This 34/40 (A* grade) essay provides a great learning and revision resource to A-Level students studying Developments of Christian Thought within Religious Studies. It focuses on the Person of Jesus as the Son of God through his miracles and references many miracles, biblical quotes, and critics. T...
Lara Machin
Developments in Christian Thought Exam:
‘Jesus’ miracles demonstrate that he was the Son of God’ Discuss.
Jesus was brought into the world through God to offer salvation through his biggest miracle: his
sacrifice and resurrection. It is still often disputed today whether Jesus is in fact the Son of God or
alternatively, a teacher of wisdom or a political liberator. Many theologians who are in support of
Jesus being the Son of God use the miracles he performed during his lifetime to support this.
However, this can be countered through scientific explanations and thinkers such as Hume. An
alternative, and arguably more convincing, approach to proving Jesus was the Son of God would
perhaps be Jesus’ use of language when preaching to his followers and praying to God and I will
discuss and evaluate both of these methods below.
Firstly, Jesus may be seen as the Son of God through his miracles as the effects of these miracles
often hold similarities with God. An example of this would be Jesus healing the blind man. The blind
man goes on to worship Jesus after he performs this miracle, which is something people would only
do to God. In addition to this, these miracles emulate the relationship that Jesus had with God as
these are God given powers which defy the laws of logic and nature. Through this, one can observe
how Jesus’ miracles were often met with worship in a sense that people would only do to God and it
shows how such events are truly supernatural and can only come about from divine intervention,
therefore implying that Jesus was indeed the Son of God as these powers could have only come from
God himself.
On the other hand, many of these stories of miracles are told as parables. Only a few Christians,
notably fundamental Christians, believe that every single word in the Bible is true and many other
types of Christians believe that much of the works are symbolic, such as the creation story, as
science begs to differ that the universe was created in 6 days through the works of a divine being.
Therefore, many people may argue that Jesus’ works are actually symbolic and represent his
teachings. Many Christians still believe that Jesus was the Son of God, however science was not
nearly as developed as it is now, and writers of the Gospel may not have had logical or scientific
explanations that we can offer now for such occurrences 2000 years ago e.g., St Paul suffering from
epilepsy rather than having a religious experience, and this line of logic can surely be applied to
Jesus’ miracles. The use of miracles to support the debate claiming that Jesus is the Son of God goes
against many thinkers’ ideas such as David Hume who claimed that miracles were in “violation of
laws of nature” and therefore should not be used in any form of debate to prove somethings’
existence or identity. Through this, we can identify weaknesses within the line of reasoning behind
using miracles to support the idea that Jesus was the Son of God and alternative methods may be
required.
An alternative view of Jesus being the Son of God can be explained through his divine wisdom
through his teachings. This would provide a more logical approach to concluding that he is the Son of
God as it allows Christians to take in his words and principles such as the Golden Rule and the
parable of the Good Samaritan, without having to accept that a human being on earth could defy the
laws of logic and nature. However, this may lead people to believing that Jesus was simply a prophet
sent by God to preach the word of God rather than the Son of God himself. Therefore, I theologians
may believe that not taking into account Jesus’ miracles or simply denying them leads to a slippery
slope and may result in people believing Jesus is a prophet rather than the Son of God, which would
result in catastrophic consequences for Christianity as a whole. This method may be useful to people
of other beliefs such as Muslims, however it is limited when proving Jesus is the Son of God through
a Christian lens.
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