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Given the state of our world today, and the scriptures and the beliefs of the three major Abrahamic religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, let us assume that the "truth" is some variant of the three beliefs. There really is only one God with his believed qualities and He did send down scriptures and prophets but each has been twisted/corrupted by man over time and each religion has evolved over thousands of years to be as it is today in our world, different from one another.

God is however now sick of it so He has decided to reveal himself to humans and He is determined to convince at least the Jew, Christians, and the Muslims that He is their God and they were all slightly wrong. Now He is here and He demands devotion, respect, obedience, and prayer.

The question is how can He do this? How can He reveal himself in such a way as to convince His followers? The obvious thing to do would be for Him to just "will" the people's minds changed and it shall be done...but that is a boring answer. Would raising the dead convince people? Would rebuilding the temple of Mount in an instant convince the Jews? Would presenting a Bible in the original form with all of the gaps filled (such as the gaps in the Dead Sea Scrolls) as well as a few additional books which look like a natural continuation of the currently known Bible convince the Jews and the Christians? Would another fresh water spring springing in Mecca or the moon being split in half convince the Muslims? What about lots and lots of rain? Or is God doomed by the incredulity of man? Will men refuse to believe Him no matter what he does...finding an "explanation" for everything He does because they cannot imagine their God coming down and revealing Himself in this fashion?

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    $\begingroup$ Reminds me of the last seasons of Stargate: SG1. Demanding devotion, respect, obedience, and prayer and displaying real power does not prove they are who they claim, especially when followed by substantial corrections to the supposed scripture. $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 6:21
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    $\begingroup$ There is a paradox here. An omnipotent God will of course have the power to influence the minds and senses of everyone in the world. Therefore all you need is a being powerful enough to do that and for him to make us believe that he is God. So no matter how convincing He is, we have no way of knowing that He is not simply a lesser being who just has this ability and is manipulating us. Therefore proof of the gap between the lesser being and God is impossible. Though H/he could influence us not to question it, but H/he's not really proving H/himself then, just making us think H/he has. $\endgroup$
    – komodosp
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 11:58
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    $\begingroup$ Any or all of the possible methods of proof you describe in your third paragraph will probably work, except for the "presents a complete Bible" one. There are multiple "canon" versions of the scriptures out there already: one more would have no real impact. $\endgroup$
    – Doug Warren
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 19:26
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    $\begingroup$ The probable result will not be unification of these three religions, but the creation of a fourth one. It already happened two times. $\endgroup$
    – mouviciel
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 21:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Fixed Point There is a problem with this question. You are ask a bunch of people who are not omniscient what and omniscient being would do, you are very unlikely to ever get the right answer. It is hard to predict the actions of some one as smart as you let alone someone smarter. Maybe what could he do as a question? $\endgroup$
    – sdrawkcabdear
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 23:22

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It is easy for the Abrahamic God to convince us he is powerful, and by implication we should obey Him if we know what's good for us. Convincing us He is omnipotent is impossible.

Let's say that God announces His return with some spectacular miracles which completely break the laws of physics as we know them. Instead of being met with silence, prayers are now answered with more miracles, or perhaps just with friendly and sensible advice. Some of the dead are returned to life to describe what heaven and hell are like. And so on.

Even the most skeptical observer will agree this is an extremely powerful being whose attributes are consistent with those of the Abrahamic God. It may be fair to conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the newly revealed Miracle Worker and the Abrahamic God are one and the same entity.

However, it is not possible for God to prove He can do anything. Our ability to sense and process information is limited. We also know that our minds can be fooled. If God shows us what the creation of the universe looked like (insofar as we can perceive it), is that the real thing, or just a very convincing hallucination? Is God the only being who can work miracles, or are there others who have chosen not to reveal themselves to us? By definition, these questions cannot be answered.

In terms of a very old theological dispute, the Gnostic heresy is not disproved. We can agree this being is very powerful, but how do we know he's not Satan trying to trick us? We don't.

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    $\begingroup$ +1 Exactly the points I considered while posting this. "We can agree this being is very powerful, but how do we know he's not Satan trying to trick us?" This very question is what I was hoping would be answerable. $\endgroup$
    – Fixed Point
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 15:51
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    $\begingroup$ Isn't this exactly what God's son Jesus of Nazareth did during his ministry? $\endgroup$
    – Damian Yerrick
    Commented Nov 16, 2015 at 0:54
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    $\begingroup$ +1 for friendly and sensible advice. Why are religions always way more fond of miracles, smiting, damnation and eternal whatnots? $\endgroup$
    – fgysin
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 8:38
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    $\begingroup$ @DamianYerrick: thanks for explaining which Jesus you meant, otherwise I might have confused him with Jesus who works at Dominos. $\endgroup$
    – fgysin
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 8:40
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    $\begingroup$ The Abrahamic god isn't required to be Omnipotent, that's only Christian or later. There's no equivalent term in Hebrew/Aramaic. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 13:44
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Short of rewriting existence to make everyone believe that he is the real and only god, there is probably nothing. Humans are really stubborn when it comes to long and strongly held beliefs and faiths and they all have different ideas of what their god is and what he would do.

