Should Christians challenge supernatural claims.
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We do not live in an age of the miraculous.
In the scriptures, the periods of physical supernatural phenomenon were few and far between.
When they were active the world was turned upside down. An honest and open-minded exam of the "proof" of our living in such an age will show that we are not.
All the tongue talking and headache healings will not change this fact.
Was the miraculous active during the time and places of Jesus and the Apostles, of course. The Bible well documents this. The Word of God both teaches this and convicts our hearts to this truth. Have these acts ended, of course. Not because the Bible tells us but because the same senses that looked upon the first miracles with awe now tell us those same events have ended. You can try to prove otherwise but it will be a fruitless endeavor, an attempt to catch the wind.
No appeal to even the most scholarly discourse will change this fact. No amount of anecdotal banter will prove otherwise. The evidence presented as proof of the miraculous is on par with that presented as proof of bigfoot or space aliens. None are convincing, except to those who wish to believe it.
Those who insist that the miraculous is upon us do a great disservice to Jesus's call for faith apart from sight. Pentecostals and charismatics are but making bogus claims of the supernatural instead of what Jesus really taught. Faith, not faith by miracles but faith without miracles. It is long time for them to admit their emperor is naked.
We all know the scriptures I am speaking about:
Hebrews 11:1, Romans 1:17 & Romans 8:24, 2nd Corinthians 4:18 & 5:7.
We should not fear this lack of the miraculous but rejoice in the knowledge of our faith being strong without it.
(John 20:24-29)
Unless of course your faith is based on these claims of the miraculous being true.
In the scriptures, the periods of physical supernatural phenomenon were few and far between.
When they were active the world was turned upside down. An honest and open-minded exam of the "proof" of our living in such an age will show that we are not.
All the tongue talking and headache healings will not change this fact.
Was the miraculous active during the time and places of Jesus and the Apostles, of course. The Bible well documents this. The Word of God both teaches this and convicts our hearts to this truth. Have these acts ended, of course. Not because the Bible tells us but because the same senses that looked upon the first miracles with awe now tell us those same events have ended. You can try to prove otherwise but it will be a fruitless endeavor, an attempt to catch the wind.
No appeal to even the most scholarly discourse will change this fact. No amount of anecdotal banter will prove otherwise. The evidence presented as proof of the miraculous is on par with that presented as proof of bigfoot or space aliens. None are convincing, except to those who wish to believe it.
Those who insist that the miraculous is upon us do a great disservice to Jesus's call for faith apart from sight. Pentecostals and charismatics are but making bogus claims of the supernatural instead of what Jesus really taught. Faith, not faith by miracles but faith without miracles. It is long time for them to admit their emperor is naked.
We all know the scriptures I am speaking about:
Hebrews 11:1, Romans 1:17 & Romans 8:24, 2nd Corinthians 4:18 & 5:7.
We should not fear this lack of the miraculous but rejoice in the knowledge of our faith being strong without it.
(John 20:24-29)
Unless of course your faith is based on these claims of the miraculous being true.
Actually, I will happily take take whatever you think about me on this topic!
The biggest supernatural event I am aware of is my salvation!
Well and truly tops any healings I have been associated with - they are only temporary!
I have also witnessed the supernatural miracles of thousands of individuals over many years coming to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
This also tops any of the healings...
The biggest supernatural event I am aware of is my salvation!
Well and truly tops any healings I have been associated with - they are only temporary!
I have also witnessed the supernatural miracles of thousands of individuals over many years coming to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
This also tops any of the healings...
(no limit, no ceiling, and no boundary.??????????
I think first and foremost we would first ask our selves “whose faith’ It seems to get turned upside down many times, as if there was no boundries.
Did you mean the supernatural “faith of God” that does challenge the believer? Or our own faith (no faith) that comes from the imaginations of ones own hard heart which is desperately wicked and beyond repair?( No man can know it)
The faith of God is the work of Christ as a labor of His love. It which is not of our own will works within the believer’s new heart to both will, the commandment and perform His good pleasure of that will. This is as the author of the will and perfecter, the one who completes His will .
1Co 4:7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
The opposite of the faith of Christ is no faith .Faith in that way when used in a positive way is always in respect to the faith of God. In that way we can understand that natural man has no faith in respect to the faith of Christ. Not little but none.
Deuteronomy 32:20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
Therefore to not exercise the faith of Christ that does work in the believer to both will and do His good pleasure is to sin. Anything that does not come from hearing his voice of faith as the same spirit of faith according as it is written.. is sin.
That perfect faith could be reckoned as little faith seeing it is by the faith of Christ that we have been born from above. But little faith is never reckoned after natural man.
Little faith is not used in respect to the forward generation (natural man)
Matthew 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
When Christ spoke of little faith it was in respect to His own which they did not abide in at times.
