Do you believe in modern day miracles?
According to a Newsweek poll, 84% of Americans believe God still performs miracles today. Nearly half, 48%, believe they personally have experienced or witnessed a miracle.
Modern day miracles is a popular topic today. Former Presidential candidate and CBN founder Pat Robertson has a book called “Miracles Can be yours Today”. The ad for the book states, “There is a power at work in the world today that is beyond comprehension…It is a power that can overcome all of life’s challenges and obstacles. It can change your present circumstance and alter your future. It is the miraculous power of Almighty God and it makes all things possible. Pat’s newest book unlocks the power of miraculous faith and will build your understanding to believe God for miracles in your life. Like a hand-book on miracles – Pat’s dramatic book explains the principles within the miracles of Jesus and gives practical biblical insight (into how you miracles can be yours today).
Have you witnessed any miracles? Are some of what we think are miracles just random natural events (coincidences)?
Which of these would you classify as a ‘miracle’?
In a tornado, trees fell all around your house but none struck the house.
You were diagnosed with Lung Cancer and then 3 years later, with no treatment, the doctors said the cancer was gone.
You won the $1 Million Lotto sweepstakes!
Your car breaks down in a remote part of the country and within 5 minutes a mechanic drives up to you and asks if you need any help, and then he fixes it all for you and you are on your way again.
You have been praying for your neighbor to get saved for years, and then he comes by your house and informs you that he got saved last weekend at his nephew’s church.
30 first time visitors show up at your church service.
You were praying for $500 to be given you so you could pay your overdue electric bill; and, the day before the PUD was going to shut off your electricity, someone anonymously gives you $500 exactly.
A massive earthquake hits Russia and kills 100,000 people; this occurs the day that Russia declares war with the U.S..
A deer jumps out in front of you as you are driving and you swerve and miss the deer but then you are running head on into a large semi-truck; the truck swerves and you narrowly miss a horrendous collision.
Miracle definition – The occurrence of a miracle in the Bible meant that God worked outside the laws of nature. W.E. Vine stated that “miracle” (dunamis) is used in the New Testament of “works of a supernatural origin and character, such as could not be produced by natural agents and means”. Otfried Hofius noted that a “sign” (semeion) “contradicts the natural course of things” and, similarly, “wonder” (teras) referred to events that “contradict the ordered unity of nature”. Thus a miracle in the Bible was not merely an event that was astonishing, incredible, extraordinary, or unusual (e.g., the birth of a baby, a flower, or the narrow avoidance of an accident). A miracle in the Bible was a supernatural act. It was an event that was contrary to the usual course of nature (Arndt and Gingrich, 1957). The miraculous is not to be confused with the providential, where God operates within the usual course of nature. (Apologetics.com)
(The following is taken from “Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics” by Norman L. Geisler)
A miracle is a special act of God that interrupts the natural course of events. The Christian conception of the miraculous immediately depends on the existence of a theistic God. If the theistic God exists, miracles are possible. If there is a God who can act, then there can be acts of God. The only way to show that miracles are impossible is to disprove the existence of God.
Theists define miracles in either a weak sense or a strong sense. Following Augustine, the weaker definition describes a miracle as [an event which] “is not contrary to nature, but contrary to our knowledge of nature” (Augustine, 21.8).
Others, following Thomas Aquinas, define a miracle in the strong sense of an event that is outside nature’s power, something only done through supernatural power. This latter, stronger sense is important to apologists. A miracle is a divine intervention, a supernatural exception to the regular course of the natural world. Atheist Antony Flew put it well: “A miracle is something which would never have happened had nature, as it were, been left to its own devices”. Natural laws describe naturally caused regularities; a miracle is a supernaturally caused singularity.
To expand on this definition, we need some understanding of what is meant by natural law. Broadly, a natural law is a general description of the usual orderly way in which the world operates. It follows, then, that a miracle is an unusual, irregular, specific way in which God acts within the world.
