How to respond to someone who believe that the Jesus miracles are just an allegory?

[TK421]

Well, if you were going to Jesus after being severely sick for 20 years, which you would prefer? An allegory or a cure?

 

[Peebo]

Well if your friend believes that the miracles Jesus performed were only allegorical then I suppose your friend might also believe that Jesus didn’t physically rise from the dead but only spiritually…there are Christians who support that theory.

 

[Maximus1]

If you don’t believe in the resurrection, what’s the point. I shy away from peoples descriptions which sort of undercuts supernatural to begin with. I think we do overanalyze and capture to often. We cannot help but try to control our reality this way. It cannot be but we try any way.
Beyond resurrection, there is incarnation. The rest do not really affect my faith if I am honest.
( Meaning they don’t add or subtract
if they are factual.) I would agree that their spiritual meaning is clearly of more value.

 

[KMC]

Hi,
a relative of mine think that the healing miracles of Jesus and most of what he did in his public life are just allegories to tell stories of spiritual matter. Like when Jesus heals a blind man, he thinks that Jesus opened his eyes spiritually… But he believes that Jesus is God.
Could you help me to respond to such a claim ?
Thanks.

Its important for people to first understand the genre of the books they are reading. The Gospels are Greco-Roman biographies. Richard Burridge did a lot of work in this area regarding them. The Gospels are not written in the form of myth or legend…they are written as biographies.

Thus, its incumbent upon your relative to back up his claim.

 

[thelightoftheworld]

I don’t know his position of the resurrection of Jesus, I may ask him…

 

[KMC]

He reads them while not accepting everything in them. He also reads the apocrypha. He thinks that it’s suspicious that some gospels were canonized and not others…

Again, very important to understand the genre (Biographies, history, prophetic literature), and to understand the literary devices employed (metaphor, analogy, parable, etc) to arrive at the literary truth the author is conveying.

The fact that some books are referred to by either your or your relative as “apocrypha” is quite telling. I suggest reading a book called “Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger” by Gary Machuta. The books commonly referred to as “apocrypha” by Protestants are Old Testament books found in the Septuagint, the version of Scriptures used by Jesus and the Apostles. (note: “apocrypha” also has a broader meaning to be “any uninspired book”) It was Martin Luther, under his own authority that took the Bible that had stayed the same for 1100 years (since 382 when Pope St. Damasus at the Council of Rome promulgated the 73 books of the Canon), and decided that 7 books were not inspired…putting them into the appendix of his translation, and called them Apocrypha.

Ultimately, your relative should provide some evidence as to why he accepts some books and not others.

 

[thelightoftheworld]

You’re right… The thing is that I think that he was influenced by gnosticism because he rejects the real presence, the authority of the Church, baptism of regeneration and he claims that True knowledge comes trough experience, that Truth isn’t attainable in this life, that to believe is to claim that you detain truth… definitely hard to understand.

 

[KMC]

You’re right… The thing is that I think that he was influenced by gnosticism because he rejects the real presence, the authority of the Church, baptism of regeneration and he claims that True knowledge comes trough experience, that Truth isn’t attainable in this life, that to believe is to claim that you detain truth… definitely hard to understand.

Perhaps a place to start is simply to ask if he can have faith in another person. Its very hard to get by in life if you cannot believe what another person says based only on their credibility or honesty.

A few examples:

1. Does he have a college degree? In getting that college degree, did he accept what his professors taught, or did he reject everything, since he needs to experience it? I have an engineering degree…I had to trust that when my professors taught me something (when we didn’t have a lab to reinforce it) that I believed what they said to be true. I had to trust them.
2. Is he married? Does he trust his wife, when she says she loves him? Or does he require a mathematical proof, that he has to work out himself, to know she is telling him the truth. Does he trust her?
3. Could he ever serve on a jury? Meaning, on a jury, there will be times when the only evidence comes from a witness. Can he accept the testimony of a witness alone, based soley on their credibility?

If a person cannot accept the testimony, based on the trustworthiness of another, then I’m not sure how they function in life. If they can accept the testimony of another, based on their trustworthiness, then have them investigate the trustworthiness of the writers of the Biblical books, or the Church, etc.
In short, I’m asking if he has the ability to have an informed faith (not blind faith)? If so, get informed…ask question…don’t just discount everything based on a feeling or unproven supposition.

 

[steve-b]

Hi,
a relative of mine think that the healing miracles of Jesus and most of what he did in his public life are just allegories to tell stories of spiritual matter. Like when Jesus heals a blind man, he thinks that Jesus opened his eyes spiritually… But he believes that Jesus is God.
Could you help me to respond to such a claim ?
Thanks.

Seems a bit of a contradiction of terms.

I’m suspecting something else is going on with your relative on this issue … just sayin