I Will Reveal

We live in a marvelous age, not only with all the technology that makes our lives easier and provides us with more free time to follow our desires, but to know and understand the secret workings of God. However, as much as we know now, we know very little compared to what exists. As President Harold B. Lee once said, “for reasons best known to the Lord, He has kept us in darkness. Wait until the Lord speaks, or wait until that day when He shall come, and when we shall be among the privileged…then we shall know all things pertaining to this earth, how it was made, and all things that now as children we are groping for and trying to understand” (Teachings of Harold B. Lee, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1996, p29).    
    Elder Bruce R. McConkie, of the Council of the Twelve, added to this by saying: “We have the fullness of the everlasting gospel, meaning that we have all that is needed to gain the fullness of salvation. We have every truth, doctrine, and principle, every rite, power, and ordinance—all that is needed—to gain exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world. But we do not know all things; there are doctrines in endless array of which we know next to nothing; indeed, there are more things in the darkness of the unknown than there are in the light of the known.”

As an example, we “do not even know what the faithful knew in Enoch's Zion, nor among the Nephites when they dwelt in righteousness for generations. We do not know what is on the sealed portion of the plates from which the Book of Mormon came.” As the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians residing in Rome: “He knows what we don't know, therefore we can "know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28), suggesting while we do not know all things, we can come to know certain things.
    We live in a “day for drinking milk,” to partake of the “meat of the world,” will require a future time when more is revealed.
    In that day, McConkie added, “all things shall become new," saith the Lord, "that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all the earth… Yea, verily I say unto you, in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things—things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof—things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven" (The Millennial Messiah, Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 1982, pp675-677).
    In fact, we find precise verification of this in the Church doctrines (D&C 101:32-34), that is, we will be told how things were made, those things above, in and beneath the earth, or stated differently, how the earth itself was organized, along with the heavens. The Apostle Luke records the Lord’s statement on this: “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad” (Luke 8:17), and in the verse following we are told to pay attention to how you listen, and that whoever has knowledge will be given more, but whoever does not have knowledge, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him (Luke 8:18). In fact, the Lord, not satisfied with saying it once, states it again later as Luke also records: “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known” (Luke 12:2). This is also recorded by Matthew (10:26) and Mark (4:22).
    We can also turn to Nephi, in his closing time with the Nephites, he predicted numerous things yet to come, one of which was to verify all that was said of this: “All things shall be made known unto the children of men…there is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed…and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed” (2 Nephi 30: 16-17).
    Consequently, this marvelous time mentioned earlier in which we live is being manifested around us all the time, yet few realize that it is happening. Take as an example the development of satellite photography of the past several years. What these images have provided was lost to ground level archaeological study.

When Space archaeologist Sarah Parcak looked at satellite photos of this area, she saw what others didn't: signs of rampant looting—not easily observed and understood from ground level

Archaeologist Sarah Parcak from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Georgia, uses satellite photos to locate ancient sites of civilizations—a game-changing technique called Space Archaeology, recently having discovered a 3800-year-old pyramid tomb from Middle Kingdom Egypt. She claims the tomb belonged to Intef, head of the pharaoh’s treasurey and overseer of his army, as interpreted from a large stone tablet at the back of the tomb.
    Even more importantly, a modern development in penetrating radar truly refers to our earlier comment about all things above, in and beneath the earth will be revealed. While most people think this will be reserved for the millennial or judgment period, we can look around us today and see that this is beginning to take place. Take the remote sensing equipment being used for archaeology research in which multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, the former having been placed on the first five Landsat satellites by NASA, the latter used for such things as identifying oil fields, mining and geological factors by geologists and placed on airborne sensors or satellites.

Ground Penetrating Radar can be used by an individual, towed by a vehicle, placed on a drone, helicopter or plane

The Ground Penetrating Radar is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to nondestructively image the subsurface, i.e., show what is buried in the ground to several feet in depth. As an example, when pulses of electromagnetic energy that produce a continuous cross-sectional image of what the human eye cannot see (beneath the surface) and reflects off an object, the returning signal is used to construct a real-time image of what lies beneath. The image is determined by the depth and composition of whatever item the energy contacts and can detect cracks and voids in a variety of materials, including concrete, pavement, rock and soil. The technology provides immediate, precise and non-destructive results, eliminating the need for preemptive drilling, probing or digging—a major boon to archaeologists.
    The magnetometer penetrating radar enables man to map the subsurface, including detecting what types of soil, rock, and formations exist beneath the surface that cannot in any other way be seen. These geophysical surveys from pole to pole enable the extremely detailed and accurate mapping of the subsurface for numerous purposes.
    In archaeology, the Generated GPR maps provide primary data that is used to direct the establishment of excavation sites or to identify sensitive areas containing cultural remains, such as burial sites, that would be better left untouched and therefore the information can guide archaeologists to avoid disturbing these locations.
    The greatest advantage of ground penetrating radar methods is that they gather an immense amount of information about the near-surface in a totally non-invasive, non-destructive way, permitting large sites with concealed remains to be viewed and analyzed efficiently yet accurately, while also protecting and preserving them. It also allows for the discovery when anomalies in the measurement are returned, specifically from long-range aerial or satellite imaging.

Ground Penetrating Radar imagery showing a buried object, an anomaly in the normal set of signals detected

As an example, as Grahame Johnston, in Group Penetrating Radar in Archaeology states: “the ground-penetrating radar technique involves transmitting high frequency electromagnetic pulses from a surface sender into the ground. If the EM waves strike an object they will be bounced back to the surface. The time elapsed between the pulse being sent and it being received back will provide evidence of depth. The wave’s angle of reflectance from buried materials or soil changes in the ground is measured by GPR’s sensitive antenna and interpreted by the operator. This process is enhanced when hundreds of reflections are measured and recorded by antennas that are operated in a close criss-cross grid scheme to create a three-dimensional interpretation of the soil, sediment, and feature changes under the surface.”
    Obviously, because all sedimentary strata and buried matter in the subsurface have abnormal physical and/or chemical properties, including relics, artifacts, objects, pieces, buildings or structures, they alter the velocity of the electromagnetic energy return, providing the reader the important electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability, which allows the interpretation of what is under the surface being targeted.
    As Johnston adds, “Differences or variations of the returned wave energy are indicative of underlying archaeological features such as architecture or artifacts. However, if the archaeological features are composed of near similar material as the matrix, or they have identical physical and chemical properties, then the lack of discernible variation will render the objects ‘invisible’ to GPR equipment.”
    Thus, in our day and the very near future, we can be provided with a clear understanding of what is in and beneath the earth, and in the case of archaeology, has and will provide the discovery of what civilizations might have existed in the past and now lay buried beneath the sediment of the Great Flood. It all sounds very much like in these latter days, we will be shown "things that are above, and things that are beneath, and things that are in the earth."