A vast number of people would look at him and think "I don't think that's how God would behave", regardless of what he did. There's no single thing all believers have in common, even within a religion, let alone between religions.

There's just too many people with different ideas.

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I don't think this is possible.

I can't speak for Jews and Muslims, but in Christianity, God is defined by what we know of His character/attributes. Therefore, if a very powerful being claiming to be God shows up but does not adhere to what we know/understand of Scripture, and/or (for Catholics) contradicts established Tradition, then there's no way for that being to be considered God. By the Bible's own criteria for deciding whether a message is from God or not, that being will not be God - just a very powerful being trying to trick the faithful.

In fact, if a powerful being claiming to be God but not strictly adhering to revealed Scripture does show up, we Christians are already expecting him ... and he's the Beast/Antichrist. So yeah. Awkward.

For what it's worth though, when the Antichrist does pitch up, apparently most of the world will be convinced and will follow him. So there's that.

But for sure there would be major schisms and conflicts as a result. There'd be no way to make everyone just believe this being's claims and just go along with it. It'd be the new Crusades, 2Xth Century Edition: Now With Nukes (TM)!

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    $\begingroup$ As long as he sends an Antichrist ahead of himself, he should be fine since most Christians expect him to come back after the Antichrist comes. $\endgroup$
    – Nosajimiki
    Commented Jun 10, 2020 at 17:16
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Smite the nonbelievers!

Lightning strikes

All God needs to do is take everyone, everywhere, who doesn't believe in him, and hit them with a lightning bolt. Indoors, underground, in an airplane, in a Faraday cage, wearing a rubber suit, or otherwise. Lightning bolt.

The first round of lightning bolts, of course, will be non-lethal. Enough to strike fear, enough to show God's power, and enough to show that He Knows Who You Are And What You Believe. (God believes in capitalizing things.)

Of course, some people will try to explain it away, and will cling to their non-belief, but there's a simple solution for that. More lightning bolts.

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    $\begingroup$ He could make a bug free, fully compatible new version of Windows that Mac and Linux users all like. $\endgroup$
    – Oldcat
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 0:20
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    $\begingroup$ Only for the believers. Nonbelievers get Windows ME. $\endgroup$
    – ckersch
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 0:54
  • $\begingroup$ Many people will believe that it's not God who did that, but some evil being. ("God loves people, why would he smite them?") Whatever you do, you can't prove the existence of God - any miracle can be explained by action of some other being. You can make it seem likely that there is a God, but people can only believe that, not know that. $\endgroup$
    – user31389
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 15:08
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    $\begingroup$ @user31389 Simple solution: take all of those people and hit them with lightning bolts. Eventually, only believers will remain. $\endgroup$
    – ckersch
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 15:41
  • $\begingroup$ @ckersch Well, if you want every living person to believe in you, you can just ensure non-believers aren't living. But I think the question was about convincing people, not getting rid of them. $\endgroup$
    – user31389
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 16:22
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Advertise on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using an impossible to obtain username such as #GOD. Just kidding... sort of...

Rather than embracing the present, stick with the old brand favorites. The Abrahamic Divinity prefers to communicate with us mortals through prophets but since He is addressing at least three audiences, He should manifest at least three spokespersons, each an incarnation of a significant historic person in their target religions. For Judaism and Islam, these spokespersons would be prophets, and for safety sake, the Christian spokesperson should probably be one (or more) of the Apostles. Innacting the Second Coming as an opening move in His reintroduction, might trigger Armageddon, so the Jesus card should either be held for later, or retired from the deck.

Manifest each of the spokespeople in authentic garb (prove-able by carbon dating), speaking in their historically accurate languages (leave it to our modern day scholars to figure out what they are saying) and deliver them to sacred places that would be inaccessible by natural methods. If possible, make sure that their arrivals are captured by multiple video cameras or at least a flock of teenagers with cellphones.

The reason for considering multiple spokespersons for Christianity has to do with that religion being rather divided and diversive all on its own. One of the apostles could manifest in the Pope's bedroom while another might materialize along side a TV Evangelist during a live-audience show. If the Jews and Islamic need multiple spokespersons, go ahead and send them in. The more the merrier!

