DO 2612 3/90

1. (Maria: What is the relationship between science & miracles? How are they alike & how are they different?) Well, actually everything is a miracle! All God's Creation is a miracle! So what has that got to do with Man's science? Science is just knowledge, that's all. After all, Man doesn't really create anything, he just discovers things God has already created, or laws He has put into operation, that's all, & figures out how to use them.

2. The word "miracle" comes from the Latin word that means "to look." It means something out of the ordinary that causes astonishment. And the word "science" simply means knowledge. In a way, you can say "science" means knowledge of God's miracles, because all Creation is a miracle. So true science is knowledge that causes us to look at God's Creation & glorify God.

3. (Maria: Would you say that most of what we consider miracles today are exceptions to God's natural laws? In other words, He usually works within His natural laws‚ but He can make exceptions to those.) Yes, it's an exception to the ordinary. However, I wouldn't say that any miracle is against God's natural laws. It's just God revealing something that is unusual to us. It's natural according to His laws, but unusual & supernatural for us in that we don't know about those laws. (Maria: It's unusual in that it doesn't follow God's natural laws that we know about.) It doesn't follow the customary or natural course of events that we are accustomed to‚ but anything God does is natural for Him & according to His natural laws.

4. It's all natural to the Lord! (Maria: And it's all miraculous to us!) Yes, I just look out the window at God's Creation, at the trees & the birds, & it's all miraculous to me really. I certainly couldn't do anything like that! It causes me to stare & wonder & glorify the Lord for the wonders of His Creation!

5. Science is simply knowledge of the miracles of God's Creation. (Maria: And when Man says they've overcome the law of gravity, for example, with their big airplanes, the fact that that plane stays up in the air is still a miracle, whether they've overcome it or not!) They haven't overcome it. They have just used the laws of aerodynamics to counteract natural gravity. (Maria: In other words, they've used some of God's other laws to balance out that law.) Yes. (Maria: But it's still a miracle that thousands of tons of metal can be hanging up there!)

6. Whenever I see a plane, I wonder‚ to think that Man has made something that big that can fly‚ but he's used God's natural laws to do it! Ha! He's just used his knowledge of God's other natural laws to cause it to fly. So to us even that's a miracle! It causes us to look at it & wonder, really, that Man has made something that big & heavy that can fly.

7. Science is knowledge of how to use God's miracles, that's all. It's Man's knowledge of God's miracles. To an ignorant native or a savage of the jungle, these modern so-called scientific gadgets are all miracles. A plane flying overhead is a miracle. Even my old grandmother‚ the first time she ever saw an airplane she shook her head & said, "There's got to be a string attached to it somewhere!"

8. (Maria: Some people use the term "scientific miracle," don't they?) Yes, it's scientific, but it's such a scientific wonder that it causes us to look at it in amazement, which makes it a miracle. If it makes you look in amazement & wonder, that's miraculous! But that does not mean that it is supernatural. It's merely Man using God's natural laws to accomplish his so-called miracle.

9. People usually think of miracles as something supernatural, but they are not supernatural to God or above the natural to Him. And they're also not supernatural to the scientist who knows how to use the natural to make something wonderful. (Maria: We use the term supernatural when something seems miraculous to us‚ right? But you're saying nothing is supernatural to God.) Everything is natural to God. It's just like saying there is nothing impossible with God. With Man it might be impossible (or supernatural), but with God nothing is impossible (or supernatural)!

10. When you see something that looks like the impossible or the supernatural, the unusual, or the miraculous, it's not supernatural, in a sense, with God, because to Him it's natural. However, to us it's above the natural, which means super-natural. Yes, if it's above & beyond our grasp of things, then we consider it supernatural. If we don't understand how it can be because it's beyond our natural normal understanding of things, then to us it's supernatural or miraculous, it's beyond the natural, or what we consider natural.

