This fall there is great sadness in New York City, indeed in all America, because of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. When I was a child, however, growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, the third week of September was a joyous time of feasting in celebration of the martyr San Gennaro. Old women covered in black shawls of mourning would come streaming out of the local church early each morning of the third week of September crying Miracola, Miracola! In the evenings the neighborhood streets around the parish church were closed off for a half-mile or more in every direction. The usual throng of cars, buses, trucks and people hurrying to and fro ceased.
Each evening life in the neighborhood paused as people celebrated and ate to their heart’s content. The air was filled with wonderful smells from dozens of kiosks cooking pizzas, Italian sausages, fried onions, sautéed peppers, and roasted garlic. If you were still hungry you could finish off your eating with fried zeppole dusted with powdered sugar or with shaved Italian ices drenched in a multitude of sweet fruit flavors. Makeshift stands seemed to be everywhere, each plying some form of carnival game where, for a nickel, you could win a stuffed animal so large that your date was bound to be impressed.
Background of San Gennaro
As a third generation Christadelphian of Italian ancestry living in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic neighborhood, we enjoyed the trappings of the feast, but had only the vaguest idea what it was all about (something to do with some Neopolitan martyr). It was only recently, almost 50 years later, that I found out the details when I came across the following in a very interesting biography of the life of an American journalist who lived and worked in Italy during the same era. He writes:
“San Gennaro was a particularly fascinating friend of ours, and we used to pray to him…every first Sunday of May and on September 19. On those two days each year, the congealed blood of the patron saint of Naples liquefied before the eyes of his ‘relatives’, friends, and even unbelievers…
“Tradition says that San Gennaro (St. Januarius) was born in Naples around the year A.D. 270 and eventually became a Catholic Bishop. In A.D. 305, however, the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, chopped off his head in a wave of religious persecution. Gennaro’s head and body were thrown to the lions, tradition recounts, but a woman bravely stepped from the crowd and carried off the remains of the saint to the nearby town of Pozzuoli. She is said to have extracted his blood and placed it in two vials; the persecution ended in A.D. 449 and one vial of blood was carried to the cathedral in Naples where the local folk came to venerate it.
“More than 600 years ago, on the September 19 anniversary of Gennaro’s martyrdom, the first “miracle” occurred. Neapolitans say the saint’s blood began to liquefy as they prayed before it. Ever since that day, as well as the first Sunday of May — the anniversary of Gennaro’s return to Naples from Pozzuoli —the blood has liquefied, except for the year in which Benito Mussolini declared war in World War II.
“Physicians and scientists have, at various times been allowed to extract some of the liquefied blood from the vial. All reported it was human blood but were unable to explain the ‘miracle’ scientifically.”
My grandfather, Bro. Angelo Buonadonna, probably knew the significance of the Feast of San Gennaro, for he had once been a deacon in that church before becoming a Christadelphian some 80 years ago, but he never shared this knowledge with the rest of the family. To grandpa and his grandchildren this feast was all about food and fun, but it never had any miraculous connection for us.
What about crying statues, or liquefied blood, or healing waters at Lourdes, or Hindu fakirs walking on nails without harm, or the televangelist who promises healing if you place your hands on the television and pray with him? Obviously there are a lot of people who believe in such alleged miracles. In fact, almost all religions claim some degree of miraculous powers either today and/or wrapped up in their mystical past. What about Christadelphians; do we believe in miracles and can they still happen today? As a corollary to this question, I want to examine whether or not the claimed miracles of others are real or fake.
Magicians in Egypt
Miracles play an important part in the scriptural narrative, as we have already examined in previous articles. From the time of Moses onward the question of their authenticity has been raised. There can be no doubt that Moses, by the hand of Almighty God, performed some tremendous miracles designed to convince Pharaoh to let His people go.
We might note that it was a common practice of ancient kings and pharaohs to surround themselves with magicians, wizards, sorcerers or whatever. They were usually the king’s closest advisors and it was their responsibility to tell the king whether or not he should go to battle, or if in battle whether or not he would win. These advisors were consulted on a myriad of other daily decisions and the wisdom of their advice was confirmed by some magic that they presumably performed. Thus they served the king very much like a cabinet serves presidents and prime ministers in modern democratic societies in our age. (Perhaps such cabinets also confirm their advice with magic, but we would not be privy to such happenings.)
In the case of Pharaoh, his magicians and sorcerers seemed to be able to match Moses and Aaron, at least for a time. Moses turned the Nile, the source of all life in Egypt then as now, into blood and the magicians followed suit to turn water into blood (Exo. 7: 14-17). How did the magicians manage that trick? (I will suggest an answer to this question later). With the Nile already polluted with blood, producing more blood seems to be an incredible misapplication of sorcery. If the Egyptian wizards truly had magical powers, they would have purified the waters rather than added to the pollution already caused by Moses.
Once again when the Lord God smote the land of Egypt from border to border with frogs (Exo. 8:2), the magicians duplicated the feat (Exo. 8:7). Nonetheless, I completely fail to appreciate this magic; it would seem to me that the last thing Egypt needed at that time was more frogs! Why didn’t the wizards of Egypt stay the plague and rid the land of frogs instead! It took the Lord, at the entreaty of Moses, to accomplish respite (Exo. 8:12-14). The narrative leads us to the inescapable conclusion that the moment relief was provided Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he once again refused to let Israel go (Exo. 8:15). What is there about human nature that causes us to be ungrateful so quickly? As the saying goes: What have you done for me lately? Have you ever noticed that sometimes you can do dozens, maybe even hundreds, of favors for someone and the first time you cannot accommodate them they become an implacable foe? Have we ourselves sometimes shown ingratitude toward others when we should have been far more charitable? I don’t know if there is an easy answer to such questions because the person who has a hard heart is the last person on this planet to acknowledge his sin. Let us be more grateful to others for what they do for us, for in such kindness of heart is truly the spirit of Christ.
