Biblical Miracles

Old Testament
1. Demonstrates the glory of God and bring punishment on those who oppose God's people
2. Miracles from the O.T surround the Exodus from Egypt
  1. Plagues/Burning Bush/Parting of the Red Sea
New Testament
1. Centre on Jesus
  1. Healings
  2. Exorcisms
  3. Nature miracles
2. Miracles are recorded by the gospels demonstration of the Kingdom of God
  1. Covenant: a binding agreement, in theology, it describes the agreements made between God and humans. Jesus is sen as bringing in a new convenant
Purpose of miracles
1. They demonstrate the love and goodness of God. God is compassionate and responds to prayers and demonstrations of faith
2. They demonstrate God's power over nature, illnesses and even death
3. THey show that God is continually involved and active in the world that he created
4. They are signs pointing to the person and message of Jesus, they demonstrate that he is from God
Understanding Miracles
1. Advances in science has led to many Christians abandoning belief in miracles
  1. They now argue that the important thing about the stories is the message contained in them
2. Form Criticism
  1. A theological movement that analysed biblical texts in order to discover what form they were originally used in
  2. Gunkel
    1. Argued the key to understanding miracle accounts was understanding the period where they were passed down
      1. Word of mouth
      2. What we see in the gospels is a 'form' of which they were told in the early Church
3. Demythologise
  1. the process of removing the elements of the biblical accounts that are purely 1st century myth in order to discover the essential message of Jesus
    1. Rudolf BULTMANN
      1. Removed the supernatural elements of miracles from the New Test.
        It is possible to get closer to the real message of Jesus rather than the miraculous interpretation of the early Church

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Biblical Miracles

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	Created by joe_lamy about 11 years ago