Divine Evidence

I want to share something about how God persuades us to believe in His Truth. Let us look at a few verses from Matthew 12: 38-42:

• 38: Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.
• 39: But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas;
• 40: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall The Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
• 41: The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.
• 42: The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Later Pharisees, perhaps not dissuaded and maybe emboldened by the scribes (experts in the Scriptures), made the same request, Matthew 16: 1-4:

• 1: The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
• 2: He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be foul weather: for the sky is red.
• 3: And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring, O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
• 4: A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

The request for a sign was peculiar; Sadducees and Pharisees had already witnessed events regarding Jesus Christ:

1. Sadducees and Pharisees had sought out John the Baptist's baptism, and John later declared Jesus to be "The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world": John 1:29.
2. Pharisees witnessed Jesus casting out a devil: Matthew 9:34.
3. Pharisees had witnessed Jesus restoring a man's withered hand: Matthew 12:14.

Asking for a "sign" is an ancient expression, and one which finds little if any modern usage. To be specific, we actually do ask the very same question, but we phrase it differently. The modern version of "we would see a sign from thee" (Matthew 12:38) is, "Show me evidence; show me proof."

Show Me Evidence; Show Me Proof

There are interesting ideas contained in those words:

1. "Show" denotes visual evidence: "Give me something I can see."
2. "Show", being an imperative, a "command", is an expression of a requirement from the addressee: "You, you the addressee, you show me the evidence".
3. The solicited "proof" implicitly is what will not so much convince the speaker to believe so much as somehow overcome the speaker's determination to disbelieve.

There is more that is communicated here (and this is one of many instances where our language or chosen expression gives away more about our intentions than we supposed):

When someone who asserts a certain belief in God--that God is accessible, that He is all-knowing, that He answers prayers--says, "Show me visual evidence, show me proof", the speaker is revealing his lack of trust that God could answer his prayers as well as a lack of trust in anything God would reveal to him. To seek for visual evidence or proof, "to seek for a sign", is to discount Divine witness in favor of establishing accuracy in an earthly fashion.

The mindset is not one of searching but one of requiring: "You have to make me believe; you have to dig up the proof; you have not so much to convince me so much as dissuade me from my disbelief." In legal parlance the plaintiff has the burden of proof. Demanding a sign or visual evidence is the equivalent of the plaintiff requiring the defendant to carry the burden of proof ("I will accuse, then you disprove the accusation, if you can; if you can disprove my accusation, I may believe").

The Are Proofs

The Gospel does not come with any requirement that listeners believe unquestionably. In fact, the search for wisdom (great understanding with keen awareness of how to apply knowledge) was extolled as part of the process (vid. "the queen of the South").

There are indeed proofs, and Jesus was clear on this issue:

1. The proofs Jesus gave were the sign of Jonas and of the Queen of the south, in other words, Scripture. Scripture teaches that God sends messengers and that those who humble themselves (the people of Nineveh) and repent at the words of the messenger, as well as those who, learning that a messenger is revealing wisdom, seek that wisdom out (the Queen of the south), these people come to know the will of God, do the will of God, and experience a mighty change, which change is confirmation to them that The God of Abraham lives and has touched their lives.

But what of discerning the upcoming weather by the sky? Here is an important and often overlooked "proof" that Jesus taught: We can discern Truth by studying the work of God. To use us in our day consider the following:

1. When the Gospels were written they were not hailed as great literature.
2. The Gospels were not afforded state sanction and all the honors and protections therein granted.
3. The Gospels were banned and their copies and as well as their possessors were destroyed.

So many texts received official Roman sanction, their messages were penned on the finest paper by the most learned of scribes, the parchments were housed in the finest libraries and archives, and yet they were lost to the world.

These Holy Records were preserved and brought forth to the modern era. Other works of God, Holy Writs, have likewise prevailed over probability and were brought forth to witness of God's will.

There is much to learn from considering the works that God has done. Jesus essentially asked, "If you can see God's firmament, the sky, and by studying His sky discern tomorrow's weather, whether to expect pleasantries or gloom, why do you refuse to study His work to discern whether the Messenger speaks the Word and Will of God, and judging by that Light, believe the Truth?" More to the point, "You yourselves are willing to discern events from God's handiwork when you want to, so why are you pretending that it is My duty to dissuade you from your own chosen disbelief? If you discern things of minor importance, discern the things of greater importance."

Why Jonah?

But why the sign or proof of Jonah? Why did Jesus not give the Sadducees and Pharisees a sign of Moses, of Isaiah, or even of Abraham or Adam? Why the sign of Jonah?

Herein is a powerful teaching that I will introduce with three questions: 

1. What does Jonah mean? "Jonah" is the Hebrew word for "dove". 
2. What is the "dove" a symbol of? The "dove" is a symbol of The Holy Ghost. 
3. When does the symbol of the "dove" or "The Holy Ghost" appear? After baptism by water.

