Why did God (or Jesus) only appear in a certain region?

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Wouldn’t it be better to send prophets of the same faith to different regions (Africa, Americas)? In other words, is it rightful for God to let people die without hearing the Gospel at the same time as other regions which heard?
 
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But He did send the Apostles to preach to all the world.
 
With hindsight, it looks to me as though God chose the right people, in the right place, at the right time.
 
If you posit an all knowing and all loving God, that’s not a problem, and here’s why.

Although Jesus commands us to be baptized, we aren’t expected to do the impossible.

Catholic theology holds that people who weren’t baptized or knew Jesus, through no fault of their own, can still receive the mercy of God, and will be judged by they lived the most righteous life they knew how.
 
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The same reason that the Greek gods only appeared to the Greeks, the Hindu gods only appeared to the Hindus, etc. To me, it seems weird that an all-powerful being has to rely on people to spread knowledge of his existence.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
To me, it seems weird that an all-powerful being has to rely on people to spread knowledge of his existence.
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He doesn’t “Have To”.
He CHOSE to.
It’s part of his plan.

He might have done it just to give people something to think about.
Or to see who would believe when Apostle Barnabas, or St. Jean de Brebeuf, came preaching the Gospel instead of Jesus just appearing in the sky and doing some spectacular thing that would cause a worldwide collective gasp.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
To me, it seems weird that an all-powerful being has to rely on people to spread knowledge of his existence.
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“…has to rely…”
Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a man. There he is alone with God, Whose voice echoes in his depths. In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor. In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of men in the search for truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. -Gaudium et Spes, 16 (emphasis mine)
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It should seem weird to you (and false) that such a God would have to rely on such. However, it’s clear enough nowadays that humans are essentially communal, societal, relational at their cores. Given this aspect of humanity, there really isn’t anything surprising about communal belief-spreading. Beliefs about current affairs/news, history and science are all spread testimonially. Testimonially-grounded beliefs form the great majority of all our beliefs to which we ascribe significance. But somehow we want to make this a special problem for religious beliefs?
 
St Paul said it best:
‘When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them.’ - Romans 2:14-15
 
It is not at all weird according to Judaism, which believes in an intimate partnership between humanity and Gd, and that each party, according to the Law, has their own responsibility. Mankind’s job is to make the world a better place for all, not only by means of transmitting the monotheistic faith through Judaism (as well as Christianity and Islam), but also by repairing the world in a concrete and socially constructive way. Gd’s job is to provide a blueprint through the Law on how best to achieve mankind’s mission.
 
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Jesus has appeared in apparitions to people all over the world. But you are probably asking about Jesus when he was living. It may be that if God were to appear in the flesh in multiple regions that people may say that there is more than one God. So Jesus lived once in the flesh because there is only one God, and every person only has one life.
 
God does not have a lack of understanding, He knows every situation everyone is in and judges these accordingly. The name of God is mercy.
 
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To be fair, this really wasn’t how God wanted to do it. He created Adam and Eve in sinlessness and union with Him. If they had not sinned they would have remained in communion with Him & so would all their descendants. Our sin is what caused division, distance, discord, death, etc. And God works within that framework we chose. He doesn’t override the consequences of sin - He transforms them into routes to Him. Even death.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
To me, it seems weird that an all-powerful being has to rely on people to spread knowledge of his existence.
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If only Jesus had written a book… oh wait…

The more perfect the power, the more it confers itself upon the recipient of its agency… The greater the teacher, the better the capacity of the student to teach after being instructed. It is in fact precisely for this reason that Christ chose mostly uneducated men, taught them, and then let them preach progressively converting the Earth, without even writing a book.

But grace is available to all, in every time and place, through the invisible and universal covenant of faith, made articulate and efficacious in the advent of Christ… it is “formalized” and articulated, with helpful means of governance, sanctification, and teaching for the sake of right living in accordance with the Divine Will. Preaching is a graced participation in the work of conversion which is always in fact rooted in God’s own free offering of salvation to all mankind.
 
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Good explanation.

This is a God who would like to work with us. He doesn’t have to but he likes to.

This shows us his regard for us and it is encouraging.

It’s like he said to us, “I can do this on my own, but I like you to do it with me.”
 
I have several people to respond to over this and several threads, so I’m going to be uncharacteristically brief.

@Tis_Bearself I would never say that any one thing disproves any deity. The supernatural was defined not to be falsifiable. There’s always a retreat position or spin when a supernatural claim becomes suspicious. But when we consider The Great Commission and the importance God put into spreading his word these two things don’t really jibe. It has all the earmarks of a local religion explaining its way after the fact as to why it was so local for so long.
@0Scarlett_nidiyilii No, but by the same token people don’t (nor should they) ask Allah’s opinion when commenting on odd things about Islam.
@Magnanimity The fact that humans are communal in no way limits or lessens other methods by which to spread information. Thomas Paine didn’t rely on word of mouth to spread his position on the British. People today don’t rely solely on word of mouth to talk about political positions. God is said to have a method of communicating what he wants known in a way that puts the internet to shame. Even if we put stock in the power of person-to-person conversation there’s a larger issue at hand: Time. By the time that the majority of the world knew about Christianity it was 1,500 years. Why not have a dozen people around the world have their own Road to Damascus moment to then spread the word to their areas? Again, it’s the same reason Zeus never appeared to the Apaches
@meltzerboy2 I agree that in Judaism it make more sense, since it’s not about spreading the word of God to others; but we’re talking about Christianity which makes such actions a top priority.
@kapp19 “The greater the teacher, the better the capacity of the student to teach after being instructed.” Are you suggesting that humans were better teachers than God himself?
 
No…

Let’s skip ahead and just ask why God didn’t create us already in Heaven?
 
kapp19 said:
No…

Let’s skip ahead and just ask why God didn’t create us already in Heaven?
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That’s an unusual leap. I’m assuming for the sake of argument that:
  1. God exists.
  2. God wants people to live their lives on Earth.
  3. God wants all people to know of him.
  4. God has the power to make all people know him.
  5. God chose to do via people (thus causing some division and for others not to hear of him for over a 1,000 years).
I’m not in any way whatsoever suggesting God should have just put people in Heaven. Is there a reason why he chose people over himself to spread his word, knowing full well the problems that would cause?
 
My theory, God waited until the Roman Empire was at its peak, because the infrastructure to facilitate travel around Europe, North Africa, etc. was there, philosophy had reached a point in the west that it could be synchronized with Christianity. If He had come earlier, and somewhere else, humanity wouldn’t have been ready to receive the message or have the means to spread it.

Also, the Asian cultures were too far removed, too pagan to receive God, same for American Indians.

The Romans, though pagan, had a virtuous form of paganism and philosophy that put them closer to God, than say the Carthaginians with their human sacrifice.
 
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