You ask: why talk-write so much about such simple, obvious things, provide such elementary examples-analogies. I also ask myself: is this madness so mad that I don’t even know – will these thoughts-medicines affect at least someone of the offended or “saints”?! Someone says: nowadays there are not enough miracles, create a miracle and everyone will repent… Since we mentioned a miracle, let me tell you an incident that happened with Elder Paisios the Athonite.
Young men, far from God, came to Elder Paisios on Mount Athos. They decided out of curiosity to see the monk they had heard so much about. The elder greeted them, offered them water from the spring and fruits. The visitors asked him:
– Father, we want you to perform some miracle before us so that we can see and believe in God.
Paisios replied:
– Wait a minute.
He went into his cell and took out a large knife. Approaching the guests, he said:
– Please sit in a row. I will cut off your heads and then miraculously reattach them. Just sit a little apart so I don’t confuse the severed heads.
The young men exclaimed:
– No, no! We don’t need any miracle! Then the elder said:
– If the Lord wanted people to believe in Him through miracles, it would be easy because He could show a miracle with one supernatural intervention, visible to all, so that everyone would believe in Him. But God does not seek us to believe only through miracles. He wants us to believe and love Him for His boundless goodness.
For God, there is no problem in performing some miracle, but He does not want to win us over this way. He performs miracles when a person is completely powerless. Even when Jesus Christ lived on this earth and performed various miracles and signs, not everyone believed in Him, on the contrary, they persecuted Him, accused Him, and wanted to kill Him.
The greatest miracle in our daily lives is God’s love for us and the forgiveness of our sins.” (For religious people (pagans), sons of this age: a miracle is when God fulfills the will of man; but for (humble) wise men: a miracle is when a person fulfills the will of God!)
And we will finish our proof of the theorem with these words: if these simple truths are not understood, then even if someone rose from the dead, they will not believe!