How Could God Reveal Himself to Us?
Elsewhere I have defended the notion that history is a poor medium for God to reveal himself to humanity, here, here, here, and here.
Many Christians argue that God has already verified his revelation in Jesus through miracles in the historical past, and as such it needs no further verification. But I argue against this whole notion in the above links. History is a poor medium to verify much of anything, especially miracles.
Someone recently asked me, "what else is there but human history for God to have revealed himself in?" I'll suggest a few ways here. I'd like to see some other suggestions of ways God could reveal himself to us, if he existed.
God could reveal himself in every generation in a myriad of ways since he is supposedly an omniscient being.
He could become incarnate in every generation and do miracles for all to see. If people wanted to kill him again and he didn't need to die again, he could simply vanish before their eyes.
He could spontaneously appear and heal people, or end a famine, or stop a war.
He could raise up John F. Kennedy from the dead.
He could provide a blazing cross in the sky.
He could restore an amputated limb in full sight of an crowd of people which would include all of the best magicians along with the Mythbusters and James Randi, who would all find fault if fault could be found.
He could do any and all of the miracles he did in the Bible from time to time, including miraculously feeding 5000 men with their families. The list of things God could do in each generation is endless.
If God has foreknowledge then he could've predicted certain events in history like the rise of the internet, the exact time of the Mt St. Helens eruption, or described the vastness of the universe before we could verify this, or prophesied the day that TV was invented.
Then he could also help us to figure out the logic of what he has done. If God can eternally create two equally omniscient beings, then he could've created human beings so that they could better understand such things as the trinity, the incarnation, free will and predestination, and the problem of evil. If these things are not a problem for God to understand, then he could've given human beings a better understanding of these things.
First posted on 3/29/07
Many Christians argue that God has already verified his revelation in Jesus through miracles in the historical past, and as such it needs no further verification. But I argue against this whole notion in the above links. History is a poor medium to verify much of anything, especially miracles.
Someone recently asked me, "what else is there but human history for God to have revealed himself in?" I'll suggest a few ways here. I'd like to see some other suggestions of ways God could reveal himself to us, if he existed.
God could reveal himself in every generation in a myriad of ways since he is supposedly an omniscient being.
He could become incarnate in every generation and do miracles for all to see. If people wanted to kill him again and he didn't need to die again, he could simply vanish before their eyes.
He could spontaneously appear and heal people, or end a famine, or stop a war.
He could raise up John F. Kennedy from the dead.
He could provide a blazing cross in the sky.
He could restore an amputated limb in full sight of an crowd of people which would include all of the best magicians along with the Mythbusters and James Randi, who would all find fault if fault could be found.
He could do any and all of the miracles he did in the Bible from time to time, including miraculously feeding 5000 men with their families. The list of things God could do in each generation is endless.
If God has foreknowledge then he could've predicted certain events in history like the rise of the internet, the exact time of the Mt St. Helens eruption, or described the vastness of the universe before we could verify this, or prophesied the day that TV was invented.
Then he could also help us to figure out the logic of what he has done. If God can eternally create two equally omniscient beings, then he could've created human beings so that they could better understand such things as the trinity, the incarnation, free will and predestination, and the problem of evil. If these things are not a problem for God to understand, then he could've given human beings a better understanding of these things.
First posted on 3/29/07