11. Everything is natural to God! But a lot of things God does are beyond what we consider natural, so we consider them supernatural. "Super" means beyond or above. (Maria: So in scientific discoveries, Man is showing what he has found out about God's laws or God's knowledge, God's miracles.) Yes. (Maria: On the other hand, what we consider "miracles" are the result of God's use of His laws that we haven't discovered yet or we don't know anything about & that we haven't discovered in science.)

12. We use a lot of scientific gadgets which, in a way, to the ordinary person are still almost miraculous. You could say that this little tape recorder we're using right now is miraculous, because it is normally, naturally out of the ordinary & beyond what Man can do, but some very smart man figured out how to do it & how to make it & how to make it record, so it's certainly a scientific wonder.

13. The television is another scientific marvel. In other words‚ most people don't understand how it works, but they just know how to use it. So since it's out of their intellectual range, you might say, beyond their understanding, it's a wonder‚ it's something to wonder at, it's a miracle, it's something to marvel at, because it's way beyond the average person's natural understanding. Therefore it becomes a scientific miracle because there are very few people who know how to use those materials to create those effects, except as I said, the "super" technicians.

14. (Maria: But on the other hand, if these TVs were sitting around here & there & nobody on Earth knew how to make them & they just appeared, they would be classed as not "scientific" miracles but actual miracles.)—A supernatural miracle. I presume they would still appear as supernatural miracles to a native in the jungle who's never seen one.

15. (Maria: When someone gets cured of an incurable disease, for example, we call it a miracle because we're seeing the evidence or the manifestation of some of God's natural laws that we know nothing about. So that's like our definition of a miracle.) Exactly. He knows how to heal. He knows how to undo the damage that the Devil has done, or that we have done to ourselves in abusing our bodies.

16. The Lord knows how to use what to Him are His natural laws of healing to create what to us is a supernatural miracle, a thing that we cannot do, that is beyond our capabilities, but that He has the power to do by using His Own natural laws, the laws that He has created. He knows how to heal. To Him it's simple! It's part of His natural laws of good & healing. To us, since we can't do it & don't know how, we can only pray for Him to do it. To us it's beyond our natural abilities & therefore we consider it a supernatural miracle, & to us it is!

17. (Maria: And maritime knowledge of tides & the flow of the oceans is called scientific knowledge because Man has discovered God's natural laws regarding it, right?) Yes, it's simple science, which means knowledge. It's simply knowledge that Man has learned or gained from observation of what are actually miracles of God, created through His using His natural laws.

18. (Maria: But when the sea parted & the Israelites walked through it on dry land, that's a supernatural miracle‚ because science hasn't been able to discover anything about how God used His natural laws to perform it, right?) That's contrary to what we consider the natural laws of gravity etc., but it's nothing to God; He can do it easily because He can use His supernatural laws to bring that into effect‚ let's put it that way. (Maria: Or some other natural laws that He doesn't usually use, right?) Yes.

19. I think it says that "there came a wind out of the East" that parted the waters.—Exo.14:21. So it seemed to them that this wind sort of blew on the waters & parted the waters so they could walk over on dry ground. That was some wind to have made the naturally muddy bottom dry! (Maria: So it's some of God's natural laws that He doesn't ordinarily use that He can call into use to supercede or overcome some of His other laws.) Yes, exactly.

20. You don't normally see fire coming down from Heaven, but the Prophet commanded fire to come down & devour the soldiers that the king had sent to arrest him! (See 2Kings 1) And the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11 will have fire come out of their mouths to burn up their enemies!—Rev.11:5. God can do that easily, Man is not normally a fire-breathing monster. (Maria: But God doesn't usually call into effect those laws that seem unnatural to us.) It usually has to be under extreme circumstances or an extreme emergency where God has to use His supernatural laws to counteract something the Devil is trying to do. (Maria: So I guess He reserves that to take care of His people, to protect & save them. That seems to be the main use more than anything else.) Yes, & to heal them, to supply their needs‚ all kinds of things. (Maria: That's really encouraging to think that the Lord reserves those for us!) Yes.

