catapult magazine

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God used many processes in the Old Testament to teach the Jews. Does God still use this method today? Why are these processes significant?

Ok, I see. So what you’re saying suggests that God’s supernatural acts of making things happen for Israel and then interpreting the events for them is different than the way God works with His church now through the Spirit community. Now that the Holy Spirit has been given to the community of Christ, we are given the means to interpret the events and even make them happen. God’s involvement with us today, then, is actually so much more direct than in the OT period when God had to use overtly “supernatural” forces to convince the Jews of His power. Very interesting.

This hypothesis makes sense of the change in processes from the olden days to today. This idea reminds me of the passage in Acts where Ananias and Sapphira get struck down dead for lying and keeping money from the church. We don’t see God doing that very frequently today when people steal money from the church. But, in the context of Acts, it is clear that God had to act very strongly with Ananias and Sapphira because the Church was still very young and fragile and needed His direct and persuasive action at that moment.

I wonder if we could say rather definitely that God’s “supernatural” acts (ugh, I hate using this word!) are more a sign of human distrust, sin and distance from God, rather than a sign that God was working closer with His people back then.

The idea is tricky, and its hard at least for me to grasp. I agree that the term “supernatural” is unfortunate. As for the rest, I think we’re coming to a common understanding.

I would nuance some of what you said. For one, what exactly has changed with the parousia? You ponder if it means that God’s involvement is so much more direct. I’m still trying to come to understand the meaning of the sending of the Holy Spirit. I know at least that he was sent only after and because of Christ. I take this to mean that the Holy Spirit acts more fully and richly than ever before. He applies the fullness of Christ (the way the truth and the life) to our lives. Yet, since folks in the OT were also saved, the HS was active then, but not as fully as he is today, now that Christ has come. How else could they be saved but by the transforming power of the HS? Certainly not by works and not because they had some inherent power to believe.

Also, the “supernatural” forces God used in the OT were as much for our benefit as for theirs. Its hard for me to characterize these supernatural forces. Generally speaking (so well as I know), GOd’s use of surpernatural forces has usually coincided with huge redemptive acts and huge acts of revelation: the Flood, the Exodus, the coming of Christ. I take these supernatural acts to be, not signs of, but the actual inbreaking of the world to come. Nature itself, in a sense, is either delivered from its bondage to the curse (Gen 3) in anticipation of its final deliverance or put into the service of redemption and/or judgment. People are healed, demons are cast out, seas part, sons are struck dead, linen belts wither, walls fall down.

God always acts with purpose. Part of the purpose of these miraculous events is to bear witness to God (most fully in Christ) as the way the truth and the life. Only God is the way of deliverance: rely on him alone! Only God is the truth: believe what is revealed to you. Only God has the life: you cannot change in your own power, but God changes you.

I think the church today does well to heed Christ’s statement to Thomas: “Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe.” In one sense God does not ordinarily perform miracles today. Christ has come in fullness and is proclaimed. What other redemptive acts need bearing witness to? What more revelation do we need authorized by miracles? In another sense God regularly performs miracles today. Lives changed bear witness to the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps we are too much in the habit of moralism to see it. We say we need to change. Do we? For those of us who believe, Scripture declares, “You are holy in Christ.” You are already perfect! No fundamental change is needed. Rather, we need to behave consistently with who we are by the power of the Holy Spirit (see Romans 6). To borrow from the ancient Greek poet Pindar, we need to become who we (already) are. By a “changed life” I do not mean primarily the externals, though salvation does not come apart from them. The miracle, the supernatural events today, are the fact that by the Spirit of Christ we are holy.

To bring the discussion back to “processes,” we must ask, how does the Holy Spirit operate today? How does the Holy Spirit in us teach us and change us? I can think of two fundamental ways: the Word and sacraments. Hence, we are in habit of saying that as Christians we need to make diligent use of the means of grace. Too often we are spiritually blind; we lack spiritual insight, just as the disciples did. Church seems foolish. We want God to act in extraordinary ways in our lives. We miss the fact that he does! Study the Bible and pray that God will reveal sin in your life and empowr you to change, two “processes” by which the Holy Spirit teaches/changes us. Far more extraordinarily than ever before because Christ has come, the fullness of God has dwelt among men; the Holy Spirit ministers this God-man to us. What better process could we hope for?

Sorry for the length of this post. I got a little carried away.