Hide and Seek
p.s.
150 years ago, Ramakrishna said: Unless the spirit "in man" is awakened, man cannot know God
150 years ago, Ramakrishna said: Like the miser who yearns for gold, yearn like that for God

God told us, care not about this world or anything in. Store up treasures for heaven. Fear not death, fear not evil.

Scripture doesn’t tell us why God gives one person a Damascus-road experience, another a quiet conviction through Scripture, another decades of uncertainty, and another apparently nothing despite sincere searching.

It tells us enough to establish several things: God wants to be sought (Acts 17:27); he is “not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27); faith ordinarily comes through hearing (Rom. 10:17); God draws people (John 6:44); those who seek are promised they will find (Matt. 7:7); and yet God can genuinely be experienced as hidden (Isa. 45:15).

Christianity doesn’t require us to manufacture an explanation where God hasn’t supplied one.

Divine hiddenness is a question that belongs to God’s knowledge of the individual.

Professor Lennox’s restraint comes from his refusal to accuse someone “You haven’t found God because you weren’t sincere.”

Divine hiddenness is something perhaps Calvinists have an answer for but other Christian denominations will push back on.

In the end, it’s between God and the seeker. We cannot see enough of reality from where we stand to judge what God is doing. But He did say “seek and you will find.” Perhaps in time. In His time.

The vision of creation unfolded in the Kabbalah is that God had to limit himself, withdraw himself, conceal himself, in order to make space(time) for the creation of something other than, separate from (at least to some degree) himself. What is at stake here is the integrity of creation, its capacity to stand on its own feet, to have its own internal set of causes and effects, as opposed to being a mirage, a kind of deception, a mere puppet show in which divine string pulling is behind every event and occurrence.

" If God Wants Us to Believe, Why Does He Hide?"

For the exact same reason the God(s) of: Ancient Greeks, Norse, Aztecs, Mesopotamians, Ancient Romans, Canaanites, Ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Hindus, etc. Also hide.

We all know God is all-loving.  But what is your definition of love?  Love is not always about placating people and giving them everything they want and gladhanding them throughout their lives.  Love is admonishing, love is correcting, and love is difficult.  It can easily be telling someone something they NEED to hear, not necessarily what they WANT to hear.  At no point in the bible did God ever promise us that belief is somehow equivalent to the entitlement to an offense-free, pain-free, non-suffering life.  We assume that because God is described as "all-loving", it means that he is obligated to let us live lives free of suffering.  When did anyone ever promise us this entitlement?  The Christian narrative was never that trusting in God would shield us from pain and suffering -- it's that pain and suffering is part and parcel of the life that we've been given.  And that God has entered that suffering with us and given us hope to be able to endure it and be redeemed for an even greater purpose on the other side of it.

He has

Everyone who does not understand the simple fact that if there was a God He would be immeasurably bigger and humans as His creation would not be easily capable of understanding all His mind and thoughts is just mentally limited. If there was a God it would be expected that we would not be able to see the full picture until He revealed it. The fact that we don't understand one thing or another is in no way argument against the existence of God.

It ain't "one of the hardest questions", it is THE hardest question.

I disagree that people don't choose what they are convinced by.

Reminds of an old movie line in which one person said "he didn't choose it, it just happened". The answer; "Yes, but that's how people choose. They let it happen."

If there is such a thing as a subconscious (of which I'm skeptical), then subconciously they are allowing what to be convinced by.
I suppose it depends on how one defines "choose". At a conscious level or a subconscious level? Not overly convinced there is a distinction (concious vs subconcious), they are ultimately choosing what they are convinced by. Perhaps not at a front-line processing level, but a personal choice nonetheless.

