Miracles

Do miracles exist?

Miracles: A Preliminary Study Chapter 1: The Scope of This Book

Seeing is not believing.

For this reason, the question whether miracles occur can never be answered simply by experience. Every event which might claim to be a miracle is, in the last resort, something presented to our senses, something seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted. And our senses are not infallible. If anything extraordinary seems to have happened, we can always say that we have been the victims of an illusion. If we hold a philosophy which excludes the supernatural, this is what we always shall say. What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience. It is therefore useless to appeal to experience before we have settled, as well as we can, the philosophical question.

We can’t rely on our experiences to determine whether miracles occur or not. We can’t rely on historical accounts of miracles either, since no amount of experiential accounts will change a person’s mind. Each person decides for themselves whether they are willing to accept the miraculous, or not.

We need to figure out what counts as a miracle, and what doesn’t.

Miracles: A Preliminary Study Chapter 2: The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist

In all the examples Nature means what happens ‘of itself’ or ‘of its own accord’: what you do not need to labour for; what you will get if you take no measures to stop it.

Miracles: A Preliminary Study Chapter 2: The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist

I use the word Miracle to mean an interference with Nature by supernatural power.

As we discuss miracles today, I want you go away with the idea that the Bible is, in fact, a book written to be a record of the miraculous.

An example of external forces affecting the local environment:

Mount St. Helen’s was surrounded by a forest, and all in the area was progressing through time at a “natural” pace. However, one day Mount St. Helen’s exploded in a volcanic eruption, carving channels and plowing under vegetation and wildlife alike. The sky was filled with ash, and the wind carried the outpouring of the eruption miles away, interfering with the “natural” order of things.

In the normal course of events, there was an order, or a “nature” within which all that area progressed. Plants and animals lived and died within the course of that “nature”, and scientists could examine the area and draw “natural” conclusions about the course of history in that area. However, when Mount St. Helen’s erupted, it interfered with those natural courses, and now we can observe the effects of that interference. Nature continues to progress “naturally” in that area once again, but with the alterations that volcanic eruption effected on the environment.

We should understand it as those momentous occasions in the course of natural events when something or Someone interrupts that natural course, and effects a change, big or small.

Of course, we don’t have the time to go through a comprehensive list of all the miraculous occurences throughout Scripture; but we should perhaps categorize them for clarity, or at least because most of us like lists.

Let’s put miracles into three arbitrary categories, mostly because three is a fun number, and easy to work with:

Personal Miracles

Powerful Miracles

Perceptive Miracles

If Miracles are a Real Thing:

If you do think that miracles are a real thing, then you’ll have to start with some foundational ideas before breaking into these categories. Then, with this understanding of what miracles ARE, we can begin to build a framework around what we read in Scripture.

Where to Start:

The whole topic of miracles is this: when something happens, is it something that is happening because it is within Nature (or we could call it the universe), or is it something who’s nature is outside our Nature, or universe? I’ve already given a short definition of the idea of a miracle from C.S. Lewis, but let’s have it again, with a bit more context:

Miracles: A Preliminary Study Chapter 2: The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist

I use the word Miracle to mean an interference with Nature by supernatural power.1 Unless there exists, in addition to Nature, something else which we may call the supernatural, there can be no miracles. Some people believe that nothing exists except Nature; I call these people Naturalists. Others think that, besides Nature, there exists something else: I call them Supernaturalists. Our first question, therefore, is whether the Naturalists or the Supernaturalists are right.

First, you’ll notice that this isn’t a doctrinal or theological definition. C.S. Lewis put forward this definition, saying that it described the common usage of the word. This is what we mean when we talk about miracles in an everyday conversation. It’s important for us to start here, because belief in miracles, or belief in the supernatural must be the beginning point for our discussion.

In short, the downfall of the Naturalist’s argument is that EVERYTHING must have a natural, historical, traceable source. The Naturalist is inevitably forced into the impossible task of explaining how everything stems from something else within nature; how everything occurs only within the behavior of the ‘Nature’ they put forward as a source of existence. ‘Free will’ ceases to be an option for the Naturalist, because all existence must stem from the single source they call Nature.

