Would God do what God has never done?

[Trailblazer]

Well if God showed his presence to us, we all might be very afraid of that.

I believe that is for sure. Baha'u'llah wrote that "all created things would be so dazzled and thunderstruck by the evidences of His light as to be reduced to utter nothingness." (Gleanings, pp. 71-72)

What exactly is immaterial.

Anything that is not material.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

No, I am asking you if "you think" God would do what I posed in the OP.
So I am asking for an opinion, what you think God would do.

I can't begin to comprehend the mind of God. I only know what God has done in the past. He has not done that in the. Does this mean that he would never choose to do so under different circumstances in the future? Who am I to say?

 

[Trailblazer]

I can't begin to comprehend the mind of God. I only know what God has done in the past. He has not done that in the. Does this mean that he would never choose to do so under different circumstances in the future? Who am I to say?

Well obviously. Who is any of us to say?

 

[Jesuslightoftheworld]

For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

We know that God has never done that because if God had done that everyone in the world would believe that God exists.

For purposes of this thread, let’s assume that God has never communicated a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists.

Some people believe that God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world because God is omnipotent. The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

I would say yes, I believe He will do that in the way that it is in the Bible. When Jesus returns, Mark 13:26-27. “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

I believe that will be His communication.

 

[Jesuslightoftheworld]

I don't understand it. God does not wish to be known one smidgeon. That's the evidence I see. An all powerful being would at least leave his/her trace for us to follow. God would set up messages of his expectations, or setup his/her justice.


I expect God to deliver a game plan for us humans. God existing that would make her the landlord.

It would be counter productive to let life go on its own just to see what we would do. Then when we least expect it God swoops in when we are not looking and lays down the law.

God existing means God is hiding out from us all. That says to me something about God. It says God could care less about life on Earth.

I couldn’t disagree with you more. In my opinion, God left us a manual for life it’s called the Bible. It is complete with instructions on how to live, behave and live a happy life in a loving relationship with Him. He reveals His nature to us as well as His Will or game plan. He doesn’t hide from us, He is in our face everyday. He lets life go on because He keeps giving us chance after chance. Eventually, our sin, our bad choices are what causes bad things to happen; consequences. That’s not God laying down the law. I think that people either deny Him or blame Him in an attempt to avoid accountability. That’s just my opinion.

 

[Samantha Rinne]

For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

We know that God has never done that because if God had done that everyone in the world would believe that God exists.

For purposes of this thread, let’s assume that God has never communicated a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists.

Some people believe that God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world because God is omnipotent. The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

Who says God never did that? I mean we have all these ancient cultures that were insanely religious. Incas. Human sacrifice! Mayas? Probably the same. To say nothing of many weird things in the Indian subcontinent (alot of ppl went naked, starved themselves, etc).

Never got a direct message? Hardly! If God were to directly tell people "All I want is for everyone to live in peace, enjoy their lives, and treat each other nice. If they could do that, I can probably see fit to reinsert their souls into other bodies or live forever somewhere or whatever." And humans are all like "Derp derp, God spoke directly to us! God must favor our group! Now is the time to get rid of those other guys since God will bless us in combat!" And God's like "Well I guess I have to help this time or you guys will suicide yourselves, but I'm gonna have to show you later that I am not happy."

And this is why God doesn't arrange direct meetings. Reason #2 is that the people seeing God immediately check themselves in to a clinic.

Criminally violent or locked up as insane? Yeah, not good options. Better to be indirect.

There's also a reason #3. Suppose God did literal face and giant body appearing on the Earth. Ever seen Bleach? Powerful beings tend to destroy the Earth by being in proximity to it, without even using other power to attack it. By God appearing at the height of power, there would be a very real risk of tides, gravity, and most traits of the Earth suddenly breaking. And this is assuming that seeing God wouldn't literally break people's minds. I assume you don't want 100% of the population having a stroke after seeing something able to break their minds. I give you Call of Cthulhu as an example of how that can go south.

 

[Etritonakin]

For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

We know that God has never done that because if God had done that everyone in the world would believe that God exists.

For purposes of this thread, let’s assume that God has never communicated a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists.