Take a look at Matthew 3:16, taken from Hebrew Matthew, a document purported to be (not without much controversy) descended from the Hebrew text of The Gospel According to Matthew that anciently was believed to be the original that the Apostle wrote:

• 16: Immediately when He came up from the waters, the heavens opened unto Him, and He saw The Spirit of Elohim descending like Yonah until it dwelt upon Him.

What was Jesus saying was the proof or sign of the Truthfulness of His message? The witness of The Holy Ghost, a witness that comes by studying God's Word, by pondering on God's Works, by discerning in wisdom, and by following the prompting initiated by faith to believe in Him, to repent of one's sins, to be baptized, and to receive an even fuller confirmatory witness of The Holy Ghost.

Jesus Recognizes Peter's Acceptance of the Witness of The Holy Ghost as Proof

Whereas the Sadducees, Scribes and Pharisees, while having Scripture and while both seeing miracles and receiving numerous first-hand reports, hardened themselves and demanded some other unspecified form of visual proof, "a sign from heaven", [by the way, "a wicked and an adulterous generation" may mean "a people who are breaking their covenant with The Lord, their Maker, their Redeemer, their Husband", as in Isaiah 54:5], Peter accepted the witness of The Holy Ghost, so He saw Jesus, not as others saw Him (a conman or an earlier prophet brought back from the dead or even heaven), but as the Messiah, Matthew 16:16-17:

• 16: And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art The Christ, The Son of The Living God.
• 17: And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Yonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven.

The Aramaic expression "Bar-Jona" or "Bar-Yonah" means 'Son of Jonah'. In the immediate sense this means that the name of Peter's father was "Jonah", hence Peter (Simon) was "Simon Bar-Jona", 'Simon son of Jonah'. However, there is another meaning also conveyed in those words, namely, that Peter was "a Son of the Dove" or "born of the Spirit". Indeed the Savior blesses Peter because Peter's faith and conviction that He, Jesus, is The Messiah, The Son of The God of Life, came not "by flesh and blood", but from Heavenly Father. 

The full import of those words is seldom present in discussions of "proof" in our day: The Sadducees, Scribes and Pharisees wanted a mortal ("flesh and blood") to show them visual evidence or proof; Jesus wants us to study Scripture, consider God's Works, seek for wisdom, and receive the witness of the Dove, "Yonah", The Holy Ghost, for His witness comes from our Father Who is in Heaven.

As a side note, the sign of the Yonah or The Spirit of God over baptismal waters was not new. Take the following two instances:

1. Genesis 8: To determine if, after the cleansing flood (symbolic of the baptism of the earth), the dry ground had again appeared, Noah sent out Yonah, the "dove".
2. Genesis 1: When the earth was in its primordial condition as matter with water, in a chaotic shape, it was Ruakh Elohim, The Spirit of God, that hovered over the surface of the deep, immediately before The Light of The World, Jesus Christ, shone His glory and ushered in a refashioning of the chaotic matter into a beautiful new earth.

Can We Discern the Signs or Proofs of the Times We Are In?

Consider now the following description of baptism in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, Mosiah 18:13-14:

• 13: And when he had said these words, The Spirit of The Lord was upon him [Alma, the baptizing servant of The Lord], and he said: Helam, I baptize thee, having authority from the Almighty God, as a testimony that ye have entered into a covenant to serve Him until you are dead as to the mortal body; and may The Spirit of The Lord be poured out upon you; and may He grant unto you eternal life, through the Redemption of Christ, whom He has prepared from the foundation of the world.
• And after Alma had said these words, both Alma and Helam were buried in the water; and they arose and came forth out of the water rejoicing, [both] being filled with The Spirit.

In the Mood for Discerning?

I will wrap up this post on Divine Evidence with a summary and Scriptural example. I showed several verses in Matthew where our Lord and Savior taught that the proofs or "signs" of Truth are to be had by studying Scripture and emulating its example, by pondering the works of God and discerning future Works of God and wisdom thereby, both of which invite the witness of The Holy Ghost to lead us to faith that He is The Son of The Living God, repentance, baptism, and a greater outpouring of The Spirit. In this light, consider what an ancient prophet, Moroni, wrote of coming to know whether a Work of God, in this case a Tome of ancient Holy Writ, is true:

• 3: Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye shall read them, that ye would remember how merciful The Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
• 4: And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, The Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of The Holy Ghost.
• And by the power of The Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

(Moroni 10:3-5, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ)

The reader is invited to ponder what I have presented, and is open always to derive his or her own conclusions. However you come understand the citations, even if you arrive at a different conclusion, do at least remember that the passages I cited, if nothing more, are actually textual.