With regards to the questoin of why God doesn't reveal Himself, a question needs be asked in response. With an in-depth consideraton of the question; what do you see as the resulting impact on complete free will? To me, it's plainly obvious one need come to God of their own accord. In revealing Himself, "of their own accord" would be removed from the equation.

just on the opening segment with Alex and the 2 people he used as an eg, one being the person seeking to find a sign of God and doesn't receive anything n the 2nd person who had zero belief in God and received the burning bush or flashes of light.  The 2nd person probably needed a sign urgently; the 1st one seems they already believe God exists and wants a burning bush, but doesn't require it, but instead ignores all the small signs God gives

Alex makes a good point
I would also argue that those who do "see God" or have a "Theophany" stretches across all forms faiths and human traditions
the veracity, social impact and cultural acceptance of "Christianity by itself" is very much geographical and entirely hinged on any existing religious practice

When God chooses to reveal Himself He doesn't seem to care what religious doctrine or lack of doctrine someone believes in

1 John 4 says "God is love".  Twice.  It doesn't say. "God is loving" (though he is loving).  It says, "God is love."  We all know we should love.  We teach toddlers the golden rule.

"Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."  Jesus

God is not hiding from you.  You know more than enough and have already acknowledged many times that you should love people, and you know very well that you have failed.  So you know you're guilty and deserve judgment, at least deep in your soul you do.  On the surface you use euphemisms and double standards to fool yourself into think your sins are okay.  "I didn't lie.  I misspoke.  I had a lapse of judgment."  Or you say, "I make mistakes.  I'm a good but imperfect person."

Meanwhile, you condemn others as bad for things like lying, stealing, cheating, hate, etc.  Things for which you are guilty of yourself.  God isn't trying to save you from his anger at your sins.  He did that already.  He's trying to save you from your own self-condemnation (Romans 2: 1).

Such clever fools - He wants you to believe!  Not be bullied into submission by proof.

Because the Covenant between God and men demands that humans need Faith to be saved at all. If God shows up publicly then not only He breaks His own Covenant but also simultaneously means no man is savable. If however God doesn't show up at all humans can't possibly know His existence (not to mention putting faith in Him). The only viable way is for God to show up to the chosen eyewitnesses then for the rest of humankind to believe with Faith. Adam's Faith was tested "in the absence of God". The same Faith is demanded by the Covenant currently in place.

Many scriptures say God is clearly seen in that which is made so there is no excuse. I believe that is true.

I think God remains "hidden" because a vital part of life is seeking meaning and purpose.  It's the journey itself that can be profoundly meaningful.  If God made Himself obvious, there would be no need to seek a deeper meaning and purpose. And there would be no need to seek out God. That would take away the beauty and discovery that would take place during the journey through life.

Second, if God made Himself obvious, that would take away a big portion of our free will.  We'd always know that God "was watching", so most of us would adjust our behaviors accordingly.  We wouldn't be acting according to our own volition.  

The life most of us want is to make our own choices as we learn about compassion for others, doing the "right thing", having a strong sense of ethics and morality, etc.

Or not.

It's up to us.  This sets us up as  individuals who are about as "free" as freedom allows.

Let people live, learn, and seek as they want.  An obvious God would make that impossible.

* I'm writing this having not watched the video. I saw the subject (as I have many, many times before) so I just wanted to respond to the premise.

GOD DOES NOT HIDE. HE BLINDS. HIS WORK ON VESSELS OF MERCY IS SMALL. MOST HUMANS ARE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL. HIS WRATH ON CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL MAGNIFIES HIS GLORY ON HIS MERCY.
JESUS SAVES FROM ALL NATIONS, KINDREDS, PEOPLE, AND TONGUES. PLEASE REPENT OF YOUR SIN AND BELIEVE THAT JESUS DIED WAS BURIED AND ROSE AGAIN. JESUS CAN SAVE YOU JUST LIKE HE SAVED ME FROM HELL AND THE LAKE OF FIRE. JESUS IS FREE. WHO GIVES EVERLASTING LIFE TO THE POOR FOR FREE???????????



FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH, BUT THE GIFT OF GOD
IS ETERNAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.
FOR WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.
HE THAT HAS THE SON HAS LIFE, BUT HE THAT HAS NOT THE SON, SHALL NOT SEE LIFE, BUT THE WRATH OF GOD ABIDES ON HIM

The 10 commandments are not mute
No one trys hard enough 🎉

You can tell a lot about these two guys from their shoes....