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    Miracles: Transcending The Laws of Nature

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    Siyuan Xu
    Miracles transcend natural laws and point to God's power and grace. While science cannot explain miracles, they have historically been documented through eyewitness accounts of events like Jesus walking on water, healing the blind, feeding multitudes, and raising the dead. Miracles that still occur today sometimes defy medical explanation. Rather than skepticism, miracles should lead people to faith in the "Unknown God". They also remind Christians not to take God's word casually and to focus on spiritual listening over psychic noise.

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    Miracles: Transcending The Laws of Nature

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    Siyuan Xu
    69 views11 pages
    Miracles transcend natural laws and point to God's power and grace. While science cannot explain miracles, they have historically been documented through eyewitness accounts of events like Jesus walking on water, healing the blind, feeding multitudes, and raising the dead. Miracles that still occur today sometimes defy medical explanation. Rather than skepticism, miracles should lead people to faith in the "Unknown God". They also remind Christians not to take God's word casually and to focus on spiritual listening over psychic noise.

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    Miracles transcend natural laws and point to God's power and grace. While science cannot explain miracles, they have historically been documented through eyewitness accounts of events like Jesus walking on water, healing the blind, feeding multitudes, and raising the dead. Miracles that still occur today sometimes defy medical explanation. Rather than skepticism, miracles should lead people to faith in the "Unknown God". They also remind Christians not to take God's word casually and to focus on spiritual listening over psychic noise.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    69 views11 pages

    Miracles: Transcending The Laws of Nature

    Uploaded by

    Siyuan Xu
    Miracles transcend natural laws and point to God's power and grace. While science cannot explain miracles, they have historically been documented through eyewitness accounts of events like Jesus walking on water, healing the blind, feeding multitudes, and raising the dead. Miracles that still occur today sometimes defy medical explanation. Rather than skepticism, miracles should lead people to faith in the "Unknown God". They also remind Christians not to take God's word casually and to focus on spiritual listening over psychic noise.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 11

    Miracles

    Transcending the Laws of Nature


    God vs. the Machine

    “Modern man acknowledges as reality only such


    phenomena or events as are comprehensible
    within the framework of the rational order of
    the universe. He does not acknowledge miracles
    because they do not fit into this lawful order.”

    Rudolf Bultmann – liberal theologian


    Indeterminacy: Not Miracles
    “Yet, if as quantum physics tells us, events in nature are not fixed and
    inexorable (unyielding, unalterable) after all, then a powerful barrier
    to supernaturalism has crumbled. No longer can science be used to
    rule out Biblical teachings about God’s mighty acts in history…
    Quantum mechanics does not give a positive basis for divine activity
    nor does it provide physical “gap” where we can “fit God in” as though
    God acts in the world by choosing which quantum possibility to
    actualize.
    Quantum mechanics merely recognizes a realm of indeterminacy,
    which is not what we mean by miracles or providence.”

    Excerpt from the Soul of Science by Pearcy and Thaxton, 1994, pg 215
    -216
    Laws of Nature

    “The laws of nature do not make events occur. They are


    conditional, but they have no power to initiate anything in
    themselves. A natural law tells us, “If A then B” but it has no
    power to make A happen.”
    C.S. Lewis

    “Miraculously created bread nourishes the same way ordinary


    bread does (feeding of the five thousand). Men miraculously
    raised from the dead (Lazarus) proceed to age the same way
    other men do.”
    C.S. Lewis
    TRANSCENDENCE

    • A state of being or existence above and


    beyond the limits of material experience
    (science).
    • This is not to be confused with Transcendental
    Idealism promoted by Immanuel Kant.
    From Noumenon TO Phenomenon

    • Noumenon – object or event that is known without the use of the senses –
    which Kant thought to be unknowable to humans
    • Phenomenon – object or event that is known with the use of the senses.

