blurb about miracles

Miracles

 

One Sunday school student to the other

 

The miraculous panned to us

Proves in every way dubious

It takes faith to believe it

But faithful, who needs it?

God, who can write his Books in the stars, on the moon, in the very atmosphere for all to see, in invinciple white letters embedded in the blue firmament, holding such powers, chose instead to preserve his final word to man in the same manner and with the same success as the book of Gilgamesh.

            Miracle stories test faith, they never prove it. They add one more thing to have faith about, not just about God, but now about wacky magic tricks. They charm those simple people who enjoy fantastic stories, but they frustrate a man who wants to maintain his intellectual integrity: the simpleton is convinced by comic-book miracles, the intellectual dismayed. An intellectual Christian is much greater example of faith and especially sacrifice, because he has lacerated his integrity.

            The stupid people reason this way: “God created the whole universe, right? And if he can do that, then yes, he can make a whale swallow a man, stop the sun in the sky, impregnate virgins, and turn water into wine. Is he not omnipotenent? So its easy! Once you believe in God you know all things are possible with God.” Thus, in their way, they miss the point entirely. It is not, could God really do these things, but always, why would God do these things, why would he expect us to believe based on these sorts of stories, why prove himself by what sound like fantastic myths and legends? And the conclusion the intelligent Christian comes to is: “he did this to humiliate my intelligence.” Thus both stupid and smart Christians miss the picture. The deist has much greater integrity when he says “insofar as God is good, he would never do the miracles he was capable of.” The only way a deist can believe in God is by disbelieving silly stories about him. Or as Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman say, the sun rising in the morning is the only true miracle, the bird singing, the only miracle that matters.

 

 

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Perfection Is Easy

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