Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Miraculous signs and wonders

Jesus seems to have defied the laws of physics in many instances during his lifetime. It seems he was trying to show people that he was not just an ordinary human, but was actually God living as a human being. And of course for people to believe him, he had to perform all sorts of supernatural parlor tricks, like turning water into wine at that wedding or walking on water in front of all his disciples. He also of course raises Lazarus from the dead, and then I guess raises himself from the dead, which again has him demonstrating his ability to manipulate matter and the sciences to prove he's not just an ordinary human.

It seems the author of John grew tired of describing these amazing phenomena that defy all rules of science that we currently know, because he eventually just lumps them all together with the exact phrase "miraculous signs and wonders". Maybe John was on a deadline, maybe he was late for a date with Mary Magdalene, who knows. But that phrase is all we get to see for some time. I'm decently far into the book of Acts, and the use of that phrase persists.

Now in Acts, the disciples are doing their thing and trying to continue Jesus' teachings, and suddenly they are empowered with the same supernatural abilities of manipulating physics, because they are said to perform many "miraculous signs and wonders", which apparently include healing many sick/lame/blind/whatever people. Even some random guy named Stephen wanders around, performing plenty of "miraculous signs and wonders" for people. Now it can be said that the disciples and this dude Stephen were empowered by the holy spirit, doing Jesus' work, and therefore anything's possible.

In general, plenty of crazy stuff happens to the people of biblical times. Folks see angels, hear God's voice booming at them. Seas are parted, bushes spontaneously combust and speak to people.

Now my question is this – what happened to all the supernatural abilities and events? There are millions of people all over the world doing the work of Jesus, being driven by the holy spirit, but not a single one of them can perform science-defying miracles like Jesus or his disciples did. I think even the word "miracle" has been stretched to include anything beautiful and great. I mean you could say that it is a miracle of God when a group of people come together in fellowship, love each other, feed the hungry, conquer evil, and other such wonderful things. Some people say every sunset or every newborn baby is a miracle. And yes those are very beautiful things, but they are all regular, explainable events. Nobody else has ever done a true miracle that clearly cannot be explained by science. And I don't wanna hear about Jesus appearing on someone's grilled cheese sandwich or such nonsense. No amputee has suddenly grown legs and walked again. No blind man has had his eyes touched by a priest and suddenly been able to see. No oceans have been parted. No angels have appeared to anyone, had a conversation with them, given them instructions to do something, and that person not ended up in a mental institution.

And of course Jesus says, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." And I know he's trying to say that we're supposed to have faith without the blatant proof, but why did the biblical people get so many freakin' miracles and we just don't?

4 comments:

  1. The Holy Spirit spoke to me today and let me know that you won't get any particularly satisfying answers here.

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  2. Miracles happen everyday. It's part of the reason the Pentecostal movement is exploding.

    I've seen miracles. Here's one.
    http://ldstalk.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/pray-boldly/

    Jesus also said something about how people would not believe him despite his many miracles.

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  3. ldstalk, I think you missed Chris' main point:

    And yes those are very beautiful things, but they are all regular, explainable events. Nobody else has ever done a true miracle that clearly cannot be explained by science.

    Someone being healed via means you don't see doesn't mean "God" was behind it (or that "your" god was behind it) - it means we don't know. There are a thousand possible explanations, some much more likely than others.

    Even if you do believe it's your god doing this, you have to wonder why he allows millions of others, many of strong or stronger faith, or live in horrible pain? Or why he tortured that poor girl for so long? A "miracle" would be everyone in the world being relieved of suffering, all of a sudden, and forever.

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  4. What is a miracle? We know it's not something that happens every day, and we know that it is something that is beyond explanation. At least that's our working definition for the exercise. So, A thing that does not happen every day that is beyond explanation. Take your pick of theoretical physics. Fin.

    Or something a bit more food for thought and less ha ha. Is the connection of words to phonemes creating language. It's not at all explainable and it happens every day. It is an arbitrary connection or what some would call a miracle.

    I think the idea of wanting to see a miracle leads one down a very zen understanding. If you want to see the pink polar bear you cannot ever think about it.

    May not make sense but that's what opinions are for.

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