Some people believe that God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world because God is omnipotent. The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

Disbelief of the event could begin with the first person who did not witness the event.
The event might not even be seen as being from God by all who experienced it.
Some might believe -some might think it was a plot by extraterrestrials to get everyone to submit -you never know.

The point is not knowing God exists -but knowing God enough to know his instruction should be followed.
Satan and the third of the angels he turned knew he existed -Adam and Even knew he existed -Israelites who experienced many miraculous things knew he existed -but it was not enough.
Only a great deal of life experience will bring people to the point of ACCEPTING God -not just believing he exists.
Therefore -after showing this point to be true by examples -God allows experience first -then will reveal himself in no uncertain terms.

Every person will eventually be face to face with God -one way or another -and they will then have an experience base from which to determine that what God is offering is better than ..history thus far.

Then God will do what was written long ago -the present works on the earth will be burned up -a new Earth and new heaven (changes to celestial bodies, etc.) will be made -a huge, essentially prefabricated, city will be brought down to Earth -the topography of the Earth will be changed to allow access to better materials, etc. -people will have been made immortal and will reign with Christ on Earth -war will cease -people will repopulate, also be made immortal -the heavens/universe will increasingly become inhabited.... and such things will definitely cause doubt to fade.

God will show that he was/is able to declare the end from the beginning -the end will be more awesome that we can imagine -all things will be made new -people will be raised from the dead -and that will all show him to be God.

 

[1213]

... The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

I don’t see any reason why not. I believe God would not do something that is contradiction with what He has said previously.

 

[sun rise]

You believe that God became flesh?

Yes. That is the Avatar - God in human form.

 

[SigurdReginson]

Since everyone does not view the same evidence in the same way, it will not look overwhelming to everyone.
The only test for religious evidence is whether it produces results.

“Bahá’u’lláh asked no one to accept His statements and His tokens blindly. On the contrary, He put in the very forefront of His teachings emphatic warnings against blind acceptance of authority, and urged all to open their eyes and ears, and use their own judgement, independently and fearlessly, in order to ascertain the truth. He enjoined the fullest investigation and never concealed Himself, offering, as the supreme proofs of His Prophethood, His words and works and their effects in transforming the lives and characters of men. The tests He proposed are the same as those laid down by His great predecessors. Moses said:—

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.—Deut. xviii, 22.

Christ put His test just as plainly, and appealed to it in proof of His own claim. He said:—

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. … Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.—Matt. vii, 15–17, 20”
Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era, p. 8

Before any evidence presented can be measured, the big question must first be answered. We can't put the cart before the horse. What evidence does the Bab present that demonstrates that god exists?

I agree that God interacts with the world in effects that can be observed but I do not believe that everything that is written in scriptures actually happened; e.g., Noah's flood. There are lots of stories in scriptures but they are not verifiable by outside sources. I do not know as much as you do about all the other religions because I have not studied them, but I know that Jesus said that nobody could come to the Father except by Him and I think that he meant that nobody can go directly to God. Of course, Christians did not interpret it that way. I thing they changed the original intent of what Jesus said and came away believing they could have a direct relationship with God.

As far as I am concerned, there is no point even looking at the religions of old because they have been changed so much from the original revelations that they do not represent what those Messengers of God revealed. I do not believe that religions that were not revealed by God are really religions of God; how could they be?

Really? Looking at the religions of old are the thing that steered me towards atheism. When it boils down to it, their inconsistencies are just too great to ignore. Religions that claim ultimate authority or the ability to describe reality and fall short just aren't reliable. Every single religion falls short that I've looked into in some way. They just appear to be written works of man.

That said, there are beautiful things written. There are timeless truths that shed light on humanity and the world we live in. Those truths are self evident, though. There doesn't need to be an ultimate truth to shed light on those things -just a bit of wisdom.

As for religions not being revealed, what made you draw that conclusion? If those religious teachings aren't religious at all, what are they? What separates Hinduism from, say, Heathenry? They share gods with the same roots, they share certain concepts, and their traditions are rooted in the same traditions practiced since prehistory. When did Hinduism go from illigitimate, to legitimate?

