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The Supernatural Manifestation Of The Kingdom
— Matthew 12:28
by George N. H. Peters
Miracles are not to be regarded
simply as evidences of the truth — this it indeed subserves
— but as necessary parts of revelation itself,
evincing with a fulness, stronger than language can impress,
that the supernatural is indispensable for the establishment
of the kingdom, and that it will be exerted in miraculous
power whenever required. It is plainly declared in numerous
passages, that before this kingdom is set up, events of an
astounding miraculous nature, far exceeding the ordinary
power of nature, directly occurring through Divine agency,
shall be witnessed. In a book recording such anticipated
occurrences, there would be an evident lack, a sad
deficiency — which infidelity would eagerly seize if it
existed — if it contained no statements of miracles.
Especially would this be the case, when He who is the King
of the promised kingdom appears. The grave question then, if
no miracles were given, would inevitably arise: What
assurance have you that those miraculous events predicted to
take place in the future — so intimately connected with the
highest welfare and happiness of man — shall ever be
realised, when we have none heretofore displayed and
described, and none combined with the previous personal
coming of the King? The cry would be triumphantly raised:
Your King once came, and as He performed no miracles,
although they are so intimately blended with His kingdom,
none can be reasonably expected.
The Relationship Between The
Kingdom And Miracles
God in kindness accommodates
himself to human weakness — foretelling us that the
supernatural is closely allied with the natural in the
kingdom; that the kingdom itself shall be pervaded with a
power above nature in order to control, recreate, and make
nature subservient to the Divine purpose. He, knowing that
if direct testimony is not given, a serious flaw will
remain, bestows us evidences, through miracles, of the
all-pervading supernatural. These are so related to the
kingdom that they cannot be separated from it without mutual
defacement. Thus it is represented by Jesus himself (Matthew
12 28), “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God,
then the kingdom of God is come unto (or as some,
upon) you.”
Here we have: 1.The relationship
existing between the kingdom and miracles; without the
latter the former cannot be revealed. 2.That miracles are a
manifestation of possessed power, which Jesus will exert
when He establishes His kingdom. 3.That the miraculous
casting out of devils, or Satan, is an event connected with
the kingdom, and its accomplishment through Jesus is thus
verified as predicted, e.g., Revelation 20:1-6.
4.That the miraculous casting out of devils by Jesus is a
premonition, anticipating, foreshowing, or foreshadowing
(The Greek conveys the idea of anticipating, etc.), like the
transfiguration, of the kingdom itself.
The miracles then are
assurances vouchsafed that the kingdom will come as it
is predicted. The miracles of Jesus are so varied and
significant in the light of the kingdom that it can be
readily perceived how they give us the needed
confidence in its several requirements and aspects. The
resurrection of dead ones is connected with the kingdom;
that the keys of death hang at Christ’s girdle is shown in
the miracles of the raising of the daughter of Jairus, the
widow’s son, and of Lazarus, when just dead, carried out to
burial, and already in the corrupting embrace of the tomb.
Sickness and death are banished from the inheritors of the
kingdom; the numerous miracles of healing various sicknesses
and of restoring the dying establish the power existing that
can perform it.
The utmost perfection of body is
to be enjoyed in the kingdom; this is foreshadowed by the
removal of blindness, lameness, deafness, and dumbness.
Hunger, thirst, famine, etc., give place to plenty in the
kingdom; the miracles of feeding thousands attest to the
predicted power that will accomplish it. The natural world
is to be completely under the Messiah’s control in that
kingdom; the miracles of the catch of fishes, the tempest
stilled, the ship at its destination, the walking on the
sea, the fish bringing the tribute money, the barren
fig-tree destroyed, and the much-ridiculed one of water
changed into wine, indicate that He who sets up this kingdom
has indeed power over nature.
The spiritual, unseen, invisible
world is to be, as foretold, in contact and communication
with this kingdom; and this Jesus verifies by the miracles
of the transfiguration, the demoniac cured, the legion of
devils cast out, by passing unseen through the multitude,
and by those of His own death, resurrection, and ascension.
Indeed there is scarcely a feature of this kingdom foretold,
which is to be formed by the special work of the Divine,
that is not also confirmed to us by some glimpses of the
Power that shall bring them forth.
The kingdom — the end — is
designed to remove the curse from man and nature, and to
impart the most extraordinary blessings to renewed man and
nature, but all this is to be done through One who, it is
said, shall exert supernatural power to perform it. It is
therefore reasonable to expect that as part of the
developing of the plan itself. When He first comes, through
whom man and nature are to be regenerated, a manifestation
of power — more abundant and superior to everything
preceding — over man and nature should be exhibited, to
confirm our faith in Him and in His kingdom. This is
done, and an appeal is made to it.
