Search results
- What is a miracle? The term usually translated as “miracle” in the New Testament means an “act of power,” typically functioning as a sign that invites people’s attention for God’s purposes.
- What is the purpose of a miracle? Miracles draw attention to God, his kingdom, and his Son. God often acts in ways that appear to us less dramatic, but he shows “acts of power” as signs pointing to his future kingdom and/or Jesus’s identity.
- Are there examples of modern-day miracles such as the blind being healed? In 1959, macular degeneration, which is organic and medically incurable, made a young woman legally blind.
- Are there examples of modern-day raising the dead? It’s hard to narrow this down. I usually like to mention the raising of my sister-in-law after three hours without breathing, but that was not under clinically observable conditions.
- The Most Famous Objection to Miracles
- What Empiricism Means For The Likelihood of Miracles Occurring
- A Theistic Argument Against Miracles
- How Should We Respond to Hume and Spinoza?
- Why Would God Break The “Laws of Nature”?
- 2 Objections to Belief in God’s Activity in The World
- Learn More
The most famous and influential denial of the possibility of miracles is given by the eighteenth century Scottish philosopher David Hume. It’s important that we understand Hume. That’s because in understanding Hume’s argument against miracles, we also understand why many others want to deny miracles. Before we dive into Hume, let’s first define two...
In his work titled An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume ends with a stunning suggestion: Hume wants us to picture ourselves in a library. In that library, there are books that deal with Christianity. Take one of the books on Christianity in your hand and open it, says Hume. Now, ask yourself a couple of questions. Does this book on Chris...
Now that we’ve covered Hume, let’s take a look at Spinoza. Spinoza’s conclusion about miracles is somewhat surprising, especially since he moves through certain texts of the Old Testament to reach his conclusion. Whereas Hume’s starting point is the laws of nature, Spinoza’s starting point is the Old Testament. In fact, Spinoza, who was a Jewish th...
What should we do with this? Let’s take a step back and remind ourselves that: 1. Hume denied miracles because he defined nature as a predictable, closed system. 2. Spinoza denied miracles because he defined nature as invariably law-like. The problem with both of these definitions is that nature is improperly defined. Once we see that nature is wha...
So if God could act, why should he? Why would he wantto? What would his reasons be for changing his standard, “law-like” way of working in the world? The answer to this question helps us to see the true meaning of miracles. It is often thought that miracles are just grand “magic tricks.” But that’s not the right way of thinking about miracles. Mira...
A couple of objections to our discussion of miracles might come to mind. “Okay,” someone might say, “you accuse Hume of reasoning in a circle because he starts with the uniformity of nature and so rules out the possibility of miracle at the beginning. Aren’t you just reasoning in a circle when you start with God and so include the possibility of mi...
Learn more in K. Scott Oliphant’s online course, Know Why You Believe. In addition to learning more about miracles, you’ll also learn: 1. Why believe in the Bible? 2. Why believe in God? 3. Why believe in Jesus? 4. Why believe Jesus rose from the dead? 5. Why believe in salvation? 6. Why believe in life after death? 7. Why believe in God in the fac...
Jan 24, 2022 · Pew and other surveys show that hundreds of millions of people in the world today claim to have witnessed miracles.
Aug 31, 2020 · Consider the following four positions regarding miracles today: Cessationists believe the kinds of miracles we see in the New Testament do not continue to happen today because they were a special manifestation of God’s power that ceased to exist after the generation of the apostles passed away.
Apr 30, 2018 · It’s this: there were fewer miracles in the Bible than you probably think, and there are more miracles today than you probably know, and there is a good biblical reason for why there would be a certain kind of prevalence of miracles in the Bible that is different from today.
Apr 9, 2019 · Based on my experience and scores of claims from firsthand witnesses, I would say miracles do exist today. The media calls them coincidences, realizations, or chance, but we know better. To say there are no miracles is to say God has lost his power or he is not involved with his creation.
People also ask
Are miracles happening today around the world?
Do miracles cause us to be amazed?
Do miracles still occur in Our Secular Age?
Can miracles exist?
Are there fewer miracles in the Bible than you think?
Where do miracles happen most often?
Dec 19, 2009 · So my answer is that miracles are happening today around the world, in some measure. They can happen more when God is pleased to pour out his Spirit. And the reason it's not as normative now as it was in the apostles is because he meant to signify that this point in history, this incarnation, this authoritative band of apostles was unique.