To put it simply, there is evidence that the Messengers of God were really Messengers of God, but that cannot ever be proven, so we have to have some faith, but mainly we have to have faith that God exists in the first place because nobody can ever see God. The Messengers are the only way we can even know that God exists, Imo.

So, there is evidence that supports the claim of Baha'u'llah, but there is no actual proof that God spoke to Him. That is why we need faith. However, once we come to believe that with absolute certainty, it is not really faith anymore because we know it is true. But we cannot claim it is true as a fact because facts can be proven to everyone, and it can never be proven to anyone except ourselves.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

It seems logical to me that if God exists, God does not want to provide that proof because if God is omnipotent, God could easily provide that proof.

In the Qur’an it says that If God had pleased He had surely made all men one people, meaning that God could have made all people believers, but if God has pleased, implies that God did not want to make all people into believers, and this verified by the fact that not all men are believers. According to my religion, which cites the Qur’an, God wants everyone to search for Him and determine if He exists by using our own innate intelligence, and then use our free will to make the decision to believe. God also wants us to have faith and believe that He exists without absolute proof.

Interestingly, this correlates with a Bible verse:
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

I think that verse means is that we need faith that is possible to find God if we earnestly seek Him. It does not mean that we should believe that God exists on faith alone and it does not mean that we must believe God exists before we find the evidence that we find by seeking Him.

Why does god desire people to believe in him without proof? What is there to be gained by that?

What has changed is that in the past ages we needed myths and legends but in this new age we do not need myths and legends as a way to understand spiritual truth because humanity has evolved spiritually to the point that people can take the straight dope. But the problem as I see it is that people cling to the past instead of moving forward into the new age we are living in; so it is kind of like they are stuck in a time warp.

I see.

I guess I have a hard time dismissing the religions of the past because everything we do is rooted in them, and they are windows into the ways we think. If they are proven false as factual, and modern religions require using them as a foundation, how do modern religions not face the same scrutiny that dismantled the religions of the past? How can one assume that major claims made by them, such as the existance of god, are true when the other things touted by them were obviously not.

All of those things you cite are what man did, not what God did. Man is capable of anything, and they have committed many atrocities in God's name, using God as an excuse to commit them. God never commanded anyone to do these things; rather, people got away from the original teachings and laws of the Messengers.

Correction: All the things I cited were done by man only because they thought god wanted them to do it. God didn't do it himself, but man did thinking they were doing god's will. For a god that relies on messengers and has a generally hands off approach in dealing with people, that seemed like a logical conclusion for those folks to have made. As for if god commanded those things, many of those things were done by the prophets themselves in the name of their god. Prophets like David, Solomon, and Moses.

I guess my suggestion would be to leave the mythology behind, but that is because I am a Baha'i and I do not see its value in modern-day society. Faith is not the way we find the truth but it is necessary if we are going to find the truth, as I tried to explain above.

Hmmm. Why then use the past as a foundation, but turn a blind eye to it when it doesn't add up? It makes it difficult to create something new and unblemished when it relies on the mythologies of the past to propell itself forward.

How does the Bab avoid the standards and baggage of the other past religions? He can't if he uses them to justify his position as the next messenger of god. One's foundations aren't so easily dismissed. That ultimately seems to be the problem for me, in regards to religion. That foundation eventually becomes a millstone around one's neck. It's a very confining and limiting thing, I find.

 

[Trailblazer]

Yes. That is the Avatar - God in human form.

I just looked that up on the internet and it says that in Hinduism an Avatar is a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher. That is really not any different from what Baha'is refer to as Manifestations of God, but it is not the same as God incarnated in the flesh, as Christians believe. Christians believe that all of God became a man. Here is a short excerpt from a longer article that differentiates the two:

“The Christian equivalent to the Bahá'í concept of Manifestation is the concept of incarnation. The word to incarnate means 'to embody in flesh or 'to assume, or exist in, a bodily (esp. a human) form (Oxford English Dictionary). From a Bahá'í point of view, the important question regarding the subject of incarnation is, what does Jesus incarnate? Bahá'ís can certainly say that Jesus incarnated Gods attributes, in the sense that in Jesus, Gods attributes were perfectly reflected and expressed.[4] The Bahá'í scriptures, however, reject the belief that the ineffable essence of the Divinity was ever perfectly and completely contained in a single human body, because the Bahá'í scriptures emphasize the omnipresence and transcendence of the essence of God…..

