The Miracle Worker

In reading through Matthew with our church, we have seen that miracles were a very important part in confirming the truth of Jesus' messiah-ship.

No problems there...Jesus did miracles. He was/is God. That's what gods do. How did they work? What were the mechanics of healings/feedings/exorcisms? I have no idea, but that's OK, because I'm not God.

The problem springs up around chapter 10, where Jesus gives his apostles "authority" (or jurisdiction/power) to do the same things He did. What now??

OK, so we've got some humans doing miracles now to validate the heralding of the new covenant. But these guys are Jesus' hand-picked apostles, so they're way up there, as far as humans go.

To further complicate things, Paul writes about gifts of the Holy Spirit given to every believer to build up the body, some of whom are able to heal and other miraculous things.

This is a huge problem, because 1) where are they? and 2) who are they? My mind immediately goes to faith healers like Benny Hinn: big time showboating jerks who use miracles to make money. Are they for real? I suppose it's possible, but not very likely.

So where are they? Did miraculous gifts just quit after the first century? Paul seems to indicate that spiritual gifts will keep going until Jesus returns and we don't need them. The Bible never hints that some gifts will keep going and others will stop (despite what John MacArthur says).

Interestingly, most of the reports of miracles come from the mission field, where people know next to nothing about Jesus. In fact, one of the professors at my Alma Mater seminary was involved in a miracle healing around Muslims in Israel.

My preliminary opinion about miracles in America is that Americans are so "educated" and skeptical that they would not believe a real miracle if they saw it, so why should God work here where it won't pay off?

Then again, Christianity has a lot to prove among people who see it as merely an ideology and ethical system, rather than following the God of the Universe.

I myself have seen some pretty amazing "coincidences" that I would fall just short of calling miracles. Yet I find myself longing to see God REALLY work in America: not just in broad ideas, successful fundraisers, and easily answered prayers, but in actual blind-seeing/deaf-hearing/dead-raising/demon-throwing miracles.

So, does anyone out there have any real miracle stories? "I Want to Believe..."

(Two) Too Many Resurrections

I found this link doing some browsing on some alleged correspondance between Horus and Osiris and Jesus. As suspected, many Wikipedia-types are just making crap up with no basis at all.

My favorite is how people claim both Horus and Jesus were baptized at age thirty, but the only story that comes close is when Horus is eaten by an alligator!! I have a hard time calling that a parallel.

The link is a little long, sorry, but it's really interesting (to me, at least).

http://tektonics.org/copycat/osy.html

I am so sad for all the people who have been duped by stuff that is entirely fabricated out of nothing.

Riding the Karma Train

I have been renting episodes of "My Name Is Earl" from Blockbuster Online, and I have absolutely fallen in love with the show. I know, it's no "Office," but they are two completely different types of comedy.

Anyhow, the show's premise is all about Karma--do bad things, and bad things happen, and vice versa. The main character is trying to make up for all of the bad things he's done by helping and repaying the people he's wronged over the years.

It sounds great....at first. Honestly, I find myself wishing that life worked exactly like this. There are several problems, though. First, I find it interesting that in the show, every time Earl finds a way to cross something off his list of wrongs, he almost always wrongs someone in the process, thus, adding to his list. Basically, the list will never come to an end. Hmmm. So then, what happens when someone finishes life with an unfinished list of bad karma????

To be brief, the Bible teaches that there is a connection with sin and righteousness and consequences, but not an absolute connection, because A) no one is completely righteous and B) no one is completely sinful. Generally, everyone pays the consequences for their behaviors at some point of life.

Karma has yet to find a way to explain death and why good things happen to bad people, and the other way around. Why do all humans want to strive and think of themselves as "good" in some form, but everyone understands that they are not perfect. Something is wrong....we know that right exists....what's going on here?

Christianity can say that God's grace coexists with mankind's fallenness, and their interactions are sometimes mysterious to us. Why does God heal, feed, and bless people who will never acknowledge these things as coming from Him? Why do Christians experience pain and suffering?

Karma?

It's just not that easy....

Too Many Resurrections

I was reading a book on Ancient mythology the other day, and I noticed something: there are a lot of ancient myths from the Near/Middle East that involve the death and resurrection of a god, usually celebrated in early spring (sound familiar?).

I have heard of some of these before, such as Baal, Adonis, Osiris, Mithras, Hercules, but I found that the list goes on and on (Wikipedia listed about 30!). It would appear on first glance that Jesus is just one in a long line of myths with a recycled story line and a different nationality.

But wait...not quite...

Interestingly, all the ancient myths before Jesus, involve a PAIR of deities, usually a consort. Baal is rescued by Asherah, Osiris by Isis, Persephone has several rescuers and lovers, and every myth is riddled with countless variations of characters, actions, and timeframes. But, generally speaking, a deity dies, the lover mourns/prays/searches, and the dead deity is reborn.

Jesus doesn't fit this pattern, not surprisingly, because of the lack of consort deities in a monotheistic system. I find it fascinating that Mary Magdelene becomes the consort/rescuer, in a sense, of later Jesus myth traditions put forth by Gnostics and other groups who stole Jesus to make up their own stories. Looks like those guys are the ones who are guilty of several counts of plagiarism...

My point in all this meandering is that despite what comparative religion professors may claim, Jesus is not just one of many dying and rising gods. His story doesn't fit any of the details of the other stories, except for coming back from the dead. Some may claim a parallel with Hercules's three day trip to Hades, but guess what, Jesus never went to Hell...it ain't in the Bible!

Hope this helps somebody.