If we look at God's supernatural work throughout Scripture it is typically sudden - not requiring long drawn-out periods of time. This example is clearly seen in Jesus' ministry. When Jesus healed someone it happened suddenly, the calming of the sea was instant, the raising of the dead was immediate.
I totally agree. In fact, let's go one step further. If we look at God's supernatural work throughout Scripture, it typically involves the calling down of fire. For example, a pillar of fire led the Israelites through the wilderness; Elijah called down fire on the sacrifice at Mount Carmel, and on the soldiers who called him to consult King Ahaziah.
But in the New Testament, Jesus' miracles never involve fire.
Indeed, nowhere in the creation account is fire mentioned.
Therefore, neither Jesus nor the creation were of God.
See what a little cherry-picking gets you?
As a matter of fact, you are forgetting:
- The blind man in Bethsaida who required Jesus' touch twice, not once (Mark 8:22-24)
- The Shunammite's son who not only required two full-body stretches from Elisha (must've taken a while), but sneezed seven times before he got back up (2 Kings 4:33-37)
- Joseph's initial dreams took years to be fulfilled.
- The unrighteousness of the Amorites took four centuries to be fulfilled, necessitating a painful stopover in Egypt for the Israelites.
- While we're at it, the first Messianic prophecy (Gen 3:15) took at least two thousand years to be fulfilled, if your (conservative) timeline is to be followed.
So God's no insta-God. Believe it or not, every once in a while He
takes time to get things done. I wasn't insta-transformed by God into complete Christlikeness when I became a Christian. Were you? God takes His time with me, and I would find any doctrine that God's supernatural work must happen in the snap of a finger extremely un-Biblical, to say nothing of it being utterly depressing. You don't believe that God transforms you instantly either, do you, Jig?
But let me tell you one universal pattern that
does tie the physical miracles of the Bible together: the absence of any sensible alternative interpretation.
Can you imagine any Israelite looking back at the Red Sea after it has closed in on the Egyptians and saying "Man, those guys are coming at us! We're so dead!"?
Can you imagine them looking up to Mount Sinai and saying "It's just a grassy knoll. I don't see no lightning clouds!"?
Can you imagine them examining the tablets Moses brought down and saying "I just see two weathered stone slabs; what writing are you talking about?"?
Can you imagine the people watching Elijah's sacrifice combusting and saying "Huh? That's exactly like the Baal priests' beef."?
Can you imagine Bartimaeus convincing anyone that he was still blind, or the Gerasene that he was still possessed, or the beggar at the pool that he was still crippled, or the shy woman with the issue of blood that she was still bleeding?
Can you imagine someone looking into the empty tomb and seeing a dead body there?
Can you imagine anyone watching the disciples watching Jesus ascending into Heaven and wondering what they were looking at?
And yet you have convinced yourself in a previous thread that I can come up with a physical interpretation of certain evidence that utterly contradicts a global flood, and that you cannot point out a single inconsistency in my interpretation. And you have convinced yourself that there is some kind of loophole relating to past events that allows you to summarily reject my interpretation despite having no better explanation yourself and no way to refute mine.
That just doesn't sound like the kind of miracle the God of the Bible would perform. God may be a gentleman, but when He rolls up His sleeves He ain't just putting out the ritz - our God is an awesome God. Not a shy one.
