- Apr 15, 2012
- 64,493
- 30,319
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Agnostic
- Marital Status
- Single
You asked: Why would God not want that? and What is "man's objective"?
Bottom line:
Miracles are needed to help willing man in fulfilling His earthly objective and I explained the objective.
Apologies, but I think I missed the explanation. You did mention humans becoming like God, but most of the early Biblical stories are themed around God preventing this, so that certainly can't be the objective.
They are not to help make this world a better place.
This is certainly true in the Moses-Joshua arc... most of those miracles were lethal in nature. The world was certainly not a better place for most of the people on the business end of those miracles.
The objective drives everything.
Then we had best state it in no uncertain or ambiguous terms.
Again, apologies if I missed it the first time around.
Like I said the only "Miracle" that counts is Jesus rising from the grave.
And that, too, must be questioned.
Something "strange" and "big" had to happen in Jerusalem around 33 AD, since the Church grew from that time and place. If the grave was not empty, the movement would have been short lived.
Agreed -- something major happened around Jesus of Nazareth... but what?
Remember that Jesus was thought of as the "Messiah," and the Gospel writers worked long and hard to frame his story along those lines... But what was the Messiah's purpose?
Some thought he was to be a great king or general who would restore God's land to power -- "Make Israel Great Again," as it were.
Others thought of him as a priestly figure whose coming would signify the End of the World as we Know it (...and I feel fine...)
Still others conflated these prophecies and thought the Messiah would manage to be both and do both.
The problem?
Jesus came and went without accomplishing any of these things. The world kept on spinning, and Israel was right where it was before -- firmly under Rome's boot.
Conclusion? As the (Jewish) Messiah, Jesus was a bust. But you are correct... the people saw something in him that completely redefined their relationship with God... their God. Remember, for the first fifty or so years after the Crucifixion, Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism, not a separate religion. That's important: for the period covering Paul's letters and the first three Gospels (the synoptics), the authors, regardless of what they thought of Jesus, still thought of themselves as Jews.
It would be near the end of the first century AD when war and politics made the split official... but I digress. I'm interested in what that "something" was, and what caused the first-century writers to be so awed by it that they depicted Jesus of Nazareth as they did.
Upvote
0