From early in religious history, God has offered periodic signs of spiritual events. Non-believers, learning of these signs, often demand signs to try to make fun of believers. Others claim they would believe if God would send them a sign.
Sign can play a significant role in the lives of Christians, but only when used correctly. God provides signs, but we are not to ask for them. For instance, religious people on both continents watching for the birth of Christ waited for a new star to appear. Nephites on the American continent, who could not see the events of the Savior’s mortal life, were also given signs of His death so they could prepare for His visit to Him.
In the Book of Mormon, (Helaman 14) we see an example of how signs were abused. A prophet named Samuel the Lamanite had preached the coming of Jesus Christ. God had revealed signs believers could watch for to known when Jesus was born. Many had been converted by his preaching, but others chose not to believe. The prophets continued to encourage people to watch for two days and a night in which there would be no darkness in that land and the new star would appear. They were told it would happen five years from when Samuel first made the prophecy.
Five years passed and the non-believers began mocking the believers for their “foolish” faith. They set an arbitrary date when the sign was to happen, despite knowing Samuel had not offered a specific date. If it didn’t happen that day, they vowed to put the believers to death. The believers were anxious, not because they didn’t believe the sign would come, but because they didn’t know if it would happen by the arbitrary deadline. The prophet prayed all day and at the end of the day, the voice of the Lord spoke to Him, promising to be born the next day.
These signs had been offered to those who believed so they would know something important had occurred and to strengthen their existing faith. They had not asked for the signs—they were merely given as a gift from God.
While signs can strengthen our faith, they are very poor means of causing faith. They are intended as gifts to those who already believe, not as a means of conversion. The scriptures tell us signs come after the trial of our faith. The believers mentioned above suffered for their faith in these signs, but they had faith before the signs began. Faith means to believe in something you don’t know. For this reason, we are expected to develop faith through study and prayer. Then God brings signs and miracles to help us stay strong or to become better informed. However, without an existing faith, these signs usually have no meaning.
As we continue to follow the people in the Book of Mormon, we discover that those who had threatened to kill the believers were frightened when the signs came, realizing they had worked against God. Some then converted. However, it was not long before many of those new converts began to revert to their old beliefs. They convinced themselves the signs had not really happened or that there was another explanation for it. Today, they would look for scientific explanations of the events to explain it away. They soon returned to persecuting believers. By the time the signs of Jesus’ birth arrived, many were so wicked they were killing the prophets who warned of the signs of Jesus’s death, which were not the pleasant ones attending his birth. They involved natural calamities that killed the wicked among them.
There are times when God reacts with humor or displeasure to demands from non-believers for signs. Someone who preaches against Christ asks for a sign and is made unable to speak. Some are even made to die as their sign. When signs come to us, they are a gift and not to be pulled out by prophets like magic tricks for the entertainment of others. They are sacred and given only when God offers them for His purposes. Unrighteous requests for signs are never given, or not given in a way that makes the requesting person happy.
While signs can be a faith-builder or even the beginning of a testimony, they must never be the only way we build our faith. We have to put in the hard work of gaining a true testimony through asking God to place a sure knowledge in our hearts of the truth. When used as a starting point, they can be a source of proof that God loves us and wants to help us through mortality. They can be a source of comfort and strength in moments of weakness, designed to keep us going until we regain full strength.
The late Terrie Lynn Bittner—beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend—was the author of two homeschooling books and numerous articles, including several that appeared in Latter-day Saint magazines. She became a member of the Church at the age of 17 and began sharing her faith online in 1992.
Great post! Love the points about how miracles confirm faith and aren’t the building blocks. I have seen that in my own life. That as I exercise faith in Jesus Christ and trust in him I grow my relationship with him and God. The miracles confirm that my actions are leading me to him and they give me assurance to exercise faith and step into the dark again.