Robert Miller wrote:
> Hi George,
>
> When John the Baptist sent an inquiry to Jesus asking if He were "the one"
> Jesus' response was to
> site his miracles. That is, Jesus used His miracles to authenticate His
> ministry. An emphasis on
> miracles may detract from the message of the gospel, but so does a denial.
Bob - Good point. Certainly miracles have often been appealed to support the
gospel. I find it interesting, e.g., that in the _Pensees_ Pascal places a
strong emphasis on "the miracle" together with a strong emphasis on a theology
of the cross & a very critical attitude toward natural theology.
I think the latter two aspects of his theology enable him to keep "the miracle"
in its proper place.
It's important to observe the context in which Jesus makes this appeal
to the signs have accompanied his ministry. John isn't an unbeliever or an
"enquirer." He's pictured as a believer who is struggling with doubts about a
specific issue, whether or not Jesus is the Messiah. (What the understanding of
the historical John was is not to the point here.) & Jesus strengthens his
faith by pointing to the fulfillment of prophecies about the Messianic reign -
Is.35:3-6 & 61:1 &c. & while some of the things to which Jesus points may well
have been miracles ("the poor have good news preached to them", e.g., wasn't),
their importance lies not in their miraculous character in itself but in the
fact that they are the expected Messianic signs.
For apologetics there is also just the practical question of whether the
appeal to miracle will
_work_. R. Seeberg said nearly a century ago, "The miracle was once the basis
of all apologetic. It then became an apologetic crutch, and today it is
frequently a cross which apologetic must bear." If a person is fundamentally
skeptical about miracles, it may be unwise to adopt an apologetic approach which
has to overcome two barriers, first convincing the person that miracles are
plausible and _then_ that they provide any support to the Christian gospel. A
straightforward frontal attack on the first barrier will accomplish nothing with
a person whose basic world view rules out miracles. (E.g., the classic Humean
argument against the miraculous.) The world view has to be changed first.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Dialogue"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri May 25 2001 - 11:00:12 EDT