Questions Answered Page 3
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QUESTION: The Bible makes many claims about miracles happening. like the parting of the Red Sea. These things seem impossible to have actually occurred and we never see things like this today. How do we know they really happened or are just myths?
ANSWER: First, to answer this question, let’s begin with some foundational characteristics and attributes of God…He is INFINITE and we are finite, He is OMNIPOTENT (all powerful) and we are weak, He is OMNISCIENT (all knowing) and we are limited in our knowledge, He is OMNIPRESENT (all present) and we are limited in our presence, and He is the Creator of all, the Grand Architect, the Sovereign LORD of everything. He is God and we are not. The Bible states the supernatural power of God, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Lk. 1:37)
Some things may seem impossible and improbable to our finite minds as well as with our experiences in life but with God “nothing is impossible.” Thus, since God created the “heavens and earth” (Gen. 1:1) and is the designer of all natural forces, He can extend His supernatural force and tweak the laws of nature anytime He desires. He is God, and thus being the Creator, He can intervene through His divine power and control of all that exists. As we speak, God is in control of all the forces of nature. The book of Colossians speaks of the Lord’s creative power and His continuing hold on the universe:
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (Col. 1:15-17, NKJV)
In his book, “The Case of Faith”, Lee Strobel details a practical understanding of the essence of miracles:
“Miracles are not contradictory to science…miracles lie outside of science. Even though miracles lie outside of natural science – that’s not to say they contradict science. Similar to ethics…they lie outside of science, as science doesn’t make ethical judgments. The goal of science is to seek natural explanations…” (p. 62, Case for Faith)
Things that seem impossible to us, like the “parting of the Red Sea”, are simply God intervening outside of our scientific and natural realm. We can’t make sense of miracles to our “natural mind” because it is a “supernatural event”, as God is supernaturally displaying His power, glory, and control over all He has already created. Intellectually this stumbles many, but through faith, we can believe because of God’s grace and His Word which are true. Since God divinely wrote the Bible through inspired people of God, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” (II Tim. 3:16a), we know that all of the events in the Bible, miracles included, are direct sources of God’s special revelation. Thus, if the Bible was untrue and made up of myths about God’s miracles, then God would be considered a liar…which is impossible, because God cannot lie, as it goes against His very nature and who He is. Christ is, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life…” (John 14:6)
God can intervene with nature through His divine power, as Strobel goes on to explain:
“The law of gravity states what will happen under idealized conditions with no natural or supernatural factors intervening. Catching an apple falling from a tree doesn’t overturn the law of gravity or require the formulation of a new law. It’s merely the intervention of a person with free will who overrides the natural causes operative in that particular circumstance. That, essentially, is what God does when He causes a miracle to occur.” (p. 63, Case for Faith)
The fact that we never see “miracles” today seems to be relative according to where you live and if you have the faith to truly see God’s miracles at work. I know of friends who have been healed from cancer, true stories from the mission field where God intervenes in supernatural ways, and seeing broken lives given over to Jesus Christ and changed supernaturally. God still works miracles in many ways today, and although we don’t see amazing acts of miracles with nature (like the Red Sea parting), we are in the “church age” through which God displays His miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit and through His church.
May the Lord create a miracle in your life by simply allowing Him to enter your heart and dwell within you through His presence. The most convincing miracle ever recorded is the resurrection of Christ, through which Jesus revealed Himself as the Savior and Lord of all.
"Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." (I Cor. 15: 12-14)
"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." (I Cor. 15:20-22)
The miracle of Jesus’ resurrection allows for the miracle of the resurrection of our old lives and into a new live in Christ, a “new creation.” God is living and active and still intervenes in the lives of those who simply come humbly and ask Him to reveal Himself.
QUESTION: If the Bible is divinely inspired, how can it have contradictions? Such as John the Baptist did (Matt 3:13-14) or did not (John 1:32-33) recognize Jesus before his baptism. There are many others like these.
ANSWER: In 2 Timothy 3:16, we are told that all Scripture is inspired. The word used for inspiration is theopneustos which means "God-breathed," implying that what was written had its origin in God Himself. In 2 Peter 1:21 we read that the writers were "carried along" by God. Thus, God used each writer, including his personality to accomplish a divinely authoritative work, for God cannot inspire error.
While some claim that the Bible is full of contradictions, this simply isn't true. The number of apparent contradictions is actually remarkably small for a book of the Bible's size and scope. What apparent discrepancies do exist are more curiosity than actual serious claims. They do not touch on any major event or article of faith, just historical and circumstantial evidences.
Concerning the question and text at hand, “Such as John the Baptist did (Matt 3:13-14) or did not (John 1:32-33) recognize Jesus before his baptism”, there is actually no contradiction at all:
John's statement in John 1:33 that he would not have known Jesus except for seeing the Holy Spirit go upon him and remain means that John would not have known for sure without this definite sign. John was filled with the Holy Spirit from before his birth (Luke 1:15) and we have record of an amazing recognition of Jesus even while John was in his mother's womb. Luke 1:41-44 relates that when Mary visited John's mother, the sound of her greeting prompted John, then still in the womb, to leap in recognition of Mary's presence, as the mother of the Lord.
