Why can't we see God?

What the Bible says

The Bible begins by agreeing with the observation behind the question. Paul closes a doxology like this.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

1 Tim 1:17

Invisible does not mean absent. It means that God is spirit and not one more object among the things he made. The Old Testament adds that his holiness is more than a human being can face unprotected. God told Moses, "You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live" (Exod 33:20).

Yet Scripture never describes God as silent and withdrawn. It names several ways the invisible God makes himself known. One is creation.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.

Rom 1:20

Another is his word, the Scriptures. The most decisive is the Son. John writes:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.

John 1:18

When Philip asked to be shown the Father, Jesus answered, "Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Paul calls the Son "the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15). The central Christian claim is that the invisible God came among us with a face and a voice. The Holy Spirit then works in the reader of Scripture, confirming that its testimony is true.

Even so, the Bible does not deny the experience of a hidden God. Isaiah confesses it plainly.

Truly You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

Isa 45:15

The psalmists feel it more sharply: "How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?" (Ps 13:1). That such prayers sit inside Scripture matters. It means that a sense of distance is not proof of weak faith. It is something believers have always gone through.

The church's witness

The Fathers asked how "No one has ever seen God" can stand beside "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matt 5:8). Augustine answers that "those passages speak of God, as to be seen, not as already seen" Augustine. Seeing is promised, not yet given. Paul expects the same: "Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face" (1 Cor 13:12).

Chrysostom explains the visions of the Old Testament. God's nature has no body and does not sit or walk, so when the prophets saw him in various forms, God was stooping to them. He hears God saying, "I have condescended to them, I appeared that which I was not" Chrysostom. On this view God is less concealed from us than lowered to what we can bear. On John's phrase "in the bosom of the Father," Chrysostom adds, "To dwell in the bosom is much more than simply to see" Chrysostom. The Son did not observe the Father from a distance. He is closest to the Father, and so he can show him truly.

Matthew Henry does not play down the pain of divine hiddenness. On Psalm 13 he writes, "Nothing is more killing to a soul than the want of God's favour; nothing more reviving than the return of it" Matthew Henry. On Isaiah 45:15 his counsel is, "let them wait upon the Lord who hides his face" Matthew Henry. Even when God is hidden, you wait toward him and not away from him.

In the original languages

The Hebrew verb behind "hides Himself" in Isaiah 45:15 is satar (סָתַר), to conceal or cover. In the same verse God is at once called "Savior." The hiding God and the saving God are not two different beings.

The New Testament word for "invisible" is aoratos (ἀόρατος), "not-seen." Paul uses it of God himself (1 Tim 1:17) and of the God whose image the Son is (Col 1:15). It is not a complaint. It is a statement of who God is.

Then there is baqash (בָּקַשׁ), "to seek." In Jeremiah 29:13 God promises, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart" (Jer 29:13). Seeking assumes that God is not simply on display, but it comes with a promise of meeting. Matthew Henry comments, "He never said, Seek ye me in vain" Matthew Henry.

Common objections

"If God existed, he would make it obvious to everyone." This is a weighty objection. A loving God, it says, would not leave an honest person in doubt. And some people say they sought sincerely and found nothing. Their pain should not be brushed aside, and the Bible itself asks the same question whenever a psalmist cries "How long?"

Christians offer several replies, with different weight for different people. First, overwhelming certainty does not produce love. If God forced himself on every mind, we might fear and obey, but trust is hard to give under compulsion, and love cannot be forced. This does not explain every case, and the Bible never says why God seems near to one person and far from another. Second, God has already said a great deal: the heavens declare his glory (Ps 19:1), there are the Scriptures, and above all Jesus came. The question is partly what kind of evidence we are asking for. Jesus gave Thomas what he asked for, and then said, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). Third, Paul tells the Athenians that God intended that people "would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:27). God is not out of reach. He has made himself findable.

"'Hiddenness' is just a polite word for nonexistence." Fair enough. If every lack of evidence is explained as hiding, nothing could ever count against belief. Christians should concede that hiddenness cannot be their only argument. Christianity does not say "you cannot see him, so believe." It points to Jesus in history, to the order of creation, to conscience, and to changed lives (Does God exist?). Hiddenness explains why God still cannot be grasped completely despite such evidence. It is not a substitute for the evidence.

"God is silent in my suffering. Doesn't that mean he does not care?" This is the form that hurts most. Psalm 22 cries, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Ps 22:1). Christians believe Jesus prayed these very words on the cross. God sent his Son into the place where he seems silent, and the Son went through that silence himself. This does not answer every "why" (Why does a good God allow evil?), but it shows that God is not watching suffering from outside.

Going further

An invisible God is not an unconcerned God. Scripture does not hide God's hiddenness. It turns it into prayer. Jesus said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you" (Matt 7:7). He does not turn away someone who knocks with questions. Hebrews says that whoever approaches God must believe that "He rewards those who earnestly seek Him" (Heb 11:6).

You might ask yourself some questions. What kind of certainty am I asking God for? Would it produce trust and love, or would it leave me a safe spectator? When God feels far away, have I ever told him so, as the psalmists did? What would it be like to read one scene about Jesus in a Gospel slowly, asking what it shows of God?

To read further, see Does God exist?, How does God speak? and Does God answer prayer?.