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Author Topic:   Miracles and their Effect of Faith
anastasia
Member (Idle past 5981 days)
Posts: 1857
From: Bucks County, PA
Joined: 11-05-2006


Message 38 of 39 (402561)
05-28-2007 12:30 AM
Reply to: Message 37 by ringo
05-25-2007 2:11 PM


This is just a general reply, not directed to you specifically...but as you were the last post...well.
I for one do not think that the miracles are completely over. I think we see 'miracles' but as you have said, we recognize them for what they are without the mythos of centuries.
I will also chime in on the loser category in saying that I believe the time of God's intervention is suspended, and this is ONLY because I am Catholic and because I believe in the message of Jesus to Sister Faustina amoung others, where He does say that His direct intervention will end until a later period.
Regarding the Bible, there is actually no record that any miracle, or few, resulted in belief in Jesus' divinity. The feeding of 5000 never mentions whether the 5000 fed knew where the food had come from. No one at the wedding, beside Mary, knew where the extra wine came from. Jesus' walk on water was essentially private, and still did not stop Peter from doubting and denying Jesus later. ALL of the miracles did not stop Thomas from doubting that Jesus could resurrect. That should be amazing to us, or ar least throw off our own belief in the miracles. Judas obviously still betrayed this great miracle worker!
These people believed in God and in His prophets. They did not find PROOF of God thru Jesus, they did not find proof that Jesus WAS God. There were not 1000's of converts to Christianity, only Hebrews who believed God was still working amoung them. It took a long while, and it is STILL not resolved amoung Christians, that Jesus IS God. Either that says something about our power to doubt, or about the quality and the publicity of the miracles themselves. You can't just say 'why doesn't God do miracles now?' without recalling that whatever miracles were rumoured to have happened were by and large only recorded or noticed by those who already believed and who saw something in the event. That's exactly how it is now. But WHAT they believed or saw in the miracles was a very subjective experience.
I don't disbelieve the miracles, but I do see historically that they were not the cause of immediate fall on your face worship, and actually the folks who believed in Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, and the thief on the cross, the woman who touched Jesus, the centaurian who believed that Jesus could heal his servant, Mary the sister of Martha...these people were exalted and remembered for listening to the message, for trusting an example, and they were rewarded for their faith. NOT the other way around. That was what Jesus was telling Thomas.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 37 by ringo, posted 05-25-2007 2:11 PM ringo has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 39 by Nighttrain, posted 05-28-2007 7:36 AM anastasia has not replied

  
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