Many often ask, “Why didn’t God inscribe John 3:16 on the moon?” Or, “Why doesn’t God just appear to each of us himself?” or “Why doesn’t God send angels to reveal Jesus’ message of forgiveness to the world?” A number of points can be made.

First, even supernatural revelations still might not be equal for all people. Consider, for example, if God inscribed John 3:16 on the moon. Now, ask yourself which language God should write the verse in: English? –Spanish? –Swahili? God would not be able to find a language that would appeal to every human being. In addition, what about the blind or near sighted, who can’t see the writing no matter what? Therefore, while this solution seems attractive, it still would not reveal Jesus’ message equally.

Second, supernatural revelations like this might actually turn people away from God. This objection assumes that our central barrier with God is a lack of knowledge. While knowledge is one barrier to God, it is not the only barrier. If our problem with God was simply a lack of knowledge, then God would probably reveal himself more to fix the problem. And yet, our rejection of God results –not from a lack of knowledge –but from a lack of trust.

It isn’t enough to say, “I believe that God exists.” He wants us to say, “I believe in God.” For instance, I believe that a child molester lives in my neighborhood at the end of my street, but I don’t believe in him to babysit my kids. In the same way, the Bible explains that our central barrier in coming to faith is our inability to trust God in faith. A big display of power or majesty might actually make us more fearful of trusting God.^[1]

Third, God does choose to work in supernatural ways at times. We’ll come back to this in the third section titled “Extra.” However, for now, we need to understand that God usually doesn’t appear to us in a brilliant flash of insight. Instead, he has chosen to speak to us in the gentle convictions of the heart (Jn. 16:8-10).

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