Why Would God Reveal Himself To Only A Select People?

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith?

Geoist said:

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith?

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As a Mormon, I believe that he did reveal himself to prophets on the American continent.

And I do not accept it as a given that he didn't reveal himself to prophets in other parts of the world as well. Just because we do not have records of such revelations doesn't mean they didn't happen, or that the accounts of these revelations, passed along for many generations by word of mouth, didn't become so distorted along the way as to be no longer recognizable now.

Bob Blaylock said:

As a Mormon, I believe that he did reveal himself to prophets on the American continent.

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Fair enough.

I'm aware of Joseph Smith. Were there others? I don't know much more than the average joe when it comes to Mormonism. Is Brigham Young also considered a prophet?

And I do not accept it as a given that he didn't reveal himself to prophets in other parts of the world as well. Just because we do not have records of such revelations doesn't mean they didn't happen, or that the accounts of these revelations, passed along for many generations by word of mouth, didn't become so distorted along the way as to be no longer recognizable now.

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That is likely. However, I believe most Christians would say they do believe such a scenario occurred.

Geoist said:

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith?

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Because its all BS? A way to control the masses?

The Giant Noodle said:

Because its all BS? A way to control the masses?

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For this thread we are going to assume God is in fact real.

^Correction on my second post: I believe most Christians would say they do NOT believe such a scenario occurred.

God revealed himself in all religions dude.

In every religion that has a God, or more Gods, they have revealed themselves to a select group of people... who then became the prophets of those gods or the preachers or whatever... and that is how the word got spread. Even in the animist religions, who worshipped animals and the trees or nonsense like that, the gods of those religions revealed themselves to people. So Christianity and Judaism are not alone in that perspective, they are part of the same mechanism of propechy and preaching as the rest of the worlds' religions. And why would the Christian God reveal himself in only one location? Who knows. That is His way. Why did Krishna reveal itself in the Krishan river bay? Who the hell knows... and who the hell cares.


If you are talking strictly about Judaism and Christianity, you are talking about 2 different Gods. So make up your mind.

Rainman05 said:

If you are talking strictly about Judaism and Christianity,

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Yes, I am.

you are talking about 2 different Gods. So make up your mind.

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Its not that simple. While most Christians worship the Trinity and Jews do not, they do both worship the God of Abraham.

In any case, it doesn't matter whether its from a Jewish or Christian perspective because both sides tend to believe that God revealed Himself only to a select people within a select part of the world.

Geoist said:

Bob Blaylock said:

As a Mormon, I believe that he did reveal himself to prophets on the American continent.

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Fair enough.

I'm aware of Joseph Smith. Were there others? I don't know much more than the average joe when it comes to Mormonism. Is Brigham Young also considered a prophet?

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I wasn't actually thinking of Joseph Smith, nor any of his successors, when I wrote my previous response. But yes, we consider Joseph Smith to have been a prophet, and Brigham Young, along with a line of others who have followed him, up to Thomas S. Monson who fills that role today.

The Book of Mormon, we believe, is primarily a record of a group of people who, led by a prophet, left Jerusalem around 600 BC, and traveled to the American continent; and of their descendants over the next thousand years; and that God spoke to these people through prophets. It was to those prophets,and the record preserved in the Book of Mormon, that I was referring.

Geoist said:

Bob Blaylock said:

And I do not accept it as a given that he didn't reveal himself to prophets in other parts of the world as well. Just because we do not have records of such revelations doesn't mean they didn't happen, or that the accounts of these revelations, passed along for many generations by word of mouth, didn't become so distorted along the way as to be no longer recognizable now.

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That is likely. However, I believe most Christians would say they do believe such a scenario occurred.

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I think you intended there to be a “not” in there somewhere in that last sentence.

I don't think there's anything in the official doctrines of my religion that say anything about whether there may have been other prophets, in other lands, than the ones of which we know. But it sounds like you agree with my own personal belief, that it is very likely that God spoke through prophets in other places, and that the teachings of those prophets are either lost to us now, or else distorted beyond recognition. We would certainly know nothing of the prophets mentioned in the Book of Mormon, if those records had not been preserved as they were, and brought forth by Joseph Smith.

Perhaps other records exist, buried and undiscovered, in parts of the world where it is widely assumed that God never revealed himself throuigh prophets, and which,if discovered and translated, would prove otherwise.


I suspect that Mohammed may have been a genuine prophet, and that his teachings now differ so badly from what I would recognize as truth only because of many generations of being handed down by word of mouth, and distorted in the manner inherent to this method, before they were finally written down. I suspect that anywhere any monotheistic religion is found in the world, that appears to be unconnected to the Abrahamic religions, that a genuine prophet may have been involved at the beginning, whose teachings have been badly distorted by the time we received any record of them.

Geoist said:

For this thread we are going to assume God is in fact real.

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IF then.... why the HUGE punishment and where are you? You HAATE gays... OK. Im not gay. But where are you? Am I to Guess? You want ME to guess? My buddy has cancer. You hiding?

Geoist said:

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith?

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It occurs to me now, to answer this question in a more direct way. If God only revealed himself to that one small part of the world, perhaps he did so because that was where the means existed to preserve his revelations for all time, with a minimum of loss and distortion. Or perhaps he did, but we do not know this, for exactly that same reason.

Geoist said:

For this thread we are going to assume God is in fact real.

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Of course God is real. In FORTRAN, any variable starting with the letters I through M are INTEGER, and all others are REAL, unless explicitly declared otherwise. Implicit typing defines God as REAL, since the first letter is G.

