Dowe believe in miracles? Any sincere believer in the word of God should be able to answer this question in the affirmative. Nevertheless, if an unbeliever asked us if we ever actually had witnessed a miracle, what would we answer? We would probably say, “No, we had never seen one,” fearing that we might look ridiculous! After all, there appeared to be so many false claims of miraculous happenings that even the most gullible person might have a difficult time accepting anything at face value. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to actually find an instance in the world today where a so-called modern miracle has withstood the test of hard scientific inquiry.
On the other hand, the Bible makes many claims of miraculous events, ranging from the plagues of Egypt in the days of Moses to the Holy Spirit powers given to the apostles in the first century. In attempting to explain these events, we might be tempted to say that the age of miracles is past and God no longer works such wonders in our day.
Blind faith inadequate answer
Carrying this just one step further, the zealous believer might simply dismiss the whole issue by declaring that God can do anything and therefore it is a matter of blind faith and no questions should be asked. This may satisfy the ardent individual, but it seldom scores with other classes of people. For example, it may be an entirely unproductive approach and, in fact, might seem somewhat contradictory in a preaching context. How can we possibly claim to be a religion that makes sense, one which debunks mysteries and a community that asks one to make open and free scriptural inquiry as a means of revealing truth; yet at the same time say other areas of belief are off limits and must be accepted on blind faith. A “blind faith” strategy can backfire in preaching and it also has its pitfalls in instructing our own children, whether it be at home or in a Sunday school or CYC context.
The scriptures record over one hundred miracles directly and also allude to countless others that occurred but do not appear in the written record.’ Hence Bible miracles are not just a rare once or twice event, but are inextricably woven into the fabric of belief.
Bible appeals to hard evidence
It is important to note that the Bible never asks us to believe blindly about anything! (Heb. 1:1-3). Faith has substance and it is based on evidence! (see v. 1, KJV & NKJ.) There is nothing “blind” or arbitrary in any way, shape or form about anything that is recorded in our Bibles. The scripture sets forth standards of evidence and proof of its own claims that would put our modern criminal justice system to shame. Circumstantial evidence is not allowed in Biblical teaching. Standards of evidence are strictly proclaimed: At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death (Deut.17:6). Shockingly, such high standards are not invoked in our day and there still remain many places where a man or woman can be sentenced to death on mere circumstantial evidence, i.e. without any direct eyewitness testimony. The difficulty of this situation was recently highlighted when the governor of the state of Illinois declared a moratorium on implementing the death penalty. In that state it had been shown on subsequent intensive reviews instigated by college students in a school of journalism, that new evidence in the form of either DNA tests or confessions of others had revealed that more than half the judicial death sentences in recent years had been made erroneously. The Bible makes no such mistakes in verifying its claims. The reports of scriptural miracles can be subjected to the most rigorous forms of examination and this scrutiny will prove that these claims are absolutely valid. Furthermore, we can subject any proclamation of new miracles to the same strict Biblical standards and be assured whether or not such is from God, or merely a delusion of man, even as the magicians of Egypt sought to contest the hand of God by creating illusions. But more on this in a later article.
Most miracles not for skeptics
Remarkably, miracles are for confirming the faith of the faithful, not to dazzle the skeptic. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ reinforce our contention that his miracles were not performed on demand to satisfy cynical men. The Scribes and Pharisees desired a “sign,” in effect challenging Jesus to produce a miracle on demand to impress them. He strenuously refused to do so in no uncertain terms: But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas (Matt. 12:38,39). The miraculous powers that he had received from the Father were not to be used to perform carnival magic tricks. Instead, miracles in scripture happened only for important spiritual reasons.
Faith is essential for us to have a relationship with God and vice versa. And without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6 NW). Thus where faith was lacking, Jesus did not perform any miracles. Speaking of his hometown Nazareth, the gospels write, And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith (Matt. 13:58 NIV). And so it is with us, the Lord cannot work with us, and through us, if we lack faith.
It is sad to say that skeptics remain skeptics; the power and wonder of the word of God does not impress them. There are people who say that they would completely believe in the word of God if only they could see visible, tangible evidence of His power through some miracle that would astonish them. The Scribes and Pharisees desired the same and Jesus Christ, while unwilling to perform on demand, nevertheless made it plain that they would eventually see a miracle, the miracle of the resurrection. When he was eventually crucified, this most amazing miracle of all occurred on the third day thereafter (see John 2:19-21). Yet the obstinacy of the Scribes and Pharisees is still present today. Let the skeptic demand instantaneous lightning, and should the same occur immediately from a clear blue cloudless sky, he would say it was nothing but a coincidence!
