The Worker of Signs & Wonders

Trinity on Trial : Act V continued...

Many claim that the working of miracles proves that Jesus was 'divine'. What does the evidence say?

John 11:21-22
"Martha therefore said to Jesus...even now (Lazarus was already dead) I know that whatever you shall ask of God, God will give you." Martha's subsequent identification of Jesus as the anointed Son of God adds to the force of her utterance, confirming as it does the manner by which Jesus was enabled to perform miracles.

Acts 2:22
"Ye men of Israel hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know." There is no ambiguity in this statement: God was working the miracles, not Jesus.

John 14:10
"Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? the words that I say unto you, I speak not from myself, but the Father abiding in me doeth his works." (See also Deuteronomy 18:18). In drawing the distinction, 'not from myself, but the Father', Jesus testifies that it was the power with which he was anointed that permitted him to perform miracles.

John 5:26-27
"For as the Father has life in himself, even so gave he to the son also to have life in himself, and he gave him authority to execute judgement because he is a son of man." Unless Jesus was a 'son of man' this statement would be pointless.

A parallel case is that of Moses. See A Prophet like Moses

"And there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom YHWH knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which YHWH sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all the mighty hand, and in all the great terror, which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel." (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)

"This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years..." (Acts 7:36)

"Hereby ye shall know that YHWH hath sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own mind." (Numbers 16:28)

From these texts it is clear that the working of miracles conferred no 'divinity' upon the doer. YHVH delegates authority to whom he chooses.