I think in responding to this I would be better off quoting from Norm Geisler & Frank Turek’s book, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist, in which they address your exact concern:
Many people today have a very provincial view of history and of human experience. “If I personally don’t see certain events happening today,” they think, “they probably never happened.” The implication for miracles is obvious. Namely, “If they are no public, biblical-quality miracles happening today (and if they were, they’d be on the Fox News Channel), then why should I think they happened in the past?” It’s a fair question.
However, there’s a common misconception behind this question. It’s the belief that the Bible is filled with miracles that occur continually throughout Biblical history. That’s only partially true. It is true that the Bible is filled with miracles, about 250 occasions of them. But most of those miracles occur in very small windows of history, during three distinct time periods—during the life of Moses, Elijah and Elisha, and Jesus and the apostles. Why then? Because those were the times when God was confirming new truth (revelation) and new messengers with that truth.
If most of the miracles are bunched there, what’s happening miraculously during the other periods the Bible covers? Nothing. In fact, there are huge gaps of time in the Bible (even hundreds of years) where there are no recorded miracles from God. Why? Because there was no new word from God, and most miracles confirmed some new word from God.
So why don’t we see biblical miracles today? Because if the Bible is true and complete, God is not confirming any new revelation and thus does not have this main purpose for performing miracles today. There is no new word from God that needs to be confirmed by God.
Now don’t misunderstand us here. We are not saying that God cannot do miracles today, or that he never does. As the sovereign creator and sustainer of the universe, he can do a miracle anytime he wants. It’s just that he may not have a reason to publicly display his power the way he did during biblical times because all of the truths he wanted to reveal have already been revealed and confirmed. As with a house, the foundation only needs to be laid once. Biblical miracles were special acts of God that laid the foundation for his permanent revelation to mankind.
I’m afraid I don’t understand your point. As far as I can tell, scripture has been consistently preserved throughout history. That has been my first contention. My second contention is that, despite the preservation of scripture, it is nonetheless possible for the corruption of scripture to occur in certain translations or interpretations. But that is why we should be responsible to see if the translation/edition we are reading from is consistent with the original Greek or Hebrew, which we know has been more or less preserved over the years.
My overall point is that most doctrines of inspiration generally don’t extend to copies/translations of the Bible. When we say that scripture is inspired, we don’t mean that every single copy and translation of the Bible that is ever made is inspired by God. We mean only that the autographs (the original texts) were inspired, through the Holy Spirit working in conjunction with the original authors of those texts.
That’s (part of) the plan.
Just as a precautionary note:
If I don’t respond to your message immediately, it doesn’t mean I’m ignoring it. It means I either have nothing (more) to say, don’t feel equipped enough to give a satisfactory response, or need some time to think about it and/or do research. Most often, it’s the latter. Although if I end up never responding to it, it’s more likely one of the former two.
Thanks for understanding.
I don’t really believe that inspiration extends to copies of scripture. I don’t know of anyone who does. This is made apparent by the fact that, if I wanted to, I could print and distribute thousands of Bibles which have been meddled with to contain all sorts of errors and fabrications. It isn’t as if the moment I or anyone starts to copy the Bible, they become inspired by God to get it right.
Most, including myself, hold to a doctrine of inspiration that applies only to the autographs, or the original documents of scripture. Although I do believe that God works to ensure that the original message of scripture is preserved through history, I don’t think that scripture is safe from being corrupted. By this I don’t mean that the scripture we have is necessarily corrupted. On the contrary, when we compare the scripture we have today with the earliest known copies (the likes of which we have uncovered a startling number from startling early periods of time), what we find is that scripture has been mostly unchanged. I simply mean that it is possible for some translations to have gotten it wrong. When we speak of scripture being inspired by God, we are speaking with regards to the original documents written by their original authors.
That depends on what doctrine of inspiration you hold to. It also depends on what you define as an error. If you’re asking my personal opinion (and that’s about the best I can give you), I do believe that scripture is, as Paul puts it in 2 Timothy 3:16, “God-breathed.” I see no reason to think that God would be unable to guarantee that the writers of scripture were able to write precisely what He intended them to, without fail.
As I’ve said several other times on this blog, I think it’s incredibly presumptuous to just assert that miracles aren’t happening just as frequently today. There are literally countless miracle testimonies out there that have been experienced by modern-day Christians. To just discard all of these as fabrications, deceptions or just plain ignorance, I think would be begging the question. Obviously we don’t see the sun stopping in place anymore, but I find no reason to think that miracles don’t still persist today.
Misty Edwards - People Get Ready
Thank you!
Let’s break it down another way. Suffering in the world exists. God does not orchestrate it, but he permits it. Why does he permit it? Because he redeems it. He redeems it by using it for growth and virtue-building. He redeems it by using it to draw people closer to Him. He redeems it by using it to glorify Him and His faithful ones.
What is the correct response to suffering? Is it to harden your heart towards God, to forsake Him and to turn away? Or is it to trust in God’s sovereignty, to believe in His Son who said that it is the meek and the hungry who will inherit God’s kingdom? The correct response is to draw closer to God and to take shelter in His mercy and His grace—but we have the freedom to do otherwise. Many people exercise that freedom to react inappropriately to suffering. That is unfortunate, and it is not God’s will. But, much like the existence of suffering itself, it’s a reality, and it does nothing to take away from the glorification of those who yearn for God even in the midst of unbearable suffering.
People are not damned for the sake of the glory of those who are saved. People are damned because they choose not to be glorified along with them.
