Why doesnt god just show himself?

Why doesn't he just perform a miracle. I am not talking about the "my cat was stuck in a tree, and thank god, he survived" or the "I was sure I was going to die, and then didn't" sort of miracles. I am talking about the BIG miracles of the bible. For instance, God supposedly reigned down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old testament. Why does God not do that sort of thing now in the age of cameras and youtube? If all of a sudden fire started reigning down on Las Vegas, and it was on the news and on youtube, I doubt you would have many unbelievers left. Shockingly no such miracles occur. Those sorts of miracles only occurred when the witnesses were unsophisticated shepherds living in the Desert, who had absolutely no form of documentation, so they believed any hearsay presented to them. It is almost as if it would be silly to ever believe anything in the bible actually ever happened!!

 

Well, God did appear (the Word, whom is God became the man Jesus), but how many believed that He was God? The problem with the unbeliever is not the lack of God showing Himself.....it is his or her inability to believe even when the proof is evident.

John 14:8-9 (ASV)
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Show us the Father?


God became a human being and lived among us

John 1:1-4, 14-18 (ASV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.
15 John beareth witness of him, and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for he was before me.
16 For of his fulness we all received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.


But I realize that this is going to be just another topic where the unbeliever on this forum at the end of it will remain as he was before this OP began.....not a believer.

 

how about the liar; apparently, they cant read, nor comprehend mankind created all WORDS. Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

and god was kind of happy about it

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.


God (nature) being a provider all should comprehend Jesus even knew that

John 14: 28 ye heard that I said to you -- I go away, and I come unto you; if ye did love me, ye would have rejoiced that I said -- I go on to the Father, because my Father is greater than I.

I agree

Genesis 3;22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

and what are you but a 'false witness'?


believing does not require lying!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You say you are not a Christian but you do show an interesting insight......because in the Bible when God showed Himself most people do not want to listen to Him....Adam and Eve after they sinned tried to hide from God....the masses had Jesus, God in the flesh killed. And many of those whom God have sent were murdered by the people He sent them to speak His word. So basically asking how come God does not show Himself is an idle question.

Jesus said that those who believe/receive those, whom He has sent, believe Him and those who believe Him believe the one that sent Him. In other words if one does not believe us (Christians) then ultimately they would not believe God, even if He showed Himself.

Matthew 10:40 (ASV)
40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Here's the answer as to why God does not show Himself.

Man was made to represent God, and His people are His representatives and that is how it is and will always be, both in this age and life and the next life and age to come. We (Christians) may not always agree on everything (because we are not perfect as yet), but we all agree on the basics.

 

He doesn't even have to make a personal appearance. Some well-documented and independently verified miracles or prophecies would at least give some weight to his existence.

Well, that depends. If I went to the doctor later and it turned out that I had a brain tumor or other neurological condition, then I would probably still disbelieve. But to make a long discussion much shorter, yes, there are things He could do that would make me believe in Him.

Yes and, as it turns out, we have very good reason to believe that some of those events never happened. The global flood, for example, inexplicably left no geological trace. If the God of the Bible appeared to me, I hope he would explain why there are so many flaws in His book: contradictions, non-historical events, immoral acts, etc.

Some of which failed. Tyre and Damascus are still standing, Egypt never went uninhabited for forty years, and Jesus's prophecy that the end would come "soon" (specifically within a generation of those listening to him) never came to pass. If someone could point to a prophecy in the Bible that they could demonstrate was written before the events that it predicted, it wasn't vague, it wasn't low-hanging-fruit (like predicting that the sun will rise tomorrow), etc. that would go a long way in convincing me.

There are too many errors and immoral teachings for it to have been written by an omnipotent and good deity.

You say that as if it would inconvenience Him. He's an omnipotent being that exists independently of space and time. Appearing to all people in all times that have ever or will ever doubted Him would be no more inconvenient than me taking a trip to the toilet. My Christian friends say that He talks to them and that He preforms miracles in their lives every day . . . maybe He could just swing by on His way visiting them.

Of course, He could bypass the need for that by providing some sort of evidence for His existence. Snails don't have to go out of their way to do something for me to believe in them, so why does God?

