Thursday, October 22, 2009

Supernature

Most of us, you see, think of God as a "God of the gaps." We don't intend to , but we do. Having been educated in the West there is a deistic twist to your thinking, causing us to view a tree as growing by natural laws. We fail to see God working everywhere (God pulling and shaping each leaf, each blade of grass) even though we may subscribe in general to the notion. We are affected by our knowledge of science. Whatever our stated beliefs, in everyday practice we think of God setting the grass growing and then moving off to do something else, so to speak.
The God of the Bible runs everything. He created Nature and Supernature which are actually all of a piece with no division between them. Nothing in Nature woks by itself. God 'works' it. He intervenes unceasingly. Every musical note we hear, every sunrise and sunset we see, every birth we rejoice in, every exploding supernova we marvel at - all are expressions of his power. His presence keeps the whole show working.
Similarly every angelic appearance, every miracle of healing are likewise the working of his sovereign laws. In this sense there is no fundamental difference between what we call miracle and what we call ordinary. Yet we need some sort of a division to aid us in discussion.

John White, When The Spirit Comes With Power, p. 59

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