On the other hand, C.S. Lewis’s SuperNaturalist

Miracles: A Preliminary Study Chapter 2: The Naturalist and the Supernaturalist

agrees with the Naturalist that there must be something which exists in its own right; some basic Fact whose existence it would be nonsensical to try to explain because this Fact is itself the ground or starting-point of all explanations

However, they believe that the single Fact or Person or Thing exists separately from the Nature that stems from It.

To look at this from a Christian perspective, the Naturalist would understand the entirety of Nature to be the expression of this single Fact or Person or Thing, and when all added together are understood to be the sum total of that Fact or Person or Thing. The Christian, however, understands God to be self-existent, Nature having been created by Him, while He exists separately from it.

This understanding of the Supernatural leads down some interesting paths: it separates Christianity from a great many other religions. While many religions hold to expressions of gods, or some higher order of beings, these beings still are considered part of the world, being born into Nature, and being included in it.

Let’s go to where miracles come into play. If we accept the idea that there are at least two, if not more, different Natures (there is the order of Nature that we describe as God’s self-existence, and the order of Nature that we usually refer to as “life, the universe, and everything in it.”), what would we call it when something or Someone crosses from one Nature into another? Let’s put it this way: what would we call it if we were to see a tree in our yard light on fire, and yet never burn up - even though it’s enveloped in flames?

Let’s Bring This into Focus:

The story of the Bible is one of humanity continually seeking to fulfill our purpose in life. What is that purpose?

Genesis 1:26 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 KJV 1900

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the Lord require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?

So then, keeping this within the context of miracles, we humans have the humbling duty of being the conduit through which the natural world experiences the supernatural; or, put another way, we are designed to be the Image-Bearers of God in this world.

As we look at what is recorded in the Bible then, we can begin to see a grand tapestry developing: one in which the human race is repeatedly NOT fulfilling our role in nature as the conduit of the Miraculous. We also see in Scripture how God moves into the Natural World, and His very Presence is Miraculous.

Genesis 18 CSB

The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground, and said, “My lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go on past your servant. Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.” “Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.” So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.” Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. Then Abraham took curds and milk, as well as the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree. “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he answered. The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?” But the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ Is anything impossible for the Lord? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.” Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid. But he replied, “No, you did laugh.” The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off. Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham? Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him.” Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.” The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord—even though I am dust and ashes— suppose the fifty righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Then he spoke to him again, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “I will not do it on account of forty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord, suppose twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of twenty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose ten are found there?” He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of ten.” When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

There are so many passages that we could have chosen from Scripture to center this discussion of Miracles around. I chose this one because it draws our focus in on what I think is an important collection of points. Remember our list of different forms of miracles coming into play through Scripture? From this passage, we are drawn into the grand intertwining of God’s Nature and our own.

Personal Miracles

The first category of miracles is the crossing of that barrier of Natures. As we began reading this passage about how God and two of His angels came to the oaks of Mamre to visit Abraham, we can begin to see how the supernatural should look in the Natural world

Powerful Miracles

Perceptive Miracles

The Miracle of the Incarnation

John 1:14–17 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”) Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Let’s Take It Down a Notch

John 14:16–17 CSB

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

1 Corinthians 12:12–27 CSB

For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.

We often wonder what it would be like to experience those miracles performed by Christ, or so many other such Biblical moments in history. But I want you to understand the conclusion we should be drawing from this study:

You are the Miracle!

When God created Adam and Eve, they dwelled in the Garden, walked with God, talked with Him, and they were the supernatural personified. The great miracle was never some powerful imposition of Nature being turned on its head. It was in fact, the very existence of human beings in Nature that was designed by God to be the Grand Miracle: a manifestation of the Divine Nature made flesh.

Philippians 2:5–16 CSB

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

Why is it that the true marks of a Christian are the daily actions of our lives, rather than the great moments of miraculous intervention?

Romans 12:3–8 CSB

For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.