1. If God is a perfect being, why didn't He create everything/ everyone perfect? Why is He the only one who's perfect? Did He do that on purpose?
These are profound theological questions. These are the very same questions that ancient people have asked every time they would see men and women get sick and die, things around them decay, as well as when they see the grandeur of nature and the miracle of the birth of a baby. Why couldn’t things be perfect?
The biblical authors have an answer to the same questions, based on their own reflections, insight and inspiration from the Holy Spirit. The author (or more accurately, the authors) of Genesis answered this with the Creation story.
The Creation story is not a historical account of HOW things and people came to be (for indeed, no one was around that time to report it). Rather, it is the authors’ reflection of WHY things came to be.
The creation story says that God’s original creation is perfect – nothing more, nothing less was needed. It took God “7 days,” which is a biblical symbol meaning “complete” and “perfect.” The creation story says that humanity is the highest of all creation, because only man/woman was created “in the image of God.” Lastly, it says that creation has a purpose; there is order in creation. Things were not created at random, but in sequence, and that it has a purpose. The purpose of creation is shown on the last day, when God “rested.” God did not get tired, but God stopped working and “blessed the seventh day and made it holy” (Genesis 2:3). This means that the purpose, or the end, of all creation is to be holy, to be with God.
That was the way things were: there was perfect harmony between God and humanity, described as “walking in the garden.” But God who created man/woman out of love, did so with freedom as part of the human package. As such, man/woman can choose to accept or reject God’s love.
The temptation story is the biblical authors’ reflection on how this perfect creation, with the perfect relationship of God and humanity, was broken. The “tree of knowledge of good and evil” is a “merism,” or a literary device by which totality is described by the first and last of the series or by opposites. Another example of merism is when someone says “I love you from morning till night”; what he actually means is that he loves her all the time. The “tree” therefore symbolizes mastery over everything or all of creation.
The “eating of the fruit” is not simply an just act of disobedience, but it is a stance taking by humanity that he/she too can have mastery over everything, just like God. It is a position which says “I can be like you, and therefore do not need you; nor do I need your love.” It is this act of defiance and rejection that severed the relationship between God and humanity. And since humanity is the greatest of all creation, then all of creation also was “separated” from God.
Thus, sin (or the rejection of God’s love) became part of the world. Hence, we have sickness, decay, severed relationships, human hurts, death. In short, imperfection.
Did God create imperfection? No. God’s creation is perfect. But, out of freedom, humanity chose to sever this perfection.
2. When Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, does this refer to our original sin which is disobedience? Or to all the sins of the human race? If this refers to all our sins, does this include the sins we committed, we are committing, or about to commit?
To answer this question, it is best to continue the story from where we left off in your first question.
Even though God’s love was rejected by humanity, God continued to pursue man/woman back. The whole bible is the story of how God – through Abraham, Moses, the Judges, the Kings of Israel, the Prophets, and finally through Jesus – worked to bring humanity back to God.
By God becoming man in Jesus, God could communicate to man/woman what his intentions are in the best and clearest possible manner. (I often compare this with Tita Wena and I talking to our two dogs. It will always be limited unless we learn “dog language.” In the case of Jesus, God became man so that he can speak “human language” and communicate with us directly and clearly).
If sin came into the world because of what humanity did, then Jesus’ mission is to show how we can overcome sin and return to that perfect relationship with God. How did Jesus do this? In two ways:
- First, through his life, words and deeds, Jesus showed that “perfection” can be attained when one totally conforms one’s life with the will of the Father. The will of the Father is summarized in the law of love (and forgiveness).
- Secondly, through Jesus death and resurrection.
We often think of Jesus’ death as having a redemptive (or saving) effect because somebody had to pay the price for the first sin. We imagine a stern Father who was offended by the sin of a child, and now the life of another child is being demanded to appease the anger of the Father. That is not the God that Jesus asks us to call “Abba, Father.”
I’d rather that you think of Jesus’ death as the consequence of his desire to conform to the will of the Father. Jesus mission is to preach the Kingdom of love and forgiveness – “for this purpose, I was sent” (Luke 4:43). This mission entailed much risks since Jesus had to fight the thinking at that time of going to God by following the strict laws of Moses. As a consequence, he incensed the Pharisees, priests and authorities at that time. Jesus was against this conventional thinking because it presented God’s love as something one can earn, rather than one freely given. Jesus message was simply to accept God’s love and forgiveness by loving and forgiving others “as I” loved and forgave you.
Though death was a real possibility for Jesus, he went on to Jerusalem to proclaim the Kingdom of God the way he knew it to be: not one based on compliance with the law, but one based on love and forgiveness. As a consequence, he was crucified.
