Christian Post reports some more on Mark Burnett‘s miniseries “The Bible”. Burnett reportedly is pleased that the hand of God was over the production and is confident that it will be the most-watched thing that he, Mark Burnett, has ever produced and they will be watching what he, Mark Burnett made, even 50 years from now.
Let’s take a station break for this verse. And now, our sponsor, GOD:
“A man’s pride brings him low, but a man of lowly spirit gains honor.” (Proverbs 29:23)
And … we’re back. Burnett went on to say that the proof of God’s hand on the production is that weird things happened. Once, get this, the wind blew! It has been a still night, but then the wind blew. And for 20 seconds!
That is not a miracle. It’s called “weather”.
In another incident, the set’s snake wrangler, who usually recovered one or two snakes per day on set to protect crew members, found 48 cobras and vipers hidden near the scene of the cross, where the crew was to film Jesus’ crucifixion.
In a third incident, part of the man playing Jesus’s costume floated away in the river and a boy brought it back a couple of days later. That’s not a miracle. That’s manners.
And with those, Burnett ascribes some sort of Godly supernatural glory or blessing to the production.
I want to remind one and all of some things. I have a particular peeve with people who ascribe God to every manifestation of every twitch under the sun. Things like, “I sneezed as I drove under the bridge so that means God will bridge the gap” or some such tripe like that. Or when the toast comes out burned and someone sees the face of Jesus on it. John MacArthur told of a woman who burned her tortilla and thought the face on it was the face of Jesus and she made a shrine and thousands came to look at it. He said,
“Well, evidently, skepticism is a rare commodity these days. People’s hunger for the mysterious and the astonishing and phenomena is a little unsurpassed in the history of the church. It’s pretty popular stuff in the secular world and it’s found its way into the church. Eager to witness miracles, many people seem willing to believe that almost anything unusual is a genuine heavenly wonder. The problem with that is it poses a severe danger for the church because it plays right into the hands of Satan, doesn’t it? False wonders and false signs, false miracles, extremely believable ones, the Bible tells us will be the primary tool of Satan in the end times. Jesus said, “False Christ and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect.” Then He added as if knowing that many would ignore the warning, “Behold, I have told you in advance,” Matthew 24:24-25.”
Like, the wind blowing in the Sahara is not a heavenly miracle, people!
He says, “And the types of miracles that are being claimed today are absolutely nothing like New Testament miracles, absolutely nothing like them. In fact, the types of miracles today could be distinctly seen as different than New Testament miracles. Jesus and the apostles instantly and completely healed people born blind, a paralytic, a man with a withered arm. All obvious and disputable miracles, even Jesus’ enemies didn’t challenge the reality of His miracles that He had the people there to verify them. He raised the dead, of course, as we well know. They never did a miracle that was slow, they never did a miracle that took time, they never did a miracle that was less than permanent. By contrast, most modern miracles are partial, gradual, temporary, sometimes reversed, and almost impossible to verify.”
The snakes, now that seems like it was more from satan than from God.
Not everything is a miracle and not everything that happens that’s “weird” is from God. Satan is coming with signs and lying wonders, remember. (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
“Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.” (Revelation 13:14).
Sometimes in the past, God worked a miracle that circumvented His natural laws in order to accomplish something He wanted to accomplish. In most cases today, and even in the past, He works through providence.
When Burnett claims weird things happened and they were from God so that meant God’s hand was upon the production, he is claiming direct Divine Intervention. Mary’s virginal gestation of the baby Jesus was Divine intervention. The Red Sea parting is Divine Intervention. As GotQuestions explains:
“At the opposite end of the spectrum are believers who view virtually everything as an example of divine intervention. A good parking spot being open is clearly a miracle from God. A sudden gust of wind or the chance meeting of a friend is clearly a sign from God to move in a different direction. While this mindset is more biblical than the approach a deist might take, it poses serious problems. Interpreting virtually everything as divine intervention can lead to very subjective conclusions. We tend to read into things what we want. It is tempting to study cloud shapes to find “proof” for what we want God’s will to be instead of truly seeking God’s will in a biblical manner.” (Romans 12:1-2). … “But the Bible does not instruct us to seek hidden spiritual meanings in everyday life events. While we should be aware that God does intervene, we should not spend every waking minute trying to decode secret messages from above.”
I pray that for you, the real miracle you experience is the living, breathing word of God, alive and profitable for everything.
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