Hi, Dave ---
Would you mind one more long post? I just read this thread and would like to add something.
Have you ever looked at one of those "magic eye" pictures, the ones where there's a 3-D image embedded in the seemingly random 2-D pattern?
I can still remember the first time I was finally able to see one. It was a picture of the Honey Nut bee on the Honey Nut Cheerios box.
This was years ago when my kids were all at home. They kept oohing and ahhing about how cool these "magic eye" pictures were. The Cheerios box had one printed on the back, but no matter how hard I stared or how much I crossed my eyes I just couldn't see it. I kept looking on the surface, trying to analyze the pattern, wondering if I had finally caught a glimpse of the image.
When I was finally really able to see the picture of the Honey Nut bee, I was amazed. It was so real. And this time I knew that what I saw was the real image. There was just no doubt at all in my mind that this was finally it.
I think faith is a gift. God opens our eyes. He reveals himself to us. He gives us eyes to see.
I don't have answers for all the hard questions about pain and suffering or about why some people come to faith and others don't. Doesn't God love everyone? If faith is a gift, why doesn't he grant it to everyone?
The "crux theologorum" is essentially the question of why some believe and others don't.
If faith is all of grace and is a gift (as Luther said in his explanation of the second article of the creed, "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus my Lord or come to him") --- then do some people not believe because God has not chosen to bring them to faith? That's basically the hyper-Calvinistic position.
But that does not accord with the belief which say that God loves all men and desires for them to come to him.
But if God really wants for people to know him and love him and yet some people do not believe, why not?
Does this mean there is some good in the ones who come to faith and some defect in the ones who do not come to faith? God helps those who help themselves? If you want to believe, you will? Synergism says that if we reach out to God, he'll meet us halfway (or 99% of the way). But that brings us right back to the scripures which say faith is a gift.
Lutheran theology accepts that this is a paradox.
I can't explain why some people believe in God and others don't. Saying that you should pray to God and ask him to reveal himself to you makes it seem as if the revelation would come because you forced it or wanted it badly enough --- which would be synergism rather than "sola gratia" (grace alone).
But perhaps the very desire to pray such a prayer can come only from God. Perhaps the desire to know him if he can be known, comes from Him. I don't know.
And I don't know how it works. But I do believe that when it happens, it is a gift, and it really is an opening-of-the-eyes, a divine revelation, a tearing away of the veil.
My husband only sees out of one eye, so no matter how hard he stares at a magic eye picture and no matter how much he crosses his eyes, he will never ever be able to see the 3-D image. That requires stereo-optic vision.
If seeing God requires "eyes to see" which must come from God himself, why doesn't he just grant this to everyone? Doesn't he love everyone? Doesn't he want everyone to see?
I can't explain it or answer these questions for you, but now that I have seen and have come to faith, I am convinced that God is real and that He loves me.
All the hard questions of why there is awful pain and suffering and unbelief and inhumanity in the world are still there. But I have come to the place where I just come to Jesus with the pain, and I trust in him that no matter what it looks like, he is there and he cares and he weeps.
I have faith in him and in his love and his goodness. I find hope and help in the words of the Bible.
This is a lot more personal than most of my previous messages. I hope it is not out of place here. But your questions struck a chord with me.
Blessings,
Marjorie