Challenge: Why doesn't God show himself?

I was reading one of the thousand or so articles that pop up on my email homepage, about why people reject religious faith: “17 Challenges Atheists Have for Believers.”

These are always good for a chuckle.

One objection caught my attention. It was this: If God exists why doesn’t he show himself?

Well, how big a show would it take for you to believe? Would 10 consecutive, pre-announced plagues, reducing the world’s most powerful nation to rubble, be enough? How about splitting the Red Sea so people could cross through on dry land?

You simply wave away the testimony of witnesses to these and a thousand other miracles. Why doesn’t he show himself? Well, for one, you still wouldn’t believe. You’d simply redouble your efforts to debunk and discredit.

God already has shown himself, and you’ve amassed reasons why you don’t have to pay attention to the record. God took on human flesh and walked among us in the person called Jesus of Nazareth, and all the doubters crucified him. If he showed up in the same manner today, I don’t doubt they’d treat him the same way. And what side would you be on when they did? While he’s hanging on the cross, maybe you’d be muttering to yourself, “If only God would show himself!”

In the biblical accounts of Christ’s resurrection, there were plenty of people who knew the event had happened in reality, and still chose not to believe in God.

But, for a direct, biblical answer to this objection, I’d point you to Romans 1:18-22 and the assertion that God has already shown himself by the things he has made. His fingerprints are on all his works. The heavenly judge has decided you’ve received enough evidence to be without excuse for your unbelief.

You know God exists, and you know precisely which God, among all those imagined, exists. You’ve felt the sunshine on your cheek. You’ve experienced love, rain, and good food. You’ve stood awestruck at the majesty of the mountains; heard the ominous roar of a sea; and been overwhelmed by the vastness and beauty of the heavens. Your unbelief is not a conclusion based on proof, but a moral choice you’ve made in the face of the evidence. God says you know. He’s shown himself.

A Bible teacher named R. C. Sproul was invited to a meeting of college atheists. Specifically, he was asked to bring his best arguments for the existence of God.

Sproul accepted the invitation and went to the event. He began his talk by thanking them for the opportunity. I can’t quote him from memory, but he said something like this to them: “You’ve asked me for evidence, and I’m happy to present it. I’m eager to do that for you because I think the evidence is irrefutable. But I must tell you before I begin, I think you already know. The problem is not with the evidence you know or don’t know. The problem is that you hate what you know.”

Jesus said darkness hates the light and will not come to the light. How’s your unbelief been working out for you? Isn’t it time to yield to what you already know to be true?

Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at:

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