But Jesus showed that he had power over death. He resurrected, not just resuscitated, and transformed to a new reality.
Therefore, through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus accomplished the following:
- When God became part of humanity through Jesus, then all of humanity was also transformed. (The theological phrase is “creation is now Christologically-charged” or, as St. Paul would say, “Christ is in all”). It is now new creation.
- He showed us that perfect dependence on God’s will and love would entail sacrifice and even death, but the reward is life after death.
- He showed us what will happen eventually happen to us. Death is not our end. But we too will resurrect and be with the Father, just as Jesus did. He gave us a preview of what will happen.
Now, to answer your questions. Yes, Jesus saved us from sin and sins. Sin (singular) is the power of evil to resist and reject God’s love, and to turn towards our self instead of others. Sins (plural) are the individual sins you and I commit.
We are saved from sin (singular) because we now have the power to overcome selfishness and self-righteousness before God, and to turn towards others and be totally open to God’s love. We are saved from our sins (plural) because we know that no amount of sins can overcome God’s love, PROVIDED we turn to God and accept His love. There is nothing you can do to prevent God from loving you unless you yourself totally reject God’s love.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Did Jesus' miracles really happen?
To answer this, let’s listen to this conversation.
Q: TM, let’s get straight to the point. Did the miracles of Jesus really happen?
TM: Before answering that, we have to understand what you refer to as miracles.
Q: I mean the blind seeing, the lame walking, Lazarus rising back to life, and all the other things that go against the laws of nature.
TM: I think we need to do some clarification. We usually define miracles as something that cannot be explained by science or medicine. We are wary of miracles, and we associate them with primitive mentality, hallucinations or self-suggestion. Your very question which refers to violating the “laws of nature” assumes that there is a natural order, which is separate from the supernatural order.
You see, the people in biblical times lived in a different world view and different image of God. People at that time did not think in terms of natural laws (like gravity) and supernatural or divine laws. For them, what we consider “natural” and “supernatural” were all intertwined; not separated worlds as we tend to think.
In the worldview of the Old and New Testament, God often intervened in the earthly events, and at times interrupted things for the events to take another course. This is not extraordinary to them, as we would think. This was simply the way things are.
For biblical people, there was no such thing as “law of nature.” To them, the only “law of nature” was the faithful love of God for God’s people. They saw God’s love at work in a good rainfall, as well as in a victory in battle, or in healing. They did not see the world as being divided between natural and supernatural. They did not look at the universe as a closed system following inflexible laws of physics, but as completely open and responsive to God. To distinguish between natural and supernatural events would have been foreign to their outlook.[1]
But then, our worldview changed with the advent of Galileo, Newton, and atomic and quantum physics. We began to interpret and look at miracles from the point of view of natural science, and regarded them as violating the laws of nature.
Q: And the point of all this is?
TM: The point is this: what you refer to as miracles is different from how the people who were with Jesus see miracles. At that time, an event or incident is a miracle not so much because it is extraordinary, but because the event revealed something clear about who and what God is.
To say it another way, a miracle is a miracle because in it, God is revealed as someone who intervenes in the history of a nation, as well as in the history of a person. That is why the Exodus is considered as the prototype of all miracles: Yahweh saved the Israelites who were slaves, and turned them to a powerful nation.
Let’s agree therefore on a definition of miracles using the ancient worldview: miracles are remarkable events which believers understand to be signs of God’s saving activity in the life of a nation and a person.
Q: Ok, I now understand the difference in the worldview and what are considered as miracles. So let me rephrase my question: did Jesus really make the blind see, the lame walk, and Lazarus rise from the dead?
TM: Well, most certainly Jesus did perform acts that were considered extraordinary by people during his time. Most biblical scholars agree that miracle stories of the gospels are sufficiently solid not to be classified as mere inventions by the biblical writers.
Also, if Jesus had not performed any of these signs, he would not have been recognized as a religious man of his time, nor been able to attract a sufficient following. That would be very unusual because charismatic religious leaders, both in and outside Judaism, were associated with performing miracles.
The gospels report 30 miracles performed by Jesus. It should be pointed out that, given the worldview described above, miracle stories were found also in other ancient literature, and not just in the bible. The Greek god Aesculapius, for example, is credited as having performed about 80 miracles, most of which are healing.
(By the way, we cannot say that only biblical miracles are authentic, and all else are hoaxes. I do not think we can limit God’s activity only to biblical miracles).
