What Scripture says
Scripture admits God can seem hidden:
- “Truly, you are a God who hides himself” (Isaiah 45:15, ESV).
- “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1).
- “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1).
- Job longs to find God and can’t (Job 23:3–9).
- Jesus himself cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34, quoting Psalm 22:1).
But Scripture also says God has made himself known:
- Through creation: his power and nature are “clearly perceived” (Romans 1:20).
- Through conscience: the law is “written on their hearts” (Romans 2:15).
- Through the prophets and finally in Jesus: God “has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
And it promises he can be found: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). God made people “that they should seek God… Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).
What the evidence says
Philosophy
The argument
The strongest form of the objection comes from the Canadian philosopher J. L. Schellenberg, in his book Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (1993). Simplified:
- If a perfectly loving God existed, he would make sure that anyone open to a relationship with him could believe he exists.
- But some people are open to God and still don’t believe, through no fault of their own.
- So a perfectly loving God doesn’t exist.
Schellenberg presses the point that loving parents don’t hide from their children. Many philosophers now treat the hiddenness argument as the second most important argument against God, after the problem of evil.
Christian responses
- Freedom to respond. Overwhelming proof could force belief without changing the heart. God seeks love freely given, not mere agreement that he exists. Even demons believe God exists, James says, and shudder (James 2:19). Belief alone isn’t what God is after.
- Enough light. Pascal wrote that God gives “enough light for those who desire to see, and enough darkness for those of a contrary disposition.” The evidence is real, but not so overwhelming that it overrides a person’s will.
- Relationship takes time. Not believing now doesn’t mean someone will never come to believe. God may work over a lifetime, and some come to faith late.
- Our condition. Scripture says sin dulls our sense of God (Romans 1:21). The problem may be partly our eyesight, not his visibility.
- God reveals himself in a way that changes us. Paul Moser argues God shows himself in ways that invite surrender, not in ways that satisfy curiosity from a safe distance. Seeking God on God’s terms may be part of finding him.
- Hiddenness isn’t absence. Many believers, including great saints, have experienced long periods when God felt absent. Mother Teresa’s letters describe decades of spiritual darkness alongside persistent faith.
The critics’ reply
Schellenberg and others answer that some sincere seekers search for years without finding, including people who desperately want to believe. Freedom, they argue, doesn’t require total obscurity: a loving parent can be present without forcing a child’s love. This is the hardest part of the argument to answer.
| Response | Its strength | Its weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Free response | Explains why proof isn’t overwhelming | Doesn’t explain why some seekers find nothing |
| Pascal’s “enough light” | Fits the mixed evidence we observe | Hard to test |
| Timing | Many find faith later in life | Some die without finding |
| Our condition | Fits Scripture’s view of sin | Critics see it as blaming the seeker |
Where they meet
The Bible doesn’t deny the experience of hiddenness. It describes it, laments it, and holds that God is still present and knowable. Its picture of a God who invites rather than compels explains why the evidence is real but not overwhelming (see 1.1).
What’s still open
- Why particular sincere people struggle to believe remains painful and partly unexplained.
- Philosophers continue to debate whether Schellenberg’s argument succeeds.
Bottom line
God reveals himself in creation, conscience, Scripture and Christ, but leaves room for a free response rather than forced belief. That answer is coherent and has strong biblical roots. It is rated Debated because the hiddenness argument remains a live debate in philosophy.