Witch of Endor
Another Bible passage, which relates to this question of whether or not “true” miracles can be faked is the incident at Endor (I Sam. 28:7-13). In this well-known story, Saul sought out a woman who was a “medium” to conjure up the spirit of Samuel. We still have with us today, almost 3,000 years later, mediums who claim to be able to speak to the dead. Did they? Do they?
The tale at Endor is quite intriguing; she indeed does summon the spirit of Samuel, but she appears to be the one most surprised by the apparition. The scriptures tell us that she was absolutely terrified at what she saw: and when the woman saw Samuel she cried with a loud voice (I Sam. 28:12). The Hebrew word in this passage translated as “cried” in the KJV literally means to shriek (from anguish or danger). In all probability she had never seen a spirit or ghost before and all her seances were fakes designed to bilk the public (things haven’t changed that much in the past 3,000 years!). We know it could not have actually been Samuel that appeared, because Jesus Christ is clearly spoken of in the scriptures as the first fruits of them that sleep in the dust of the earth. Thus, what probably appeared must have been a vision, perhaps a three-dimensional holographic image of Samuel, and this was accomplished through the power of God.
Nebuchadnezzar exposes his sorcerers
As magicians and sorcerers served Pharaoh, even so they served Nebuchadnezzar centuries later in Babylon. We all know the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan. 2) and we can all appreciate the wisdom of how he dealt with his magicians, sorcerers, astrologers and Chaldeans; far wiser, in fact, than the Pharaoh of Exodus.
Nebuchadnezzar was no one’s fool; he demanded that the wise men of every ilk not only tell him the interpretation, but also the substance of the dream. By making the latter demand we can be certain he was feigning his loss of memory to test his advisors. If he really had no remembrance of the dream then how was he to know the veracity of what they might claim?
The wise men stalled for time, but Nebuchadnezzar would have none of that; he was on to their scams. The scriptures tell us that he berated them: You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change (Dan 2:9 NI V). It doesn’t sound like he placed much faith in his “magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans”. It wasn’t until the young Daniel revealed the dream and the interpretation thereof that Nebuchadnezzar was satisfied. The action of Daniel appears to have also saved all the fakers.
New Testament cases
The New Testament also reports incidents of miracle purveyors who used magical arts to make themselves important. We are told that there was a man named Bar Jesus who was an outright faker (Acts 13:6) and there is also the curious story of Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8). Notice in verse 9 that small transition word, “but”; the Bible often uses this word as a red flag warning us of a sharp change in tone or direction. The great joy of the miracles performed by Philip in Samaria were about to be tempered by the man who saw these miracles without ever realizing their intrinsic spiritual value. He had led a life of fakery, as did the Egyptian magicians, the Witch of Endor, and the sorcerers of King Nebuchadnezzar. All he could see was that Philip was a better sorcerer than he was; hence he sought to buy what he thought was a better bag of tricks.
There may also have been a tinge of jealousy in his actions; previously he had been considered a “great one” (v. 9), but now Philip’s accomplishments threatened to displace him. The people of Samaria had thought his power came from God, but now, once they had seen the miracles of Philip, they admired a better way.
Remarkably, this man Simon is persuaded and becomes baptized into the saving name of Christ. When he sees the miraculous powers performed also by Peter and John (v. 14), he is determined to have it for himself (v. 18). He seeks to buy power of the Holy Spirit! Such power is not for sale at any price as our Lord Jesus Christ taught, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give (Matt. 10:8). This is why, as Christadelphians, we never have a collection at a public lecture, neither do we have fees for Bible Seminars, nor any other outreach effort. The miracle of the word stands on its own. Simon is sternly reprimanded, not for wanting the power of the Holy Spirit, but for having a heart that was not right with God (v. 21)!
Herein lies the exhortation for all who insist on experiencing miracles so they might believe. If we do so our heart is not right with God, for where your treasure is there is your heart also (Luke 12:34). If we have our values straight, our heart will also be pure (Matt. 5:8). We have miracles all around us every day: the miracle of the cosmos, of life itself, of the word of God, of prophecy and of the love of God manifest in His son Jesus Christ. The greatest miracle of all is that through His grace, and not because of any righteousness of our own, we have the hope of eternal life.
Real or fake?
Once more let us consider our original question: how can we tell if miracles are real or fake? Clearly in the Scriptures, as we have seen above, there were many real miracles performed by Moses, Daniel, Jesus and the apostles. There were also times where fakers performed real miracles (through the power of God that allowed it) such as the magicians of Egypt, or the witch at Endor.
There were yet other times when miraculous happenings were merely the result of just human trickery such as with Bar-jesus or Simon the sorcerer. We are told: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie (II Thess. 2:11). Do we need to worry about whether or not a seeming miracle is real or fake? The unequivocal answer is, of course not. It simply doesn’t matter.
If the miracle of the sure word of God, confirmed by history and prophecy, is not enough for faith, then we are of all men most miserable. Even so we believe, Lord Jesus, even so we wait for the day of your miraculous return.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One