There are plenty of things He could have put in the Bible to ensure that He never had to come down again. Throw germ theory, dna, a realistic depiction of our universe outside this earth, atomic theory, and a realistic age of the universe and our planet into the Bible before we had means of discovering these things and I'd call that pretty convincing.

What we ask for is exactly what He has already supposedly done for others, or at least to provide a scripture that is as flawless, amazing, and undeniable as people pretend that it is.

Christians have re-defined faith. It used to mean trust, and if you read the Bible, you'll see that it tends to be trust in a being that the faithful already believes exists. In fact, the Bible says that the existence of God is self-evident. This is something easy to say before the age of science. Modern Christians pretend that faith means believing in the existence of something without evidence. There is no reason why God should need plausible deniablity for His existence in order to accomplish His goals.

Why would a loving God have salvation and freedom from eternal torment hinge on believing something that you only get "evidence" for after you believe it, and make it totally reasonable to not believe it. And, no "He doesn't want to force you" is not an answer. My wife made the choice to be with me without me having to hide any evidence of my existence.

 

We want God to conduct Himself according to our way of thinking, but we refuse to conform to God's ways.

 

so in english; we are born within the garden (the body of god) and because he (nature) dont do magic, the religiouns created the lies about magic and left the garden

 

Hey Gram Cleric,

You are asking this person if they wanted God to appear every few hundred years. As he says, no, just some real proof that this being actually exists or existed would be fine. You know, something other than rumour, innuendo, fake Bibles and all the rest of the trappings that go with this deceit.

As to appearing? Well really, just once would suffice would it not? I mean, how many times did Julius Caeser appear on this planet? Once I believe, save the Liz Taylor type imitations and those in mental institutions who believe they are, as they argue with Napolean.

Any atheist is prepared to believe there is a God if anyone can produce any solid evidence of his existence. Anything, really. You see atheists are actually very logical people. No evidence, we don't accept it.

Why would anyone believe in a being that has never appeared, never done anything we are aware of and left absolutely nothing to indicate he/she/it ever existed.

Someone once wrote ( a believer actually ) If God didn't exist man would create him. As it happens he didn't exist so man did create him and he exists in the imaginations of many. The same process exactly as the Easter Bunny (sorry to cast doubts this close), the tooth fairy and Santa Claus.

What all 4 have in common is they are fictitious but the lies are encouraged by adults to try and make thier children behave. As in "Have YOU been good or bad this year? No presents if you are bad." In God's case, same question exactly witht he answer being "If you've been bad then no heaven for you".

If you don't see the similarities in these fictions I am truly sorry for you. It's all about political control, at the family or population level. It's identical with one exception. Children grow out of 3 of those 4 beliefs. Adults should gorw out of all 4.

 

This is an odd thread. God did show himself, he performed many miracles, and they crucified him.

Don't you guys know your basics?

 

Maybe God has image issues. God's insecure.

 

Maybe all popular spiritual humans are Vishnu?

 

He has... unless you want to see the "long-form" God.

 

Forgive me for not reading the entire thread, but the first mistake that was made here is the singular word of god. Read your Bible again and admit that it says "Let US make man in our own image"

 

God didnt make man in his image, man made god in mans image.

 

That's very possible and a valid argument

 

Granny says he gonna do dat purt soon...

... an' den he gonna throw all dem lefty lib'rals inna lake o' fire.

 

???? you basically just said, man killed god.

 

He shows Himself to those who want to see.

 

God did show himself, to Mary.

9 monthes later the king of kings was born.

 

I love it how God (any god, really) is always better able to show "evidence" of His existence to those who already believe. "Evidence" that is more available to those that already believe than to those that are skeptical isn't evidence.

 

bashadi wrote: ???? you basically just said, man killed god.

Granny says don't pay no attention...

... dat's just one o' dem lefty lib'rals talkin'...

... one o' the ones dat gonna get put inna lake o' fire...

... when the Lord returns.

 

A good example of this is to watch the polar express movie, those who believe will be fortunate enough to see.

 

The reason God does not show himself is because he does not want to be a spoiler and tell the ending of the story ha ha~

Really~

God is limited in the things he can do in our universe as well. This is because God designed it so. Lastly there things that man will never be privy to while in this form (post big bang), he informed us in the bible that there are secrets that will never be revealed to man.

Ra'h

 

And rightfully so. If anything we are just his little (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)es.