often asked by leading atheists as a subtle argument against God’s character. Why doesn’t God just perform miracles for amputees? Why doesn’t God show Himself clearly so more people will believe? Why doesn’t God let everyone into heaven? Why doesn’t God stop bad people from harming good people? The list could go on and on.
Notice that there can be a subtle implication in questions phrased this way. The subliminal message is often something like this: If God cared about amputees, He would miraculously heal them all. Or, if God really loved people, He would never allow anyone to go to hell and would save all people. Or, God must not care that bad people harm good people, or maybe there is no God at all. We can see that it is often the case that people use the form of a question to attack God’s character or existence, while claiming to innocently be seeking answers to their questions. On the other hand, there are many who ask such questions who are truly seeking answers. Thus, we must all ask ourselves if we are really seeking answers.
In addition, it is important to understand that a question is not an argument against something. For instance, “Why doesn’t God just show Himself?” is not evidence that God does not love people or does not exist. It is simply a question that potentially has an excellent, logical, reasonable answer. Furthermore, when a person says something to the effect of, “I can’t think of a good reason why God doesn’t show Himself more clearly,” that does not mean an answer does not exist. Many people couldn’t think of anything that would sink the Titanic. Millions of people couldn’t think of any good reason not to use asbestos in factories.
Let us, then, briefly analyze the question: Why doesn’t God show Himself? This has been called the problem of Divine Hiddenness, and there are many materials available on the topic. I’d like to urge you, the reader, to stop right here and try this little exercise. If someone were to agree to pay you one million dollars if you could come up with a logical reason why a loving God might not openly show Himself to every human on the planet, do you think you would take some time to seriously consider the question?
I’m not going to answer the question in this article, but I would like you to consider something. At the beginning of the animated Disney movie “Beauty and the Beast,” a haggard, old woman knocks on the door of the castle where a haughty and spoiled prince lives. The night is stormy, cold, and wet and the poor old woman begs the prince to give her a dry place to stay. The hard-hearted prince callously sends her on her way. He soon learns of his costly mistake when the beggar reveals that she is a beautiful woman who was testing the prince. The prince’s pleas for forgiveness fall on deaf ears, because the woman could see that there was no love in his heart.
Why doesn’t God just show Himself? “There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him” (Isaiah 53:2-3). Could it be that God is showing Himself to all people, but some just don’t have eyes to recognize Him? [For more information, see Eric Lyons (2016), apologeticspress.org/why-doesnt-god-show-himself/.]
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