the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Encyclopedias
Supernatural
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or This is a word which is popularly used in opposition to "natural," things and events which are not within the ordinary concrete experience and knowledge of mankind being looked upon as forming part of a separate system of things and events. "That is supernatural, whatever it be, that is either not in the chain of natural cause and effect, or which acts on the chain of cause and effect in nature from without "the chain" (Bushnell, Nature and the Supernatural). M'Cosh (On the Supernatural, p. 146, 147) gives this definition: "We may speak of whatever is supposed to be beyond the natural asprete-natural. The phrase will apply not only to the divine action, but to the agency of such beings as ghosts and demons — to b all such operations as witchcraft and necromancy. We may reserve the phrase supernatural to the Supreme Being and to the works performed by him, and to the objects created by him beyond the natural a sphere, such as angels and the world to cone. We would confine the word miracle to those events which were wrought in our world as a sign or proof of God making a supernatural interposition or a revelation to man. We must not look upon creation as supernatural, but we do look upon it as miraculous." So far as our investigation pushes out into the world of nature, we find that law and order exist, and every increase of knowledge reveals to us further illustrations of the assertion that "order is Heaven's first law." Belief in the supernatural does not, therefore, require us to believe in any violation of law, since all reasoning which starts from what we know leads to the conclusion that "supernatural phenomena are as much the result of law as phenomena which are called ‘ natural.'" (See MIRACLE).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Supernatural'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/s/supernatural.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
