Divine Hiddenness

 

Staring at an empty glass, sitting at an empty table, listening to an empty room, you send another prayer…not that it matters.  How long have you been begging God to speak to you? In some way, any way…just to know that he is there. You long for a relationship with him as others claim to have.  At the very least, you want to know that he is there, but nothing ever penetrates the silence.  How many times…how many times have your prayers been shouted down by silence?  Doesn’t matter…not anymore.  The solution to this emptiness, once filling the glass in front of you, will give you the answer…one way or another.

Where the hell is God?

His hands feel so cold in yours.  The subtle movement of his fingers, the reassuring reminder he is still with you, stopped hours ago, but you cannot leave his side.  You cannot let him go.  The joy felt from witnessing his smiles and laughter forever gone and replaced with unbearable pain.  It is said time and time again, a parent should never outlive his child, yet here you are, having spent years watching the cancer steal his childhood, steal his dreams, and now, steal his future. 

Where the hell is God?

As hard as you try, you cannot open the car doors.  The rising water on the outside of the car will not let them open.  Your brothers are screaming so loud you feel your eardrums pounding on your brain.  Terror seizes you and you begin to vomit from the trauma.  Tears stream down your face as the car continues to sink slowly into the dark, murky water. You turn to look back through the rear window and scream with harrowing fear…“Stop, Mommy, Stop! Why are you pushing the car into the lake!?!”

War?              

Famine?         

Pestilence?     

Mere child’s play when contemplating the horrific evil tearing this vile world apart. 

Where the hell is God?

 

 

The steward of this site cannot claim immunity from the feelings of loneliness, abandonment, rage, from experiencing God’s apparent absence.  And if the steward is to be brutally honest, when the curses cease, he begins to wonder if God is even there at all.

Yet, like gravity, some invisible force pulls those thoughts and feelings inevitably back to earth, and the recognition…He is here, consumes all doubt.  Why?  Perhaps because God truly exists.

In searching the internet, it is clear both the logical and emotional challenges regarding divine hiddenness fair much better than many of the other challenges to God’s existence.  The veil set between us and the heavenly realm can be stubbornly opaque.  Yet, the Bible tells us: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” – Matthew 7:7

However dark your days become, please, never stop seeking.

To paraphrase Francis Schaeffer: He is here, and He is not silent.

 

Below is a collection of articles and videos from authors who have engaged the challenge of divine hiddenness.

 

Articles:
Videos:

 Legend

(s) short

(l) long

(r) repeated information from above article/video but told through a different voice.

(*) a favorite article/video of the Stuart

Et Cetera

Videos:
  • Why is God hidden? Cosmic Skeptic & Lukas Ruegger at Oxford University with Max Baker-Hytch

A school of words swimming in the brain goo.

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:26-27.

 

An important note about the linked articles/videos on this page:

All the articles/videos linked within The Armory were written by authors who produced the material for other websites.  None of the websites or authors of the linked material are associated with the Christian Faith Armory website. 

The purpose for The Armory is to lead the seeker to those trained authors and resource websites that can provide informed opinion and analysis on the subject topics.

i.e. this is an aggregating website for Christian Apologetics.  When you discover an article/video that you feel speaks directly to you, please spend time on that website for you may find an author who can speak in a voice heard by your heart.