I had a few opportunities to watch Elie Wiesel speak. If you do not know who he is, he is a holocaust survivor probably best known for his book, Night, which I highly recommend- it is a short but intense and profound book about his experience in two concentration camps.
Elie Wiesel is a theology professor at Boston University, where I went to school. One day, he came into my humanities class as a guest speaker. I vaguely remember him speaking about Cain and Abel, and then about the Bible in general.
Afterwards, he had time for two questions. I was one of the lucky two, and asked him why it was that back in the biblical days so many people had direct communication with God, and therefore proof of his existence, and why people nowadays do not. It’s a bit unfair for people nowadays, isn’t it, if we actually end up in hell for not believing in God, as the Bible says.
His reply was succinct and terribly unsatisfying: “Maybe God is trying to communicate with you.. Perhaps you’re just not listening.”
In the OT God spoke to only the “prophets” to speak to the people. In the NT we had Jesus, God Himself come to speak to the people. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to be among us to speak to us. Thus, instead of needing the middleman (prophets) we are now able to speak to God directly as long as we have Jesus acting as a bridge between God and us. So to communicate with God, we need the vital ingredient, or key which is Jesus.