The astonishing God acknowledged by Jews and Christians is not static but is dynamic, interactive, and elusive in self-revelation. In particular, this God reveals himself to some people at times but also hides himself from some people at times. As a result, this God is cognitively elusive; that is, the available evidence for this God's reality typically escapes human control, even regarding its reproducibility. In addition, the claim that this God exists is not obviously true or even beyond reasonable, or well-grounded, doubt (in any familiar sense) for all capable mature inquirers.

Let's think of the God in question as “the living God” in virtue of this God's being personally interactive with some agents, and cognitively nimble and dynamic rather than cognitively inflexible or static. We should not confuse this God, then, with an immutable Platonic form or any other kind of abstract entity or nonpersonal principle. This God, more specifically, is reportedly elusive for good reasons – that is, for reasonable divine purposes that fit with God's unique character of being worthy of worship and thus being morally perfect. Accordingly, we should expect any evidence of God's existence for humans to be purposively available to humans – that is, available to humans in a way that conforms to God's character and perfectly good purposes for them.