Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, & Charismatics

Lee, Francis Nigel. Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles—What and When and Why? http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs8/mapm/mapm.pdf. Accessed 30 Sept 2013.

Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, & Charismatics. Costals and their kinfolk aggressively pushed themselves forward with global marketeering; a pushback is long overdue.

Proverbs 12.1: “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”

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.)

And now, for reproofs from F. Nigel Lee:

22. Abraham Kuyper Sr. on miracles past, present, and future

Rev. Dr. Abraham Kuyper Sr. was formerly Professor of Systematic Theology at the Free University of Amsterdam. He gave perhaps his most complete exposition of his
understanding of miracles in his 1892 four-volume 'Explanation of the Heidelberg Catechism' titled: E Voto Dordraceno.

The Heidelberg Catechism itself had stated: 49 "God's providence [is] the omnipotent and omnipresent power of God by which He still maintains and rules Heaven and Earth together with all creatures, as by His Own hand.... All creatures are so much in His hand, that they are able neither to stir themselves nor to move against His will.... 'All of them are Your servants' (Psalm 119:91)."

Here Kuyper states: 50 "Absolutely nothing rules from moment to moment, except His sovereign will.... Absolutely nothing operates from moment to moment, except the omnipresent power and possibilities of the Lord God. But He is essentially God; not merely in name! And every creature outside of Him -- even nature with all its powers and laws -- are all together His servants, which from moment to moment obey the command which proceeds from His mouth...."The Lord is such a King in the working-place of His creation.... Every natural element, and every power within such an element, is a servant: a slave of God, in His palace. And all these powers wait every morning and evening for the command which proceeds from His mouth -- to the uttermost ends of the created universe...."There is thus no question of intervention into the course of things. For nothing operates as a power outside of God. But everything operates exactly as it does, by the will of God. And as soon as He even for one moment ceases to will it thus -- it no longer operates. Or, if He wishes it otherwise, it operates differently.

"Miracles can and should therefore never be represented as disturbances, or as interventions. They are nothing other than God at a particular moment wanting certain things otherwise than had hitherto been willed by Him.... If you wish to walk on the sea, God wants you to sink -- and He Himself drags you down into the depths. But when Jesus and at length Peter walked on the sea, the same God equally freely willed the sea to uphold them. So God Himself upheld both Jesus and Peter with the same power of His will.

"He is the Almighty, the All-willing, the All-working God! He speaks, and it is done.

He commands, and it comes to pass. Nothing withstands His will.... The manna which rained down in the desert, is no more wonderful to Him than the weeds which He lets grow out of the earth through His will and power. The miraculous lies only in our concept and to our eye."

In the above connection, "a miracle is precisely the same as a normal operation of nature. For both things are...commands which have proceeded from the Lord's mouth; both are His servants; and both are executed by the elements and the powers of nature. If manna had always rained down, and if there had never been any weeds -- the sudden ripening of weeds in their pods rather than the falling of the manna would have been miracles for us. "Yet it should be kept in mind that God is not therefore like a magician who exhibits first this and then that in order to show his dexterity. The magician acts by whim; but God acts according to His will. And this will of God is reasonable -- that is to say, is tied in with the Wisdom of God. That is why normal occurrences are the rule, to God -- because He Himself remains the same, and because there can be no change or shadow of turning in Him. "This willing of things differently from what He hitherto willed them, can only be caused by God through a higher arrangement and a higher wisdom. The change which thus arises in the will of God is brought to pass not because God changes, but because His creature necessitates the change -- or [because of] God's willing this to be different...."From His counsel, both natural laws and miracles flow forth. Both are utterances of His Divine will. The only difference is that He wills the usual, to be permanent -- but the miracles, to occur only once.

"Miracle," explained Kuyper in his 1898 Principles of Sacred Theology,51 does not mean miracle taken as an isolated phenomenon which appears without causal connection with the existing world." Instead, it means: "miracle as the overcoming, penetrating operation of the divine energy by which God breaks all opposition and, in the face of disorder, bring His cosmos to reach that end which was determined upon in His counsel...."Every interpretation of 'miracle' as a magical incident without connection with the paligenesis [or the rebirth] of the whole cosmos which Jesus refers to in Matthew 19:28 – and therefore without relation to the entire metamorphosis [or change] which awaits the cosmos after the last judgment -- does not enhance the glory of God. But it degrades the Recreator of Heaven and Earth -- into a juggler.

In his 1910 Dogmatic Dictations, Dr. Kuyper mentioned52 that 'signs' or >
Were manifestations through ordinary things already present in the world which God subsequently set aside with a new meaning (e.g. the rainbow). On the other hand, he also stated that nippela>-6 th were manifestations through things which were not there -- but [things] which God wonderfully introduced.

These latter were not interventions of God into nature. For "that concept is irreligious and anti-Christian"; because it assumes that God was not in control of the normal world before He thus "intervened."