Once all the players are in place, start the play. Have each of them start explaining how the faiths they represent are incorrect. Remember, that no one will understand them at first, but what they say will get captured on video and translated later. Then wait, while the human authorities arrest them and hall them off to prison.

Once they are behind bars, have them prophesize in modern tongue to the other prisoners and guards. Then when everyone's eyes are on them, have them vanish and rematerialize in their original arrival locations.

Repeat as necessary until the authorities give up; adding other miracles such as bullet-removal and healing as needed. Once the human powers-that-be admit defeat, invite the scientists and scholars and start the re-education.

Start by asking for questions that only top scholars and theologians can answer. Provide the prophets with the expected answers, clarifying each answer with missing unknown but proveable knowledge where appropriate. In short order, the scientists, scholars and theologians will also give in and accept defeat.

Only then is the Abrahamic Divinity ready to become manifest. Have each of the now famous prophets lead their respective camera crews and journalists to a single, previously unholy location, maybe someplace really beautiful that God is proud of creating. Then and there, with all the world watching,...

Come on stage and take a bow!

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    $\begingroup$ It's worth considering that from a Christian perspective God parted the sea... and his chosen people turned to Baal. He flooded the world, yet we claim it's just a myth. He sent his own son - who among other things resurrected the dead - and he was crucified by his own people. You really think that this approach would fair any better? $\endgroup$
    – NPSF3000
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 10:07
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    $\begingroup$ No accounting for a fickle audience. The whole crucifixion event is why I suggested a minor change up in the old tradition of healing others. These new prophets need to be able to heal themselves, and quickly. Modern audiences are too impatient to wait 3 days. $\endgroup$
    – Henry Taylor
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 14:53
  • $\begingroup$ @NPSF3000 - Viral videos just might work! $\endgroup$
    – Oldcat
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 0:17
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    $\begingroup$ Interesting thought - if Mohammed was brought back from the dead (as a prophet to the Islamic world), would any filming him be under a death sentence for producing a representation of what he looked like? $\endgroup$
    – RDFozz
    Commented Nov 29, 2018 at 23:45
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    $\begingroup$ I agree with @NPSF3000 ; the Apocalypse of John says that God will pretty much do more or less exactly what you are saying (plus the "smite the unbelievers" from Ckersch's answer), yet people still will not believe. $\endgroup$
    – In Hoc Signo
    Commented Jun 6, 2020 at 23:38
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God could convince us all pretty simply: let us know and feel everything he know and feel for an instant.

As St. Augustine of Hippo would notice, our mind is not better at understanding God than a chamber pot to contain the whole sea, but for sure each of us would remind what convinced him/her.

It's not like turning us into praying automatons, since each of us could theoretically choose to fight God anyway, but he would know that He exists.

Moreover it would not be a boring scenario: imagine everyone everywhere

  • knowing that God exists
  • comparing what they remember
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He would do all of the following (basically the inverse of this answer):

The Christian definition of Messiah requires certain signs of proof. He must:

  • heal the wounded
  • revive the dead
  • Bring good news to the poor

The Jewish Definition states that the Messiah must:

  • gathering of the exiles (This encompasses all tribes, not just Judah).
  • restoration of the religious courts of justice an end of wickedness, sin and heresy
  • reward to the righteous
  • rebuilding of Jerusalem (how would you even interpret this? Jerusalem is a living city now.)
  • restoration of the line of King David (Not sure how He would prove this as no DNA from that period exists or is trustworthy. He may not need to if He can meet all the other criteria.)
  • restoration of Temple service (Doing this requires removing the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem? Tricky. A lot of people are going to be told to just "eat it".)

For Islam, God will need to meet many of the 99 attributes of Allah. If He is able to do this then Muslims should accept him too.

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    $\begingroup$ +1 The Dome of the Rock/Temple controversy is going to cause trouble as He is trying to convince both Faiths of His divinity and sovereignty. Dropping the entire Temple Mount into a sink hole might be a better opening move. $\endgroup$
    – Henry Taylor
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 15:14
  • $\begingroup$ Here you go: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/10599/472, judaism.stackexchange.com/a/25581/472, and, a little more light-heartedly, judaism.stackexchange.com/q/55237/472. (This is all about a pretty minor point and just FYI. If you want to discuss more, let's go to chat.) $\endgroup$
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Oct 4, 2015 at 1:04
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    $\begingroup$ For rebuilding of Jerusalem, how about he negotiates a perfect solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and there is no more fighting in Jerusalem or Gaza? $\endgroup$
    – Midwinter Sun
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 0:08
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Do a repeat of the plagues in Egypt in the days leading up to the Passover, meanwhile advertising on Twitter and Facebook. Each plague mocks a specific ancient Egyptian god, and is supposed to demonstrate the power that the Abrahamic God has over all other deities (hence why the magicians couldn't replicate them all). Encourage the scientists to come and test whether or not the Nile is actually blood. Maybe come up with a few more plagues that refute the power of Hindu and other deities. This should convince most of Judaism and Christianity.

