NOT How, but That

We have heard many fairy tales so far during our lives.
We have seen intriguing and captivating displays of special effects done by Hollywood experts.
We have heard legends of tales perhaps having occurred or perhaps merely imagined or exaggerated in past history.

What is actually true, and what really happened....in contrast to what did not occur?

Even photos can be photoshopped by skillful artisans, and magicians have done wonders in reality using slight-of-hand manipulations and techniques sometimes termed "illusions."

Second Thessalonians 2:9 The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders,

Revelation 13:15 and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

Which gets us to the subject of "miracles" recorded or at least proclaimed within the covers of The Holy Bible.

Both you and I have heard the rumors and the stories: The Red Sea being blown open by a strong wind long enough to let the Israelites escape the Egyptian army, Jesus changing water to wine and speaking a man born blind into sight, plus telling a dead man to come alive, besides feeding a horde of 5000 hungry men with nearly the equivalent of a McDonald's Happy Meal, rising up into the sky higher and higher until He was out of sight, and so on.

Is knowing the how of it all a barrier to belief?

Ecclesiastes 8:17 then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out; even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

Keep in mind that many of the phenomenal things we have already seen and touched are very unusual events which certainly do NOT occur every day. Such happenings are not common occurrences, but we usually do not "scientifically" know the intricate details of the how they all happen. Does that prevent our accepting the reality of such?

When we get into the why of the occurrence of written historical events (whether such are rumors, heresay, fairy tales, legends, Hollywood fantasy portrayals, magicians tricks, weird things in nature, and more), such neither establishes the proof of existence nor the proof of non-existence. The why is therefore irrelevent involving such.

Indeed, the sometimes childish (or in contrast: child-like) question of Why? to someone else is often rather irritating to that someone else, because the someone else is aware of the complete irrelevance of such questioning in contrast to and/or in place of simply doing whatever without the Why? needing to be asked or deserving to be asked.

The parent might respond to his child: "Just do it now, because I told you so," or "you'll find out later when you need to know."

The question Why? involves motivation and free-willed intention, and really has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of the phenomena asked about. Consider the following:

Job 28:13 Man does not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living.
Ecclesiastes 9:1 But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hate man does not know. Everything before them is vanity,

Thus, leaving the irrelevance (in many instances) of Why? pertaining to the reality of phenomena, we get back to the questions of How? this or that works - always remembering that the How? is also non-related to the That It Actually Is and That It Actually Was and That It Actually Works.

Do you or I exactly know how the laser works in our CD player? How the different-metal elements in a toaster expand at different rates to cause the toast to pop up after a more-or-less consistent time period? How gamma radiation emanates from a geiger-counter check source of the Cesium 137 isotope? The precise details of how radar and radio waves work? How the color red is red? How oxygen is invisible? How gasoline is flammable and TNT is explosive? Exactly how gravity works (but, again, NOT asking "Why?" it works)....and you can rightly guess I could name a million or more other phenomena within our environment asking the How? without asking the Why?.

So let's return to the Biblical accounts. Exactly how - physiologically and microbiologically - did the LORD form and give breath to animals from the ground and the man Adam from the dust of the ground? How - scientifically and chemically - did Christ change water in a different molecular compound called 'wine?' How - medically - did he give sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk, and raise the dead.....simply by talking to them or even about them from a distant geographical location? What were the physics and engineering specifications of Him walking on water? Were advanced techniques of matter-energy transformation (involving E=mc2) the means He used to change a Kid's Meal into a gut-filling-and-satisfying feast for 5000 hungry men out in a remote desert?

John 9:26 They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"

A complex mathematical description involving complicated and extended equations of such occurrences is not given in Scripture. Fancy Latin names are not applied along each step of the way. Pity. Oh well. Never mind - it doesn't matter, does it?

All that is not to say that we cannot wonder, query, and research the How? of it all. For example, did the multiplication of the loaves and the fish out in some desert occur right when Jesus was tearing apart the loaves and fish, or instead after He gave them to His disciples, or as the disciples were carrying them out to the crowd, or as the disciples were dispersing them out within the crowd?

How did the loaves and fish multiply? Instantaneously, as when God created the heavens and the Earth out of nothing? Or instead did each piece rapidly extend outward at some or all point like a fast-growing cancer or fast-forming crystal of ice on a car windshield? Any drinks included, and butter or jam with the rye or wheat or pumpernickel bread - or tartar sauce with the fish?

John 21:25 But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Such details are not know at this time, but of course are clearly not necessary to know. That is NOT to say that the actual and specific processes of such phenomena cannot be wondered about and investigated as much as possible. The Lord does not despise nor prohibit scientific curiousity nor scientific search for answers nor scientific description of answers discovered or declared:

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

Matthew 16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 22:18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?
Mark 8:11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, to test him.
Luke 11:16 while others, to test him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

Luke 24:39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have."

First Corinthians 3:13 each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Second Corinthians 2:9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.

Second Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? --unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Galatians 6:4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.

First Thessalonians 5:21 but test everything; hold fast what is good,

Second Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

First John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--

First John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

In conclusion, the next time we are carelessly inclined to utter a Why? when instead we should be asking a How?, and when we should not even be asking a How? but instead simply accepting an assumed (not presumed) FACT we declare in not-completely-blind "faith" as a non-disputed and in-your-face non-deniable That .....with all the ramifications and applications.....let us not waste time with admittedly irrelevant deviations of aberrant avoidance and senseless side-tracking into pseudo-scientific diversionary irrationalizations and the wickedly-cultic futility of wandering off in tangents and "beating around the bush" meanderings.

If we do not know and cannot honestly give a Yes! or a No! answer to some purported or alleged declaration, we can (for the time being) utter a Maybe! in reply - although eventually (if forced or required to give a Yes or instead No answer without knowing ALL the facts and ALL the scientifical details), it is safe to give a Yes! to what absolutely cannot conclusively be proven false by us or anyone else (even though the whatever in question is extremely unusual and bizarre), particularly if such comes from The Holy Bible - which still is and has repeatedly been proven over nearly-incredible time and effort to be THE Most Reliable Record humans have comprised and contributed to with Divine inspiration along with His impeccable and non-conquerable direction.

GODISNOWHERE?