Scott Parker 11G        08/02/07

Miracles

In this assignment I am going to talk about miracles, and explain what miracles are. There are many different definitions of a miracle; this partly due to people having different beliefs about miracles and different understandings of what a miracle is. The term ‘miracle’ means different things to different people. According to the dictionary, a miracle is ‘any amazing or wonderful occurrence’ or a ‘supernatural event’ supernatural is when something exceeds the laws of nature. These would be popular views of a miracle, but more religious people may believe that the term ‘miracle’ is a bit more specific, more than a supernatural event. They may believe it has to be an act of god, ‘a marvellous event manifesting a supernatural act of God’.

Some christians believe that God acts in a supernatural way, so an act of god must be something supernatural, a supernatural event, something beyond human control or cause. God acts beyond the laws of nature. An it is usually something good, for example if somebody is terminally ill and make a miraculous recovery, with no explanation, then people may say that it was an act of god, as it was out of the hands of the doctors. Some people may say that god was acting through the doctor to save the persons life. This is because many people believe that god acts through the lives of individuals. They believe that god works through people. For example, mother Teresa; she dedicated her life to helping the sick and the poor people. Many people believed that this was an act of god, that god was working through her.

In Mark’s gospel there were many events were miracles occurred. These miracles could be divided into four categories: physical healing, nature, exorcism and resurrection. A miracle which includes physical healing, would be when a person is supernaturally healed, they were healed unnaturally with no explanation, by healing beyond the powers of humans or medicine. An example of this from marks gospel is when Jesus heals blind Bartimaeus, this is considered a miracle as Bartimaeus is blind, and back in those days there was no treatment to help the blind, and Jesus exceeds what is natural and heals the blind man, supernaturally. Alls that Jesus told the man was ‘your faith has made you well’ and he could see once again. So this act of supernatural healing is considered a physical healing miracle. A miracle which is included with nature is a miracle that is involved with nature. E.g.: the sea, food from the earth etc. The miracle would be supernaturally controlling nature, or defying / exceeding the laws of nature. An example of a miracle in this category would be when Jesus calms a storm. This is a natural miracle as the disciples lives were in danger, and it looks like the storm was certain to kill them, but somehow Jesus managed to overrule Mother Nature and calm this storm. The next category is a miracle that involves exorcism. Exorcism is the casting out of evil spirits, and to cast out evil spirits would be considered a miracle as someone has controlled an evil spirit in another human being, and doing this would be classed as supernatural. An example of a miracle involving exorcism would be when Jesus casts out an evil spirit from the man in the synagogue in Capernaum. Resurrection is the last category that the miracles in marks gospel could be sorted into. Resurrection is a miracle as no human being is able to give life, the only person Christians believe that the giver of life is God. So if someone dies, and then is brought back to life, is a supernatural and amazing event. An example of resurrection in marks gospel is when Jesus brings Jairus’ daughter back to life.

Join now!

        Literal readers and liberal readers interpret the bible very differently. The definition of the word ‘literal’ in the dictionary is ‘Something that is accepted exactly as it was submitted’ so this tells us how a literalist would interpret the bible. Literal readers believe in the exact interpretation of the source, they believe everything that is written should be understood exactly the way it is written. When reading the bible, they believe it is not possible for it to contain errors, as they believe the bible is inspired by God. So if the bible says that Jesus resurrected Jairus’ daughter, then ...

This is a preview of the whole essay