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 back/headache healings will not change this fact.
Was the miraculous active during the time of the Jesus and the Apostles, of course. The Bible well documents this. The Word of God both teaches and convicts our hearts of this truth (Hebrews 4:12, Romans 10:17). 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. Appealing to accounts of the miraculous in the New Testament does not prove these events are happening today.
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 it to be true.
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. It is long time for them to admit their emperor is naked.
We all know the scriptures I am speaking of:
Hebrews 11:1, Romans 1:17, & 8:24, 2nd Corinthians 4:18 & 5:7
We should not fear this lack of the miraculous but rejoice in the blessings 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 back/headache healings will not change this fact.
Was the miraculous active during the time of the Jesus and the Apostles, of course. The Bible well documents this. The Word of God both teaches and convicts our hearts of this truth (Hebrews 4:12, Romans 10:17). 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. Appealing to accounts of the miraculous in the New Testament does not prove these events are happening today.
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 it to be true.
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. It is long time for them to admit their emperor is naked.
We all know the scriptures I am speaking of:
Hebrews 11:1, Romans 1:17, & 8:24, 2nd Corinthians 4:18 & 5:7
We should not fear this lack of the miraculous but rejoice in the blessings 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.