Why does a generation need God to speak before it can believe?
A generation needs God to speak before it can believe because faith rests on what God has first revealed; without His word, the truth remains hidden. Scripture shows even plain predictions were hidden until God saw fit to reveal them, for a sovereign God does not disclose truth until He is ready.
Les explains that throughout human history God has to speak something before a generation can believe it. He points to Luke 18, where Jesus plainly told the twelve He would be delivered to the Gentiles, mocked, scourged, put to death, and rise the third day. Yet the twelve understood none of these things, not because they refused to listen, but because God had not yet seen fit to reveal it. The saying was hid from them. Les concludes that a sovereign God does not reveal a truth until He is ready to reveal it.