Have Elisa and Jesus (the latter, assuming Islam or Christianity) start Twitter accounts and tour the globe, starting in Jerusalem where they manage to negotiate a perfect solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and then perform some other miracles. Whether Islam is true or not, it might be prudent to bring Mohammed to the Middle East and have him work on settling the Sunni-Shia divide. Actually, just bringing peace to the Middle East in general would prove He's powerful, though not omnipotent.

Bring back Abraham, too.

For the science people, start screwing with the laws of physics. Accelerate the speed of light by just a little bit, decelerate the speed of light by just a little bit, though enough to be detected. Locally increase Planck's Constant. Give scientists The Answer to a really big scientific question, complete with proofs and evidence, then change The Answer to that question. Make stars appear and disappear in the night sky. Take them back in time to Creation.

Screw with cosmology. Make the Earth concave for a few days, make it flat for a few days, by playing with physics. Make the Earth literally rotate backwards without any casualties (or with a few, but this would kill everyone on Earth if there wasn't something there).

Lastly, advertise Heaven on TV and tell people you have to believe His religion in order to go there. Build some nice resorts there, give them limitless, instantaneous WiFi, and let dead people Skype with their deceased relatives. Also advertise Hell and interview the Evil Pagans of His choice about how much they wish they had chosen Christianity or Islam (I don't think Judaism has Heaven, but I'm not sure). Offer a few demos and tours of each, too.

Omnipotence can't be proven, but Abrahamic nature can, and Abrahamic implies omnipotence.

EDIT: Syncretization will help. Syncretize the end-times prophecies, somehow, of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and there you go. There will still be some doubters, but gee, Heaven looks nice on TV…

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  • $\begingroup$ +1 Was going to give a similar answer. The god of Abraham can bring people back from the dead... so bring along Abraham and other religious founders to vouch for you. $\endgroup$
    – Josh King
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 19:42
  • $\begingroup$ This still does not mean that he is all-powerfull. $\endgroup$
    – Jorge Aldo
    Commented Mar 19, 2017 at 10:45
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    $\begingroup$ So make 42 into... 43? $\endgroup$
    – Xavon_Wrentaile
    Commented Apr 2, 2017 at 1:20
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I don't think that there is an answer other then your called 'boring answer'. People don't believe in the Creator God all powerfull just because He doesn't want. What is the humanity compared to the All Powerfull God? It's nothing! People tend to decrease god's power and think that they can act against His will, but everything is under His will, even when people don't believe in Him is because He lets them.

So, to convince His existence He just needs to want.

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Quite easily, if only it was in His nature.

If He wanted to, God could easily create a circumstance within which everybody would have to believe. After all, He is omnipotent, omniscient, armipotent. However, the key word is "want."

I am not sure if this is true for Judaism and Islam, but in Christianity God's nature is immutable. This is a side effect of His eternal ("all of time at the same time") nature; were He to change, it would cause a universe-ending grandfather paradox. As a result He incapable of things like sinning, since they are contrary to His nature. Think about it this way: it is within my power to pull a Wowbagger and troll everybody on Worldbuilding.SE, but it is against my nature; therefore, it might as well be impossible.

Another thing that Christianity holds true about God is that He values human free will. In fact, it is the whole reason why He created us. As the great theologian Francis Schaeffer aptly put it, our purpose is "to love Him on a personal, not a machine, level.” (Genesis in Space and Time, page 60). This value for our free will goes so far that He even lets people continue in sin, as doing so is what they choose. As a result of this, Christians have concluded that it is in God's nature to always respect human free will.

Since God's nature is immutable, and it is in His nature to allow people free will, He cannot force people to acknowledge His existence.

Regardless of whether or not God is capable of making everybody believe in Him, I think it is worth mentioning that if Christians see a bunch of people coming to believe in a being/person who claims to be God, they will probably assume that he is the Antichrist. Provided, of course, that the Antichrist hasn't already come...

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Keyword: Omnipotent

There are a lot of answers saying that this couldn't happen for various reason x, where x is some part of human nature that makes us disagree a lot. Reasonable argument.

However, its missing the point. If this is the Abrahamic god, then he is omnipotent. As in, he can do anything. Therefore, he can simply make us all believe in him, just by willing it.

The question uses the phrase, "Is god doomed by the incredulity of man?" The obvious answer, for a God who made man incredulous, is no.

...the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)

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There is an app... ah, I mean a prophecy for that...