The wider truth, continued Kuyper, is as follows. "God's Counsel pre-determined that there would be a certain order of things with a fixed scheme. Even if sin were to topple the creature, that order would continue even under sin -- although it would then become a series of mathematical subtractions, instead of additions. Yet, because God had established this scheme according to His will -- it is God's energy which moves within the laws.... Wherever God's sovereignty requires it, in order to arrest the developing series of subtractions – God can also operate His energy outside of that scheme" (viz. in miracles). Whatever their various characteristics, Kuyper went on,53 all Biblical miracles serve one central purpose: the three-stage advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

First, there were miracles in shaping God's ancient people, cf. Jude 14 & Romans 4:17 & Exodus chapters 3 to 15 etc. Second, there were miracles in the central revelation of Jesus Christ Himself from the bosom of God's ancient people. Matthew 1 & Luke 3 & John 2 & Mark 16 etc. And third, there was "the irradiation of His miracles in those of the Apostles -- which Peter attributes exclusively to Christ. Acts 1:1-8 & 3:16 & First Peter 1:10-12 & Second Peter 1:16-21."

Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, Charismatics, Montanists and their Kin: Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee

Lee, Francis Nigel. Miracles and Pseudo-Miracles—What and When and Why?
http://www.dr-fnlee.org/docs8/mapm/mapm.pdf. Accessed 30 Sept 2013.

Schooling Anglicostals, TBN, Charismatics, Montanists and their Kin : Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) F.N. Lee. Costals aggressively pushed themselves forward; the pushback is long overdue and is undertaken.

Proverbs 12.1: “Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”

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.)

And now, for instructions and corrections from F. Nigel Lee:

20. Thornwell: miracles were supranatural; provable; revelational; ethical

Rev. Professor Dr. J.H. Thornwell wrote a whole treatise on miracles. There, he insisted43 that "miracle presupposes God -- and so does the world. But the miracle, as a phenomenon, may be apprehended even by the atheist.... The Scriptural term which gives us the nearest insight into the real nature of the miracle, is...the word 'wonder'...."It is true that every wonder is not a miracle; but every miracle [certainly] is a wonder. The cause of 'wonder' -- is the unexpectedness of an event.... The 'miracle'...contradicts that course of nature which we expected to find uniform. It is an event either above, or opposed to, secondary causes. Leave out the notion of these secondary causes -- and there can be no miracle...."The essence of the miracle, consists in the contranatural or the super-natural.... Is the 'miracle' to command, absolutely and without further question, the obedience of those in whose sight it is done?" No!

"The Scriptures themselves warn us against the lying-wonders of the man of sin.... The miracle...is not only a specimen of the supernatural in general, but a specimen of the precise kind of the supernatural which it is adduced to confirm. It is a specimen of inspiration...."The true doctrine is that, as the miracle proves by an evidence inherent in itself – no 'miracles' should be admitted as the credentials of a messenger or doctrine but those which carry their authority upon their face. Doubtful 'miracles' are in the same category with doubtful arguments; and if a religion relies upon this class alone to substantiate its claims, it relies upon a broken reed.

"There are unquestionably phenomena which, surveyed from a higher point of knowledge, we should perceive at once to be perfectly 'natural'.... The effect is, where the line cannot be drawn -- that the[se] 'wonders' are not to be accepted. We do not [then] know them to be miracles -- and consequently have no right to give them the weight of miracles....But, as Cudworth has suggested, there are some miracles which carry their credentials upon their face -- so clearly above nature and all secondary causes, that no one can hesitate an instant as to their real character...."When we turn to the miracles of the Bible, we feel intuitively that they are of a character in themselves and on a scale of magnitude which render the supposition of secondary causes ridiculously absurd.... The scenes at the Red Sea; the cleaving of the waters; the passing over of the Israelites on dry land between the fluid walls; the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; the daily supply of manna from the skies -- effects like these carry the evidence of their original on their face. There is no room for doubt...."And so [too] in the New Testament.... They reveal, at a glance, the very finger of God.... "Their principal office is to guaranty an external, objective revelation by which we can try [or test] the spirits, whether they be of God. They are the criterion by which a real is distinguished from a pretended revelation -- the mark by which we know that God has spoken, and discriminate His Word from the words of men.

"An external, objective, palpable test is the only one which can meet the exigencies of the case.... The necessity of such a test has been universally acknowledged.

"The Catholic feels it, and appeals to a visible, infallible society [the Romish Church] which is to judge between the genuine and spurious. The Protestant feels it, and appeals to his Bible.... 'To the Law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word – it is because there is no light in them' [Isaiah 8:20]...."The miracle...brings God distinctly before us -- and has a direct tendency to promote  the great moral ends for which the sun shines, the rains descend, the grass grows, and all nature moves in her...majestic course. Miracles and nature join in the grand chorus to the supremacy and glory of God....

"The true point of view, consequently, in which the miracle is to be considered -- is in its ethical relations. It is not to be tried [or tested] by physical but by moral probabilities.... We degrade ourselves, and we degrade our Creator, when we make the physical supreme; when we make the dead uniformity of matter more important than the life and health and vigour of the soul."