Miracles still speak to us
It is tempting to sometimes think that only the people actually seeing these wonders at first hand could really appreciate the power of God, but that is far from what was intended. Scriptural miracles still speak to us today. The proof of their validity is so numerous and rigorous that they should be as real to us as if we were actually present when they first occurred. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness (John 3:11). He said these words to the Pharisees so that even those not inclined to believe witnessed the miracles and were thus reluctant, yet undeniably impartial, observers who were not predisposed to be favorable to what they had seen with their own eyes. However, they could not deny their occurrence.
Miracles were seen by many Most miracles were not done in some hidden alleyway, but were often performed in front of vast numbers of people. These witnesses ranged from the entire nation of Israel who saw the Red Sea rolled back before their eyes to the thousands of hungry followers fed in the wilderness by our Lord Jesus with a few loaves and fishes. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? (John 7:31). The people saw and many were persuaded. Their witness is still a living testimony to us today.
The miracles that Jesus Christ achieved were the tokens of his authenticity. They were his calling card that verified his kinship with the Father. With such credentials his pre-eminent position as their Messiah should not have been denied. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me (John 10:25).
Thus we have the witness of the Israelites in Old Testament times, of the apostles, of the multitudes who followed Christ and lastly, even of the Scribes and Pharisees that miracles did indeed happen exactly as recorded in our Bibles. There is a firm principle of jurisprudence that the testimony of reliable impartial witnesses establishes the facts of a case. Without confidence in the testimony of others, all history would disappear. How could we possibly believe in Julius Caesar or George Washington, William the Conqueror, or any other historical figure for that matter, if not for the written record passed on to us from previous generations? Failing to accept a miracle unless we were firsthand observers would place us today somewhere in the position of the “doubting” apostle Thomas, who would not believe unless he himself thrust his fingers into his Master’s wounds. Yet our Lord Jesus says, Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (John 20:29).
This is where we enter the picture. From this statement of our Lord Jesus Christ it is clear that it is entirely possible to completely believe in his resurrection beyond any shadow of a doubt, and, in fact, all the other miracles in the scripture even though we never witnessed any of them personally. It must be emphasized such belief in things not directly seen by us first-hand is not blind belief, but based on rigorous standards of undeniable proof.
Miracles not coincidence
There is one other way of treating Biblical miracles that needs to be considered. In this approach, the miraculous events recorded in the scriptures are not denied, but they are instead explained away as natural phenomena which just happened to occur at a propitious moment. By this reasoning the Red Sea was parted by a particularly strong (but natural) wind and the healing power of our Lord Jesus Christ was merely a matter of the application of either psychological suggestion or natural biological cures. This approach might be even more insidious than outright denial because it accepts the credibility of the Biblical witnesses while at the same time turning its back on the power and majesty of our Heavenly Father.
There is nevertheless a major flaw in the natural phenomena argument. If those ordinances (i.e. the physical laws which govern the universe) depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever (Jer. 31:36). Thus such efforts to explain away miracles always run into one primary fault, namely, that the physical laws of the universe are not man’s laws but come from God. The LORD God guarantees the constancy of the laws of physics when He says through the prophet Jeremiah that the ordinances (or laws) that govern the motion of the sun, moon and stars are as constant as His promises. In the present context, this passage obviously has two implications, first that the physical laws of the universe are from the Lord. Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? (Job 38:33, see also Job 26:7). Secondly, His laws are constant, they are the same now as when He created the universe. Therefore, God doesn’t have to suspend the laws of physics’ and suspend nature to perform a miracle; He just has to use them. Nevertheless, He often uses them in ways far beyond our comprehension, for now we can only see “through a glass darkly,” but someday the fullness of His wonders may be made known to us (I Cor. 14:12).
In sum, we conclude four important attributes associated with miracles:
- They demonstrate the power of the Lord God; and specifically through Jesus Christ miracles verify his Sonship.
- They are performed not to convince the skeptic, but for spiritual reasons to confirm the faith of the faithful.
- The validity of their occurrence is not based on blind faith, but subject to the strict standards of evidence.
- The power of miracles lies not in coincidental happenings of natural phenomena, but in the application of God’s laws beyond the realm of any human agency.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One