We are confident that the best,
most logical defence of the miracles of Christ and of the
Bible is in the line here stated, viz., regarding them as
indicative and corroborative of God’s promises relating to
the future destiny of the Church and world. The miracles
are thus found to be essential, to answer a divine
purpose, to supply a requisite evidence, and hence in the
Scriptures they are called “signs” of something else
intended — signs that the Word shall be fulfilled in the
exertion of power.
The Proof Of The Personal
Involvement Of God
The number and variety of
definitions given to miracles indicate the limited nature of
human knowledge; we are not greatly concerned in the
adoption of any one specially, seeing that from our
standpoint we could accept of nearly all, even of some of
those given by infidels. To oppose the attacks of
unbelieving scientists, some writers oppose the old idea
that miracles are a reversal or suspension of nature,
contending for a higher law operating in union and harmony
with nature, and that it is not requisite to insist in any
case upon “a direct act of God in contrast to all agency of
second causes, and by an exercise of power strictly and
exclusively divine,” on the ground that it would otherwise
require too great knowledge both of nature and God to tell
when a miracle is performed.
Therefore miracles are divided
into immediate, mediate, and improper, and a definition,
sufficiently comprehensive to include them is given: that
they are “unusual events not within the ordinary power of
man, nor capable of being foreseen by man’s actual knowledge
of second causes, and wrought or announced by professed
messengers of God to confirm the reality of the message.”
The interesting and valuable writings of the Duke of Argyle
and others take the position, undoubtedly correct, that laws
exist outside of the known, and that the Divine Will can
employ such laws whenever it is desirable. Others make
miracles a result of physical law, being included in the
predetermined scheme. The miraculous is therefore made a
result of the exercise of other unknown laws superior to
those known in nature. Whatever truth there is in such a
position, and however admirably adapted to meet the
objection of unbelieving philosophy, the biblical statement
(e.g. Acts 2:22; John 3:2; Romans 15:19, etc.) does
not require it.
The following reasons urge us to
discard the commendable and suggestive efforts in this
direction: 1.It too much limits the power of God, exalting
law in place of God. For the Bible, on its face, assumes
(Exodus 10:2; Ephesians 3:20) that God is able both to work
with existing, seen and unseen, means, agencies, and laws
and to create and perform through His will alone
(Hebrews 2:4; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Daniel 4:35) all things,
even, if necessary, to introduce new laws (Mathew 19:26;
Mark 10:25; Luke 1:37; 18:27), etc. We are expressly told
not to limit the ability of God and not to place the Creator
in an attitude that binds Him subserviently to His own
creation, even if the latter be law. 2.It in a great measure
destroys the personality (e.g. Deuteronomy 4:32-39;
3:24; Exodus 15:11) of Divine interference, attributing to
law what the Bible represents as the result of personal
Divine attributes (e.g. Daniel 2:19-23; Exodus 7:5;
15:1). 3.It diminishes the force of scripture language that
expressly asserts the immediate agency of God (e.g.
Exodus 3:20; 6:6-7; Philippians 3:21; Genesis 18:19). 4.It
is to some extent contradictory, since it in some cases
shows immediate miracles. 5.It lowers the validity of
miracles by making them the results of causes now beyond our
knowledge, but which as knowledge increases may, after all,
be found natural. 6.With all the concessions that it makes,
it is unable to point out the laws through which the
miracles are performed and asks us to take them for granted.
7.But the main reason which leads us to a rejection of
prevailing theories is the following: miracles are designed
to throw light upon and confirm the predictions of God
relating to the final result — the glorious, miraculous
establishment of the kingdom.
Now in the prophecies pertaining
to this kingdom, we have the most explicit declarations
that Jesus Christ himself will change, renew, re-create
all things; that laws of nature now existing shall be
reversed, or modified, or suspended; that new laws and new
forces shall be introduced that the present order of things
shall give place to a renewed order; and that the power
which produces all this is not found in nature or in
laws outside of nature, but only in God. Jesus is
represented as personally coming (just as God personally
came at the establishment of the theocracy at Mt. Sinai),
and directly intervening in the performance of this mighty
work of restoring forfeited blessings and adding new ones,
and this is claimed as a peculiar, distinctive personal
prerogative.
Looking thus at the contemplated
end, and seeing how the miraculous power then exerted is so
far removed from such definitions, it is impossible to
receive entirely explanations which attribute to law what
the Word applies to Christ personally — thus introducing a
defect which, if logically carried onward, forbids
our receiving the predictions relating to the future as
presented. The final manifestation of the miraculous, which
includes a re-creation, a removal of law under which a
sin-cursed earth groans, determines for us that the
miraculous proofs given to show that it will be realised are
precisely in the same category, and thus confirmatory
of it. The unity of Scripture is thus preserved.
