(28-30) Ding, Ding! School time! Anglican-costals, Pentecostals & Other Montanists: Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee
It's school time! If irreformable, bye-bye; if teachable, hello. We say with Zachary Ursinus, "Friend, if entering here…be short and leave…or stay but assist me in my work."
We used [ ] to indicate Hebrew/Greek words which did not survive from pdf to Word to this forum.
A theological study about the nature of miracles and their cessation at inscripturation but the continuation of pseudo-miracles according to revealed religion from the fall of the first Adam till the second coming of the Second Adam.
Again, the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 13:1-3) teaches that God might well test His people from time to time. This He has sometimes done, by allowing to arise (even among the Israelites) false-prophets or apostasy-promoting 'wonder-workers' (sic).
The predictions of true prophets and the real wonders of true ambassadors of God, always came to pass. Yet although the 'wonder(s)' of false-prophets and so-called 'wonderworkers' usually did not come to pass -- sometimes, as in the case of the Egyptian magicians, they did [ ] Either way, Deuteronomy 13:5f & 18:9-20 prescribed even the death penalty against all Israelitic false-prophets and
divinely-unauthorized wonder-workers. First Samuel 28:6f and Isaiah 8:18-20.
We are told centuries later that a "king of fierce countenance" would "destroy wonderfully" and "speak marvellous things" or nip-pel [ ] (Daniel 8:24 & 11:36). Too, in Matthew 12:22-45 cf. Luke 11:14-26, both the diabolical Pharisees and the godly Jesus admitted the reality of the casting out of demons at that time. But Jesus really did cast them out (through the Spirit of God). On the other hand -- the ungodly Pharisees, and their sons, merely claimed to. Indeed, in so doing, they ultimately but helped import even more demons into those a1ready possessed.
Jesus says (in Matthew 7:21-23) that He will disown the many workers of iniquity who profess Him as their Lord and who claim to have prophesied in His Name and to have cast out demons and done many wonders (dunameis pollas epoisamen). For "false-christs [pseudochristoi] and false-prophets [pseudoprophtai]...shall show great signs and wonders" smeia megala kai terata -- so that, "if it were possible, they would deceive even the very elect" or plansai ei dunaton kai tous eklektous. Matthew 24:24 cf. Mark 13:22.
And "no marvel [thauma]! For Satan himself is transformed [metasch matizetai] into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his servants too be transformed -- as if they were servants of righteousness." Second Corinthians 11:3-15.
Later, the wicked 'man of sin' would be manifested (which the Westminster Confession 25:6 and Classic Protestantism equate with the papal system and its ongoing pseudo-miracles). That 'man of sin' would come according to the working of Satan -- with all power and signs and lying wonders (or en pasi dunamei kai smeiois kai terasin pseudois). Second Thessalonians 2:3-9.
Similarly, in the book of Revelation, John sees an evil "beast coming up out of the Earth"-- which beast "does great wonders" or poiei smeia megala. Indeed,"he causes fire to come down from the sky" and then even "deceives the Earth-dwellers by those wonders" (dia tasemia). Revelation 13:11-14.
Then, in Revelation 16:13-14, "three unclean spirits like frogs" are seen "coming from the mouths of the dragon and the beast and the false-prophet" or pseudoproph tou. Such are "the spirits of demons [or pneumata daimonin], working wonders [or poiounta smeia]."
Yet finally (in Revelation 19:20), the beast shall be taken, "and with him the false-prophet [alias the pseudoprophs] who worked wonders [or poisas ta smeia]."
Consequently, God alone (either directly Himself or indirectly through creaturely) angelic spirits or human beings performs true miracles. Yet evil powers sometimes perform 'pseudo-miracles' which mislead many. Indeed, if it were possible, such latter might almost deceive even the very elect.
4. God before and above His Moral Law, the creation laws, and natural law.
Before creation, no laws but only God existed -- or "was" and "is" and "shall be." That was and is His essence -- pre-legally, and supra-legally. That was and is His eternal condition - pre-naturally and supra-naturally. He is before and above both laws and nature. Malachi 3:6 & Hebrews 6:17f cf. James 1:17.
Yet even then, from all eternity before Genesis 1:1, the Lord always was the everlasting and incorruptible and invisible and always-wise God. And He Alone always has possessed both morality and immortality (and always will). Too, He Alone always has dwelt and still keeps on dwelling in unapproachable ethical light -- and always will. First Timothy 1:17 & 6:16.
