Why are all religions (including J.W.'s) afraid to perform the "Elijah test" recorded at 1 Kings 18:21-39?

StoneWall

To set the stage this was were Elijah had the people gathered together at Mt.Carmel,along with the
450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the sacred pole. It was a test to prove to the people
who the true God was and also show who was following him.

Elijah made a big spectacle over this by not only gathering the people together but even going so
far as to cast disparaging remarks and mocking the prophets of baal by saying their god must
be"in the privy(toilet) ,or maybe he is asleep and ought to wake up."(verse 27) and that is why
he didn't come and consume the bull offering.

To make a long story short, Elijah finally calls on his god Jehovah, and his God in verse 38 causes
a fire to come and consume not only the bull offering but all the wood,stones and the dust as well as
the water in trenches it licked up. Thus showing to all gathered who the true God was and who his
followers were.

My question is this:
If the churches claim to be following this same all powerful God,and he is the same yesterday,
today and forever, then shouldn't they be able to perform this same test?
Or will they look for an excuse such as we have the bible now and they didn't back then.
Or that you shouldn't put God to the test. (yet 'evidently' it was ok for Elijah to put him to the test)

Are they afraid that the test may show their god to be sleeping as Elijah said of Baal?

Any thoughts,comments or viewpoints on this?

OnTheWayOut

I thought of this in the past. The standard JW answer is convoluted: Back then, Jehovah was establishing his people separate from the surrounding nations to provide a safe haven to bring the messiah into the world, so it was important to establish that Jehovah was more powerful than any false god. (If they were "false" then it shouldn't have been any concern to take the test to a true believer and his God.) That happened already and Jesus gave us truth, we no longer need miracles as the truth is so obvious.

aSphereisnotaCircle

The real reason is because they know, for a fact, that it would not work.

They will not admit it though, and will make up another reason.

Elsewhere

Another favorite of mine:

(Mark 16:15-18 NIV) He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. {16} Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. {17} And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; {18} they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Churches like to drink the wine and eat the bread every Sunday, but why don't they do these things too?

Just go by the store and pick up a package of rat poison and chow down!

Why aren't these people at hospitals and emergency rooms? All they need to do is walk down the hall touching everyone to heal them. It would revolutionize healthcare!

glenster

Because it's a choice of whether or not to have faith in a possible God beyond the see-able, touchable things (except for a divine intervention). There are people who choose to have or not have that faith that know that, and ones of either type that don't. The ones who just think of it as a proof of God is or isn't in the see-ble, touchable things have more in common than they realize. It's like theyre watching for the sun to come up by staring into the west.