Zechariah 14:4 contains a prophecy that "The Lord" will stand upon the Mount of Olives, and that it will split in half, moving to the North and South, creating a large valley.

Contextually, this is to happen during a great battle around and/or in Jerusalem, and there is some fleeing going on too.

Should anyone be present, or be fleeing in that direction, it should be possible to see and/or meet Him.

See also Matthew 24:30 where a prophecy says that all the tribes of the Earth shall see the Son of Man coming. (Son of Man being one of the titles of Jesus.)

So that takes care of the showing up part. As far as the convincing part goes there is this one prophecy from Habakkuk 2:14 that might work, "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

Not real specific, but at least it is sourced. I'm sure the Torah and Koran have a few more things to say on the subject, but my Hebrew and Arabic is somewhat lacking.

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Reading the other excellent answers, a new line of thought occurred to me. ...and it is even more consistent with His original old-testament branding.

Flood the world and kill all the non-believers. Instruct one devote member of each faith to build an arc and gather some animals; then bring on the rain!

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    $\begingroup$ Small problem with that. He said he wouldn't flood the world again. The rainbow proves it. Next time it's gotta be fire. $\endgroup$
    – Green
    Commented Oct 2, 2015 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ ...or flood the world with something besides water. Like sulfuric acid. $\endgroup$
    – Oldcat
    Commented Oct 3, 2015 at 0:30
  • $\begingroup$ Bigger problem. Lots of boats, even some glass bottomed ones that survive sulfuric acid. Humans have a lot of tech now so would fire work? could you stay up in a hot air balloon for the whole time? Or in a submarine, space-station or elsewhere? $\endgroup$
    – Donald Hobson
    Commented Dec 21, 2016 at 21:33
  • $\begingroup$ @DonaldHobson : That's precisely the "problem". Too many of "infidels" would also survive another deluge. Not only nautical technology but also food conservation (canned food, etc.) help surviving such disasters. Last but not least: There will be at least a bunch of Lisa Simpsons figuring out that the deluge was caused by a chain of natural causes. $\endgroup$
    – Patric Hartmann
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 12:55
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You'll need to fulfill the Messianic Expectations of Basically all 3; yet synchritize them somehow.

Having Miracle Worker and God are the same won't convince adherents to Islam, their idea of God makes it so its absurd and beneath God to assume anything that might limit any aspect of him- including taking a material body. None of the 3 believe He has a body; God is a immense primordial intelligence who thought the world into being. You'd almost need a 'John the Baptist' forerunner fortelling the immediate return of Jesus- who Muslims agree has a second coming. Jesus is a prophet in Islam and might be the only person who could convince them that 'X' version of God is the real deal. Jesus actually displays more miraculous power in the Quran than Muhammad himself.

This Jesus is also going to need to explain to Christians how they've deviated from the Truth, while still convincing them that they are still within the bounds of essential Truths if they put their faith in them. Will you keep the Trinity or not? If you do, then you may have a way to make this work well. comment (Jesus claims a kind of Divine Sonship and authority straight from the Father) Or maybe Jesus is the same Person as the Father- thus he is divine. [Christians say that the Son is the Logos, or Wisdom of God; where its almost like God's Self-Awareness is so real that it becomes a Seoncd personality, having the same nature and drawing on the same Power Source as the Father. The Holy Spirit is the Love of son & Father that becomes so real it has a Charatcre/Personality of its very Own). This returned 'Jesus' also must fulfill the Jew's expectations of their concept of Messiah, who will re-institute perfect sacrifices and fulfill all their sacrifices such that the only 'sacrifice' left is the Todah [Thanksgiving] Sacrifice of bread/grains.

The temple probably will need rebuilt; but you'll need to fulfill the expectation that God once again dwells in the Holy of Holies in the temple. If jesus were also God, and He performs a perfect sacrifice in the temple.. then there you go, God's presence is now once more within the Temple. He'll need to convince the Muslims that this is ok to build over the Dome of the Rock. You could then Convince Christians that the Thanksgiving, (the Todah) sacrifice is the same Sacrifice of the Bread and Wine described in the Old Testament. The dead have to return to Life, as this is a tenant of both Islam and Christianity; possibly Judaism too. Jesus could say something like, 'As I transformed the Bread and Wine into my Body and Blood, now may the Body of Christ/The family of God once again be Transubstantiated back into flesh and Blood", thus fulfilling Christian understanding of the Last Supper, Apocalyptic expectations and also raises the dead by the same manner. Talk about a show of Power!