Geoist said:

Yes, I am.

Its not that simple. While most Christians worship the Trinity and Jews do not, they do both worship the God of Abraham.

In any case, it doesn't matter whether its from a Jewish or Christian perspective because both sides tend to believe that God revealed Himself only to a select people within a select part of the world.

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And other people from other places in the world believe that their gods revealed themselves to their select group of people in their part of the world. It is an universal concept. Get over it.

The Giant Noodle said:

IF then.... why the HUGE punishment and where are you? You HAATE gays... OK. Im not gay. But where are you? Am I to Guess? You want ME to guess? My buddy has cancer. You hiding?

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Had to read your post a couple times to get what you were saying here lol.

Although I consider myself a Christian, I do not believe as most other Christians do, that God is very active in the daily activities of the world, at least since ancient times.

Rainman05 said:

And other people from other places in the world believe that their gods revealed themselves to their select group of people in their part of the world. It is an universal concept. Get over it.

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For the third time, this is addressed to Judeo-Christians who believe the true God revealed Himself to only a select group of people. I am not denying there are other faiths in the world. :roll:

Geoist said:

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith? Why Would God Reveal Himself To Only A Select People?

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He wouldn't.

Bob Blaylock said:

with a minimum of loss and distortion.

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Well that certainly didn't work out did it.

Bob Blaylock said:

I suspect that Mohammed may have been a genuine prophet, and that his teachings now differ so badly from what I would recognize as truth only because of many generations of being handed down by word of mouth, and distorted in the manner inherent to this method, before they were finally written down. I suspect that anywhere any monotheistic religion is found in the world, that appears to be unconnected to the Abrahamic religions, that a genuine prophet may have been involved at the beginning, whose teachings have been badly distorted by the time we received any record of them.

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Assuming that the Abrahamic god exists as a given, what gives you confidence that Mormonism is the accurately recorded version? Of the four holy texts, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran and the book of Mormon, what criteria can you use to assess their individual validity? If you think Islam has been distorted from the original words of a true prophet, how can you be sure the Mormonism hasn't suffered the same fate?

Bob Blaylock said:

Of course God is real. In FORTRAN, any variable starting with the letters I through M are INTEGER, and all others are REAL, unless explicitly declared otherwise. Implicit typing defines God as REAL, since the first letter is G.

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Fortran? Dude, you're dating yourself.

Geoist said:

From a Judeo-Christian perspective, God revealed himself to the people of the Old Testament and the New Testament (through Jesus). If He wanted to be worshiped and save humanity from its sins, then why did He not reveal Himself to the Americans, Africans, Europeans, or the rest of Asia? Instead of planting one seed, would it not have been more efficient/effective to have planted several seeds instead of relying on a tiny section of the world to spread the faith?

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Why would an all knowing, omnipresent, omniscient God have a need to be worshipped?

When god created the Universe it was done through an explosion of incomprehensible power. As a result there were Octillions of flaming objects. Some became suns, some became planets, comets, asteroids etc. After billions of years, god traveled throughout the universe to observe the trillions of life forms that had developed on the various planets. When god arrived on earth, it found a primitive life form and manifested itself in a form that might be comprehensible at that stage of our development.

Subsequently, the awe that was experienced by these primitives became the first form or religion and the first form of business. Over the thousands of years that followed, different individuals and groups started their own religions as a form of governing, power assignment and income generation. New religions aree constantly being crated (Mormonism and Scientology are more recent examples) and also many variants of some religions were marketed to the people. Since all religions tend to use a common marketing tool, the absence of total death after our short while to be alive, many religions have a lot in common in the "histories".

God has trillions of locations throughout the Universe and really can't be expected to show up on a regular basis at any one specific location. But no matter which planet you travel to, you'll see similarities to the structure.

Now, you may be thinking "how would this Specklebang guy know this?". The answer, of course, is Faith. You must trust me because without faith, you are nothing.

Geoist said:

For this thread we are going to assume God is in fact real.

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That is an ignorant condition since a response of "God doesn't exist" is a legitimate answer to your question. If you wanted this to be a discussion among the saved and devout only, you should have said so up front.

specklebang said:

When god created the Universe it was done through an explosion of incomprehensible power. As a result there were Octillions of flaming objects. Some became suns, some became planets, comets, asteroids etc. After billions of years, god traveled throughout the universe to observe the trillions of life forms that had developed on the various planets. When god arrived on earth, it found a primitive life form and manifested itself in a form that might be comprehensible at that stage of our development.

Subsequently, the awe that was experienced by these primitives became the first form or religion and the first form of business. Over the thousands of years that followed, different individuals and groups started their own religions as a form of governing, power assignment and income generation. New religions aree constantly being crated (Mormonism and Scientology are more recent examples) and also many variants of some religions were marketed to the people. Since all religions tend to use a common marketing tool, the absence of total death after our short while to be alive, many religions have a lot in common in the "histories".

God has trillions of locations throughout the Universe and really can't be expected to show up on a regular basis at any one specific location. But no matter which planet you travel to, you'll see similarities to the structure.

Now, you may be thinking "how would this Specklebang guy know this?". The answer, of course, is Faith. You must trust me because without faith, you are nothing.

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Throughout human history, faith has been the currency of liars, thiefs, charlatans and con men.

...and religions that can not produce a shred of evidence.

spanky said:

Throughout human history, faith has been the currency of liars, thiefs, charlatans and con men.

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I ask myself that all the time but I never have the balls to ask him "why me"?