God's Moral Law alias the Decalogue is the everlasting reflection of His Own ethical nature. God does not lie, nor repent. Numbers 23:19 cf. Titus 1:2. His compassions and His faithfulness never fail. Lamentations 3:22f cf. Second Timothy 2:13. Even the natural laws that God has given, just like the calling of His elect, are quite without repentance. Romans 11:29.
At the very beginning of time, the Lord God created the realm of nature -- the Heavens and the Earth. Genesis 1:1 cf. John 1:1-3 & Colossians 1:17. Together with these first natural objects – the Heavens and the Earth -- God also created immutable natural laws to govern their behaviour (although some of those laws might only later have been put into operation from one time to another).
God Himself was and is not subject to the laws which He Himself instituted at Genesis 1:1f. However, because they are laws which He ordained for His creatures -- they are not arbitrary. In one way or another, they all express something (though only in a reflected way) of God's Own character.
As John Calvin said: "God is free, above the laws, but not against them" -- Deus legibus solutus sed non exlex.4 All things are from and through and unto the Triune God. Romans 11:36. By the Son, He made the world-ages. Hebrews 1:2 cf. 11:3. That Divine Son keeps on upholding all things by the Word of His power. Hebrews 1:3 cf. John 1:3f. For by Him, all things “consist" or keep on adhering together. Colossians 1:l7.
When the Triune God first created the Heavens and the Earth, the realm of nature, He also created and settled the laws which would govern their operation everlastingly. "For ever, O Lord, Your Word has been settled in Heaven. Your faithfulness is unto all generations. You have established the Earth, so that it keeps on abiding. They, the Heavens and the Earth, keep on continuing to this very day according to Your ordinances. For they all keep on serving You." Psalm 119:89-91.
Step by step, during Earth's formation week, God then made the various creatures and subjected them for ever to the various laws through which He governs them. Genesis 1:3-31.
"You waters that are above the sky -- praise the Name of the Lord! For He commanded, and they were created. He has also established them for ever and ever. He has made a decree which does not pass away." Psalm 148:4-6 cf. Genesis 1:6-8.
"The waters stood above the mountains...They go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys, unto the place which You have founded for them. You have set a boundary which they may not transgress." Psalm 104:6-8 cf. Genesis 1:9-10.
On the fourth day of the formation of our Earth, the Lord made "the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night." Jeremiah 31:35 cf. Genesis 1:14-19.
From Earth's fifth formation day onward, "God created great sea-monsters and all kinds of winged animals" -- subject to the various laws that even now control them. Consequently, also "the stork in the sky knows her appointed times." Thus too the turtle-dove and the crane-bird and the swallow still regularly observe their migration seasons. Genesis 1:20f cf. Jeremiah 8:7.
Then, on the sixth formation day, God made man as His Own unique image, and subjected him to the everlasting Ten Commandments as the expression of the Lord's Own unchanging moral character and will for all mankind. Genesis 1:26f & 2:17 cf. Ecclesiastes 7:29 & Romans 2:14-16 and the Westminster Confession 3:1-6 & 4:1-2 & 5:1-4 & 19:1-7. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our [very] being.... For we are also His offspring" -- as even pagan philosophers and poets recognize. Acts 17:28.
Consequently, God is not divorced from His creation and the laws which He Himself instituted to govern it. For He works, natur-ally -- namely through His Own laws governing the course of nature. See too: Genesis 1:26-28; 8:22; Job 38:10-33; Ecc1esiastes 1:5-10; Jeremiah 5:22-24; 33:20-25; Matthew 5:45; 7:25-27; 8:27; 16:2-3; Hebrews 6:7-8; James 3:3-7; etc.
All of the above – God's exnihilation of the universe at the very beginning of time, and His formation of the cosmos in six days – were certainly very wonderful and humanly inexplicable.
But were they mir-acles? Not in the sense that they were ad-mir-ed by fallen men and pointed to the restorative work of the Second Adam Jesus Christ. Nor were they miracles in the sense that they were against sin (cf. Augustine). As the Lord later challenged the fallen Job (38:4), "Where were you when I laid down the foundations of the Earth?" Adam too was not yet there!
To be miracles, all of those wonders of creation and its resultant works of formation would need (when they occurred) to have been admired by the angels specifically after some of them had fallen into sin. This would necessitate the angelic fall before the exnihilation of the universe itself at the very beginning of time itself – a view that roots in Zoroastrian dualism rather than anywhere in the Holy Bible! (On these points see sections 8, 23 and 47 below.)
No comments:
Post a Comment