The most troublesome spot you're going to find is this: Is Christianity's idea of Divine Sonship and being co-heirs with Christ true? Or is Islam's Divine Slave-Master relationship true? part of Islamic Eschatology forecasts that Jesus will come to 'break the crosses', which they think means make War on Christians. Maybe you could turn this on its head by saying what was meant was that Jesus returns to break the crosses that we all carry- to give us an eternal rest (which is what the word Sabbath means) from sin and guilt . All three believe in a single God who has one people on Earth so if this 'Jesus' is going to succeed He must unite God's people- whether that's the Family of God or the Slaves of God.

God has to convince us and leave the Christian and Jewish understanding of free Will intact and let us decide, while displaying the power and Authority that God displays in the Quran.

Strange though it may seem, jesus or a man who can convince us he is Jesus, may be the only way to easily unite such diverse beliefs.

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  • $\begingroup$ * You could explain that God can assume the limitations of matter like this: Since God 'Thought' the world into existence with His infinitely powerful mind, He can 'fit' into creation with this anaology: God can enter the world in the same way that, when you dream at night (which is a product of your MIND). you also enter and assume the limitations of that dream world; likewise God an enter and interact with the product of His own mind. $\endgroup$
    – shiningcartoonist
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 17:06
  • $\begingroup$ Somebody is going to have to be wrong, you'll need to decide who, where and to what extent. Christianity and Judaism agree on quite a lot in comparison to Islam with the others- especially when you get deep into Theology. $\endgroup$
    – shiningcartoonist
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 17:07
  • $\begingroup$ Another thought: You could approach dialoging and convincing with Muslims by the same Route one would use to fulfill the Jew's messianic expectations: jews expect the Messiah to fulfill their Mosaic Laws, which are seen by many as a remedial teacher to point us toward loving God by the Spirit of the law, not the Letter. Do this with Muslim purity Laws (as well as convince them that Abdul Jabar from the 9th century wasn't a heretic) and you'll take Islam a VERY long way towards uniting with Christians and Jews. $\endgroup$
    – shiningcartoonist
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 17:38
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    $\begingroup$ Divine Jesus is incompatible with Judaism but a requirement of Christianity. $\endgroup$
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 21:31
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    $\begingroup$ @MonicaCellio: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Judaism $\endgroup$
    – Charles
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 15:00
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Reading all the other answers, I miss one concept.

All abrahamic religions are really centered on scripture.

The fastest way to convince people should be doing exactly as advertised.

And you got to comply with the timeline. You cannot start with the same kind of events already told in the scripture. The script for your physcial arrival has already been written.

So for christianity the way to go should be to organize the revelation. Prepare for trumpets, second coming and so forth.

Oh, and no. You can't have all three at the same time. Or beeing almighty, you can.

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Let us not approach this question from a worldbuilding point of view but the philosophical one.

we have two questions here: How would a god prove omnipotence and, the much bigger one: WHY?

How does a God NOT prove his omnipotence?

How would you have him prove his omnipotence? Pouring rain on the people? Strike them with lightnings? Burn them in fires or haunt them with illnesses? The opposite question is easier to answer: What cannot be counted as a prove of omnipotence? Short answer: About anything of the aforementioned.

We live in a time where basically anybody can purchase devices to strike others with "lightnings" and though they aren't used that way you could create them so that they would easily kill somebody and even make the remains (almost completely) "disappear".

Burning people with fire is nothing new anyway, so this doesn't prove much "potence" less even "omnipotence".

Illnesses? Well, we're not "perfect" at it yet but we can create our own illnesses already. Science will go further and get better at it (in healing and in creating them).

Rain? We cannot really make it rain at our bidding yet (close though). But some day science will manage this too. And drowning everybody will not really work either (no more deluge). Too many people have access to boats and even if many of them would die anyway, there would be surely some more beside the believers who'd survive.

So what is left??

Doesn't look good, does it? How can he still prove his omnipotence if about anything he would perform can (more or less) be done by humanity almost as well?

There's one thing humanity cannot overcome so far and probably never can completely: Death.

We are now left with two options, let's further explore them.

Immortality

To be entirely immortal is already quite impressive (wouldn't mind that for myself either). However, does it prove omnipotence? No, it doesn't, because there's a caveat: Death remains a power beside the omnipotent God of which he could still be afraid. After all: What would happen if an immortal being dies? It sounds like a paradox but it is not. If immortality is a power that is needed to keep death at bay, then death itself (thought of as an entity) would still be stronger. If the immortal wouldn't have the power of immortality, he would die and remain dead for eternity. Death would prevail.

So not to die is still not a proof of omnipotence and chances are even that some day even humanity can attain this state.

What is the second option?

To die. It's that simple: He has to undergo the state of total unmight. He has to be stripped of every last spark of power he wields. If he is truly omnipotent, he can overcome it, otherwise he remains dead. In the latter case death remains the strongest of all powers (so to say: death thought of as an entity would be the omnipotent god), in the first he has proven that he is more powerful than the most powerful power (yeah...), he's proven to be stronger than death. It might not convince the last stubborn sceptic but at least it proves he's stronger than the strongest we can perceive (if, at all, we can perceive death).