One can argue that Bahá'u'lláh is asserting that epistemologically the Manifestations are God, for they are the perfect embodiment of all we can know about God; but ontologically they are not God, for they are not identical with God's essence. Perhaps this is the meaning of the words attributed to Jesus in the gospel of John: 'If you had known me, you would have known my Father also' (John 14:7) and 'he who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9)…..”
Jesus Christ in the Bahá'í Writings​

 

[Trailblazer]

I would say yes, I believe He will do that in the way that it is in the Bible. When Jesus returns, Mark 13:26-27. “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.”

I believe that will be His communication.

I know that is what most Christians believe God will do, but I do not believe God is going to do that, since I believe that Christ has already returned. But besides that, I do not believe that God would do what God has never done before, because that is not God's style. I believe that God has a Method of communicating to humans He has used since humanity has existed. God sends Messengers and Jesus was one of those Messengers, Imo.

Anyhow, the OP question was as follows:

Some people believe that God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world because God is omnipotent. The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I guess your answer is no, God won't do that, because when Jesus returns everyone will know that God exists? If you believe that, I do not know how you think that will happen. How would people know it was Jesus even if He did come down out of the sky on clouds? Only those at that location would see Him. The rest of the people would have to take the word of those people that it happened. Of course it would be in the news but everyone does not believe what they hear on the new these days.

 

[Trailblazer]

I don’t see any reason why not. I believe God would not do something that is contradiction with what He has said previously.

So are you saying you think God would do that?
What do you believe God has said previously?

I believe that God has said He would never communicate directly to anyone except His chosen Ones, the Messengers of God. Of course that means that God would never communicate directly to everyone.

 

[Windwalker]

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

Not only would God do that, God does do that. Think of it like a radio broadcast on the airwaves. It's there all the time, but if you don't have your dial tuned into it, you won't hear anything. But when you do, you hear everything that everyone else tuned into it does. It's some rather nice music. You should try the station. Its broadcast range is infinite. You can pick it up anywhere.

 

[sun rise]

I just looked that up on the internet and it says that in Hinduism an Avatar is a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher. That is really not any different from what Baha'is refer to as Manifestations of God, but it is not the same as God incarnated in the flesh, as Christians believe.

It's true that the word "avatar" has many meanings including the one you stated. Yogananda has a different view Avatar - What Is an Avatar?

I accept Meher Baba's view:

When God manifests on earth in the form of man and reveals His Divinity to mankind, He is recognized as the Avatar — the Messiah — the Prophet. Thus God becomes Man. Meher Baba: The Highest Of The High

 

[rational experiences]

Life is owned naturally.

If a male speaking making all claims in self presence as a human and a male says God this and God that, then he is talking about self....and not anything else.

For when you know you are original to your own form, human then you do not need to pretend that a higher presence other than self exists.....yet males enforce it as a male and as a human male.

Their own selves.

For a natural Universal history, a male says was once a hot dense burning state.

It cooled, and to cool means that another body exists to allow it to cool, which is spatial emptiness...and that is the history a long time ago.

Where is a God in that history?

There isn't any God....it is just a story.

Now if you ask a male for what reason do you preach the stories of God, it is all about science, the want of power....so he says as the male human making all claims I will get that power. Then he knows he unleashed power and it destroyed us....so today he tells a story about self in the past, and how he unleashed the power of God by his male human say so and destroyed all life...and wants to do it again.

Why he asks non stop questions in every human spiritual life and mind to see if you can give him an answer to what is God for science.

 

[Trailblazer]

Not only would God do that, God does do that.

The OP states:
For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

No, God has not communicated a message to everyone in the world that has convinced everyone in the world that God exists. If God had done that, there would be no atheists.

 

[Trailblazer]

Before any evidence presented can be measured, the big question must first be answered. We can't put the cart before the horse. What evidence does the Bab present that demonstrates that god exists?

