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Church of God Message

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DOES GOD EXIST?

CHAPTER 14

WHY DOESN’T GOD SHOW HIMSELF

Many don’t believe in God because they cannot see Him. They say they’ll believe in Him when they see Him. A very relevant question, therefore is, “Why doesn’t God show Himself?”

A question for those who say they’ll believe in God when they see Him is, “In what form would you like to see God to make you believe?” There are two possibilities: one possibility is to see God as He really is; and the second, to see Him in human form. In any other form we will simply not believe He is God. If He came to us in human form, then what would make us believe He is really God?

If we were to see God in His true spirit form, we would not survive. That should be easy to understand. We can barely look at the sun at such a long distance. Any closer to the sun, we would perish. God who created the sun surely is brighter than that and we would not be able to survive in His presence.

In fact, Moses actually made this request from God. Here is God’s answer to him in Exodus 33:18-23, “18 And he [Moses] said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”

The God of the Old Testament did come in human form as Jesus Christ. Jews and Gentiles alike murdered Him and did not believe He was the God of the Old Testament who had created all the angelic world including Satan and the demons, the material universe, humanity and all creatures on earth. If He came to earth in human form today, humanity will still not believe He is God and will laugh Him to scorn and hound Him out of their neighborhoods.

Before coming as Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament did interact with many human beings in the Old Testament. The humans who interacted with him wrote the account which is preserved for us in the pages of the Bible.

God first interacted with Adam after creating him. Adam knew He was God the Creator because he saw God in the act of creation when He planted the Garden in Eden as stated in Genesis 2:7-9, “7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

Later God interacted with Adam and Eve and gave them instructions which they chose to disobey. As a result they were removed from the Garden of Eden. He then interacted with Cain and Abel when they brought their offering and told Cain that if he worked on ruling his sins his sacrifice would be accepted. Instead of accepting God’s advice humbly, Cain became angry and murdered his righteous brother Abel.

Then God set a boundary marker between Cain and Adam’s other children to live separately to avoid further bloodshed. But Cain 16…went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.” He simply wanted to have nothing more to do with God and went away from God’s presence.

God then interacted with Enoch and later extensively with Noah, sharing His plan with him to drown all of humanity in a Flood because of the multiplying evils and violence, but giving detailed instructions to him on how to make an ark to save himself and his family. God Himself actually sealed the ark shut after Noah and his family entered it with the animals.

After Noah God talked with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and made incredible promises to them concerning their descendants. The reason God interacted with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that they were obedient to Him, did not question His instructions and obeyed Him without question in whatever He required of them. In their thoughts and actions they acknowledged Him as sovereign over their lives.

After Noah, God not only interacted with Abraham and His descendants, He also interacted with other nations. During the early days of Abraham in the land of Canaan, God of the Old Testament had established the city of Salem, in the location of Jerusalem, and reigned there as the Most High God’s High Priest and King of Salem, Melchizedek. The Canaanites lived in the land at that time. But God could not continue reigning there because of the sins of the Canaanites. God would then go on to establish the nation of Israel as His people through Abraham and His descendants. To learn the identity of Melchizedek as the God of the Old Testament, read the UCG booklet “Who is God?” at the following link: https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/booklets/who-is-god/a-mystery-solved-the-identity-of-melchizedek.

Next God dealt with Moses and the Israelites to win them their freedom from slavery to the Egyptians. God spoke with Moses face to face as described in Exodus 33:9-10, “9 And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. 10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. 11 And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend.”

Human beings always have doubts whether God in fact spoke to a prophet or not. God understood that. To convince the Israelites that He spoke with Moses, He decided to speak the Ten Commandments directly to the people. But before speaking the Ten Commandments, God told Moses in Exodus 19:9, “9 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord…

16 Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. 19 And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.”

To convince the people that God was in fact speaking through Moses and that Moses was not making everything up, God gave them this demonstration. Despite this proof, later, people still rebelled against Moses in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram (Numbers 16:1-49).

God then spoke the Ten Commandments to all the Israelites. Just as God had a direct relationship with Moses, He wanted to establish a direct relationship with the Israelites. But the reaction of the people is mentioned in Exodus 20:18-19, “18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”

From then on God honored the Israelites request and spoke only through His prophet Moses. Subsequently also God spoke to the Israelites only through prophets and not directly. That is the reason why God does not show Himself to people face to face.

Let’s now review the history of God dealing with human beings directly. Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Their firstborn son became a murderer and deliberately went away from the presence of God. God dealt with ancient Israel face to face. They begged that God not talk to them directly and that He deal with them through prophets. They rebelled against His prophet Moses, despite having seen all the miracles in Egypt and during their wanderings in the wilderness for 40 years, when God fed them miraculously with manna, and their shoes and clothes did not wear out for the entire 40 years. They rebelled against God’s law. When God warned them through prophets, they cruelly murdered most of the prophets. When the God of the Old Testament Himself came to earth as the man Jesus Christ, they witnessed His numerous miracles and healings. These witnesses still shouted for Him to be crucified and had Him put to death.

But there have been exceptions to the general rule: men like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses and the prophets were completely obedient to God and did not question His instructions at any time or disobey them. These men were able to have a worshipful relationship with their Creator God Who was pleased to deal with them.

The attitude of mankind towards God has not changed at all even today. They don’t want Him in their lives, because the only way He will come into the lives of anyone is if he or she is willing to diligently study God’s word to learn His will and way of life and strive wholeheartedly to obey Him, and build a close relationship with Him through fasting, meditation and prayer.

God describes humanity’s general attitude towards Him as hostile. He says in Jeremiah 17:9-10, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”

Romans 8:5-7, “5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”

We have seen that the so-called intellectuals, proponents of the theory of evolution who are mostly German masqueraders, not only deliberately do not want to retain God in their knowledge, but also engage in every kind of diabolical deception and tactic to deceive the rest of mankind to turn humanity away from God.

Paul the apostle describes their attitudes in Romans 1:18-22 (NLT), “18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness [that’s the German masqueraders and proponents of the theory of evolution for you.] 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. [Yes, these scientists see God’s marvelous creation and cannot deny that it has been designed and created by a Supreme Intelligent Designer and Creator]. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.” 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.”

God says that His creation points to Him as the Creator God. Honest men and women can come to the right conclusion by observing creation. However, men know the truth but are deliberately engaged in denying it through wickedness of diabolical deception and vain ‘intellectual’ philosophies. They do not want to worship God or obey Him. And what is their motive? Romans 1:28 (NLT), “28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.”

Such people do not want to acknowledge God because they want to do whatever they wish to do, and live their lives the they want to. So God has abandoned them to their own ways. The result is described in verses 29-32, “29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.”

God does not leave human beings any excuse to fail to see His hand in His creation. Speaking through Isaiah the prophet God says in Isaiah 40:25-28 (New Living Translation), “25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing…28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.”

Who Created God

When one talks to an atheist or evolutionist, they inevitably ask, “If God created the universe, then who created God?” Probably every human being has pondered that question and given up trying to find the answer because our minds cannot comprehend anything without a beginning, a Being Who has always existed. As we think about this question, we reach a dead end.

The answer is that there has to be a First Cause, a Primal Source of life. All this has to stop somewhere. If God created everything, there has to be one supreme God Who started the creation process in motion. NOTHING brought that God into being. He has always existed.

This question has been asked for thousands of years and the Almighty God of the Bible anticipated it question and answered it through Isaiah the prophet more than 2,700 years ago in Isaiah 43:10, “Before Me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after Me.”

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