Take ~5 minutes to read this 'COUGARS Daily' which contains snippets from A Slice of Infinity. Invite your family and friends to participate in reading with you daily. Then, consider sharing your comments or faith questions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
- For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Scottish skeptic David Hume is perhaps history's most famous critic of the miraculous. Hume once stated that if historians consistently agreed that the Queen of England died and then reappeared a month later, he would be willing to accept any explanation but a miracle of God. Responding to Hume's thought-experiment, philosopher William Lane Craig marks an essential clue in investigating the miraculous. Says Craig, "I would agree that a miracle without context is inherently ambiguous....The religio-historical context is crucial in understanding miraculous events. This is why...the Queen's return would only perplex us [while] the Resurrection gives us pause."(2) Craig’s response posits the importance of the context in which Jesus performed his miracles, a context that was brimming with religious significance, and therefore cannot be separated from any consideration of the whole. The supernatural acts Jesus performed were an authentication of the divine authority he was simultaneously claiming. He had professed equality with God, which was why many of the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy, and his startling miracles were further attestation of his startling claim. What's more, his resurrection was the crowning end to the unparalleled claims for which he was crucified.
Chad's Comments:
For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:17-21) emphasis mine.
Did God just say through Peter that prophetic word is more sure than their eyewitness testimony? Did God just tell us that the words of the Old and New Testament hold more argumentative weight than experience? Wow. Can we accept it? God's Word is more true and real than our own experience.
* Make Space for friends in your life. Enjoin them to belief.
* Post your stories of God's intervention on the blog.
* Look for ways to share Awe and Wonder with children - leave suggestions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
* Consider joining Life-Devotions (a group of about 100 catholics and protestants sharing their faith through daily devotions and discussion - strong pro Life content)
* The Street Church
* Voice of the Martyrs
- For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Scottish skeptic David Hume is perhaps history's most famous critic of the miraculous. Hume once stated that if historians consistently agreed that the Queen of England died and then reappeared a month later, he would be willing to accept any explanation but a miracle of God. Responding to Hume's thought-experiment, philosopher William Lane Craig marks an essential clue in investigating the miraculous. Says Craig, "I would agree that a miracle without context is inherently ambiguous....The religio-historical context is crucial in understanding miraculous events. This is why...the Queen's return would only perplex us [while] the Resurrection gives us pause."(2) Craig’s response posits the importance of the context in which Jesus performed his miracles, a context that was brimming with religious significance, and therefore cannot be separated from any consideration of the whole. The supernatural acts Jesus performed were an authentication of the divine authority he was simultaneously claiming. He had professed equality with God, which was why many of the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy, and his startling miracles were further attestation of his startling claim. What's more, his resurrection was the crowning end to the unparalleled claims for which he was crucified.
Chad's Comments:
For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:17-21) emphasis mine.
Did God just say through Peter that prophetic word is more sure than their eyewitness testimony? Did God just tell us that the words of the Old and New Testament hold more argumentative weight than experience? Wow. Can we accept it? God's Word is more true and real than our own experience.
* Make Space for friends in your life. Enjoin them to belief.
* Post your stories of God's intervention on the blog.
* Look for ways to share Awe and Wonder with children - leave suggestions at CougarsDaily.blogspot.com
* Consider joining Life-Devotions (a group of about 100 catholics and protestants sharing their faith through daily devotions and discussion - strong pro Life content)
* The Street Church
* Voice of the Martyrs
