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[First posted in 2018. Heard of any miracles lately, or have you experienced one yourself? And what is your definition of “miracle”?–Admin1].
Never mind the past, let us fast forward to the present, OUR PRESENT. Does the God of Israel, the very same God of the Nations, who revealed His Name as YHWH, perform miracles ‘on-demand’, as miracle-believing Christians claim all the time, probably because the New Testament is full of miracles from the Gospels to Revelation?
Strangely, of the three major world religions that trace their roots to Abraham, only Christianity encourages ‘miracle-dependency’ so to speak, because it appears that neither Judaism nor Islam promote such belief. So much so there is a joke about a Christian complaining to God why he had not won the lottery like all other lucky winners who are not even Christian, and God’s answer to him is: “first, buy a ticket!”
We have heard of many “miracle” claims in this day and age; in fact one of our country’s biggest congregation is called ‘Miracle Crusade’ where members not only believe but expect and in fact retell stories of miracle after miracle, similar to the gospel stories about the blind see, the lame walk, the dead are brought back to life.
Other huge Christian congregations claim much of the same since pastors promote the belief that God will surely perform miracles for you, IF—
- you have faith enough,
- you keep praying till you get one,
- you behave so God will bless you,
- or do nothing, just wait till it drops on your lap, just CLAIM IT!
This is what we mean about making God like Santa Claus: simply prepare your list of ‘do this and do that for me please’. Many testimonies vary from trivial requests to more impossible expectations such as healing from a terminal disease, deliverance from danger, financial turnabouts and remarkable success stories. The purpose of witnessing to the congregation is to increase the flock’s faith and to recruit others who join the congregation because they hear about so many miracles happening there and wish to experience the same, perhaps there is more ‘power’ in that congregation.
How can these “miracles” be explained not as ‘Divine Intervention’ but as ‘natural occurrences’ because they are not in everyone else’s normal experience?
- “Because you haven’t asked,”
- “because you don’t have enough faith,”
- “because you didn’t wait long enough,” etc.
—are the stock answers.
Question: What is the purpose of any miracle if not to bolster one’s faith in God? But what if faith is misplaced on any god other than the God of Israel whose Name is YHWH? Wouldn’t He, the One True God, wish to be given credit for what He performs?
Question: Who is answering all the prayers of the faithful who submit their ‘do-for-me’ list if their God carries another name, or another nature, who is not the God of the Hebrew Scriptures?
Can non-gods or gods of man’s imagination perform miracles? Of course not! But perhaps the One True God who is patient and long-suffering and understands the limitations of human understanding and lack of true knowledge of Him and non-exposure to His Revelation (and a host of reasons)— and best of all, who knows the end from the beginning—actually tolerates ignorance and wrong belief and man-made religious traditions since this is part of the quest for Truth and the One True God. Any journey to seek the God of Truth is a good enough beginning; whether it continues to the end (knowledge of God through His Revelation) or not, the seeker is already under grace as opposed to the non-seeker who concludes without questioning that there is no God.
In effect, anyone on the journey to seek God is already on the right path:
Jeremiah 29:13-14 (NIV)
“You will seek me and find me
when you seek me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, ”
declares the LORD.
And guess what? The more you know the One True God, the less demanding you become because you start counting your blessings, the first of which is that you have come to know Him and perhaps many more simple acknowledgments will follow, realizing what you already have going for you. I know, this all sounds simplistic though if you’ve noticed from the posts where we have featured Jewish prayers, most of them are praise and thanksgiving and acknowledgment of sin . . . very little, if any, of the “gimme” prayer.
Back to the question: does God perform miracles today? It depends, what in your view is a “miracle”?
NSB@S6K
