A brief bit of context (feel free to edit it out if it's not appropriate for the site, but I think it'll help clarify exactly what I'm trying to achieve with this question): I am currently studying the accounts of Paul and Alma in the Bible and Book of Mormon, and was intrigued by the way that their conversion could be viewed, from some perspectives at least, as either "forced" on their recipients, or to be an extra "unfair" blessing that God arbitrarily gave to some ardent unbelievers but not others. Neither lined up with my conception of God, so I am studying common features in both accounts and pondering why God chose to send divine manifestations to these to individuals.
With that as context, I am interested in finding more data points to compare to, where God took an actively hostile unbeliever, gave them a divine manifestation of His power before they ever displayed faith in Him (so, not them repenting first and then experiencing a miracle afterwards), and then looking at what happened to that person afterwards (did they convert, did they have a particular mission God had prepared them for, etc).
Answers from all denominational perspectives, and from any canonical work or tradition held by a Christian denomination, are welcome.
