*Crosstalk Alert* Wednesday
I recently posted a message from Justin Peters (http:www.justinpeters.org) on the Word of Faith movement and its heretical teachings. This is the movement that has produced so many false teachers, including Todd Bentley and his Lakeland “revival”. …
Slice of Laodicea – http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com

The problem here is that what you seem to be implying is that the difference between a “miracle” and a “non-miracle” is that one is “supernatural” and the other isn’t. That’s not the case at all.

Curious thing is, I am a evangelical and I agree with you. It is anachronistic to draw a 1:1 correlation. So we have a Christian consensus of sorts.

To the atheists here. Look, I am open to miracles, of both the providential and the more supernatural variety. But I am not so naive as to discount the possibility of con artistry. And I am obviously not the only Christian here who takes that view. I agree testing the claims wouldn’t be a bad idea.

But I agree with testing for another reason as well. I am also keenly aware that even genuinely supernatural phenomena can’t be assumed to be miraculous, that is, of God. Someone mentioned the Egyptian magicians before I think is a case in point. These things should be tested against the teachings fo the apostles and prophets as well. You never know, I might find it bogus for religious reasons irrespective of the scientific verdict.

Then again, who knows, it could be genuine. But never heaving heard of this guy before I am going to have to look into it myself before I draw any conclusions.

I’m all for it. At the very least, I think you’d need some pre-healing medical records that indicate the person really is suffering. Then you’d need a doctor to test the “cured” person immediately afterwards and also a few months afterward.

Perhaps an atheist organization could sponsor a few investigations of this sort. Or better yet, they could team up with a open-minded Christian organization (perhaps the Trinity Foundation that you mentioned) and do the investigations together so that neither side could claim the results were biased.

http://www.charismamag.com/articles/index.php?id=7032

Yep, I was right. A whole lot of bullshit passing for an explanation.

So you didn’t read it, then? Or you didn’t understand it?

Yes, I probably went a bit wordy, but I thought it was important. The miracles described in the Bible are undoubtedly mythological, but they’re more useful as mythology than they would ever be as literal history.

When he told Peter to find a coin in the mouth of a fish, he was inventing the first ATM