Wisdom rests in
the heart of him
who has understanding,
but what is in the
heart of fools
is made known.
Proverbs 14:33
To examine a thing is to gain understanding and understanding is the way to wisdom; to examine a thing is to address objections, objections lead a person to examine. Fear that we may not be believing correctly, that the familiar that we hold and cherish, accepting it as truth, then to find out that what we believe is not Scriptural; this is hard, disconcerting, and this fear causes a person not to examine. Jesus never failed to examine, discuss, and correct, error, error in a person's doctrine and understanding. Sometimes Jesus rebuked a person for what they believed and practiced. Even John the Baptist was not afraid to call a "spade" a "spade": "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, 'Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come" (Matthew 3:7). Jesus was not afraid to "call" things what they were: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27). Don't you be afraid to examine all things, and to "call" those things that are not Scriptural wrong. Many so-called "Christians" who are doing things that seem so Scriptural, have all the "right" answers, are on the outside white, but black as night on the inside: we will not know the truth until we examine what a person believes and using Scripture as the basis of truth, and to use the faculties that God has given man: your brain. Objections rightly examined will lead a person to the truth: therefore we will examine the objections as to miracles.
The first objection is one that assumes that the laws of nature are in themselves immutable, and therefore that they cannot be suspended. In answer to this objection is to notice that it is a gratuitous assumption that the laws of nature cannot be suspended. Why? It is gratuitous as an assumption because there is not a reason, a reason given, that those laws could not be suspended, only that this is what a person may believe, and that belief is without foundation. To assume that a thing has been is no proof that it must always be. Example: There is no absolute certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow; it has in the past, but we cannot know for sure that it will do so in the future. What ground do we have that it will do so? What if tonight God has determined that time should cease? Time began, but there is no certainty that it should continue. Nature began, it may cease and everything about nature is liable to change. No one has the right to assume that because physical laws are, and that with our limited experiences, that they have always been as we now see it, that they have been regular in their operation. A mistake so common among men who are ready to accept without examination that uniformity is inconsistent with voluntary control. If we hold to that position is to admit that because law reigns; God does not reign. This uniformity in nature exists because God wills that it exist, and this uniformity continues as long as God so will.
To assume that God is subject to law is to make God completely out of His character. God is Holy, Holiness is an attribute of God because God is Holy and as a Holy God He is in control of all things that He created, that includes the law of matter. Do you believe in God? To admit this then we must admit that the whole universe, everything that this universe contains, all the laws of the universe and of all creation, those laws that control all things, are subject to the will of God. To object that God is in control of all things, an objection that makes God to be subject to nature, to those laws that He created, is an assumption that God can be controlled by outside forces, those forces that He willed into existence.
To be a Christian is to believe in the authority of Scripture and that Scripture is the decisive authority. Upon any examination of Scripture a person will find that the Bible, everywhere within it, asserts that God is in absolute control. The Bible demonstrates that control with examples and every miracle in the Bible is such an example. Example: Lazarus being called from the grave: Lazarus was in the grave four days before Jesus called him to come out (John 11:43), the forces of death were already at work, his body was in dissolution, his body ceased to operate. When Jesus called out and the winds ceased (Luke 8:23-25). When Jesus walked on water the law of gravitation ceased to affect Him. The Old Testament records many miracles; i.e., when the axe head floated on water (2Kings 6:5-6). The Scriptures teach that both by word and deed that God can act, not only with physical causes, but without and against them.
Can this be done, this working against the laws of nature by man? Yes! When a person lifts weights, he is counteracting the law of gravity. When a plane fly's in the air, the plane is counteracting the law of gravity. This counteracting upon nature is happening around us all the time. One force counteracts another force; vital forces keep the chemical laws in balance, muscular force can control the action of physical force. We saw this truth when examined those events such as Jesus walking on water. There is a simple and grand truth: the universe is not under the exclusive control of physical forces for there is a higher force that is separate and is superior to all things and that force is the infinite God who has an infinite will, not superseding, but directing and controlling all physical causes, acting with or without them. God has ordained all laws: God is everywhere present in His works: He governs all things by cooperating and using the laws which He has ordained. God is free to act as He so desires.
There are other objections that we must examine and this I will do in the next blog: that objection consists in the assumption that miracles should be assigned to a higher law, an occult law of nature and not to the immediate agency of God. is this true?
Whoever transgresses and
does not abide in the
doctrine of Christ does not
have God. He who abides
in the doctrine of Christ
has both the Father
and the Son.
2John 9
May the truth of God abide in you
Richard L. Crumb
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