By a work of Christ's faith he rebuked the wind and sea as a faithful Creator
Matthew 8:26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Matthew 14:31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Doubt is not the opposite of faith the opposite is no faith, as in unbelief.
When ever Christ would speak a parable he would hide the spiritual understanding from the disciples in order to teach them about faith... as to who it comes from and what it accomplishes as a work .When they did not understand the parable they immediately would look to each other as if Christ was not there as the Son of man .It would become “who is the greatest” (philosopher) as the reasoning authority walking by sight.
Matthew 16:8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, "why reason" ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
Rather than resoning by the word of God's law thye did reason after the philoshies of this world (no faith) propmoted by the god of this world as in natural man
He places the limits and applies them to his own self.
Psalms 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
Why would we assume we are the not limited according to our own hearts and minds and rob God of His glory? All things within the limit of His revealed mind are possible but we are to never go above that which is written .Therefore we do not reason within ourselves into limiting what God can do through limited mindset.(no faith... not little)
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The faith of Christ, of God comes from hearing God. It it not of our ownselves after the fleshly imaginations of ones own deceitfull heart.
I can offer a couple you could look at
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
What if some do not believe acording the faith of God, as in unbeleif, (no faith) .God forbid?
For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make "the faith of God" without effect?
God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged Rom 3:3
Thanks for the reply. I would offer a suggestion in regard to a couple verses that hopefully could help explain my position.
The supernatural which means without nature as a beginning, describes God, according to his foreknowledge by faith he worked to pronounce words as he worked out what he hoped for out by saying….” let there be” and there was physical substance as rudiments of this world.
We do not know Christ after the rudiments of this world (flesh and blood) as if the faithful Creator had no understanding. It’s what the outward Jews did turn it upside down and seek after a understanding of what was formed and not him who spoke form into existence
A good example of turning things upside down is found where you find “preached the gospel”it is used frequently in the new testament It would seem the Holy Spirit uses that for an opportunity to work out the unseen faith comparing it to that seen the healing. The supernatural to the physical
And there they preached the gospel.And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: Act 14:7-8
.
Again grabbing an opportunity to preach the gospel this time he uses walking as a way to help us understand why and how we can walk (or understand) by faith (His)
Act 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
God revealed to the lame one by a work of his faith that Paul would be used to represent Holy Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit putting words in the mouth of Paul spoke.
Act 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
When the sign seekers, the evil generation (the generation Adam as those who seek after sign walking by sight). They made Paul and Barnabas gods in the likeness of men as familiar spirits they could worship, and sell thier image idols.Making the apostles into the heathen gods of the Zodiac
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, "The gods" are come down to us in the likeness of men.And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. Act 14:11-13
The apostles understood that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to sinful men is to blaspheme the Holy name by which we are called…. renting their clothes as a sign to those rebellious. warning them not to have any god before our living God Christ Jesus by
Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, Act 14
God who does not live in temples made with human hands does not heal by human hand and neither does he create with them.
The supernatural which means without nature as a beginning, describes God, according to his foreknowledge by faith he worked to pronounce words as he worked out what he hoped for out by saying….” let there be” and there was physical substance as rudiments of this world.
We do not know Christ after the rudiments of this world (flesh and blood) as if the faithful Creator had no understanding. It’s what the outward Jews did turn it upside down and seek after a understanding of what was formed and not him who spoke form into existence
A good example of turning things upside down is found where you find “preached the gospel”it is used frequently in the new testament It would seem the Holy Spirit uses that for an opportunity to work out the unseen faith comparing it to that seen the healing. The supernatural to the physical
And there they preached the gospel.And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked: Act 14:7-8
.
Again grabbing an opportunity to preach the gospel this time he uses walking as a way to help us understand why and how we can walk (or understand) by faith (His)
Act 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
God revealed to the lame one by a work of his faith that Paul would be used to represent Holy Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit putting words in the mouth of Paul spoke.
Act 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
When the sign seekers, the evil generation (the generation Adam as those who seek after sign walking by sight). They made Paul and Barnabas gods in the likeness of men as familiar spirits they could worship, and sell thier image idols.Making the apostles into the heathen gods of the Zodiac
And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, "The gods" are come down to us in the likeness of men.And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. Act 14:11-13
The apostles understood that attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to sinful men is to blaspheme the Holy name by which we are called…. renting their clothes as a sign to those rebellious. warning them not to have any god before our living God Christ Jesus by
Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, Act 14
God who does not live in temples made with human hands does not heal by human hand and neither does he create with them.
Thank you also for your reply, but how does your words apply to the claims of posts # 166 & 169 that their individual claims of salvation were physical supernatural events?
Magenta and graceNpeace are labeling claims of salvation as physical supernatural events. How can a claim of anything be labeled as a physical supernatural event?
Magenta and graceNpeace are labeling claims of salvation as physical supernatural events. How can a claim of anything be labeled as a physical supernatural event?