{"id":26291,"date":"2020-10-04T08:49:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-04T13:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=26291"},"modified":"2020-10-04T08:49:46","modified_gmt":"2020-10-04T13:49:46","slug":"the-natural-and-the-supernatural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-natural-and-the-supernatural\/","title":{"rendered":"The Natural and the Supernatural"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t

by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n

The ancients typically would not have thought in terms of our modern categories that we call natural and supernatural. Everything was from God and nothing happened apart from him. Even pagans would have attributed pretty much everything to their deities. They did not think that because something happened in nature, that meant God was not involved.<\/p>\n

\"\"By separating natural\/supernatural categories the way we do, we allow for more of reality that is not dependent upon God. As Schaeffer argued in Escape from Reason, this dichotomy essentially results in nature swallowing up the supernatural. If we can explain something apart from God, then God isn\u2019t necessary. Even those who continue to believe in God may tend to think that God was necessary at the beginning, but once he got the ball rolling and triggered the operation of nature, he is no longer needed to keep nature working. It will just work on its own now. This is deism, and it is far from the truth about the God of Scripture.<\/p>\nThis also misses the point that nature operates on the grounding that God is and that God upholds all things by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15-17). Without God, there is no nature and there is nothing that can happen at all. Without God, there is no continual operation of nature.
\nGod is certainly not \u201cnature.\u201d He is above it, beyond it, and greater than what we can possibly observe. Yet as Creator, God is intimately involved in the workings of nature. Even when we observe something natural, that should still be seen as evidence that God is at work. As Paul and Barnabas put it, God \u201cdid not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness<\/em>\u201d (Acts 14:17).\n

To buy into the natural\/supernatural distinctions in modern terms opens the door for serious misunderstandings about who God is and what he does. Learn to see God at work even in the things that we observe as natural. He is not far from us (Acts 17:27).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Doy Moyer The ancients typically would not have thought in terms of our modern categories that we call natural and supernatural. Everything was from God and nothing happened apart from him. Even pagans would have attributed pretty much everything to their deities. They did not think that because something happened in nature, that meant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[363],"class_list":["post-26291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-miracles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53309,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/in-the-beginning-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":0},"title":"In the Beginning God …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wayne Benton Genesis 1:1. The first verse in the Bible is either true or false. If false, then the truth would have to be: Something accidentally came from nothing. Something eternal accidentally brought life and order. But something has never come from nothing, so we have to admit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58097,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-miracle-of-creation-a-stronghold-for-believers\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":1},"title":"The Miracle of Creation: A Stronghold for Believers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by George Hutto via Tidings, Vol. 24, No. 11, Nov. 2009. Moses laid the foundation for belief in God with the first ten words in the Bible: \"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.\" Other miracles are significant, but the miracle of creation tells us our origin,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29612,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-providence-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":2},"title":"The Providence of God (Thornhill)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Thomas Thornhill Anyone who studies the Bible carefully comes face to face with the providence of God. His hand is seen in events that unfold throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. If one really believes the Bible one will also believe in the providence of God. Yet, many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33750,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-spirit-indwell-only-through-the-word-without-any-supernatural-means\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":3},"title":"Does the Spirit indwell only through the word without any supernatural means?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have enjoyed several of the articles listed on your website. One I have a question about is regarding your article on the \"Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.\" Is your church one who believes that the Holy Spirit indwells a Christian by way of the \"word only\" and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57582,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-a-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":4},"title":"Is There a God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Keith Sharp In 1986 a famous visitor made a brief tour of the inner solar system. A luminous body with a long, faint tail hurried on its journey around the sun and returned to the recesses of space. The British astronomer Edmond Halley observed this phenomenon in 1682 and,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57424,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/incredible-beginning\/","url_meta":{"origin":26291,"position":5},"title":"“Incredible” Beginning","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Andy Diestelkamp via Gospel Power, Vol. 15, No. 30, July 27, 2008. The beginnings of things always intrigue us. We often mark them with great ceremony at the time if we anticipate their importance (weddings, ribbon-cutting grand openings, signings, etc.). We frequently research beginnings if only later do we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}