Joe I'm sorry that God didn't present Himself in your generation, but He did present Himself. Not only so you would know who He is, but to remove any obstacle that would keep you from Him. Let's look at what we did to Emanuel the last time He showed up:
Three Roman soldiers blindfolded Him and would take turns hitting Him and knocking him to the ground. If He could guess which one it was, they'd stop. They took handfuls of His beard and ripped big chunks of His skin off of His face. They turned His face into muscle on bone.
Since 40 lashes at the hand of a skilled soldier meant death, they shredded the flesh on His body into strips, but stopped just in time to keep Him alive. They took thorns that were as sharp as needles and crammed them down between His skull and His flesh. Then they drove nails through Him and hung Him up to suffocate.
Death by crucifixion could take days. Christ lasted 6 hours. Not only was He not recognizable as Christ, He wasn't recognizable as human. And he forgave everyone of them. And when He returned to those that lived with Him He was so scarred, that they only recognized Him by His voice.
He will remain in that body for eternity. When we meet Him, that is what we will see.
The Jews will be filled with sorrow when they see Him. And every knee shall bow when He returns to earth again. I don't believe that will be out of submission, but grief. We took the most gentle creation this earth has ever seen and turned Him into pulp.
I'm not surprised He isn't in a hurry to get back here to prove Himself to you and I. The only man made thing in Heaven are scars. And yet, He still loves us enough to come back to us again. You may have missed Him the first time, but He's going to play a very big part in your future. He'll even let you touch the holes in His hands so you'll have no doubt about one of those old stories. Then you can tell Him yourself to leave you alone, that you have no need of Him.