21. He's fed His people by miracles, He's protected them by miracles.—What to us are miracles‚ but are perfectly normal to God‚ because with God nothing is impossible!—Luk. 1:37. He just uses His natural laws of Creation‚ which are really supernatural, to do things, to feed & protect us & keep us. In a way it's all supernatural. It's all a miracle, really, the way He takes care of us. It's become so normal in our lives that sometimes we no longer look on it as a supernatural miracle. But we're often reminded of it by how amazingly He takes care of us. It's all a miracle how He has protected us & supplied our needs, but we just sort of get used to it so that it no longer seems so miraculous to us. He protects us from our enemies in many ways that we know of, & probably a lot of ways we don't even know of! So, praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! You're a miracle, Honey!

22. (Maria: At the same time that Man has discovered God's natural laws through scientific experimentation, he's tried to put them in some form that will be useful to Mankind. Like when he discovered some of the laws of physics, chemistry, engineering, electronics & aerodynamics: As he discovered God's natural laws he was able to put them to use in a concrete way, by inventing telephones, telegraphs, televisions, airplanes, automobiles, etc. etc. Almost as soon as he discovered it he was able to use it for something.) Then he praises himself & glorifies himself & gives all the credit to himself for having made it! And all he did was use God's natural laws & materials & put them together. Well, he deserves a little credit for figuring out how to make a television or a telephone or an airplane etc.—It's quite a job!

23. First of all, they have to discover God's natural laws, for example‚ of motion or aero-dynamics or electronics or whatever it is‚ & then they figure out how to use them. Then they make machinery or they make electronic equipment or airplanes by figuring out how to use those principles or God's law, natural laws, to do seemingly supernatural things. (Maria: God doesn't need any instruments or machines to work, He just does it through His laws, but Man has to make the machines, make the physical vehicle in order to use it.) Yes, to harness these natural laws for his own use.

24. Man has to go to a lot of work to make a television set to transfer a picture from a broadcaster's source to a TV. But God can send a picture by His Own natural laws, supernatural to us, by just thinking the picture & transferring it to our minds or even to our vision. (Maria: And that's the way it will be in the Millennium for God's people, right? They won't need all this electronic stuff!) Goodness no! (Maria: Even in the natural World.) Yes, He'll simply transfer His thoughts by His Angels with whatever He wants us to think & see.

25. I get a lot of solutions that way for practical problems, for the physical maintenance of the house or building repairs. I often go to sleep thinking about a problem, wondering how I'm going to solve it. Then I often get those pictures at night‚ sometimes I get'm in the day. Sometimes I get ideas by dreams. A lot of times I get'm just in the broad daylight when I'm thinking about it & really, in a way, praying about it; I see a picture.

26. Well‚ it's amazing what prayer will do if you'll just get in tune; in other words, turn on your receiver & look to the Lord for the answer, even for the location of a lost article! He can easily show you right away where it is or how to do something or how to fix something, or whatever it is. To us that's a miracle! The Lord can see it, so He can give you a picture of where it is. To us that's a miracle, but that's nothing unusual for Him!

27. So there you are! Honey, you're always the starter, you get me started! It's your questions that often have resulted in answers! (Maria: Yes, thank you, Honey, for answering me. I was a bit muddled.) If there's no question, there's no answer. (Maria: This answer you gave me makes it all so simple!) A lot of your simple questions have resulted in my simple answers! And sometimes they were complicated answers, like that one. (Maria: Everything seems so much clearer & simpler now! PTL!) Amen, thank You Jesus!

QUIZ QUESTIONS:

1 What is true science? [2b,5a,7a]

2 (T or F) What seems supernatural to us is natural to God. Why? [3,4,9-11]

3 How are "miracles" performed? [11b, 15b,16,18,19] Under what circumstances does God do miracles? [20,21]

4 Can people who know more about how God's natural laws work use their knowledge to seem to do "miracles"? [5-8‚12–14] Give some examples of how Man has used God's natural laws. [12,13a,22‚23

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