So there was this guy who said he believed in the "teachings of Jesus but, not the miracles," and that "there is no heaven or hell." Now that makes my head hurt!
If there is no heaven or hell, and there are no miracles connected with Him to affirm His authority and divinity, why subscribe to His "teachings"? What gives them any credence?
If we remove anything that is connected with a miracle in the gospels, And take out the references to heaven and hell, what do we have left? It looks pretty dismal and hopeless. It becomes a chain stitch that has no end to unraveling.
Examples:
If Jesus teaches, "Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in 3 days." what does that mean? That He's a liar? Then why believe in His teachings?
If Jesus teaches, "I go to prepare a place for you," where is that? Heaven? Or someplace else? Or was he talking about the local hostel house?
If he teaches He is the only way and the Truth, then, dude! without the miracles to back it up, He's a lunatic!
And if there are no valid miracles, then there was no being conceived by the Holy Spirit, there was no being fully God, fully human. And there was no resurrection. (even though its documented that over 500 people saw the resurrected Christ)
And what about the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount . . a great source of counsel for better living, but, there's a promise for a miracle or two in there:
Matthew 5:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Great advice but oops, gotta cut that one out because it promise one of them "thar" miraculous places.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Circular file for that one . . It would be a miracle if someone could see God!
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Nice idea. .. but really, a child of God? Too far fetched so, chuck that one too.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Looks like there is no place for martyrs. no reason to stand up for something fake like heaven. no promises guaranteed here either . . too miraculous to promise that "heaven thing" again.
We could go on and on. One more "teaching" to look at: Jesus taught that God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever would be believing in Him would have eternal life. But if there were no miracles then God could not offer His only son nor could there be something as ludicrous as eternal life, nor could there be something even more ludicrous as eternal life being a gift that can't be earned. So that pretty much makes the teachings of Jesus a lie, right?
So am I missing something here? What's left? the faith of a mustard seed? Out! What would give Jesus any credibility to have teachings worth following without the miracles? This same Jesus who was a mere carpenter? A Nazarene? Gimme a break!
Perhaps a more critical question to be answered would be this: if the miracles of Jesus are deemed "invalid" or "fabricated." where does the evidence come from that proves they are fake?
Wow, I'm trying to follow the logic of "the miracles of Jesus were lies yet his teachings are worthy of being followed" . . it's not working for me, . . and you?