In the light of this prior knowledge and the witness of the Holy Spirit within John, it is likely that this sign of the Holy Spirit resting on Jesus was simply a confirmation of what he already thought to remove any doubt so that he could be sure that it was not his imagination but truly the anointed one, as John clearly says before in verse 29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Even though John did not know for sure, now it was revealed by God for sure about the anointing of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Regarding the question of Bible contradictions…the Bible has many seeming contradictions within its pages. For example, the four Gospels give four differing accounts as to what was written on the sign that hung on the cross. But we have to realize that four different authors wrote these books with four different views and motives…similar to how a movie has many different angles and shots to reveal different sides of the film, the gospels reveal many different lenses of Christ.
If you have four different reporters writing about a similar story, the stories will never be exactly the same, but instead vary according to the motive of their writing, the style, but the truth of the content remains.
Those who are looking for contradictions may therefore say, “See—the Bible is full of mistakes!” and choose to reject it entirely as being untrustworthy. However, those who trust God have no problem harmonizing the Gospels because it actually provides a more accurate and truthful portrayal of God. It is also interesting to note that the seeming contradictions in the four Gospels attest to the fact that there was no corroboration between the writers. This validates the integrity of the gospel writers as well as the other various writers (40) of the 66 books in the Bible.
Charles Wesley commented,
“The truthfulness of Scripture is not negated by the appearance in it of irregularities of grammar or spelling, phenomenal descriptions of nature, reports of false statements (for example, the lies of Satan), or seeming discrepancies between one passage and another. It is not right to set the so-called 'phenomena' of Scripture against the teaching of Scripture about itself. Apparent inconsistencies should not be ignored. Solution of them, where this can be convincingly achieved will encourage our faith. However, where for the present no convincing solution is at hand we shall significantly honor God by trusting His assurance that His Word is true, despite these appearances, and by maintaining our confidence that one day they will be seen to have been illusions."
QUESTION: Does evolution have to necessarily be at odds with the Bible?
ANSWER: First, a true story:
Isaac Newton, a well known Christian, wanted to explain to his atheist lab partner the evidence of for creationism and God as the sole Creator, so one day when his lab partner was on a vacation, Newton created a mobile of the Solar System in their working area. When his lab partner came back from vacation and entered into the room, in astonishment he asked, “Who created this wonderful mobile?” Newton turned to him and said, “I don’t know. It just appeared. It just happened.” The lab partner, frustrated, asked again, “That’s impossible, someone had to create this. Who was it Isaac?”
Once again, Newton relented, “It just appeared, I don’t think anyone created it.” The lab partner refuted, “There had to be a designer…” Stopping in his tracks, a realization of the lesson Newton was illustrating dawned on him. “You’re right,” confirmed Newton, “There had to be a creator or designer.” The lab partner acknowledged what Newton was pointing out…this great design or creation had to have an Intelligent Designer, had to have a Creator, just like we as humans, didn’t just happen from circumstance of a Big Bang, but instead through a loving God who created and formed us from His own image: (Gen. 1:26-27)
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
"So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them."
In this passage we see the dominant contradiction between God’s Word and divine creation of not just the heavens and the earth, but how He made man and woman in His image. Evolution has no sense of identity of humans with God’s fingerprints or image, but rather a soulless creation of mutated genes that evolved through a combusted state millions of years ago…
The definition of evolution states, “a change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.” As Isaac Newton pointed out, God is the creator, and thus as Creator, He is the designer instead of a gene pool that mutated through millions and millions of years.
Evolution isn’t at odds with the Bible, it is contrary to what not only God has show us in His Word, but common sense. Scientific resolution even points out that, “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” (Occam’s Razor) Newton illustrated this perfectly to his lab partner by showing the essence of any created thing is prefaced with a Creator. Yet Creationism, being the most simple, is discarded as nonsensical by a majority of our population and culture in favor of a more modern and non-proven theory called, “evolution”.
Read this excerpt from “Answers in Genesis” as it details the importance of knowing and discerning the differences between creationism and evolution:
What difference does it make whether one believes the world was created or evolved? Can't one embrace Christianity and Evolution? An outspoken evolutionist answered this question in the American Atheist magazine with the following reply:
"Christianity is - must be! - totally committed to the special creation as described in Genesis, and Christianity must fight with its full might against the theory of evolution. And here is why.
In Romans we read that 'sin entered the world through one man, and through sin - death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.' (5:12)
…the whole justification of Jesus' life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate.Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed?
Without Adam's fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, what purpose is there to Christianity? None.
Even a high school student knows enough about evolution to know that nowhere in the evolutionary description of our origins does there appear an Adam or an Eve or an Eden or a forbidden fruit. Evolution means a development from one form to the next to meet the ever-changing challenges from an ever-changing nature. There is no fall from a previous state of sublime perfection.
Without Adam, without the original sin, Jesus Christ is reduced to a man with a mission on a wrong planet!"
Did this opponent of Christianity understand the issues more clearly than most Christians? How important it is that we as Christians be consistent in our thinking. Evolution not only nullifies the idea of God as Creator, but the grace of God by sending His son Jesus Christ for all of our sins. We must accept the entire Bible as God's Word. In it God says what He means and He means what He says. Remember how important it is to be “biblically and eternally correct” versus “politically correct”.
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