Ding! Ding! School time! Correcting Anglicanocostals, Pentecostals & Other Montanists: Corrections from Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee
It’s school time. If unteachable, bye-bye; if teachable, hello. We say with Zachary Ursinus, "Friend, if entering here…be short and leave…or stay but assist us in our 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.
5. Providence, Preservation, Unusual Events, Lying-Wonders, and Miracles Here we cannot do better than quote the words of a very famous Princeton (Presbyterian) Theological Seminary Systematic Theology Professor. We refer to Rev. Dr. A.A. Hodge Wrote he:5 "Providence, from pro and video, literally means fore-sight and...the execution by God of His eternal decree in time, by means of the second causes He has originated in creation (cf. Acts 15:18).... Preservation is that continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator upholds all His creatures in being [meaning 'ex-sist-ence'] and in the possession of all those inherent properties and qualities with which He endowed them at their creation, and of those also which they may subsequently have acquired (cf. Hebrews 1:3)...."Events like that of the flight of quails, and the draught of fishes, mentioned in Numbers 11:31-32 and Luke 5:6, as far as we know, differ from events occurring under the ordinary providential control of God only in respect to the divinely pre-arranged conjunction of circumstances. The events are not supernatural, only unusual....Their peculiarity is only that they occur in eminently felicitous conjunction with other events such as the needs of the Israelites and of the Apostles with which they have no natural connection...."A miracle is an event: (1) occurring in the physical world, capable of being discerned and discriminated by the bodily senses of human witnesses; (2) of such a character that it can be rationally referred to no other cause than the immediate volition of God; (3) accompanying a religious teacher, and designed to authenticate his divine commission and the truth of his message...."
How can an event actually occurring, be certainly recognized as coming under the category of miracles as above defined? ... (1) There are some classes of effects about which no man can possibly doubt, e.g. the raising of Lazarus and the multiplying of the loaves and fishes. We may doubt about the exact boundaries of the supernatural -- but no man can mistake that which so far transcends the boundaries. (2) These effects were accomplished two thousand years ago.... (3) These effects were produced over and over again at the mere word of command, without the use of any sort of means or fixed physical conditions. (4) The works were divine in character and the occasions were worthy; the religious teachers and doctrines carried their own corroborative spiritual evidence; and the events fell into their place in the entire system of revelation."
Of course, also "evil spirits often have wrought supernatural works." But "the kingdom of Satan can easily be recognized by its character. Moreover, "no isolated event is ever to be recognized as a miracle. The man and the doctrine and their relation to the whole system of past revelations and miraculous interventions, will in every case be sufficient to discriminate the identity of the supernatural cause of an event."
6. The objective and real character of true miracles and/or wonders
God Himself is inherently 'Wonderful' -- from all eternity; right now; and everlastingly. But what was the very first wonder He ever performed? It took place when the Triune God (Father and Son and Spirit), with time and in time, unrepeatably and spectacularly revealed the entire universe (alias the remarkable realm of "nature") -- by bringing it into existence 'out of nothing.' Genesis 1:1.
Even "nature" was thus brought into existence 'pre-naturally' (and therefore 'super-naturally') -- by the great power of Almighty God as its First Cause and Sole Author. And after that Genesis 1:1 exnihilation, God 'wonder-fully' further unfolded and populated our created world in six extraordinary formation days (Genesis 1:3-31) -- thus turning the world from a Genesis 1:2 chaos into a Genesis 2:1 cosmos. Yet since then, God has never replaced but only sustained and advanced "nature." Genesis 2:2-3f cf. Nehemiah 9:6 & John 5:16-20 & Hebrews 1:1-3 & 4:3-14. And this He has done in two ways.
First, He has sustained and advanced nature ordinarily and constantly -- by His providential care through lesser causes. And second, He has sustained and advanced nature extra-ordinarily and occasionally (namely by His new and 'supernatural' and rare miracles).
This He has done by working in nature immediately; from above; and beyond all secondary causes.
All such miracles are SUPER-natural , but NOT anti-natural. They are not against nature (which the great God Himself created and keeps on sustaining). They are only against sin (which Satan caused and keeps on causing). Because miracles are against the Satan induced sins now disfiguring nature, they are in fact pro-natural (in that they help liberate nature from sin).
Miracles thus especially OPPOSE pseudo-miracles or 'lying wonders.' True miracles were less plentiful than are pseudo-miracles -- and very much rarer than the many much less vigorous non-miraculous events of God in the natural world. Yet true miracles often opposed and destroyed pseudo-miracles -- and, characteristically, always promoted the powerful development of God's Kingdom toward its glorious eschatological consummation.
7. Holy Scripture itself provides no definition of miracles
The Bible itself does not give us a definition of miracles -- nor, for that matter, of most other Biblical doctrines. Yet Scripture clearly distinguishes 'natural events' from 'miracles.' For 'natural events' are regulated by God-given natural laws, Cf. Psalms 119:89-91 & 146:8; Matthew 13:4-8: Mark 4:26-28. 'Miracles,' however, are direct new deeds of Almighty God. Cf. Exodus 8:16-19 & 34:10; Numbers 16:30; Matthew 12:22-28.
The remarkable deeds which Satan and his agents can perform, are at most only 'lying wonders' or 'pseudo-miracles.' Exodus 7:11,22 & 8:7; First Samuel 28:9-15; Isaiah 8:19; Matthew 24:24; Second Corinthians 11:3,13f; Second Thessalonians 2:9f; Revelation 13:5,13f & 16:14f & 19:20. But only God and His chosen agents can perform both true wonders and real miracles. Exodus 15:11; Psalm 72:18 & 77:13-15 & 86:8-10 & 136:4.
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