God’s Activity in the World and the Concept of Miracle
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TRANSCENDENT
The biblical God is transcendental – he stands outside the realms of space and time and is incorporeal. So if God is so different to the world in which we live, how can he have a relationship with humanity and personal relationships with individuals? The Ancient Greek concept of God is that he has no interaction at all.
MIRACLES
Miracles are one of the ways people understand God’s work in the world; it is an important feature in the framework of Judaeo-Christianity. Many events are recorded in the bible in which it seems that the laws of nature are suspended in order for God to bring about a particular course of events.
Examples:
Natural properties of water are changed when God chooses:
? Egyptian rivers turn to blood as a plague in an effort to force the Pharaoh to free the Hebrew people
? The Red Sea parts for the Hebrews to escape from slavery in Egypt
? Water has healing properties for Naaman who was suffering from Leprosy
? Jesus walks on water
? Jesus turns water into wine
? Jesus calms a storm at sea
JOSHUA 10:1-15
Tells how God intervened in the war between the Israelites lead by Joshua, against the Amorites. The Israelites were greatly outnumbered but God told Joshua to stand up to them because he would be helped to win. God intervened by sending hailstones which killed much of the enemy and caused the sun to stand still in the sky so the battle could be finished and men could return to camp safely.
INTERVENTION
God intervenes according to his plans. It is important for the future of the Jews that the Israelites win, so God suspends the laws of nature to ensure events unfold in the right way for his purposes to be fulfilled.
MAIN ISSUES CONCERNING MIRACLES:
I. The problem of definition; what we mean when we use the word ‘miracle’ to describe an event
II. Do miracles actually happen and is it reasonable to believe in them?
III. The implications of the concept of miracle for an understanding of the nature of God
PROBLEM OF DEFINITION
Some people claim that any event that excites wonder such as the birth of a baby is miraculous. Others say in order to be a miracle the event needs to be supernatural and unexpected, done for a religious purpose.
DAVID HUME
Hume’s views fall under the category of radical empiricism. Hume defines a miraculous event as:
‘A violation of the laws of nature by a divine agent. God.’
For Hume, miracles are unlikely explanations of events and it is unreasonable to believe in them.
MIRACLES AND FAITH
For some people miracles are important in their faith. If the Bible is the “word of God”, the fact that it says that miracles happened justifies belief in miracles.
JUDAEO-CHRISTIAN FAITH
The concept of miracle is woven into the whole structure of Christian belief. If we take out the notion of miracle, then we remove the central elements of faith. Both the virgin birth and the resurrection depend on the concept of miracle.
NATURE OF GOD
It could be argued that we limit the nature of God if we claim that miracles do not happen, since he is omnipotent and has a plan for us. To remove the concept of miracles is to seemingly reject God’s omnipotence and wider purposes for mankind.
PURPOSE OF MIRACULOUS EVENTS
It could also be argued that placing too much emphasis on miracles goes against the teachings of Jesus who refused to throw himself off the pinnacle of the Temple and being saved by the angels because he didn’t want to have anything to do with displays of magic.
In Luke Jesus says:
The people who took no notice of Moses and the prophets would take no notice of someone rising from the dead
Thus miracles are not meant to convince the unbeliever but to have a subjective meaning that can be interpreted by someone who has faith. (Note: this applies to all events – “miraculous” or otherwise.
MAURICE WILES
For Maurice Wiles, God does not intervene in the world in occasional, individual ways; but the whole world should be seen as an act of God in its entirety. Miracles by definition have to be unlikely otherwise there would be no law of nature.
GOD AS ARBITRARY OR PARTISAN
The concept of miracle and divine intervention as recorded in biblical accounts leaves us with an image of God who only intervenes occasionally:
Why would an all loving, omnipotent God be prepared to help out in the trivial emergency of the running out of wine at a wedding but not prevent the bombing of Hiroshima?
This presents us with a God who is either arbitrary – random in his selection of the circumstances in which he intervenes, or partisan – unreasonable.
RUDOLF BULTMANN
Bultmann argued that the mythological view of the world is no longer accepted in the modern world. With our knowledge of science we can no longer believe that such things happen and thus we should demythologise the bible in order to access the ‘kergyma’ or ‘abiding truth.’ He gave the New Testament an existentialist interpretation and many believe he reduced it to a secular philosophy.
TELELOGOICAL CONTRADICTION
Miracles might be seen as a contradiction to the teleological argument for the existence of God. If we can see the world has design and everything is ‘very good,’ then why would God intervene and break this pattern design?
NON-CONTINUITY WITH THE EXISTENCE OF EVIL
The concept of miracle also does not fit with the arguments that justify the existence of evil. According to the Free-will Defence, evil and suffering are derived from human free-will which is necessary for humans to develop and grow into God’s perfect likeness. Yet God still intervenes and allows a small number of people to escape the consequences of evil. Does this not compromise the free-will of humans? Moreover, how God justified in intervening sometimes and not others; why not always?
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