Q: Let me be more pointed. Did those miracles of Jesus involve violating the laws of nature as we understand it nowadays?
TM: Well, I’m afraid that question must remain largely unanswered. If you recall in our Basic Bible Course, the gospels were written well after Jesus life and resurrection. There was no reporter who was taking notes when Jesus performed his miracles.
There are no purely objective and factual accounts of Jesus’ actions, but only accounts interpreted in the light of Jesus who has resurrected, and this experience reflected upon, shared with others, and written down in the gospels.
It is difficult to know what actually happened. What we can establish is the impression produced by the miracle on the eyewitnesses was remarkable enough for it to affect their faith.
We accept that Jesus did perform miracles, but do not know how exactly each miracle happened. However, we are certain of this: “there remains an impressive body of material which attributes to Jesus a number of miracles which have no close parallel in the ancient world and which testifies to the amazement and wonder which Jesus provoked on many occasions.”[2]
Ultimately, our faith is not based on every miracle narrated in the gospel actually having happened or on a miracle’s happening exactly the way it is presented in the gospel. The real basis of our faith is that Christ has been raised from the dead.
Q: So why did Jesus perform miracles? Is it, as you said earlier, to establish his credibility because charismatic religious leaders were doing them?
TM: We know from the bible that Jesus himself did not intend to use miracles as proof. When asked by the Pharisees to perform a miracle to confirm his claim that God is with him, Jesus refuses categorically (Mark 8:11-13).
Jesus performed miracles to communicate what the Kingdom of God would be like. The preaching of the Kingdom is the primary purpose for which he has been sent. So he commanded his disciples, “cure the sick and tell them, ‘the kingdom of God is near you.” The miracles have a purpose: it is to give people a glimpse of the Kingdom.
Jesus wanted to say that I came here so that you may once again know and experience how it was prior to the fall, and before sin came into the world. It is sin that enslaves you, and I want to liberate you from demonic powers, from disease, from death, hunger, and natural catastrophes. So when I heal the sick, make the blind see, the lame walk, the dead rise, and the storm calmed, you will see what it is like when the Kingdom is fulfilled. No more wheelchairs, cancer, chemo, and ICU’s.
For Jesus, miracles were not mere proof of credentials or pasiklab, but a sign of the Kingdom.
Q: Do miracles still happen today?
TM: Of course. Isn’t the worldview of renewed people like you and me very similar to the worldview of people during biblical times? Do we not say that “there is no accident in God’s plan” because we recognize that God, though Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit is continually intervening in our lives?
Our faith in our prayers shows that our God does not merely observe, but intervenes. Our prayer to the Spirit for discernment shows that our insights and emotions are being directed by our God. Our praise and worship shows we want to relate with our God who is a person who loves. Our thanksgiving for ALL things (good and bad) shows that God’s will cannot ever be subverted.
Yes, of course, miracles happen everyday.
September 21, 2005
[1] Herman Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories (Manila: St. Paul’s Publications, 1987), 11.
[2] Ibid, 21.
Q: TM, let’s get straight to the point. Did the miracles of Jesus really happen?
TM: Before answering that, we have to understand what you refer to as miracles.
Q: I mean the blind seeing, the lame walking, Lazarus rising back to life, and all the other things that go against the laws of nature.
TM: I think we need to do some clarification. We usually define miracles as something that cannot be explained by science or medicine. We are wary of miracles, and we associate them with primitive mentality, hallucinations or self-suggestion. Your very question which refers to violating the “laws of nature” assumes that there is a natural order, which is separate from the supernatural order.
You see, the people in biblical times lived in a different world view and different image of God. People at that time did not think in terms of natural laws (like gravity) and supernatural or divine laws. For them, what we consider “natural” and “supernatural” were all intertwined; not separated worlds as we tend to think.
In the worldview of the Old and New Testament, God often intervened in the earthly events, and at times interrupted things for the events to take another course. This is not extraordinary to them, as we would think. This was simply the way things are.
For biblical people, there was no such thing as “law of nature.” To them, the only “law of nature” was the faithful love of God for God’s people. They saw God’s love at work in a good rainfall, as well as in a victory in battle, or in healing. They did not see the world as being divided between natural and supernatural. They did not look at the universe as a closed system following inflexible laws of physics, but as completely open and responsive to God. To distinguish between natural and supernatural events would have been foreign to their outlook.[1]
But then, our worldview changed with the advent of Galileo, Newton, and atomic and quantum physics. We began to interpret and look at miracles from the point of view of natural science, and regarded them as violating the laws of nature.
Q: And the point of all this is?
