Okay, I can see what you are getting at there, though I still have a hard time believing God would engage in such acts. Assuming you are right in your basic position that God doesn’t want such proof, I can’t help but think he could have provided some other means for carrying things out than actually having to cover up any archaeological remains left behind by a culture. For instance, it would seem that simply allowing archaeological evidence to be discovered a couple of hundred years ago could have done it just fine.
And, more to the point, I would have a hard time accepting your position regarding proof of a religion. I don’t think that such agrees with what has been revealed countless times in the scriptures. Consider all the many people who witnessed Christ’s miracles. They saw first-hand what he could do, and much more directly than an old coin would do now. And, it might be noted that many still didn’t or wouldn’t believe, even then, and Christ castigated them for it you may recall. (I actually don’t recall this.) But, God still revealed himself to them. In the Old Testament Elias brought down fire out of heaven in a very public God-to-god showdown. That doesn’t seem to fit at all with your perceived restriction on public confirmation of faith. I just see no reason to suspect that God insists on hiding himself from public knowledge. And I believe that even in the face of such archaeological evidence, unless a person respond to grace they will still persist in unbelief. I don’t think you can prove God even with such things. Human doubt will always find a way.
I understand. I respect that entirely, and I agree. Biblical archaeology has, I am confident, never brought even one person to belief. Evidence exists of the Hebrew people, and that doesn’t prove God or their faith in the least. Miracles are also all around us, one need only look. So I just don’t see the need for any divine cover-up in the first place.
Cothrige,
My experience and my observation of how the Savior taught as well as the passage 1 Kings 18-19 about Elijah and the false prophets, says to me that the Lord wants our faith to progress. The Savior fed the 5000 and the 4000, then when they wanted more loaves and fishes and He didn’t supply it to them, they “went away” (meaning they didn’t continue to listen to Him), and he asked his disciples, “will you also go away?” They had greater understanding about His mission. It was more than to feed their hunger. This they knew by experiences of the heart.
When the woman was healed by touching the hem of His garment, and He asked “who touched me?”, it was her faith that had secured the blessing of being healed.
He often asked a person wanting to be healed, or the parent or the friends or siblings, about their faith before He would perform a miracle of healing. He was generally not doing these miracles “to be seen of men.” That would be in direct contradiction to His own teaching about doing alms and about fasting and about praying in public.
Elijah did the “public performance,” but it was really in desperation because no one believed he was really a prophet. 1 Kings 19 makes it clear that the Lord was manifest in “a still small voice.” (v. 12) The young prophet Samuel also “heard” a small voice, and was told to say, “speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.”
If you read Joel 2:28-32, you find a scripture about what should be happening on earth close to the time before the Second Coming of Christ. “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:”
If you read Hosea 2:18-23 and Hosea 3, you will read of both an apostasy and a restoration (“for the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, …and without a sacrifice,…and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.”). (See 2:23 also.)
In these latter days of the history of the world before the Second Coming of Christ, I think the Lord expects that the House of Israel will have made the progress that was prophesied by so many Old Testament prophets. Faith is a part of that progress. It is not retrogressing to have great faith, and to seek faith. Consider Hebrews 11. Faith is a desirable quality.
Peace to you and all.
