RE: [asa] Miracles in ordinary events

Agreed, Exodus speaks of a wind (natural cause). But I was emphasizing
things a little differently. God _could_ have brought a supernatural,
superheated wind that dried out a "sea of reeds" (to use your phrase) to a
hard crust in 20 minutes, and it would be clearly a miracle (violation of
natural phenomenon). But I was referring to, what if a repeatable or known
phenonemon had occurred at other times, and just "happened" to occur at the
time Moses needed it (non-violation of nature). Wouldn't that still be a
miracle, and if so, why do some seem to only limit "miracle" to violations
of natural laws?

I like the definition Keith Miller just gave on miracle: "a sign that points
to God and reveals something of God character or will." There may be more
to say about it, and what constitutes a "sign" might be given the greatest
of liberty to include anything that God might use to bring our focus to Him
or his law. It shouldn't have to do with violations of natural law,
explainability, or probability.

Jon Tandy

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of gordon brown
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:05 AM
To: Jon Tandy
Cc: 'asa'
Subject: Re: [asa] Miracles in ordinary events

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008, Jon Tandy wrote:

> My comment to this, however, is that an extraordinarily timed,
> perfectly natural event, is just as miraculous as one which violates
> the known laws of nature. I've suggested this one before without much
> comment that I remember, so (at the risk of bring wrong about this one
> example) what if the crossing of the Red Sea was actually a natural
> phenomenon which occurred at just the right moment for the Israelites?
> Would it be any less a miracle?

This is in fact what the Bible says caused the Red Sea to divide. See
Exodus 14:21.

Gordon Brown (ASA member)

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Received on Tue Feb 19 19:53:00 2008