Why would God go so long without making His presence clearly known?
A massively abridged Cliff Notes version of the Old Testament is that later after leader, group after group believed in and followed God and gained favor. But over time (usually generations?) they stray and suffer defeat or calamity. After which God makes his will and presence known and they follow.
For the sake of argument if we assume the bible to be true and the Christian God to exist (this is CF after all) then why doesn't God make his presence clearly and spectacularly known on a regular basis?
Hi HerCH,
The biblical answer as to why God shows up so little is probably that there is little, to no, relationship between a person's epistemic status of "knowing" about God's existence on the one hand, and her desire to repent of sin, bridging the relational gap between her and Him. There are many instances in the bible illustrating this epistemic/moral dis-junction. One example of this can been observed in the Exodus account, wherein we readers find that almost immediately after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, about half of them committed idolatry (and likely sexual acts to go along with it) without too much serious deliberation?
Now, in regard to the epistemic/moral dis-junction I allude to above, it seems to me that the Exodus story seems very counter-intuitive by our 'Modern Mindset.' Surely......surely.....if you or I experienced God's Being directly, we would think twice, even thrice, about breaking a relationship or even a covenant with Him. But no, what we see in the biblical accounts again and again and again are people who do just that, and surprisingly at times without much deliberation.
I think the bible is trying to tell us that our seemingly logical thought patterns about how we think God should somehow showing up and enables to believe is likely just a deep seated myth, one we like to keep telling ourselves. In fact, it's probably better for us in the long run if God doesn't show up too much, that way, He may find a reason to go easier on us in the future.
Otherwise, if He shows up now and we turn away....we really have a big, fat "0" for an excuse for our failures afterward...................................
2PhiloVoid
