Friday, April 15, 2016

"he taught in their synagogues" - A Miracle to Move a Mountain

Tokyo


A Miracle to Move a Mountain


Christ Jesus said that if you had any little faith, you could move a mountain.

Nobody takes this teaching as it is literally.  Besides, you may wonder: Did Christ Jesus move any mountains?   Moving a mountain is just a parable for something great.  However, "move a mountain" might not necessarily mean "change the location of a mountain" but mean "shake a mountain."  It might mean that if we have any little faith, we can shake a volcano to have it erupt.
Mount Vesuvius is best known for its eruption in AD 79 that led to the burying and destruction of the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and several other settlements. That eruption ejected a cloud of stones, ash, and fumes to a height of 33 km (20.5 mi), spewing molten rock and pulverized pumice at the rate of 1.5 million tons per second, ultimately releasing a hundred thousand times the thermal energy released by the Hiroshima bombing.[1] An estimated 16,000 people died due to hydrothermal pyroclastic flows.[2] The only surviving eyewitness account of the event consists of two letters by Pliny the Younger to the historian Tacitus. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vesuvius
Map of Mount Vesuvius (near Naples, Italy)
http://www.approachguides.com/blog/touring-mount-vesuvius/


Around AD 79, the first Jewish-Roman war had been ended with the victory of Roman troops over Judaists.  And, St. Paul and St. Peter had been already executed by the Roman authority in Rome.

So, somebody who took over the leadership of early Christians must have said to God in Rome after the fall of Jerusalem and the death of St. Paul and St. Peter: "Oh God, please show justice.  Romans destroyed Jerusalem and killed so many Isrealites.  Please bring justice to Romans.  Oh, God, if you admit my faith and approve my role to succeed St. Peter, please give me power to exercise a miracle to move a mountain!"

So, several years after the first Jewish-Roman war (the fall of Jerusalem) and the death of St. Paul and St. Peter, Mt. Vesuvius erupted near Pompeii in AD 79.

With this miracle, the foundation of the Vatican must have been set.

Or are there any other reasons for Mt. Vesuvius, a little close to Rome, to have erupted in AD 79?  So, this is one example that the teaching of Jesus, "if you had any little faith, you could move a mountain," came true in history.  Despite so many victims of the eruption, many early Christians in Rome must have strengthened their faith as they saw this miracle, since this miracle told that there was someone who had true faith among them.



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Luk 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
Luk 4:15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.