Faith requires you to wait on God and believe HE will take care of the situation.
Actually, that's an attitude that drives many Christians crazy, because it leads to apathetic acceptance of problems. "God helps those who help themselves," they'd counter-argue. Or, more to the point, get off your butt and start doing something about the problem yourself.
The problem with magic is that you aren't doing it on your own. You're calling on someone else's power. And since the power of God cannot be compelled, it must be the power of the Devil. You can see this very much at work in the issue of miracles: there are countless historical examples of "is this a miracle (and therefore from God and good) or is it magic (and therefore from the Devil and bad)?" The distinction between that two could be the difference between being canonized as a saint or burned at the stake as a witch. (And the answer generally depended more on the people involved and the local situation than on any clear litmus test.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-30 12:04 am (UTC)Actually, that's an attitude that drives many Christians crazy, because it leads to apathetic acceptance of problems. "God helps those who help themselves," they'd counter-argue. Or, more to the point, get off your butt and start doing something about the problem yourself.
The problem with magic is that you aren't doing it on your own. You're calling on someone else's power. And since the power of God cannot be compelled, it must be the power of the Devil. You can see this very much at work in the issue of miracles: there are countless historical examples of "is this a miracle (and therefore from God and good) or is it magic (and therefore from the Devil and bad)?" The distinction between that two could be the difference between being canonized as a saint or burned at the stake as a witch. (And the answer generally depended more on the people involved and the local situation than on any clear litmus test.)