One of the greatest failures of atheistic apologetics is an atheist's inability to understand the very God they are attempting to disprove. One such example is the pop-culture depiction of God as an old man sitting on a cloud. While there are certainly some atheists who understand that this is a pathetic caricature, many of them genuinely believe this is what Christians believe in. And so they ask "have you ever seen God?", and "why haven't we ever seen Him?"
But no Christian believes God is a big old man in the sky. In fact, the Bible repeatedly describes God as being very much not a man. Man is made in God's image (Genesis 1:27), God is bigger than the universe (Psalm 113:4-6), no one has ever seen God except Jesus (John 1:18), God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16), God is not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19), these are all things the Bible says about God that should make it very obvious that The Simpsons, Family Guy, even Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, are woefully inaccurate depictions of God.
There is one exception. Historically, God did come to Earth as a man, in the form of Jesus Christ. He performed many miracles, which were observed by literally thousands of people, right up until the day of His very public execution. After that, He was seen alive again, even by a crowd of more than 500 people. And Paul even had the nerve to suggest that the majority of those people were actually alive, and available for cross examination (no pun intended), in a culture in which you could be killed (previously even by him) for professing the truth of the Gospel. Records of Christ's life, written by people who actually met Him, still exist to this day. So actually, yes, people did see God. I never met Henry VIII, I know he existed based on historical evidence. I never met Jesus, but I know He rose for the same reason.
Because He rose, we can all be forgiven for rebelling against Him. In His death, He paid the full penalty for our sins. In His resurrection, He purchased an eternal inheritance in Heaven for us. All we need to receive it is to confess the Lord we previously denied, and believe that He is, indeed, risen.
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An attempted response from an atheist
When this article was originally published as a post on the God Squad Apologetics Facebook page, an atheist attempted to respond with the following:
"Is there a reason Jesus would not appear to non believers as he is said to have appeared to Paul? That kind of proof would be very compelling, having that personal experience when one is not open to receiving the Lord, as opposed to stories of the Lord acting in people's lives who are open to it (that just feels like confirmation bias in general)."
It's not so much there's a reason He doesn't appear to everyone else as it is that there is a reason He did appear to Paul. Paul, of course, was a major part of both revealing the faith, and solidifying it. In his litter to Timothy, he says "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life." (1 Timothy 1:12-16).
Notice, "in me first". So, in effect, Jesus appeared to Paul because there was no one in his time less worthy to receive such an appearance. By all rights, Jesus should have either left Paul to die and go to Hell, or even just straight up killed him. But God doesn't want anyone to perish, and Paul's conversion is the perfect example of that. The idea is that if Jesus can forgive Paul, Jesus can forgive you. Of course, ignorance and unbelief play a large part in this. There are some people who are not rebelling in ignorance or unbelief. You'll even see some atheists admitting that "if" they believed in God, they would not worship Him just because they foolishly think He is unworthy of that worship.
The confirmation bias thing is a semi-valid point. Obviously, you don't want such weak evidence as "I like this view, so I think you would, too". I don't even typically give my testimony, and I'm not sure how I feel about other Christians offering theirs in apologetics. That being said, I have two counterpoints.
1. Confirmation bias isn't necessarily a problem if there is something to confirm that bias. If I believe I will find comfort and help at my mom's house, the fact that she does comfort and help me is confirmation of that bias. If you believe Jesus will help you, and then Jesus helps you, that's Jesus doing what He does.
2. As with Paul, a lot of testimony does come from those who were previously hostile to the Gospel. I notice ex-Muslims are especially vulnerable to Christophanies (appearances of Christ), including ex-terrorists, in some cases. In our culture, it tends to be well-educated atheists who set out to attack Christianity only to come to Christ, reporting on how their findings ended up converting them. Albert Henry Ross, for example, wrote "Who Moved the Stone?" In the first chapter, "The Book that Refused to be Written", he details how he had set out to disprove Christianity, but instead he came to believe the historical evidence was convincing. Lee Strobel likewise tried to de-convert his newly converted wife by studying the evidence for Christianity, only to gather the evidence that would later fill his book "The Case For Christ".
The atheists who do this ultimately show us why Jesus doesn't appear to everyone. His appearance to Paul is some rather powerful evidence just on its own. When combined with everything else, we have more than enough reasons to believe. All of this shows us that really, Jesus doesn't need to appear to all 8 billion people, but rather, it's almost better if He just appears to a strategic few. His reputation precedes Him, and of course, in the end, who loses out if we reject Him? We do. In more ways than one, we are completely expendable. God doesn't need us in Heaven, neither does He owe it to us to force us there. Rather, our salvation is just His preference. It is entirely out of the goodness of His own heart that God offers us Heaven in the first place, never mind the wealth of evidence He has provided. Had it been His desire, He could have done it all in a corner in relative silence, leaving only three witnesses to His resurrection. Instead, He prophesied of His arrival, made a lot of noise upon said arrival, got killed publicly, appeared to whole crowds, converted His worst enemies, and even gave His original disciples (and Paul) the power to perform great miracles, like He did, such that some people even thought Paul was Zeus (that's how desperately wicked we are). He's given us more than we deserve, and we often still demand more. There comes a point where only a direct appearance would convert someone, but such special treatment is unwarranted.