On the absence of God as the ultimate test...

Do you know why God seems so absent sometimes?

There are several reasons, including (among others) the fact that perhaps your God wasn't really THE God, but just one of the many gods -- a mask created by imagination and worn by beings with more will to power than you.

However, when all the gods are shown to be idols, and all the masks stripped away, there really IS an empty place. THE TRUE GOD is completed uncreated, unapproachable, incomprehensible. He is not "A GOD." He is the Unknown God.

But the fool sees this and says in his heart, "There is no God."

So why does He choose to act like this, even to the point where His own beloved Son cries out, in His moment of deepest need, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Here's why, I think.

He made us truly free agents. Morality really is a social construct. When you get right down to it, Nietzsche was largely correct, and willpower wins the day.

Note that most of us are not prepared to handle this reality, and we will be judged, in the end, according to our knowledge. But for those who do grasp this (and do not turn away from it), we truly are called to be the sons of God -- partakers of the divine nature, and (consequently) wielders of the divine power. The Word of Faith people are not entirely incorrect in this respect. They constitute, however, a damnable heresy insofar as they turn people on to this reality and then orient them (or confirm and amplify their exiting orientation) toward their own rapacious lusts, bringing them thereby into bondage to themselves as false gods.

However, the reality is that in being created to be the sons of God, we are created to wield power that is (at least by most measures) infinite, even in this life, let alone in the life to come, of which we know next to nothing but what has just been said.

So He has created this world as an incubator and a proving ground.

The first sons of God (i.e. the angels) are already greater in power and might -- individually, let alone as a collective -- than most of us can significantly process.

And although we have been made a little lower than these, He does intend to exalt mankind far above all power and might, and above every name that is named, even to the very "right hand of God," to sit on His own throne and judge with His own judgement.

(Now we do not see this yet in all humanity, but we do see Jesus, to Whom and in Whom all these great and precious Promises have been already fulfilled. But He has given gifts to men, to those who believe on Him He has even given the power to become the sons of God, and these will be revealed as such -- in full -- at His return.)

But He wishes to see how each free agent will use these powers, so He places before him comparatively little things, and He places these things in ACTUAL, complete freedom -- so much so that it looks "for all the world" (pun intended) as though He Himself is completely absent.

And this is the truest and best test of Faith. Will you, like Jesus (the Author and Completer of our faith), remain faithful and obedient even in the face of your own death (the opposite of the will to power -- humility), so that others may live? Do you LOVE? Truly, choosingly, and even unto death, not using your power to revile and curse, but to bless and forgive?

Or would you use the power of God to "get ahead", creating inequities and ignorance and failings at the expense of others? Would you use this power to overthrow God Himself and set yourself on His throne, as Satan tried to?

With great power comes great responsibility.

What is your disposition? Therefore, if you would be entrusted with the power of an unending Life, CHOOSE LIFE. For there is coming a Day...

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