Weird III: Not So Miraculous

How much more weird can we take? Weird III is part three of Todd Beiswenger's series attempting to put weird sounding religious ideas in context. This time he goes after miracles. Almost by definition miracles are shocking and strange, if not weird. Or are they? Beiswenger suggests that they might have more natural world explanations than we usually think. You can catch up on the rest of the weird series here: Weird I; Weird II. -Editor

I was flying from Phoenix to San Jose when I entered into a delightful conversation with the person sitting next to me. It didn’t take long before I knew that he was a software engineer for HP, and a devout Christian. I explained that I was a Christian too, just a denomination he’d never heard of before. I said that though I believed the Abraham and later stories to be historically true, I also believed in a deeper meaning to the Bible. He gave me a puzzled look, but asked, “Do you believe that God parted the Red sea?” Happy to find common ground I said, “Yes!” and he could relax because maybe I wasn’t all that weird. I just didn’t explain what I’ve been thinking about miracles, that is, maybe they’re really not all that miraculous.

It all started a couple of years ago when the miracle of the sun standing still came up in conversation. In the story, the Israelites were pursuing the enemy, and in order that the victory would be complete, Jehovah made the sun stand still to give them the extra daylight they needed. The problem is that the Writings say that didn’t actually happen. The Lord doesn’t defy physics to affect a miracle. The Israelites’ spiritual eyes were opened, so they basically had night-vision goggles on. Ok, so I can understand why He did that in that way. He didn’t want to upset the order of the cosmos when there was an easier solution. My faith took a hit, but was intact.

Not all that many months later I encountered a show produced by James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) titled “Exodus Decoded.” The whole point to this show was to explain to us that the ten plagues of Egypt were not some divine intervention, but rather the fall out of a volcanic eruption in the vicinity. Science had proven the date of the eruption, but the problem was lining that up with the time the Israelites were in Egypt. Cameron and his gang quickly resolved that issue and went on to explain how each plague was more a matter of good timing on Moses’ part than the finger of God smiting the Egyptians. The effect on the Egyptians was the same, but taking away the physics defying divine Finger took away some of the power of the event for me.

The idea of miracles not being so miraculous carries a lot of baggage with it. What of Jesus’ miracles? He wasn't fully divine until after the resurrection, so was it His humanity that was able to change water into wine and raise the dead? Could we do it too if we knew how? There is a person in Arkansas that claims she can teach you how to walk on water. If true, that would sure change the way we would view that miracle as well.

Swedenborg states on numerous occasions that his being able to operate in the spiritual and natural worlds simultaneously is the greatest miracle of all time. Perhaps, but maybe in the same way that it is a miracle that Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Robert Monroe seemed to access the world of spirits, and another claims that once there you can do the same procedure to move into still higher dimensions (heaven?). Barbara Brennan claims to heal people with her hands.

My point is not just to consider a weird way to view miracles, but to consider if this is a reasonable way to view miracles. After all, one of the Lord’s primary objectives is to leave us in freedom, and if we are not able to understand miracles, then isn’t there a limit to our freedom? Note that when Moses first approached Pharaoh, his magicians could keep up with Moses’ abilities. Think of the common things that doctors can do today that would have been miraculous 2,000 years ago, like taking antibiotics to kill off an infection, never minding the stories from the east about people performing psychic surgery. What will be common place in another 2,000 years?

As the New Church is more firmly established in this world, and science starts to really see the greater reality of our existence, are we going to insist that God parted the Red sea by reaching His hand out of the sky and pushing the water aside, or would a well timed hurricane have done the trick? Will our faith evaporate when chemists from Coca-Cola learn how to change water into wine? Or when the mummified remains of Lazarus are found and show that he was narcoleptic? It does not mean that God does not exist, it just means that He really values our freedom! Swedenborg says that miracles like those of old do not happen anymore. That is an implication that they actually were real, but it would take a real weirdo to believe that those miracles did not happen the way the Bible implies, and yet still believe in the Bible. Would you?

Todd Beiswenger

Todd is a second year Theological School student who is happily married with one child. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from Auburn University and an MBA from Temple University. Interests include Phillies baseball, fast cars, and stock trading.

Comments

[Ropemaker]

OK I will raise your weirdness by one.

Stopping the sun in its place would have a lot of repercussions that would throw the whole world into chaos. Of course the omni-potent Lord could have done a miracle where everything was put on pause and just the location of Israel could have had some extra time without the globe spinning, but this would throw everything out of whack.

One of the reasons I think that there is always a large portion of people sleeping on one side of the globe and others awake on the other side is so that there is a basis of thoughts and affections of people living waking conscious lives for heaven to associate with. The small group of Israelite's, while holding a very important part of that connection with heaven, could not be the basis for the whole thing. So you can't just put a million other folks to sleep. In other words Divine miracles can't effect such a large group of people because it would take its toll on the natural and spiritual worlds.

On the other hand miracles that don't effect large groups of people won't throw things out of whack. Either you believe that God's hands are tied by arbitrary laws of science or you believe they are tied by laws of love and wisdom. If it would be the most useful thing to have a miracle take place and it would not take away freedom, than it would be against love to not have that miracle.

Here are a few passages on the topic:

"The Divine miracles which take place to-day are not manifest, but hidden. In the
course of their occurrence there are many happenings which, because they
do not appear as miracles, are ascribed to chance, to prudence, or to
nature, except by those who acknowledge the Divine Providence in every
single event." (Miracles 18).

"All things which appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by an influx from the spiritual into the natural world, and, considered in themselves, are miracles, although, on account of their familiar aspect and their annual recurrence, they do not appear as such" (Additions to TCR 1).

[Open miracles] "would have even less effect at the present day when
nobody acknowledges that there is anything which has its origin in the
spiritual world, and when anything miraculous that occurs and is not
attributed to natural causes is refused recognition. For a refusal to
recognize that the Divine flows in and governs on earth reigns
everywhere. If at the present day therefore one who belongs to the
Church were to witness utterly Divine miracles, he would first deduce
that they had a natural origin and sully them with this, then dismiss
them as fantasies, and finally mock whoever attributed them to the
Divine and not to natural causes" (AC 7290.4)

[Todd B]

I'll grant you that you're raising the weird stakes a bit with that one. I do question your comment about God's hands being tied by arbitrary laws of science. Science's laws can't be arbitrary because God made them. They are an adaptation of His love and wisdom. Where I was trying to go with the article is that perhaps we just don't understand science enough, and things that seem like miracles are just things that will be eventually explained with a greater spiritual science understanding. That's what I think the New Church will provide: a science that STARTS with spirituality. What I usually see is people trying to take modern science and make it fit into spirituality, which Swedenborg clearly states is not the way to do things.

That said, what I appreciate about your comments is that you are generally thinking from the spiritual first. The idea of needing wakeful people, or limiting the effect of a miracle to a certain number of people is not something I've considered before, but as it works from a spiritual cause to a natural effect, it promotes a New Church world view. God made all things new, and to me, that includes miracles, spirituality, and even science.

[Ropemaker]

I forgot to say thanks for the article. Miracles are one of my favorite topics and I think we are just scraping the surface of this spiritual science that you refer to. It takes a daring soul to suggest that cause is from another realm and that all things have their origin in love and wisdom. Hope T-School is going well. :)