God has willed to redeem men and to open salvation to those who seek it. But men render themselves so unworthy of it that it is right that God should refuse to some, because of their obduracy, what He grants others from a compassion which is not due to them. If He had willed to overcome the obstinacy of the most hardened, He could have done so by revealing Himself so manifestly to them that they could not have doubted of the truth of His essence; as it will appear at the last day, with such thunders and such a convulsion of nature that the dead will rise again, and the blindest will see Him.” It is not in this manner that He has willed to appear in His advent of mercy, because, as so many make themselves unworthy of His mercy, He has willed to leave them in the loss of the good which they do not want.
It was not, then, right that He should appear in a manner manifestly divine, and completely capable of convincing all men; but it was also not right that He should come in so hidden a manner that He could not be known by those who should sincerely seek Him.
He has willed to make himself quite recognizable by those; and thus, willing to appear openly to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart. He so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given signs of Himself, visible to those who seek Him, and not to those who seek Him not. There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition.”
– Blaise Pascal, Pensées (430)
HT: Apologetics 315
Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
(Jn 12:37–40)
For a treatment on the interchange between sovereignty of God and the alleged freedom of humankind in relation to salvation, see my Election and Salvation in John’s Gospel in which I say:
To persistently reject the revelation of God in His Son inevitably leads to an inability to receive it. This inability is facilitated by God as He blinds the eye and deadens the heart. It is also necessitated by God in that He declared it would be the case. So, in unbelief there is divine and human causation undergirded with divine necessity. Persistent unbelief of the Jews (note the imperfect, ἐπίστευον in 12:37) is the basis for the blinding and hardening. If the gospel message does not quicken, then it deadens!
Pascal is the man. Thomas Morris has an interesting chapter on the Hiddenness of God in his book, “Making Sense of It All”, which is a kind of study in Pascal’s thought. He really help me refine my thinking in this area. To some degree, the problem of divine hiddenness is really a subset of the broader problem of evil.
Thanks for commenting and reading. Morris is one of my heroes though I’ve not read his work on Pascal. Suppose that I need to now ;-). Thanks for the inspiration.