TM: The point is this: what you refer to as miracles is different from how the people who were with Jesus see miracles. At that time, an event or incident is a miracle not so much because it is extraordinary, but because the event revealed something clear about who and what God is.
To say it another way, a miracle is a miracle because in it, God is revealed as someone who intervenes in the history of a nation, as well as in the history of a person. That is why the Exodus is considered as the prototype of all miracles: Yahweh saved the Israelites who were slaves, and turned them to a powerful nation.
Let’s agree therefore on a definition of miracles using the ancient worldview: miracles are remarkable events which believers understand to be signs of God’s saving activity in the life of a nation and a person.
Q: Ok, I now understand the difference in the worldview and what are considered as miracles. So let me rephrase my question: did Jesus really make the blind see, the lame walk, and Lazarus rise from the dead?
TM: Well, most certainly Jesus did perform acts that were considered extraordinary by people during his time. Most biblical scholars agree that miracle stories of the gospels are sufficiently solid not to be classified as mere inventions by the biblical writers.
Also, if Jesus had not performed any of these signs, he would not have been recognized as a religious man of his time, nor been able to attract a sufficient following. That would be very unusual because charismatic religious leaders, both in and outside Judaism, were associated with performing miracles.
The gospels report 30 miracles performed by Jesus. It should be pointed out that, given the worldview described above, miracle stories were found also in other ancient literature, and not just in the bible. The Greek god Aesculapius, for example, is credited as having performed about 80 miracles, most of which are healing.
(By the way, we cannot say that only biblical miracles are authentic, and all else are hoaxes. I do not think we can limit God’s activity only to biblical miracles).
Q: Let me be more pointed. Did those miracles of Jesus involve violating the laws of nature as we understand it nowadays?
TM: Well, I’m afraid that question must remain largely unanswered. If you recall in our Basic Bible Course, the gospels were written well after Jesus life and resurrection. There was no reporter who was taking notes when Jesus performed his miracles.
There are no purely objective and factual accounts of Jesus’ actions, but only accounts interpreted in the light of Jesus who has resurrected, and this experience reflected upon, shared with others, and written down in the gospels.
It is difficult to know what actually happened. What we can establish is the impression produced by the miracle on the eyewitnesses was remarkable enough for it to affect their faith.
We accept that Jesus did perform miracles, but do not know how exactly each miracle happened. However, we are certain of this: “there remains an impressive body of material which attributes to Jesus a number of miracles which have no close parallel in the ancient world and which testifies to the amazement and wonder which Jesus provoked on many occasions.”[2]
Ultimately, our faith is not based on every miracle narrated in the gospel actually having happened or on a miracle’s happening exactly the way it is presented in the gospel. The real basis of our faith is that Christ has been raised from the dead.
Q: So why did Jesus perform miracles? Is it, as you said earlier, to establish his credibility because charismatic religious leaders were doing them?
TM: We know from the bible that Jesus himself did not intend to use miracles as proof. When asked by the Pharisees to perform a miracle to confirm his claim that God is with him, Jesus refuses categorically (Mark 8:11-13).
Jesus performed miracles to communicate what the Kingdom of God would be like. The preaching of the Kingdom is the primary purpose for which he has been sent. So he commanded his disciples, “cure the sick and tell them, ‘the kingdom of God is near you.” The miracles have a purpose: it is to give people a glimpse of the Kingdom.
Jesus wanted to say that I came here so that you may once again know and experience how it was prior to the fall, and before sin came into the world. It is sin that enslaves you, and I want to liberate you from demonic powers, from disease, from death, hunger, and natural catastrophes. So when I heal the sick, make the blind see, the lame walk, the dead rise, and the storm calmed, you will see what it is like when the Kingdom is fulfilled. No more wheelchairs, cancer, chemo, and ICU’s.
For Jesus, miracles were not mere proof of credentials or pasiklab, but a sign of the Kingdom.
Q: Do miracles still happen today?
TM: Of course. Isn’t the worldview of renewed people like you and me very similar to the worldview of people during biblical times? Do we not say that “there is no accident in God’s plan” because we recognize that God, though Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit is continually intervening in our lives?
Our faith in our prayers shows that our God does not merely observe, but intervenes. Our prayer to the Spirit for discernment shows that our insights and emotions are being directed by our God. Our praise and worship shows we want to relate with our God who is a person who loves. Our thanksgiving for ALL things (good and bad) shows that God’s will cannot ever be subverted.
Yes, of course, miracles happen everyday.
September 21, 2005
[1] Herman Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories (Manila: St. Paul’s Publications, 1987), 11.
[2] Ibid, 21.
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