"The Angels told us to remain calm and we would be saved" - The Cokeville Miracle

This is actually new to me! Amazing event!

It seems to me that sometimes something happens and because it all seems a bit too neat, conspiracy theorists begin picking away at it for pieces that don't fit, but likewise I think there are events like this disturb naysayers because they can't agree with what happened, so they begin chipping away, searching for possible 'practical' (comfortable) explanations. In this case, it's supernatural and that can really freak some people out.

Do gas fumes cause hallucinations? That explains your 'angels'.

originally posted by: Rexamus
Posting on my religious views is not something I normally do but I'm seeing so many people say "why save these kids and not sandy hook etc etc....?" that I had to chime in. Well I have a question for you.

If there is a God, what makes you think you would be privileged enough to understand his decisions?

It's not really a question of arrogance so much as a question of morality.

As a human if I was to create ten or twenty families of dogs, ignore them for a few tens of thousands of years, let them be enslaved by a group of marauding capitalist squirrels who force them to build triangles, free them via an elaborate series of plagues ... [insert the rest here] ... then watch them murder each other to the score of several thousand per day or week depending where we are at in human history, but choose to intervene in 4% of cancer cases and 0.002% of mass shootings or kidnappings ... if I did all that you might call me an asshole.

From a human perspective you wouldn't be wrong. A lot of people don't believe 'mysterious ways' or God / worshipper confidentiality is a good enough reason for this.

Neat story OP.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

This seems kind of like it could be a big lie.
Publicity. Wait nope, doesn't seem like that at all.
Well, does it to you?

I didn't follow the links but I'm familiar with the case. One of the few instances that hold me back from being a true atheist. I'm not saying this was a religious intervention but there seems to be something that gives me pause and makes me wonder about what is (or what could be). Sometimes things happen that don't have a logical explanation. Maybe one day I will understand these anamolies but until then I won't completely lose my faith.

Signs?

A lot of people are wondering why, if this was indeed a miracle, why the children of Sandy Hook or starving children are not saved.

Well, I'm a firm believer in miracles. I wouldn't be alive today without the impossible happening in a situation where the doctors were astounded that I survived without brain damage, let alone survived at all.

I can propose a sequence of answers, but I can't guarantee it is what the skeptics want to hear:
1. Disease, death, sin, starvation, birth defects etc. are all realities of this world. It is a broken world. If you believe in God, you understand that he is not the author of evil. Mankind's fall (not necessarily literal Genesis) brought evil about. If you don't believe, well... You can't blame Him and must just accept that it is a reality of our world.
2. Since these things are a reality of our broken world, God saving everyone (in this life, hint hint) would defeat the purpose of having given mankind free will.
3. Saving SOME people, however, would not defeat the purpose of free will, and thus these situations would exist as miracles--a testament to His existence and love in the midst of our broken world, when something much worse would have happened without His intervention.
4. I think virtually every Christian would agree with me when I say that ultimately, it does not fit the character of God for tragedies such as Sandy Hook to be the end for those innocent people. Whether that means they pass on to Heaven, or receive another chance, I have absolutely no idea. I have faith, however, that a perfectly loving and just God certainly would not abandon people in these situations. (I would prefer if this one doesn't get asinine responses)

What's interesting to note is Jesus' healings in the Gospels:
1. Unless I am mistaken, Jesus does not heal any individual who does not come to Him to be healed out of faith.
2. An outrageous amount of people come to be healed by Him, but Jesus, though He could have healed everyone on Earth, did not.

What's key here is the action on the part of the individual who needs healing. THEY must come to HIM.
Jesus didn't care if the person was a Jew or Gentile, how much they had sinned in the past, or what illness/ailment plagued them--if they showed Him faith, He healed them or their loved ones.

God wants us to seek Him and have a relationship with Him. Perhaps this has something to do with miracles today, then?

Lastly, I'd like to remind everyone that the Pharisees saw Jesus do miracles in person and did not believe that He was the Son of God. They attributed His power to demons and ultimately helped fulfill His plan to redeem the world on the Cross by having him trialed and executed.

So, in other words... I have a hunch that if God had been healing all the sick and needy and endangered all along, non-believers would think it was some scientific phenomenon. If it started happening all suddenly, people would believe it was aliens or demons, or just start asking God why He's healing people now but not in the past.

The point is, a miracle isn't a miracle if it happens all the time. And God solving all of our problems would never lead to the world believing and loving Him.

A similar thing happened to my son and I last fall. We were having a fire in the back yard, and I stupidly put a grander water board in the fire, thinking it was just a wooden cutting board. The thing blew up, and all over the yard, there was a wall of ash and tinder that went over us and was all over the ground. There was a lady there picking up some windows and she heard the explosion and came running. I was sure we would be filthy and covered in the ash too etc, but there was not a speck of dust on us, my hair should have had ash it it...nope.

This happened though I am beyond unworthy, one of the least worthy, I too wonder why I was saved from things like, this, but not saved from being sexually abused as a child, for example.....

a reply to: Sublimecraft

I'd never heard of this! I don't know how it slipped by me.

I hope everyone else likes this as much as I do.
Enjoy!

Edit to Add:[/]

Ok, this is a bad movie but oh well... Though it's got great dialog, lol.

Little Boy to Bad Guy: 'Your breath smells like peaches.

' Bad Guy: 'Weeelllll, I haven't been eating any peaches!'

Little Boy: 'Peaches is my dog.'

edit on 0129Thursday201713 by silo13 because: (no reason given)