So to prove your omnipotence or at least to prove to be the strongest and most powerful entity you have to undergo and overcome death. Simply avoiding it is not enough, you have to "beat" it.

But why would he want to prove it anyway???

That's now the actual question here. If he is omnipotent, he doesn't have to care a thing about what people do. Just let them do, he has the final word anyway.

The most enticing part about this question is the fact that we will never know why an omnipotent God would create beings able to turn their backs on him. The simple and easy way out-answer is delivered by Calvin, Luther, later Barth and others: Predestination (Karl Barth: "theatrum gloriae dei"). In my eyes a very unsatisfying answer - much less even an answer rather than a "workaround" to avoid the question.

We might have to further investigate the philosophical connection between love and freedom (Wolfhart Pannenberg did as far as I know, though I don't know where). But the question raised here is then: Why does an omnipotent being need other beings to love them and be loved back? Of course we can say that it was out of the free will of the omnipotent being but why would that being have that will?

We can answer the question of HOW with a certain accuracy, but we are entirely unable to ever find a satisfying answer to the WHY.

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  • $\begingroup$ Disproving omnipotence is easy: Create something you cannot destroy, hey look you're not omnipotent. Either it cannot be created or it cannot be destroyed. What I don't know is when god became omnipotent, because it's not in the original texts, there isn't even a Hebrew/Aramaic equivalent word. The Christian god is omnipotent, the Abrahamic god isn't. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 13:42
  • $\begingroup$ @Separatrix: The word "almighty" appears as early as Gen 17:1, Job 6:4 (Job being considered the oldest book of the OT by some) and the Jewish tradition never thinks of God as anything but almighty. On the flaws of Epicurus' indestructible box I recommend you read Bertrand Russel's disprove of the existence of God, but basically: 1) Creation/Destruction requires definition; 2) Time is the frame which makes it impossible and possible at the same time. $\endgroup$
    – Patric Hartmann
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 15:35
  • $\begingroup$ The translation of Adonai Tsevaot as god almighty is optional and technically wrong, it's basically "commander of armies" or "Lord of all hosts". Replace creation/destruction with unstoppable force/immovable object if you don't like that terminology. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 15:46
  • $\begingroup$ Shaddai which is also sometimes translated as almighty, can also just mean sufficient. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 15:56
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    $\begingroup$ @Separatrix yep, since the classical definition of omnipotent is impossible, and thus, boring, I'm (kinda tongue in cheek) bending semantics here: Merriam-Webster defines OMNIPOTENT: having complete or unlimited power and COMPLETE: having all necessary parts : not lacking anything. So given a Set A of {things that HE cannot do} and a set B of {all the thing that are possible to do for anyone or anything in a given universe}, an omnipotent being could be defined as one for which A ∩ B = ∅ $\endgroup$
    – xDaizu
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 16:37
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enter image description here

Each Major Religion Has Pre-Written Criteria to Identify Their God

I think it should be noted that all of these faiths allow for god to reveal himself on a person-to-person level through prayer, study, and other mechanisms.

Christianity and Islam are expecting a future-dated big reveal where god shows himself to all people. That's what I've documented below.

Expectations of Christianity

Actually, one of the hardest, but there is so much overlap that I should start here. They believe the god has already arrived once in the flesh, and that he will return a second time. Christianity believes that both the Abrahamic god and Jesus are available for personal encounters presently. Here's what the Bible says to look out for in that second coming, which may occur all at once, or spread out (determining on perspective) :

  • One or more superpowers (Revelation 6:2)
  • World wars (Rev 6:4)
  • World famine (Rev 6:5)
  • Plague and animal attacks (Rev 6:8)
  • A great earthquake, the sun turning black, and the moon turning red (Rev 6:12)
  • Meteor showers as thick as figs dropping dropping from a shaken tree (Rev 6:13)
  • Some sort of atmospheric calamity causing the heavens to "roll up" (Rev 6:14)
  • A major displacement to the Earth's crust, "every mountain and island removed from its place" (Rev 6:14)
  • Most human society taking shelter from the above in caves (Rev 6:15)
  • Meteor showers "fiery hail" burning up $1 \over 3$rd of the Earth's surface (Rev 8:7)
  • All grasses on Earth, and most trees destroyed by above meteor showers (Rev 8:7)
  • A significant meteor strike on Earth "something like a large mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea" (Rev 8:8)
  • Earth's oceans being rendered poisonous by above meteor strike (Rev 8:8)
  • $1 \over 3$rd of the worldwide sea life and maritime traffic being destroyed by the asteroid strike (Rev 8:9)
  • A second significant meteor strike on the Earth (Rev 8:10).
  • Possible strikes on the sun and moon (Rev 8:12)
  • Plagues of insects "like smoke" with a sting that would cause agony, but not kill (Rev 9:5)
  • $1 \over 3$rd of humanity wiped out by plagues, after surviving all of the above (Rev 9:17)

