Miracles without Faith, part 3   Introduction When the mother of magician Harry Houdini died, he made an effort to contact her through mediums. As he visited them, it came to his attention that they were nothing more than charlatans preying on innocent people claiming to be able to speak to their ancestors. Houdini spent that latter half of his career debunking mediums, fortune tellers, and spiritualists as they were nothing more than magicians claiming to be someone important. This is similar to Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8. Back in the Old Testament, part of The Law was a list of abominations of the land that the Israelite were forbidden to take part (Deut. 18:9-12). King Saul, however, was in need of one of these people and the end result was quite surprising.   A King Gone Wrong Saul was chosen king of the Israelites because of his stature (1 Sam. 9:2). However, his reign was rife with problems: He performed a sacrifice for the people instead of wa...

  Cartoon created by Martin Young Miracles without Faith, part 2 Introduction Anyone who knows the classic Rex Harrison movies, would be familiar with the movie, Doctor Doolittle. A man who was capable of talking with the animals. There was an updated version, with Robert Downey, Jr., in which you could hear the animals speak to him in the English language. Although this is simply movie magic, embracing the creativity of a family fun film, an actual event did occur in scripture where an animal spoke to its owner. For this story, we turn to the book of Numbers and chapter 22.   The Story of Balaam Balaam was a well-known soothsayer (Josh. 13:22), a deceiver who “foretold” things for money. If someone wanted an individual, or group, blessed or cursed they would send for him. Balak, the king of the Moabites, was just that individual who wanted the children of Israel cursed because they encamped next to his kingdom (Num. 22:3-6). He sent messengers to Balaam to com...

    Introduction In the book of Genesis, we see, during creation, that everything was made according to its kind. In Gen. 1:11-12, Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. When Noah built the ark, he had to fill it with animals and they were according to its kind, On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark- they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort (Genesis 7:13-14). With this in mind, we’ll at ...

  Characters from the movie, The Prince of Egypt. I do not claim any rights to this picture. Miracles without Faith, part 1   Introduction In the apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he addresses the problems with false teachers of the gospel and connects them to two names found no where else in scripture. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was (2 Timothy 3:8-9). These two names are connected to the magicians who went up against Moses in regard to the ten plagues. The names are found only in traditional Jewish manuscripts, but I suggest to you that they were given to Paul by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. To know their names is irrelevant but, to Paul, it is not above him to name names of those who opposed him (1 Tim. 1:20; 2 Tim. 2:17). This article is not about false teache...

    Introduction There is a well-known movie that follows the story of a “Faith Healer” and his entourage, going from town to town, preaching, teaching, and “healing” people. The whole of it is a huge scam and they show how these “miracles” are being done. At a pivotal moment in the film, an actual crippled boy; one befriended by the preacher, comes onstage to be healed. The preacher knows he’s a fraud and is unable to do it. Not sure what else to do, he points out the local sheriff in the audience; one who’s unto his fakery, and states that since this man lacks faith, the healing won’t happen. The scene concludes when the crippled boy does become healed but without the preacher’s help. As the movie closes, we see the preacher abandoned everything he built to go straight. In our previous series of articles, we’ve looked at miracles in scripture and the fact that they have ceased. Contrary to what some believe that they continue even today. These “Faith Healers” will ...