Why didn't God reveal Himself to other ancient peoples?

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spiritflower9

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The Bible is very region specific. We know from the archaeological record that there were many other people groups living around the world such as Central America, Asia, and Africa. However, God makes His focus only one place. Why didn’t He reveal Himself to people in other parts of the world?
 
I come from an atheist background and am trying really hard to understand the teachings of the Catholic church. I am currently in RCIA. However, I am struggling with certain questions and topics. This is one that I’m struggling with. I wish I had the kind of personality where I could just accept things like this as a matter of faith, but I don’t.
 
He did reveal himself to other people.

Only he only made a covenant with one people.

I’ll give you more tomorrow.
 
I think I understand that as an atheist you may have a problem with admitting there is a higher power… is that right? That is a BIG stumbling block. In the bible Jesus says no one comes to me unless the spirit draws him. I believe the spirit is drawing you and you should pray for strength go believe in something bigger than yourself. I don’t know your situation at all, just guessing. If I guessed wrong, sorry…
 
I come from an atheist background. I’m not anymore. I believe in God now, however I am trying to understand the teachings of the church and religion in a rational way.
 
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It likely had to do first with the location and secondly the people that were most receptive. The Jewish people were more receptive and cooperative. The location was within reach of Rome. As time progresses Rome reaches the Fertile Crescent and provides adequate stability for the Messiah to be born. Utilizing the empires roads the gospel could spread across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. With further exploration it has now encompassed the globe.
 
I belive God did provide revelation to other cultures according to their capacities to receive it.
 
Well, ok! Glad you were able to make that leap! Now that you do believe there is a God who created ALL… you have to make another leap. He is in charge. He has a plan. He made a garden and put Adam and Eve in it and they made a choice to “know good and evil”–when they already knew good–God walked with them in the cool time in the evening… They made a choice because God gave them (and us) free will. This choice of theirs is called the FALL and all of us as their descendants were born with original sin. But right from the beginning God had a plan that men and women would earn their bread by the sweat of their brow… And he would send a savior to bring us back to his good graces. (Golly, I hope I’m not confusing you!) He condemned the serpent and said “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
So what I’m trying to say is that God let man’s free will play out in the olden days, (and still does). But HE had a plan to send his son, Jesus. He had already planned to do this through Abraham because when he talked to Abraham Abraham BELIEVED God and had FAITH.
Here’s a thought…maybe God did reach out to others but they didn’t believe…
 
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I remember a guy named Noah that God did reach out to… all the other people were doing evil and sinning. Noah was the only one who listened…
 
It officially teaches something very close to what you just said.

Nostra Aetate #2:

From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.

Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing “ways,” comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)
 
And from CCC 842-845

The Church’s bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. . .

The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”

In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:

Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.

To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son’s Church.
 
In a way, He did.
Various pagan religions had stories like the triple goddesses of Europe or the resurrection narratives in the Middle East. Precursor ideas of Judeo-Christianity. Possibly it was the work of the Holy Spirit to allow these stories to emerge, to make it easier for conversion of these peoples later.
(It might have been CS Lewis or possibly Chesterton who developed this theme in one of their books…)
Also, the beauty and power of nature, the philosophy of various cultures–people instinctively strive for higher knowledge and reach out to the Intangible.
We also know that God judges us by what we knew and how we acted on it, so there is also no reason to worry that these people were all lost and damned to Hell, just because they weren’t Jews.
 
Had it been any other way, Christianity would not have spread to the various places of the world.
 
As Spyridon already references Nostra Aetate, that is a n excellent start.

We need to realize that God is infinite and even the revelation of Christianity is one facet.
 
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I find your answer very interesting and insightful.
 
My post was verbatim quotation from official Church documents.

Thank the Catholic Church for her insight and wisdom - I’m just a sinful ignoramus.
 
Maybe you can help me answer another question I have. Do you think that these ancient people were given the opportunity to achieve salvation with the little knowledge they did have about God?
And if so, did that opportunity go away when Jesus became known to most of the world? (Ex. an atheist now has no excuse to not accept God in this age without facing the consequences.)
 
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