Without Knowing For Sure

I can't find You in this murky scrabble
That bombards me in discordant refrain;
"Here he is!" shouts one, above the babble;
"No!" screams another, in instant disdain;
"Mine is the lord! In him you must believe!"
Would that You silence the competing herd
With an earth-circling cross none could unreave,
And all men revere Your eternal Word!
All would then agree that Christ is the door;
The others man-made, and Jehovah fact.
But wait! Where then is faith, and so much more,
If God must be proved by a magic act?
Man must believe without knowing for sure,
Jesus is the door to heaven secure!

Carl Sagan, an atheistic scientist who became nationally popular with his television show on the Cosmos in the 1970's, showed a distant picture of earth; it was small, bluish, a mere pinpoint in space. He said that people on earth should look at how small and insignificant our planet is and realize that no creator would launch the immense universe and keep it developing matter for billions of years, merely to have it manufacture such a small bit of it so that man would have a safe habitat in which to live. He went on to ask, "If God really exists, why didn't he put a cross 100 kilometers long in orbit about the earth, so there would be no doubt about his existence?"

This is a good question, and it has a very good answer. He certainly could have done that, because God can do anything. If He had, though, and the miracle pointing to Him as Creator and Lord of the universe caused all men to believe in His existence, there would be no free choice for men that pointed the individual to guidance by Jesus Christ or guidance by Satan. God doesn't want anyone to worship Him who doesn't freely choose Him. If a miracle proved His existence, and all believed that He is, how could the Judge (God) determine which men had lived 'good' lives and which had lived 'evil' lives at the final judgment?

Salvation requires faith, and faith means you must act as if God is certain without knowing for sure that he is. There is no faith where there is certainty.