I am not sure if you meant to say Baha’u’llah but no matter, as the Bab and Baha’u’llah were the Twin Manifestations, and both are important. The Bab came to prepare the way for Baha’u’llah, his name means “Gate” in Persian, just as John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus. The difference is that Baha’is believe that the Bab was a Manifestation of God in His own right, whereas John the Baptist was just a man. So the Bab and Baha’u’llah both had a human and a divine nature.

Anyhow, the evidence that indicates that God exists is their Persons, the lives, the missions and the Writings of the Bab and Baha’u’llah. That is not proof but it is evidence, the best evidence that humanity has ever had as far as I am concerned, partly because the history of their lives and missions is verifiable and their scriptures are authentic, since they exist in the original handwriting.

Really? Looking at the religions of old are the thing that steered me towards atheism. When it boils down to it, their inconsistencies are just too great to ignore. Religions that claim ultimate authority or the ability to describe reality and fall short just aren't reliable. Every single religion falls short that I've looked into in some way. They just appear to be written works of man.

What I think you need to understand is that the religions of the past no longer exist in their original form. They have been changed so much by men that they are in effect religions of man. Baha’u’llah wrote “Certain traditions of bygone ages rest on no foundations whatever, while the notions entertained by past generations, and which they have recorded in their books, have, for the most part, been influenced by the desires of a corrupt inclination.” Gleanings, p. 171

That said, there are beautiful things written. There are timeless truths that shed light on humanity and the world we live in. Those truths are self evident, though. There doesn't need to be an ultimate truth to shed light on those things -just a bit of wisdom.

I fully agree with that, the spiritual truths of all the religions are timeless, they are eternal, and this is a Baha’i teaching.

As for religions not being revealed, what made you draw that conclusion? If those religious teachings aren't religious at all, what are they? What separates Hinduism from, say, Heathenry? They share gods with the same roots, they share certain concepts, and their traditions are rooted in the same traditions practiced since prehistory. When did Hinduism go from illigitimate, to legitimate?

It would be really difficult to unravel all of this, thus I do not even try to. I live fully in the present, not in the past or the future. I do not see the need to look at the older religions, especially because I believe that time is short, given the present condition of the world.

Why does god desire people to believe in him without proof? What is there to be gained by that?

God does not gain anything because God does not need anything; humans are the one who gain something. If we had proof that would be too easy because then we would not have to have any faith and we would not have to make any effort to maintain our faith. Faith is a good thing, as long as we also have evidence. Isn’t it good to have faith in one’s spouse that they will never let you down? But of course if there is a track record you can believe that because there is evidence. It is no different with the Manifestations of God, they have a track record. Otherwise it would be completely naïve and foolish to believe in them. Jesus said to beware of false prophets and there are certain dead giveaways that a prophet is false. One of those is that he exalts himself, considering himself equal to God, for example. There are many others, but there are also many indicators of a true prophet.

I guess I have a hard time dismissing the religions of the past because everything we do is rooted in them, and they are windows into the ways we think. If they are proven false as factual, and modern religions require using them as a foundation, how do modern religions not face the same scrutiny that dismantled the religions of the past? How can one assume that major claims made by them, such as the existance of god, are true when the other things touted by them were obviously not.

I understand what you are saying and you make a valid point. I am kind of different from most Baha’is because I had no religious background prior to becoming a Baha’i and I never studied history or older religions. Then later I just did not have the time. Yes, the older religions were required as a foundation, since each new religion builds on the religion that came before. That made me think of a book you might like that explains some of this and it is free to read online.

The Heart of the Gospel is a book that was written by a Christian clergyman who resigned his orders after 40 years to become a Baha’i. It explains how the Bible fits into history. The same author also wrote Christ and Baha'u'llah which is a book that explains the relationship between Christ and Baha’u’llah and how Muhammad fits into the picture:

Correction: All the things I cited were done by man only because they thought god wanted them to do it. God didn't do it himself, but man did thinking they were doing god's will.

Yes, I absolutely agree with that and the reason it happened that way was because of the misinterpretation of scripture. That is a big subject we can discuss later if you want.