By this attitude it is not
denied that God may and does also work through higher laws
already established and beyond our present domain of
knowledge, but with this it is insisted that He may and
does, independently of established law, exercise His power
in the suspension, reversal, or removal of existing law, or,
in other words, that His power as Creator, in the domain of
the miraculous, is not limited by what He has done or
has established but is exercised according to His own
pleasure. It seems to us, according to the biblical idea, a
low estimate of God, which would make, either in nature or
in that beyond it, all things under fixed, invariable,
unchangeable laws, through which alone the Divine Institutor
of them can work.
A Full Revelation Of The Kingdom
Miracles are necessary to a
revelation pertaining to the kingdom, a kingdom that is to
be set up by an astounding miraculous display. They become
parts, essential parts of the revelation, exhibiting
the earnests of power that is ultimately to
accomplish it. If they were missing, an important link would
be gone.
God engages to establish a
kingdom and one in which the supernatural shall introduce
mighty changes. He promises a Messiah who is to perform this
work and who, consequently, must possess miraculous power.
The forces now at work in nature, instead of tending toward
it, cannot possibly accomplish what is foretold of the
future, and so long as they remain unchanged the promises of
God continue unrealised. When Jesus comes in accordance with
Divine purpose, He must necessarily, not only in person,
life, etc., but in actual exerted power, exhibit His
ability to be the fulfiller of prophecy. His
attestations of the possession of such power are sustained
by their connection with the Divine plan, past and future
prediction, moral aim, lack of self-contradiction, public
performance, etc. The power displayed is of a character
corresponding with that required by the predictions, power
over nature, over evil, over all things.
The unity of the Word, promising
restoration from evil now suffered under natural law, makes
these miraculous representations essential, so that we can
have faith and hope in the promised kingdom, in His being
the promised Messiah, who shall set it up, and in the
certainty of a future miraculous demonstration in our behalf
in that kingdom — all which is again corroborated by the
fallen condition of man requiring Divine interposition, by
the necessity of its possession to constitute a perfect
Redeemer, by the personal experience of believers in
receiving a moral and providential “earnest,” and by reason
conceding that a Divine purpose, extending from creation
into the eternal ages and embracing restitution as its
glorious end, cannot possibly do without them.
The general sentiment of mankind
has always expressed itself as favourable to the idea of the
miraculous, because deliverance from evil, now entailed by
natural law, has ever been felt as the special work of the
supernatural. Hence the miraculous incorporated, more or
less, with all religions.
Looking Forward To A Restitution
Of All Things
The solution of miracles is found then in
their connection with God and His expressed will. This Will
is especially noticeable in the doctrine of the kingdom. The
kingdom, as the product of the supernatural, demands
miracles; so that faith and hope in the kingdom, as
covenanted and predicted, requires belief in the miraculous.
Faith in miracles is embraced in an intelligent utterance of
the prayer, “let Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven,” and the assurance that the same will ultimately
be realised is expressed in “Yours
is the power.”
The believer gratefully
acknowledges his indebtedness to miracles; for proceeding
from the Divine Will, they teach us in the most forcible
manner that in this Will all forces, all life, all things
exist; that in this Will is found an overruling,
all-pervading Providence capable of general and special
energy and supervision; and that in it will be found the
most ample resources to meet the requirements as predicted
and promised, of the blessed kingdom itself. The miracles
strengthen faith, enliven hope, and, amid the pressure of
natural laws that entail evil, cheer the heart of the
pilgrim with joy at a coming miraculous restitution.
The Scriptures can never, never
be fulfilled without miracle; the earth can never, never be
freed from its curse without miracle; man can never, never
be delivered without miracle; and, therefore, the Redeemer
in whom we trust for redemption is, as history today
attests in the minute and wondrous fulfilment of His
miraculous words, a miracle-working Saviour.
Let infidelity separate God and
the world from each other (and even deny that the latter had
a Creator), so that the one is not directly interested in
the other, it may content itself with the unreasonable,
cold, cheerless, dark prospect that this view imparts, its
darkness only deepened by the loudly sung deceptive praises
of “cosmic force” and a death-devoted humanity. Faith, in
preference, takes the soul-inspiring Biblical conception of
a creation that has its origin and continuance in a
personal, intelligent, loving, all-powerful God — that this
is sufficiently indicated in the Word, in miracles of
knowledge and work, in history indicating a progressive
plan, in the personal experience of the believer, in the
person, doctrine, and works of the Messiah. This will
ultimately be visibly manifested in the kingdom of God,
when God again dwells with man, when man is rescued from
his ruined condition and placed in a renewed creation where
no (unalterable) natural law shall exist to burden him with
evil.
The above excerpt is from Volume One and
is
for evaluation purposes only. It is the sincere hope that
readers of the above excerpt will be interested to
obtain the author's entire work.
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