Nigel Cloutt

The Nature of God

a) Describe, with examples, what the religion you are studying teaches about miracles.

Christians believe in miracles because of biblical evidence. There are many examples of God’s intervention on behalf of the Jews, which were seen as miraculous. For example, when the Jews were escaping out of Egypt in the old testament (Exodus) God intervened several times; when they were trapped between the red sea and the army of the pharaoh God was seen to part the sea so they could cross; when they were hungry in the desert he sent manner so they could eat; and when Jericho got in the way god destroyed the city when they marched round it for seven days.

The Bible records many miracles occurring over a period of more than 4000 years. But it is easy to get the misconception that miracles were common occurrences in biblical times. This is not the case. It is the nature of history to record events out of the ordinary therefore miracles will seem much more common than they actually are. The very reason that these things were recorded is because they were unusual occurrences of supernatural or miraculous activity.

The miracles of Jesus have an extra significance; they are evidence of a messiah ship, and his special role on earth. They show Gods power at work, not by him, but through him. This was shown when a woman in a crowd touched Jesus’ cape and he felt the power drain out of him.

Jesus performed miracles to teach people as well as show God’s power, there are four main points of teaching to be learned from the miracles. He taught that people should “see the light of God” he showed this by giving sight back to the blind, such as blind Bartimaeus. He taught that God would forgive peoples sins and free them from them allowing them to enter the kingdom of heaven, this was shown when he healed the Paralysed man. He showed how he had power over evil and how he could conquer Satan; this was shown when he healed an epileptic person, who was believed to be possessed by evil spirits.

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The fourth teaching was of God giving new life. This was shown when Jesus raised people from the dead. The daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader, was raised a short time after death. The widow of Nain’son, this was an act of compassion around a woman whose son was being taken to the burial ground. The raising of Lazarus, who had been dead for many days, he was the brother of Mary and Martha and a friend of Jesus’ who lived in Bethany. This was a very detailed eye witness account of a raising. All these showed how death came ...

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