The Miracles of Jesus Christ
Extract
from Barbelo – The Story of Jesus Christ,
by Riaan Booysen
Christ claimed to be
the Son of God and the only way in which he would have been able to prove his
claim to divinity would have been by performing supernatural ‘miracles’. A
‘miracle’ is generally understood to be a case where physical matter
instantaneously changes from one state to another through the mere command or desire
(belief) of a person, or a force that can be exerted in a supernatural manner
(moving objects without the application of physical force), and so on. Criticism
against miracles is usually countered by the argument that, God, as the
Almighty Creator, is omnipotent and able to do anything He desires.
Assuming for a moment
that such a God, being a He, She, Them or It, does indeed exist, let’s take a
look at ‘miracles’ from a practical angle. Let’s call them the Ferrari Gods,
who exist in a heaven called Italy. They have just finished the design of their
latest Formula One car and the first prototype has passed its test drive with
flying colours. However, the test driver afterwards claims that he was able to
fly to the moon with this new Ferrari. Would anyone believe him? Of course not.
And could the Ferrari Gods themselves get into this Ferrari and fly to the
moon? Of course not. They did not design it for that purpose. If they had
wanted to fly to the moon, they would have designed a Space Shuttle instead.
So, what is my point?
The Ferrari of the Creation (to use Christian terminology) is called ‘Physics’.
Everything in the universe is subject to the Laws of Physics. Therefore, no ‘miracle’
that has ever been performed, either back then or today, by anyone, will
survive the scrutiny of the Laws of Physics.
In Barbelo I argue that Christ was originally known as Simon Magus, which literally means Simon the Magician (see related article). Christ himself was also accused of being a magician, so, assuming that He had indeed performed ‘miracles’, how did he manage to do it? The answer is simple – he was an illusionist, no different from any illusionist we know today, and like any such deceptions, it merely required various degrees of preparation.
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The Coin in the Fish
- The Miraculous Fish Catch
-
Turning Water into Wine
Christ had close ties with one of the richest families in Jerusalem, the Boethus family. He would, therefore, have had access to huge reserves of food, and the bread loaves and fish were simply concealed from view and then secretly passed on to the disciples, who distributed it among the masses.
In calm, shallow waters it would have been possible
to walk on stepping stones laid just below the surface of the water, leading up
to a previously determined point of rendezvous with Peter’s boat. Dusk would
have been chosen to prevent the stepping stones from being spotted by the
witnesses, and Christ would have been dressed in white to make him clearly visible.
Peter also attempted the walk-on-water miracle but missed one of the stones and
ended up in the water. No doubt the critics of Christ would have seen through
the deception, and his followers subsequently had to introduce a raging storm
and the subsequent calming of the sea after the walk on the water in an attempt
to refute their allegations.
- Faith Healing
-
The Raising of Lazarus
The raising of the dead
would be the Holy Grail of miracles, and is worth looking at in greater detail.
The sisters Mary (Magdalene) and Martha sent word to Christ that Lazarus, ‘the
one he loves,’ was sick, but when Christ eventually reached Bethany, their hometown,
Lazarus had died and had already been buried for four days. Christ was met by
Martha, but Mary ‘stayed at home.’ He comforted the mourning sisters and was ‘deeply
moved in spirit and troubled’ and wept. Martha took Christ to the tomb, which
was opened, and Christ promptly called for the deceased Lazarus to come out
from the tomb. Lazarus obliged and emerged from the cave, still wrapped in
linen and cloth. A hint at how Christ managed to ‘revive’ the deceased Lazarus is
given in a text called The Secret Gospel
of Mark in which the raising of Lazarus is briefly recounted. Curiously,
though, it is stated that ‘a great cry was heard from the tomb’ before Christ
and Martha opened the grave. There is, of course, no such thing as the revival
of the dead, which leads one to suspect that this miracle must have been yet
another of Christ’s deceptions.
The ‘miracle’ was most
likely performed as follows: Lazarus either pretended to be sick or more likely
was given something to make him appear sick. When he ‘died,’ he would have been
given a drug to prevent him from making involuntary movements while family members
and friends came to mourn him. Once he had been buried, he would have left the
tomb secretly, and the body of a deceased person would have been placed inside.
Just before the arrival of Christ, with much fanfare and numerous witnesses,
Lazarus would have slipped into the tomb, waiting for Christ’s call to
reappear. It would seem, however, that the young man completely underestimated
the horror of being locked up in a confined space with a rotting corpse and
eventually began screaming to be released. No doubt, both his sisters and
Christ would have found Lazarus’s predicament hilarious, which probably
accounts for Mary not leaving the house to meet Christ, as she must have
struggled to control her laughter. Christ is recorded as having wept in sorrow,
but one can imagine that he, too, could hardly contain himself, and that he had
to clutch his face with both hands to conceal his true emotions. The tears
streaming down his face and his shaking body would have been interpreted as
intense sorrow by those who were unaware of the deception, but those tears would
have been tears of laughter.
All the other instances
of Christ reviving deceased persons can likewise be explained. The deceased and
his or her family had to be involved in the deception right from the start,
either as willing participants or having been paid to do so. Of particular
interest is the raising of the deceased son of a widow who lived in Nain. In
this instance the dead boy was being carried out of the city in a coffin, presumably
to be buried, when Christ encountered the funeral procession. He touched the
coffin and instructed the boy to sit up, which he promptly did. There can be no
question that the boy had been anything but dead, and that his ‘death’ must
have been well orchestrated to convince friends and family members that he had
actually died. A widow in need would have been more than willing to participate
in this deception, provided that the compensation was sufficient.
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