Isaiah and Nietzche, pt. II

What would these two prophets say to each other?

Both would agree on the weaknesses and faults in mankind – Isaiah, however, would recognize that man is not alone. Isaiah, with the penetrating insight of a true prophet, would recognize Nietzsche’s rebellion against God as a sign not of hatred of God or the idea of God but of his hunger for God.

‘Atheism, true ‘existential’ atheism burning with hatred of a seemingly unjust or unmerciful God, is a spiritual state; it is a real attempt to grapple with the true God.… Nietzsche, in calling himself Antichrist, proved thereby his intense hunger for Christ.’

- Fr. Seraphim Rose

Both would agree that without God, mankind has, can, and will sink to deplorable depths. The difference here is that Isaiah knows that God is not just an idea, a set of cultural values or a principle from which to derive morality that humanity no longer has need of, but rather the Living God who is calling for His people to return to Him.

Mankind may attempt to kill Him, as Nietzsche believes they have done, but Isaiah knows in a way Nietzsche does not that it doesn’t matter if humanity thinks they have killed God – God will not suffer defeat.

Nicholas Wolterstorff on Grief and God

‘My little book Lament for a Son is not a book about grief. It is a cry of grief. After the death of our son, I dipped into a number of books about grief. I could not read them. It was impossible for me to reflect on grief in the abstract. I was in grief. My book is a grieving cry.

In the course of my cry I hold out the vision of God as with me in my grief, of God as grieving with me; God is with me on the mourning bench. I know that one of the attributes traditionally ascribed to God is impassibility–the inability to suffer. I think the traditional theologians were mistaken on this point. I find the scriptures saying that God is disturbed by what transpires in this world and is working to redeem us from evil and suffering. I do not see how a redeeming God can be impassible.

The traditional question of theodicy is, Why does God permit moral evil and permit suffering that serves no discernible good? If we hold that God is not impassible, then in addition to that question we have another: Why does God permit what disturbs God? Why does God allow what God endures in tears?

I do not know the answer. In faith I live the question.’

- Nicholas Wolterstorff

Taken from ‘Rights and Wrongs, an Interview with Nicholas Wolterstorff’ http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3533

More Thoughts on the Hiddenness of God

‎’If God does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him.’
- C. S. Lewis

 

‘If this religion boasted of having a clear vision of God, and of possessing Him plain and unveiled, then to say that nothing we see in the world reveals Him with this degree of clarity would indeed be to attack it. But it says, on the contrary, that man is in darkness and far from God, that He has hidden Himself from man’s knowledge, and that the name He has given Himself in the Scriptures is in fact The Hidden God (Is 45:15). ‘

- Blaise Pascal

‘A religion which does not affirm that God is hidden is not true.’

-Blaise Pascal

Why does God hide Himself? Wouldn’t it make sense to perform one Grand Miracle, for all the world to see so that everyone would know that there is a God, instead of deliberately hiding Himself from humanity?

Perhaps it would; perhaps it wouldn’t. Belief in God, however, doesn’t seem to be the general aim of Christianity – though it no doubt is a part of it, and indeed a necessary part. But mere belief simply doesn’t seem to be the end of Christianity. Even the demons believe that there is a God…

If simple knowledge of God were all that Christianity was about, it would be nothing more than gnosticism (being saved by what you know). But this is patently NOT the central ideal of Christianity – one is not saved by what one knows but rather by what someone else did. If I’m trapped in a burning building, I certainly am aware that firefighters are paid to rescue me from this situation – I may even know what kind of equipment they use. But simply knowing that does nothing – I’m not out of the fire until I’m rescued by a fireman.

So if the central aim of Christianity is not simply knowing that there is a god, what is it? It is to be united with Christ – and to be united with someone requires a close, intimate relationship. The New Testament paints a picture of a God who loves us closely, in a deep and personal way – not in an individualistic way, but in a personal way that in uniting us with Him unites us with all others who are united with Him as well.

But what has this to do with God hiding Himself?

‘You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.’
-St. Augustine

We have within us a genuine need for God – a God-shaped vacuum, to paraphrase Pascal. God wants us to seek Him. He has set eternity in the hearts of men – all men have in their deepest being a longing for something not of this world. But we are not alone in searching for God.

‘The genuine seeker of God will find that he is also sought by God.’
-Ravi Zacharias

But make no mistake – this is no subtle form of Pelagainism – a denial of mans sinful nature. We don’t simply of our own willpower seek or even want God – the very act of seeking God is indeed an act of God in itself. We are indeed free to resist God – as one is free to resist a fireman trying to save one from a fire. But we cannot come to God on our own account.

