Brewing a miracle.

[FallentoReason]

The word does not exclude supernatural content either. What it mean is to bring people back to health. The "how" is of little consequence.

I think it would do you a lot of good to really be able to define what he meant by 'healing'. If we're going to get so vague that saying I was healed of the flu over a week as counting as a miracle, then to me that is mere superstition. A better 'superstition' here is the one where I go to the doctor and I get given pills that do the job in less time.

The difference between the two is that the pill has a direct correlation to the time taken to heal, whereas prayer can be said to be trivial in you getting healed at all; the proof being that atheists get healed anyways.

How do you see what Jesus did when he fed the 4000 and/or 5000?

Just like the bible says it happens.

Good on them, but I don't see the same sort of thing happening anymore, especially ever since scientists observe that energy can't be created or destroyed.

I think it's more plausible to say that he made everyone's generous side come out.

Popular Christianity is just as "polluted" as the atheist version of it. Anything outside of the scope of you Asking, Seeking and Knocking for knowledge of Christ on your own is what I have highlighted here.

Ok.. well I wasn't in some sort of hip Christian movement that seeks to keep up with pop culture. My church is known for having members that go out on the streets to pray for healing. They do the exact opposite of trying to fit in with the world.

No, you approach God with all of the intellectual abilities God has seen fit to equip you with. Like with any thing new, educate yourself and define what it is, or Who God is. Read the bible with the sole purpose of identifying God. Note all of the different ways He interacts with people, the reason for it/ the purpose, the end result. Note any offers or promises, pay close attentions to the terms and conditions.

Interesting you mention that. This is exactly what destroyed my faith, through seeking the tangible historical Jesus that visited us so many moons ago. I was so certain it was the truth that I began to look for undeniable and tangible proof that I thought lied embedded in human history.

Education is powerful stuff, and not always on your side.

For instance Salvation and forgiveness of sin does not begin and end with John 3:16. There is a very big condition that forgiveness of your sins hinge on. Can you tell me what that is? Hint; it has nothing to do with baptism.

I beg to differ. It is through the baptism of the Holy Spirit that man becomes one with Christ. The steps that follow are outlined throughout Romans.

It starts there, "If you are faithful with what you have been given, you will be given more. If you are not, what you have will be taken from you and given to someone else." Read your bible. learn to identify God how He acts, when He moves and the reasons for it. Then you can see things happen in your own life. Don't rely on feelings or what pop christianity tells you a God experience is. God is very real and not subject to our hokey interpertations of Him. He has laid out a very specific path with very specific promises to the one who follows that path. If you follow that path He will keep his Word.

I'm perfectly fine with most of the theological aspects of things, but when you try and use it as the foundation of the universe then it stops making sense. This is especially true of interactions between believers themselves. So often I'll see people using God as a way to channel something negative about someone or something. I don't even have to use Occam's Razor to see through their explanation of their action.

An example is my band's drummer that recently left. The reason he presented to the band was that God was telling him to move on and find a different band. The reason he gave me in private is that his music taste has changed. Going with Occam's Razor here I'm inclined to believe the latter explanation, but to make his reason more acceptable he had to bounce it against God.

Do you know of the dead sea scrolls? Do you know why they are important? Do you know when they were written in relation to when they were found? Do you know what they contain?

They are solid evidence for the Old Testament. That doesn't make the New Testament be on the same level all of a sudden, because as I said, we already know what has been added on. It's been done, it has passed, the extra verses have been added. There's nothing anyone can do about that.

God has preserved His word, and made some changes to our understanding of it, but overwhelmingly confirmed what we have in our bibles..

Could you elaborate please?

Mark 16 originally ends with an empty tomb, no Jesus and a young man asserting that Jesus has resurrected. The juicy witness accounts are what got added on.

No. The oldest text we have ends at Mark 16:8 We don't know if the rest was added on or if the oldest text we have is simply incomplete.

Given that Mark doesn't have a birth story either, I'm inclined to believe that Matthew and Luke (yes, I know we have our differences about when Luke was written) had to add to their own something to fill the void. I think the resurrection accounts are no different and it would make sense that 16:9 onwards were added on after Matthew and Luke were written because that makes Mark line up better.

No resurrected Jesus, no Christian God.

Then thankfully it is not the only text we have concerning Christ.

Secular evidence could have gone a long way though