God, come out, come out wherever you are!

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

I have never understood if God really loves everyone and wants everyone to believe in him (or make him their lord or whatever else your spin on salvation might be) so he isn't force by his perfect justice to condemn unbelievers to an eternity in hell, why doesn't he just show himself continuously to everyone?

I know what you're already thinking. Free will, blah blah blah. Supposedly if he shows himself, we can't believe in him freely. We'd supposedly do it out of coercion, not love. By that logic then, no body who actually saw or spoke to God, actually believed in him willingly. Nobody who saw Jesus, his miracles, and ascension, and believed because of that, believed in him willingly. Doubting Thomas was perhaps the most coerced person of all mankind!

So, unless you think those people were actually coerced by God, then no, his appearances don't violate free will.

This fact poses a problem then for the plight of the natives in parts of the world who never had an opportunity to hear the gospel. A typical theist "solution" to this problem, one I use to use myself, is to say that the fact of God's existence is obvious to all men through the revelation of nature whether or not they know the gospel. Supposedly, if one single native became a theist from the revelation of nature in the midst of his polytheistic, or pantheistic culture, he'd be saved if he never got the chance to hear the gospel before his death.

I don't think this solves the problem anymore...

Let's say we have two natives in two different geographical locations. Both of them have rejected the revealed revelation of nature and have become polytheists just like the rest of their the people in their locations. So both of them, if they were to die at the same time, would wake up in hell. In one location, missionaries come and preach the gospel, and our native there hears it, believes in Jesus, and rejects his pantheon of gods. Shortly thereafter on the same day, the native happens to die, and wakes up in heaven to be with his glorious savior for all eternity. Our other native, however, also happens to die, but he winds up in hell. Is this just? It seems to me that the only reason why one native went to heaven and the other went hell is because the saved native had more information. If both had heard the gospel, both might have been saved.

You might say the doomed native would not have believed the gospel even if he heard it. In other words, God already knew that this free person would freely reject the gospel anyway so there was no point in sending missionaries his way. This however, completely undermines your mission to spread the gospel. You might as well just keep the gospel a secret because it's ultimately the individual's fault whether they go to hell or not. There's nothing wrong with not sharing the gospel. In fact, the apostles might as well just kept the resurrection a secret and Christianity would had never formed. No problem, since it's all your fault anyway if you wind up in hell. If you don't accept this, then you're saying that a person's destiny is outside his free control which then just brings the problem back to person's destiny being controlled by information.

It seems to me then that really the only reason in your view that a person goes to hell is because of a lack of information. Also, since in many places in the Bible, God appeared and demonstrated himself, followed by belief, then it's unfair that God doesn't show himself in the same way to everyone.

[genkaus]

There is an old joke that succinctly describes your argument:

Eskimo: If I did not know about god and sin would I go to hell?
Priest: No not if you didn't know.
Eskimo: Then why did you tell me?

[Godscreated]

Shouldn't you ask this of yourself, I have the information now what will I do with it.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

FTFY

Edit: at least try to answer my points.

[Matt231]

Exactly. If God wanted people to believe in him so badly, then he would at least show himself and give everyone a reason to believe.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

Exactly. If God wanted people to believe in him so badly, then he would at least show himself and give everyone a reason to believe.

True.

If the result of people going to hell is lack of information, which is the only way I can see it being, then for God to be good in my estimation he must allow enough time to convince each individual he creates that he exists and that he is worthy to serve. That shouldn't take too long for an all-powerful being to do.

Another problem theists have is just the sheer arbitrariness of setting God to be the only thing would violate a person's free will by making himself obviously known. Theists say, it's really obvious to everyone that God exists, it's just that they don't like him so they push that thought aside in their mind and deliberately intoxicate themselves in alternative world views to make them forget his existence. What sort of definition of obvious are they using? I would say that the fact that my hair color is dark brown, that I'm a male, that I'm wearing a red shirt, that I have 10 fingers and toes, and that I exist to be obvious. These are the sort of things that are plainly obvious to everyone. It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.

[Mystic]

It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.

Most of humanity believes in God. As for trinity/Jesus thing, that's another story.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.

Most of humanity believes in God. As for trinity/Jesus thing, that's another story.

Perhaps currently. The 80 percent represents all of humanity throughout history, not just currently. I've heard the 80 percent figure from other atheists. I don't know if that number is correct (I was using it as a figure of speech), but I think it's reasonable to say that most of humanity throughout history has not been monotheists.

[Godscreated]

Exactly. If God wanted people to believe in him so badly, then he would at least show himself and give everyone a reason to believe.

True.

If the result of people going to hell is lack of information, which is the only way I can see it being, then for God to be good in my estimation he must allow enough time to convince each individual he creates that he exists and that he is worthy to serve. That shouldn't take too long for an all-powerful being to do.

Another problem theists have is just the sheer arbitrariness of setting God to be the only thing would violate a person's free will by making himself obviously known. Theists say, it's really obvious to everyone that God exists, it's just that they don't like him so they push that thought aside in their mind and deliberately intoxicate themselves in alternative world views to make them forget his existence. What sort of definition of obvious are they using? I would say that the fact that my hair color is dark brown, that I'm a male, that I'm wearing a red shirt, that I have 10 fingers and toes, and that I exist to be obvious. These are the sort of things that are plainly obvious to everyone. It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.

You have no idea how God will judge those who have never heard of Christ, that's unless God has been secretly talking to you and you're afraid to let your atheist friends know because they would ridicule you.

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

Exactly. If God wanted people to believe in him so badly, then he would at least show himself and give everyone a reason to believe.

True.

If the result of people going to hell is lack of information, which is the only way I can see it being, then for God to be good in my estimation he must allow enough time to convince each individual he creates that he exists and that he is worthy to serve. That shouldn't take too long for an all-powerful being to do.

Another problem theists have is just the sheer arbitrariness of setting God to be the only thing would violate a person's free will by making himself obviously known. Theists say, it's really obvious to everyone that God exists, it's just that they don't like him so they push that thought aside in their mind and deliberately intoxicate themselves in alternative world views to make them forget his existence. What sort of definition of obvious are they using? I would say that the fact that my hair color is dark brown, that I'm a male, that I'm wearing a red shirt, that I have 10 fingers and toes, and that I exist to be obvious. These are the sort of things that are plainly obvious to everyone. It is completely unjust that God would allow ourselves to be fully convinced instantly of such seemingly pointless facts, yet allow the supposed fact of his own existence to be so debatable that 80 percent of mankind will spend eternity in hell for not coming to the "obvious" conclusion.

You have no idea how God will judge those who have never heard of Christ, that's unless God has been secretly talking to you and you're afraid to let your atheist friends know because they would ridicule you.

Just answer these simple questions please:
1. Is it a person's own fault they go to hell?
2. Is it wrong to not share the gospel to someone?