Unanswered Prayer

Unanswered Prayer ( for additional information relating to this topic see “The Hiddeness of God” below.)

 

Of all the ideas in Christianity, this is perhaps the most troubling. Why does God not answer prayers?

There is no easy to this question. We are given many reasons in the Scriptures why prayers may be hindered, which generally relate to the quality of ones personal life (ie, someone with an active and unrepentant sinful life can expect to have his prayers ignored). Sometimes we pray selfishly, sometimes we pray irreverently; these and any number of other factors can affect our prayers.

Sometimes though, we don’t. Sometimes we pray for the healing of a loved one, or we pray for a friend in a tough spot in life, or we pray for any number of legitimate, honorable things.

Our greatest example in all things is Christ, who prayed this way:

Matthew 26:39

 “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

 

The key, I think, is in His last sentence. Christ prayed to not suffer, but He ended with the giving up of His own wants, legitimate as they were. This is the truth of the matter: prayer ultimately needs to be about what God wants, not what we want.

Perhaps our perception of prayer is slightly skewed, though. Perhaps we forget that prayer isn’t necessarily a genie in a bottle guaranteed to work, even if there are legitimate things we are praying for. As painful as it may be, maybe there are even overriding reasons for a certain prayer to not be granted.

I think it’s important to remember the difference between granting, hearing and answering prayers. ALL prayers are heard. That is a fact. ALL (this is my opinion) prayers are answered. However, all prayers are not granted, in that the petition we make is given to us in the exact way we word it.

This doesn’t make the reality of having a loved one in a painful condition suffer in spite of prayer any easier to bear, but it does give an answer to the question, even if it is a tough answer.

The Hiddenness of God

 

 

The Hiddenness  of God -

 

 

 

Psalm 10:1

1”Why, LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Psalm 13: 1-3

 1 “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death…”

“Jesus said that my bread is to do the will of my father. I’m all the time being asked by people “How do you feel closer to God?” And I kinda wanna say…I don’t know. When I read the lives of most of the great saints I get the sense that they didn’t necessarily feel close to God. When I read the Psalms I get the feeling like David and the other psalmists felt quite far away form God for most of the time. Closeness to God is not about feeling. Closeness to God is about obedience. It’s just as simple as that…I don’t know how you feel closer to God, and no one I know who seems to be close to God knows anything about those feelings either. I know if we obey, occasionally the feeling follows, but not always, but occasionally. I know if we disobey we don’t have a shot at it.”
-Rich Mullins

God’s hiddeness is a common motif throughout Scripture and church history; as evidenced by the above quote many great men and women of God spent more time feeling far away from God than feeling close to Him. Job spent the majority of his book crying out to God to reveal himself. There is no easy explanation for why God chooses to hide His obvious presence, and for the very vast majority there is no explanation at all. There are, however, a few facts which bring a sort of understanding to the issue.

• Closeness to God is not about feeling.
• Oftentimes when we feel the farthest from God we are most centrally in His will.
• How close we feel to God often depends (though is not conditional to) on us and how we interact with Him. A relationship requires effort on both part, and it is partly on us to make effort to be close to God.
• God’s silence and hiddeness is not the same as His absence. It is a faulty assumption that because we cannot perceive Him that He is not there.
• God will withdraw to test us as He sees fit. This is the case with many notable figures in Christian history.
• If one’s private life is not a reflection of the Christian life, it is to be expected that the feeling of God’s presence would not be felt. One cannot live in unrepentant sin and expect God to turn a blind eye.

These factors do not necessarily make it any easier to go through any ordeal while not having an obvious presence of God in the midst of it. There is no real answer I can give as to why God hides Himself. The above factors, however, are real reasons that must be considered.

The big questions remain mostly unanswered, but perhaps slightly contextualized and explained. No one can say exactly why God appears to be absent in hard situations. But this much we can be sure of: while it may seem that God is absent, He is not. He is always present, and no situation is outside His knowledge or not under His control.

As referenced with Job, he cried out for an audience with God…and he got it. He had to demand, to get in God’s face, to plead, to cry, to be totally broken and totally beaten down…but he got his audience with God, because he was willing to be real and to seek, to knock, and to ask.

James 4:2 (KJV)
“Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”

Matthew 7:8 (KJV)
“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

The relational factor must not be forgotten. It requires effort (asking, seeking, knocking on the door) on our part to draw near to God, and this involves periods of seeming-absence, often for reasons we cannot understand. But for our part we must be sure to pursue God as He pursues us.

“When Jesus felt the most forsaken by God on the cross, He was in the very center of the Father’s will.”
-Ravi Zacharias