Matthew 1:23 “Behold, a virgin shall be with Child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated ‘God with us.’” (Isaiah 7:14)

The atheist’s ‘Argument from Divine Hiddenness’ claims that if God existed, He would make the truth of His existence more obvious to everyone than it is. J.L. Schellenberg frames the argument this way, in his book ‘Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason’: there are nonbelievers capable of a personal relationship with God who do not resist Him. God does not respond to these nonbelievers. There is no perfectly loving God.

But we know that God did reveal Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ at Christmas, so something else is going on behind this argument of ‘Divine Hiddenness that we need to understand.

As we did last week, we will begin with an excerpt from another one of Pastor Max Lucado’s books called ‘God Came Near.’ Lucado gives us an outline of God’s plan from eternity to personally enter into our world.

“When God chose to reveal Himself to us, what medium did He use? A book? No, that was secondary. A church? No, that came later. A moral code? No. He did not limit His revelation to a list of dos and don’ts (as in other religions). When God chose to reveal Himself, He did so through a human body.

The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were calloused and dusty. His tears came from a heart broken as yours or mine has ever been.

So, people came to Him! They came at night. They touched Him as He walked down the street. They followed Him around the sea. They invited Him into their homes and placed their children at His feet. Why? Because He wouldn’t be a statue in a cathedral or a priest in a pulpit. Instead, He chose to be Jesus Christ.

There was not even one person who was afraid to draw near Him. No one considered Him too holy or too divine to touch. There was not one person who was reluctant to approach Him for fear of being rejected.

Remember that the next time you find yourself amazed at your own failures. Or the next time accusations burn holes in your soul. Or the next time you see a cold cathedral or hear a lifeless liturgy. Remember that we are the ones who create distance from God. It is Jesus Christ who builds the bridge to God.”

We experience God in our lives only through Jesus Christ, who was there from the beginning of creation. As John 1:1,14 says, “In the beginning (of creation) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” There He is – Immanuel – the God of creation with us.

And our verse this week is taken from a book written in 730BC by the prophet Isaiah, who foretold the arrival of Jesus Christ by a miraculous virgin birth. And then again, around the same time, the prophet Micah even told us where to look for Him to be born – in Bethlehem: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2).

But wait a minute – that’s AD 0 (cool how the world’s calendar is based on the birth of Jesus – but I digress). Where was He before the manger in Bethlehem? You’ll find Him all over the Bible from the very start in Genesis 1:1, where He is with the Father when the world was created, which ties to John 1:1-2.

So, back to ‘Divine Hiddenness.’ Why is God “hidden” to many people? The answer is two-fold: 1) first, study His character, to learn who He feels drawn to: “I resist the proud, but give grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34); 2) second, look at yourself, for who you feel drawn to: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes flesh his strength – whose heart departs from the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:5). These verses say it is not God who hides from you, but you who, in your pride and self-sufficiency, depart from Him.

CS Lewis said it best: “Pride is the complete anti-God state of mind. Unless you know God as superior – and know yourself as nothing in comparison – you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

This is why, as millions of people celebrate Immanuel at Christmas as that time in history when God fulfilled His ancient promises to reveal Himself and dwell with us, the atheist objections intensify. But they soon subside since the argument from Divine Hiddenness has been answered at the manger.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #585