Thomas Paine Research Paper

The Culture of Miracles “[Miracles] would not…answer any useful purpose.” said Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense.” In Paine’s mind, miracles were out of the question because Christ would be degrading Himself and nature would have to change its natural order to accommodate Jesus. Perhaps, Paine could be considered a bit of a snob. Jesus walked the earth long before Paine’s time and had to use example from that time period to help people understand much like how Paine had to examples from the war in his paper to stir people to action. Christ used miracles in the culture He was in to help people trust him. “Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim…‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’…And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine (John 2:7-9).” In Jewish culture, not having wine for guests symbolized the host could not provide for his family. When Jesus was asked for help, it seems unnatural to turn water into wine as opposed to putting grapes in a jar and turning the fruit into wine. However, consider the making of wine. Once the grapes were crushed and turned into a syrup, it was stored away to ferment. When it
No one could touch this woman for fear of becoming unclean and not being able to enter the temple. Her only hope was to touch the hem of Christ’s clothes. In Hellenistic culture, the tassels of a teacher’s cloak supposedly had great power that could be passed to another person through touch (Bromley, 13). She knew she could trust this teacher, so it’s only natural then that the woman believed, reached out and was rewarded for her