    Translation into Christian vocabulary:

    • Noumenon = God consciousness – this knowledge placed into our minds by


    God Himself (Jer. 31:33, Heb 8:10; 10:16) I may observe objects or events
    that I attribute by faith to God but I have never seen God Himself.
    According to Kant, therefore, since God Himself is not observable then He
    is not knowable.
    • God took care of this foolishness by the following two phenomena:
    God’s solution:
    • The Written Word – I can use my senses to read His word,
    hear it, speak it, etc.
    • The Living Word – the Word was made flesh and dwelt
    among us.
    • When a person receives the Written Word and by faith
    believes on the Living Word he is saved and has a renewed
    mind through the Holy Spirit whereby he can now receive
    the things of God.
    • We cannot see how God did it but we can see the results of
    what God did ( a transformed life).
    • By definition this is a MIRACLE.
    MIRACLE (semeion)
    • AN UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE TRANSCENDING THE COMMON COURSE OF NATURE BY WHICH
    GOD AUTHENTICATES THE MEN SENT BY HIM, OR BY WHICH MEN PROVE THE CAUSE THEY
    ARE PLEADING IS GOD’S. (STRONG’S CONCORDANCE)
    • A miracle incorporates an unobservable mechanism which produces observable phenomena.
    • In other words, a miracle can be witnessed and documented by science, but not explained –
    as this enters into the supernatural (metaphysical) and goes beyond the limitations of
    science.
    • Supernatural - Attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of
    nature.
    • Metaphysical – (meta ta physika –“after the things of nature”) refers to an idea, doctrine or
    reality outside of human sense perception. This might include the study of the nature of the
    human mind, the definition and meaning of existence, or the nature of space, time and/or
    causality.
    • Metaphysical ideas or claims are not based on direct experience with material reality thus are
    often in conflict with and unverifiable by the modern sciences.
    • The difficulty arises out of the attempt to scientifically study and objectify something which,
    by its very nature, cannot become an object of our scientific studies.
    Miracles, cont.
    • According to Dr. Henry Morris in his book, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science,
    there are 234 recorded specific miracles in the Word of God. This does not include
    the many miracles that were said to be performed by Christ (John 20:30) or the
    apostles (Heb. 2:4).
    • Other forms of divine activity not specifically referred to as miracles include:
    • Theophanies or Christophanies
    • Visions and dreams of the prophets
    • Prophecies – both those fulfilled and yet to come
    • Regeneration of the believer (II Cor. 5:17)
    • Answer to prayer
    • “All the miracles recorded in Scripture are based on sound evidence and were
    performed for specific divine purposes.”
    • “Jesus said unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou
    shouldest see the glory of God?” John 11:40
    • The purpose of a miracle – that we should see the glory of God.
    HOW TO EXPLAIN MIRACLES?
    Walking on water (Jesus – Matt. 14:25-26) (Peter – Matt. 14:29)
    Healing the blind (Matt. 12:22; 21:14)
    Feeding of the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes (Luke 9:12-17, John 6:9-14
    –when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did)
    Resurrection of the dead (John 11 –Lazarus)
    These (and many others) all had eye witnesses and have been documented. This is
    not to mention those that occur today.
    How many times have doctors been baffled or have had no explanation for cancers
    and tumors disappearing or for other healings that defy conventional medicine?
    Often doctors approach these phenomena with skepticism. That is, they have to be
    able to explain them in scientific terms. When they can’t then the explanation must
    be something that has not been discovered yet, that is, “I don’t know.”
    Rather than explain miracles in terms of “unknown forces”, why not explain them in
    terms of the “Unknown God” of Acts 17:22-34?
    “SOME MOCKED… HOWBEIT CERTAIN MEN CLAVE UNTO HIM, AND BELIEVED.”
    REFLECTION OF THE MIRACLE “DOER”
    “They {miracles} are not so much for what they are as for what they indicate of the
    grace and power of the doer…” Spiros Zhodiates
     
    AVOIDING A CASUAL ATTITUDE
    “Isn’t it true that we as Christians must be careful not to enter into a casual
    attitude about hearing and receiving the Word of God?”
    Carl H. Stevens, Excerpt from page 5 of “A Faith Based on Absolutes”
     
    PSYCHIC NOISE
    “The way in which God works with us is not in how great we are , but rather in how
    we hear through our spiritual ears… It {psychic noise} is the function of Adam, who
    hears God’s thoughts and then allows distractions and confusion to enter because
    of a lack of concentration.”
    Thomas Schaller, Excerpt from page 5 of “Psychic Noises”

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