Yes! Either that or communicate with mankind in a way that sticks out of the crowd of other religious claims! Those New Testament authors have no credibility with nonbelievers. What good is doing something that only confirms the belief of those who already believe?
Ken
God became man, and dwelt among us. He was captured, tortured and executed for His efforts. He then was resurrected. He presented Himself in resurrected form to thousands of eye witnesses. Including those who knew Him during His incarnation AND those who didn't. To people who believed in God, AND to those who didn't. The passing on of the stories by the eyewitnesses became of such importance that they began to be written down, so that this, the most important set of events in man's history, would continue to pass on until the return of Christ, and the end of the current heavens and earth. The information, and good news of Jesus was taken far and wide. In this day and age, it is difficult to imagine a group of people existing on the earth who have not received a missionary delegation at some time or another. Further, God the Son set up a Church. Ordained the first Bishops, (the Apostles), who continued to ordain Bishops and so on and so forth up to this very day. For those truly interested in God, and in their eternal souls, the information is not only readily available, but it has been hated by every major civilization since the fall of the Roman Empire. The adherents of Christianity continue to provide evangelisation, and witness to the faith. Jesus instituted sacraments, which were taught to His Apostles, and are still practiced today as the Church militant awaits with joyful hope, the Lord's return. The sacraments provide grace, and keep us in the universal body of Christ. Though the pace has slowed down, there are still hundreds of thousands of conversions each passing year of people from all walks of life, into the Church. And yes, others leave. Miracles still DO occur. Non-believers pay no attention to them, and if they did pay attention to them, they would pass them off as swamp gas, hypnotism, or mass hysteria. Tricks of the light. etc.
The plain fact of the matter is, there are probably some among us, who, using their God given free will, are using it to choose the tangible glamour of modern fleeting cultures, and will not choose to believe. They may attain mercy, if they have lived their lives in a manner befitting a child of God, by simply choosing well, even without believe, since your very conscience itself is one of the many voices of God. Others who claim strong faith and belief, but do nothing to live out their lives in an imitation of Christ, may find themselves with the non-believers at the end of time, or their own lives, whichever comes first. The fact is, not everyone is going to make it to eternal life with God. This is true today. It was true while God walked the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. It was true immediately following the resurrection. It was true when our Lady presented herself to Sister Bernadette, Juan Diego, and 3 Portuguese Children at Fatima, (even though the sun was made to dance in front of hundreds of eye witnesses, and it was only a few generations ago). If God were to make Himself a human man again, and present Himself at Television Studios in Hollywood, or The White House, or Parliament, and asked for air time to make a statement to the world, most wouldn't even listen to Him. Those who did would either assume Him to be insane, or a fool. He would be laughed at.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
God will continue to communicate with us, the way He always has. Through each other.
Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead, and His Kingdom will have no end.
People who are open, and are willing to engage either childlike faith alone, or intellectual reason accompanied with faith will see the face of God. Those who don't, likely won't. Is this unjust? No. The alternative would be a God who created us without choice or free will. A spiritually dead set of automatons or meat puppets. We would live perfect lives, eternally, without any strife. But automatons can't love. God is love. He love's and wishes to be loved. 2/3 of His created pure spirit beings (angels) chose to love Him. The other 1/3 chose not to. That 1/3 of the Angels have damned themselves, they were so adamant against their creator. And in the case of angels, this was with FULL knowledge of what and who God is. Angels don't need to see miracles. Perhaps the ratio in the end will be roughly equivalent in mankind. Perhaps not. Perhaps even less of mankind will choose God. Perhaps almost all of us will choose Him. But He loves us all eternally, and in the end, we will get what we want, eternally. Life with God forever, or life without God forever. "It is what it is", to quote modernity.
In the mean time, it is incumbent upon Christians to embrace our roll as missionaries. To be and show love to others. To do our best, (if we are intellectually inclined) to appeal to reason. If we don't have intellectual ability, then to simply demonstrate our faith in our lives. (We need to do this either way). Many will continue to laugh at us. Some will continue to persecute, imprison and kill us. But we will keep the message alive. Some who this very minute will ridicule this post, will find themselves loving and following Christ in the not too distant future, and will themselves be ridiculed. But then, they will get it. They will understand that once you are Christ's, you are always His.
I don't know if this answers anything for any one of skeptical nature. It probably doesn't. My posts, probably don't even belong on a philosophy thread. Not because there's no philosophical arguments for God. There are many. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the most important exhaustive work of philosophy to date in man. I read Aquinas, as well as Augustine, Aristotle, Chesterton, Lewis, Benedict XVI, Kierkegard and others. I don't, however, have the gift of interpreting them well to others.
At any rate, I pray that you and any others skeptical are given glimpses by the Holy Spirit, or have that faith light turned on in some unexpected way as it did for me in my late 40's.
In the meantime, peace to you and yours, and God bless.
