Comatose: If a true manifestation of himself was made, billions would act. He could positively change the fate of billions. Why wouldn't he want to help the entire earth?
Yes, some would panic; others would get religion for awhile, but when another miracle wasn’t forthcoming, they would fall away until someone else with a bag of tricks showed up.
What you say makes sense on its face, but it doesn’t work in the real world. Human nature is such that the only thing that will permanently change hearts is the Spirit of God. Not all people are like Paul, who had his vision on the road he was on to persecute Christians. There are many who care nothing about religion and wouldn’t obey a missive from God if it were delivered by an angel with a sword of fire. As hard as it may be to believe, many people simply want to be left alone to live life according to their own desires. Again, God will not abrogate free agency, and by revealing himself to the world, he would only seal their condemnation.
Case in point: the return of Jesus. According to Zechariah, when Jesus returns at the conclusion of Armageddon in Jerusalem, the Jews will immediately realize the Messiah’s identity and they will be converted and offer up great lamentation. Many of their fellow Jews will be dead, slain by the beast mentioned by John in Revelation. But many of the enemies of the Jews, the ones who live “round about” Israel and who allied themselves with the beast, will stubbornly resist. Zechariah writes:
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness Unto The Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. (Zech. 14:16-20)
These will be the Muslim nations, and despite Jesus’ return in glory, which they will see with their own eyes, many will be so bitter that they will not obey the Lord’s directive to come to Jerusalem and make peace by celebrating the feast of the tabernacles (and the prophet specifically mentions Egypt by name). These remaining people will be guilty of being deceived by the beast, but they will be good, decent people, else they would have been destroyed at the Lord’s coming. Alas, as I said, they also will be stubborn. Acknowledging Muhammad as a false prophet and the beast as being an enemy to God will go against everything they believed and fought for. But the Lord will then visit them with famine, drought and plague until they acknowledge him and go up to Jerusalem.
The scripture doesn’t say it, but I suspect the Jews also will have a difficult time making their own peace with their former enemies. But then, they will be established once and for all in Jerusalem and will have their temple back. And all their expectations of their Messiah saving them also will be fulfilled (and this is one reason their fathers rejected Jesus, because he did not come to save them from the Romans, their current enemies).
Why wouldn’t god manifest himself in a concrete way to us today?
All I can tell you is that he will. John writes: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14:6-7)
John also predicted a great earthquake in the last days, then added:
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev. 6:15-17)
So far from converting, many will attempt to flee from God and his judgment.
Supposedly, Jesus showed miraculous signs. God performed miraculous signs back in Bible times. Can you explain to me why we no longer see such miraculous signs?
Yes, and many miracles were shown in the days of Joseph Smith. The sick were healed, the dead raised, people received visions and revelations and the Lord was with his people. You just don’t know our history. If you PM me, I can get you the details. I think it’s a marvelous story. I think many of you guys are absolutely correct about God and his revelations to mankind. Back in 1967-71 I talked to every pastor, priest, reverend and preacher I could find and I asked them one question: why, when men need it more than at any other time in history, does God not speak to men through apostles and prophets as he did anciently? No one could give me what I thought was an intelligent answer. In September 1968, my father took my family out to a Utah ranch to visit an old war buddy of his. I struck up a friendship with my father’s friend’s son, who had just returned from a Mormon mission, and in 1971 my family joined the church, with the exception of my father, a Southern Baptist. He read some anti-Mormon stuff, but even so, years later, he also was baptized.
My point is that I think your question is perfectly natural. Most people are just simply unaware of what’s happened in our day. I study it relentlessly and am still impressed by it.
mP: What if there was a troll who claims the exodus is true, and shows several scriptures supposedly holding prophecies about Jesus and then he is shown to be incorrect and then they quit because they cant handle the truth. What if that person was you?
Then logic would have ceased to exist. I’ve noticed, mP, that your primary mode of answering arguments isn’t through scholarly assessments or a well thought out appeal to history, theology, ancient scriptures, anthropology or even your whacked out and inconsistent personal philosophy. What do you do? You resort to petty name calling. First you refer to LDS sacred vestments as “magic underwear.” When that wore thin, you began slinging around the word “cult” when it was apparent that you knew nothing about either the LDS church or cults. Now you’re bandying about the word “troll.” But what have you actually said?
Nothing at all.
I’m willing to let readers decide who’s the troll here. As for me, I find it difficult to argue with someone who is uneducated, uninformed and, frankly, in my view, not too bright. If your memory is so short that you forgot that you argued that a Josephus passage referred to someone else named Jesus—not the one Christians revere, but to false messiahs of the same name—and you were totally WRONG, then no one can argue with you. So kindly crawl back under your bridge and give it a rest unless you have something substantive to say, other than empty pontifications.