An often overlooked argument is that for the probability of miracles. It is true that philosophy shows miracles are possible but only history reveals whether they are actual. But it is also true that [in] granting existence of a theistic God, miracles are probable.
A theistic God has the ability to perform miracles since he is omnipotent. Second, he has the desire to perform miracles because he is omniscient and omnibenevolent. One who examines history to see whether God has performed any miracles already can know that God is the kind of God who would [and could do such a thing].
Why would God perform miracles? Miracles heal, restore, bring back life, communicate God’s will, vindicate his attributes, and many more things that are in accord with his nature.
While philosophy makes supernatural events possible and the nature of a theistic God shows they are probable, only history reveals whether they are actual. But “history” here includes both the history of the cosmos and the history of the human race.
A fact seldom fully appreciated is that even before we look at human history, we can know that miraculous events are not only possible but actual. The very cosmological argument, by which we know God exists, also proves that a supernatural event has occurred [(i.e., a miracle)]. For if the universe had a beginning and, therefore, a Beginner, then God brought the universe into existence out of nothing. But ex nihilo creation is the greatest supernatural event of all. The history of the cosmos, then, reveals that the miraculous has occurred in making something out of nothing; making life out of nonlife. What greater miracles could occur in human history than are already known to have occurred in cosmic history?
In the Bible’s pattern, a miracle has several dimensions:
Miracles have an unusual character. It is an out-of-the-ordinary event in contrast to the regular pattern of events in the natural world. As a “wonder” it attracts attention by its uniqueness. A burning bush that is not consumed, fire from heaven, and a person strolling on water are not normal occurrences. Hence, they draw the interest of observers.
Miracles have a moral dimension. They bring glory to God by manifesting his moral character. Miracles are visible acts that reflect the invisible nature of God. [Miracles show the ‘goodness’ of God; though, they also can show the ‘wrath’ of God…which is ‘good’, for God is always good.]
Miracles have a doctrinal dimension. Miracles in the Bible are connected directly or indirectly with “truth claims”. They are ways to tell a true prophet from a false prophet (Deut 18:22). They confirm the truth of God through the servant of God (Heb 2:3-4).
Miracles have a teleological dimension. Unlike magic, they are never performed to entertain (see Luke 23:8). Miracles have the distinctive purpose to glorify the Creator and to provide evidence for people to believe by accrediting the message of God through the prophet of God.
[Miracles were used] as an act of God to confirm the word of God through a messenger of God.
Through miracles, God confirmed his prophets (Heb 2:3-4). This is the way God confirmed Moses (Ex 4) and Elijah (1 Kings 18). And this is the way he confirmed Jesus (John 3:2; Acts 2:22). How better could God confirm to us who were his spokespersons.
(Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman L. Geisler)
There are many so-called modern day miracle workers today; they are firm believers in this passage in Mark –
Mk 16:15-20 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
There are those today (Charismatics) who believe the sign gift of ‘miracles’ is still for us today and that God is using people to perform miracles regularly. My answer to that is that the word has already been confirmed, so this prophecy has been specifically fulfilled. And, ‘that which is perfect’ has come… the finished revelation of God to man via the Bible. The sign gifts, including the gift of miracles, ended with that first century of Christians. However, God can still do, and does, miracles today, but not of this variety. God does not give someone a gift to perform miracles anymore. Those that are still trying to perform miracles of this sort today are involved with very dangerous activities indeed. And, may very well be involved with a Satanic counterfeit…
Mt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Rv 16:13-14 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles , which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rv 13:13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast…
Does God still do miracles today? Most conservative Christians seem to doubt or even disagree that God performs miracles in their own life and experience. They may have read of some in a book or heard someone give a fantastic tale about one, but in their own life they have never witnessed one. So, they wonder, does God still do miracles today?
I will tell you this, that every answer to prayer you receive is a bonafide miracle. It is a supernatural event. It went totally outside of the natural rhealm. It is God’s hand reaching down from His holy heaven and intervening in your natural, human, mortal life.