It simply appears to me that the number of people who "find God" (The Christian version) appears to be much smaller than the group who does not find him or even travel the path of finding him. In addition he only seems to make himself apparent to some people and not others.
He shines to all, but if ones are blind they see only darkness. Our own nature has a lot to do with if we find God or not. I offer, that a person starts in sin, in selfishness, in being concerned mainly or only about oneself and about ones he or she wants to use. So, in this nature and its ways, no way can we be seeking the real God who is all-loving.
And some number of people claiming to be Christians are not about seeking God who is all-loving and who requires us also to become all-loving like He is. So, it is not enough to go by what people claim about themselves, on questionnaires.
What I have difficulty in doing is spending years of my life studying and trying to understand the meanings in a book.
Well, the Bible is like an automobile manual. If you were to live on the North Pole and all you ever have used for transportation is a sled pulled by dogs, you could study an automobile manual and have a problem understanding it . . . since you need to experience a car in order to discover all that the words mean.
Like this, the Bible is meant to be discovered in sharing with God. God is personal. So, if we deal with the Bible in only an intellectual and scholarly way and only by comparing Bible things with how humans in culture have understood things, we miss how God Himself would personally share with us. And He is able to communicate, personally; but we are the ones who can be impersonal, which keeps us from being able to connect with Him.
If true, this is not a subject that can be dealt with half heartedly or based on advice from others.
Except for one thing > God is our Father; and He is about family caring and sharing love; so He has us included in His communicating
God does have people whom He uses to help people, but if we are isolated with our idol of independence and our own ego's free will, we can be unable to benefit from how God would use people to help us.
Elitist does imply that a door is closed on others. I accept again that the word was probably a poor choice on my side. I did not mean to imply that Christians prevent others from joining their religion - its more likely exactly the opposite. Perhaps I should rather ask, why is there such a great failure rate?
Humans in sin are the ones who are elitist . . . glorifying their own independence and ego's free wills . . . loving those whom they can use for what they want; and people who are like this can then see God as being how they are, and criticize Him instead of seeing how they themselves are their main problem.
Satan was in Heaven itself, and Heaven was not good enough for Satan > there is nothing wrong with Heaven, I will offer. Satan had perfect circumstances with all the loving which is in Heaven; but because of how Satan himself is, he could not be satisfied, not even with Heaven itself. And this is how his children are, on this earth. You have seen how enough is not enough, for plenty of people. There are ones who are loving and kind, but a number of people keep their attention to what evil people do, instead of feeding on the good example of ones who are loving and kind.
And being quiet is a dreadful thing, often enough, for worldly people, because in their quiet they are attacked by boredom and loneliness and other cruel and horrible things which can drive people to seek pleasure to try to feel relief. But with God, being quiet is safe > in His love there is His own almighty power to drive out fear and other cruel and dominating things. But because of how people are, they miss out on this.
it concerns me greatly that if the Christian God exists, that so few are being saved and so many more are being cast aside. Why is this so?
Because of how humans are, in sin, people do not experience God who is personal and all-loving . . . which they are not. Sin is like being covered with sewage; if you don't get the sewage cleaned off, anywhere you go will smell terrible; it was like this, for Satan in Heaven > he could smell his own stink of pride, but blamed Heaven.
Don't blame God.