So here's an amazing thing. As ridiculous as it sounds, all of the above is probably going to happen in about 1 million years when Gliese 710, all of it's planets, and it's cometary halo, pass inside Earth's orbit around the Sun. But it may happen sooner. We're still discovering new stars every day.

enter image description here

But there's more for Christians. Following or during all of the above, many will claim to be God. Here's how the Bible tells Christians to expect him :

  • All of the dead of humanity will be restored as healthy and whole, but human (Rev 20:12-15).
  • God himself will be immediately preceded by the second coming of Jesus
  • He will arrive in a floating city (Rev 21:2) roughly square and 2,220 kilometers (12,000 stadion) on each edge (Rev 21:16). The city will appear to be made of gold (Rev 21:18).
  • There will be no more death. No more sadness. No more pain. (Rev 21:4)

Expectations of Judaism

Judaism is expecting certain things from a returning Abrahamic God. You'll see there is a great deal of overlap with what Christians expect as well. Judaism allows for god to show up in personal encounters, but not face-to-face. Moses provided for someone to come after him, who is greater than him. This person will provide additional details.

Their expectations are:

  • He will build a Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28)
  • He will gather all ethnic Jews back into Israel's historic boundaries (Isaiah 43:5-6)
  • He will usher in an era of world peace. End hatred. End suffering. End diseases. (Isaiah 2:4)
  • Will be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1)

Expectations of Islam

The easiest, and why it's last. Islam reveres Jesus already as, at the very minimum a prophet. Like Christianity, Islam allows for the possibility of an in-person arrival of god at the edn of times.

Here are Islam's expectations :

  • Several terrible calamities overlapping some Christian belief (ref)
  • Jesus will return a second time (Surah 4:157-159), immediately preceding god's return
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By seeing the cities of the sodomites and burning them with fire from the skies. Don't look or it's pillar of salt time, you're not worthy of seeing the destruction.

By Commanding the Children of Israel to utterly destroy the philistines in the holy land, to kill every last man, woman and child. Indirectly supporting their ability to do so, but never visibly directly intervening in the battle. You probably need a man standing on a hill holding his hands in the air for the duration of the fighting.

and by pretty much ignoring the rest of the world.

A couple of things you need to remember about the Abrahamic God

  1. He has a very narrow focus
  2. He's not very nice, not at all

Our current moral code is not compatible with the moral code of the period that he tends to crop up in and very possibly with his moral code. He's more bothered about the destruction of fruit trees than the slaughter of the innocent, which tended to be encouraged.

Things you're not going to see

  • Peace on Earth
  • Goodwill to all men
  • Love peace and tolerance
  • Anything relating to kings or a messiah, that's all later and not in the original texts

Things you might see

  • Angels, but you'll have trouble knowing you met one, generally they're disguised as ordinary people
  • Lots of people dying in holy wars
  • Pillars of salt
  • The lion might lie down with the lamb, but only the lion is getting up again
  • Theocracy

I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

God is here, I wish you the best of luck.

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    $\begingroup$ I don't know what you consider the "original texts" to be, but the most basic core of kings and messiahs has been there since Genesis at least. And there was only ever one pillar of salt - bit silly to make it a defining characteristic. $\endgroup$
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 13:00
  • $\begingroup$ @curiousdannii Genesis? Show me a source. Tenach not Midrash. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 13:28
  • $\begingroup$ Genesis 17:7 tells of kings coming from Abraham and Gen 49:8-10 tells specifically of the future kingship of the tribe of Judah. Gen 3:15 is seen by Christians at least as messianic. By your talk of "original texts" I assume you mean something like the documentary hypothesis. Whether theories like that are right or not, and while no one can dispute that theology has developed over the centuries and millenia, there is also much that is indisputably very old. $\endgroup$
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 13:56
  • $\begingroup$ @curiousdannii, what I mean by original texts is the Tenach or accepted translations thereof. Gen 17:7 is the founding of the religion. Gen 49:10 is leadership not kingship, though the kings are traditionally from the line of Judah because of that. How do you get messianic from Gen 3:15? It's about the conflict between women and snakes. $\endgroup$
    – Separatrix
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 14:05
  • $\begingroup$ Well if you're accepting any of the Tenakh then the messianic prophesies of Isaiah must definitely be included... $\endgroup$
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 14:16

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