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Christians today are fond of proclaiming that, even in a world filled with "worthless," "sinful" people, who "fully deserve to suffer in hell for all eternity," Jesus, because he loves us all so much, *still* performs "miracles" for us, but the reason us nonbelievers don't recognize them is because we are "just too arrogant and too blind to see them!"
Isn't it interesting, though, that all of these so-called "miracles" seem to come in the form of naturally occurring phenomena, or events that have perfectly natural explanations and require no supernatural intervention whatsoever? For example, if an apartment building collapses in an earthquake, killing hundreds under thousands of tons of concrete, but a few people are rescued (through human effort, mind you) from isolated pockets within the rubble, it's labeled "a miracle from Jesus" even though it's a statistical probability that a few people will be alive. In other words, while the odds of any particular person surviving such a catastrophe are exceedingly slim, the odds that some will be alive are actually quite high; as such there is nothing "miraculous" about it!
If you only count the hits and ignore the misses then virtually anything can be made to seem "miraculous."
Recently, during a Major League baseball game, famed pitcher Randy Johnson threw a blazing fastball toward home plate, and at that moment a bird flew in the path of the pitch and was struck by the ball and literally killed in mid-air. Now, the probability of such an event happening is remote in the extreme, at the very least billions of times more remote than the odds of finding survivors in a collapsed apartment building, and yet we don't see Christians running around proclaiming what a "miracle" it was that the one-ten-thousandth of a second that bird just happened to be in the path Johnson's ball took, and the one-ten-thousandth of a second Johnson's ball just happened to be in the path the bird took, and that these trajectories just happened to intersect with each other at that precise moment! They don't call it a "miracle" for the simple reason that they have no religious-based motivation to do so. Moreover, there is no need to call such a thing "miraculous" since there was nothing outside the realm of the natural world required for such an event to occur, no matter how improbable it may have been.
So why is it, then, with so many billions of prayers being said year-in and year-out by millions of Christians all over the world, we have never, and I mean NEVER, seen even one "miracle" come in the form of even one resurrection from the dead? Why is that? I have seen many children die tragically in my profession and do you know what? They are all still dead! But I promise you there is not one family that would not give anything in this world to have their child back.
Why is it so unreasonable for Jesus to provide just
one single resurrection of a dead child today in order to
provide some objective evidence to "His" reality?
Why not just one Lazarus (John 11); just one Jairus' daughter
(Luke 8); just one Only son of a widowed mother (Luke 7)? In
the case of Lazarus in particular we are told that Jesus waited for him to
die and be buried for four days, because he thought it would be a good
opportunity to perform a resurrection in the presence of his disciples
(and the people standing round)! Why? Well, according to John 11:42,
"that they may believe..." Well, why should we expect
anything less, so that WE may see it "and believe"? Why is
it that they got the physical evidence and we, two millennia
removed, "just have to have faith"?
But because Christians see such requests as being selfish or "daring
to test God" (even though
according to scripture none of that should matter) I have made it a point to
NOT ask for my own family or friends to be resurrected; rather, I propose
the resurrection of some other child who has died and been prayed for by
Christians, preferably one who was a "Christian."
For
example, one minister I was debating recently brought up the Wedgewood
Baptist Church shooting in Ft. Worth, Texas a couple
years ago (a man just opened fire on the church congregation during services, killing
seven and injuring many more before turning the gun on himself). This minister cited
it as an example of how this massacre actually resulted in "thousands
of people becoming believers."
My response to that was:
"Yes, of course, this was all part of God's "higher good," just as Columbine here in Colorado was part of some "higher good" so Christians could make a martyr myth about Cassie Barnall ("she said, yes") that NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED!
Jesus takes the lives of innocent people in dramatic, seemingly horrific, ways "so that others might be inspired by it and be saved!" Well, if Jesus is willing to perform "miracles" that require people to get murdered (taking of life, but for a higher cause...) as part of his "master plan," then I would like to ask why He will not (or cannot) perform like-minded "miracles" in the form of "resurrecting the dead" (just one!) in order that others "might be inspired by it and be saved"?
Honestly, if the murder of innocent people in a church during services is enough to "bring thousands" to belief, then how many millions would be "inspired" and "brought to salvation" if, say, just one of those people killed in that massacre were to be suddenly resurrected from the dead?"
Think about it. Can you imagine what Christians would say if Cassie
Barnall were actually to be resurrected from the dead today, especially
after all the martyrdom they have endowed upon her non-words? Would
any Christian proclaim it to be anything but a "Supreme miracle from
Jesus!" with hails of "see, world, we told you so!"?
And so my challenge stands
Just One Child! Resurrect just one single child from the dead to provide some objective, verifiable, physical, evidence (at least to my satisfaction) that Any prayers are Ever answered at Any time!
If Jesus is real and He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving "God" that Christians tell us He is, then He should know and understand that THIS EVIDENCE is the ONLY thing that will restore me to my former state of belief; it is the ONLY thing that will "save me" from the fires of hell I am threatened with by his self righteous followers; as such, if He is truly real and He truly loves me, then shouldn't He provide the one thing He knows that I need to see in order "that I may believe" . . . again?
And in my challenge there is my promise
Should Jesus, or any one of his devoted followers perform this one resurrection, I promise:
- That I will devote my life to spreading "His Word" to all the world, especially to atheists, agnostics & people professing belief in all the thousands of other "false" religions extant in the world.
- That I will view myself as being persecuted anytime the subjects of my mission dare stand up and challenge the message of salvation and love I profess, or challenge the eternal consequences they are to face should they reject it.
- That I will welcome suffering in this life, knowing that myself and those Christians suffering with me will be rewarded for eternity in heaven with Jesus.
- That I will give all of my possessions and money to the poor as Jesus commanded (Luke 18:22).
- That I will see the nuclear family and marriage as a distraction and a threat to the narrow path; as such, I will help to disband families that do not comply in full. I will help bring dissension and to pit father against son and mother against daughter, to tear them apart (Luke 12:51-53). I will leave my own family for His namesake (Matthew 19:29). I will hate my father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even my own life in accordance with "His requirements" to be His disciple (Luke 14:26).
I will do all of these things and be a suffering servant for Jesus. I will make it my purpose in life to be His greatest disciple!
--Bruce Monson, 2001