For a god that relies on messengers and has a generally hands off approach in dealing with people, that seemed like a logical conclusion for those folks to have made. As for if god commanded those things, many of those things were done by the prophets themselves in the name of their god. Prophets like David, Solomon, and Moses.

Again, I am at a loss because I do not know the Bible like you apparently do, so I do not know what those prophets commanded. Can you give me some examples?

Hmmm. Why then use the past as a foundation, but turn a blind eye to it when it doesn't add up? It makes it difficult to create something new and unblemished when it relies on the mythologies of the past to propell itself forward.

I agree now that you have explained why you think this way and that is why I recommended you read those books above, which are pretty short. They will at least help you understand the Baha’i perspective and how the past religions fit into the whole picture.

How does the Bab avoid the standards and baggage of the other past religions? He can't if he uses them to justify his position as the next messenger of god. One's foundations aren't so easily dismissed. That ultimately seems to be the problem for me, in regards to religion. That foundation eventually becomes a millstone around one's neck. It's a very confining and limiting thing, I find.

The Bab and Baha’u’llah are not responsible for what happened in and to the older religions. They both brought new revelations from God. The problem is that most people cannot look at the new without carrying around all the old baggage. I was fortunate because I did not have any, and that is probably the main reason I was almost immediately able to recognize that Baha’i Faith was the truth from God; no confirmation bias.

 

[Conceivia]

For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

We know that God has never done that because if God had done that everyone in the world would believe that God exists.

For purposes of this thread, let’s assume that God has never communicated a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists.

Some people believe that God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world because God is omnipotent. The question I am posing to you is if you think that God would do that, even though God has never done that before?

I am not asking you if God could do that. I am asking you if God would do that.

I believe that God is millions of times more intelligent than we are, and that God knows the outcome of whatever he does, before he does it. God knows exactly how such an action would affect people, and what changes would result. I do not believe, that God can do everything.

The effects of such a direct communication would be incredibly complicated. To make everyone understand what needs to be done, would I think, be unlikely. To make everyone follow one person who knows what to do, would be far more possible. God seems to have communicated this already, but far less direct.

If God told everyone, directly, who that Savior is... Some would seek to kill that person. Possibly even the majority of the people, as people strongly oppose change.

If God limited the conversation to only those who would accept the message... it would also strongly distort the picture. If the Savior knows that God can communicate directly, he might put a whole lot less effort into it. He might stop thinking, and wait for God to tell him step by step what to do. It might make the people worship the Savior, rather than follow him. It might explode his ego, and make him into a bad person.

I've often thought what if God allowed me to make a lot of money, so I'd have the money needed to save mankind. The answer I keep coming to is that if I had a lot of money, I would not have the interest in saving mankind. I would not think about how to save mankind. The thoughts and plans I've come up with, are from being somewhat in poverty myself. The rich do not understand the problems of the poor, and so are unable to help them.

A person can not come up with a solution to a problem, unless that person is presented with the problem in the first place.

It is kind of like giving a poor person money. One would think that is the solution to his problem. Unfortunately though, we learn that the money doesn't help them. The solution is more complicated. Likewise, if God was to communicate with us directly, basically hand us the "solution", it would be a lot like handing a poor person money.

 

[Windwalker]

The OP states:
For purposes of this thread, let’s act as if God could communicate a direct message to everyone in the world that would convince everyone in the world that God exists. This assumes communication from God that convinces them it is “really God” speaking.

No, God has not communicated a message to everyone in the world that has convinced everyone in the world that God exists. If God had done that, there would be no atheists.

I disagree. You said, "that would convince" them. You did not say it in the past tense, that it has convinced everyone, which you are adding now. That was not your word choice. My point is, that if you tuned your radio dial into that channel, and heard the broadcast, you would be convinced.

That very much fits with what you said, with the exception I believe that already happens. You assume because you've never heard that broadcast, no such 'broadcast message' is being sent. This is the complaint neo-atheists make. But there are very many souls who have tuned in and heard it, and they are convinced because of it. There is no doubt as to what they have heard, their very souls bearing witness to its authenticity.