I Believe in Miracles

     I think its safe to say that most everyone's favorite passages in the Bible are the ones concerned with miracles, and why not? We love to hear the old stories of Israel's crossing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan river, of the dead brought to life, the sick healed, of talking donkeys, floating ax heads and a stopped sun. We love to be reminded that God is powerful and has absolute control over the universe. Can this interest go too far though? What does the Bible tell us about the miraculous and how can we apply it today?

     Firstly, and I know I'm not making any friends with some when I say this, miracles are pretty much gone in our modern age. I am well aware that there is a large and active community of people who spend a lot of energy seeking after miracles and believe that they are a part of any legitimate ministry and in the life of the body of Christ. The problem with that idea is that it ignores the fact that miracles were never normative. There was never a period when when every Tom, Dick, and Harry were throwing around sings and wonders. Miracles were always purposeful and specific, never random or whimsical. Look to the Old Testament, miracles were strictly confined to those few men who were designated as prophets sent from God and the miracles they performed were secondary acts meant to attest to the validity of their teaching; serving as a beacon to guide people to the prophet's words (really God's words). Miracles such as the parting of the Red Sea were partly pragmatic and meant to prove God's power to His people (and Egypt for that matter) and to facilitate God's plan of freeing Israel from their bondage as well as -again- serving as evidence that Moses was God's man in that day.

“Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth."

(1 Kings 17:22-24)(emphasis mine)

     Cut to the New Testament. Many years have passed and God is moving His redemptive plan on to the next phase and so this means that miracles now serve the purpose of...attesting to the validity of prophets and teachers. Nothing changed! Jesus' own miracles were there to prove His God-hood, and the apostles were able to perform the miracles they performed to once again prove their status as the chosen teachers of God. If every believer at the time were going around raising the dead or healing the sick don't you think that somewhere in the all the New Testament books we would read about...any of them? Over the course of the book of Acts we see the recounting of miracles dwindle and disappear well before the end of the book. The only miraculous events we see happening to your everyday early church member is speaking in tongues, but those are Red Sea miracles, pragmatic ones that served to prove that those people were indeed saved by God and a part of His church. Especially in the case of the gentile believers as without a sign the Jewish brethren may not have accepted them given their long separation and dislike. We read that signs are not meant for those who believe, but to show proof to those who don't, and that the best gifts are teaching and understanding and prophecy (which is just the taking of God's words to His people, the words we have now of course are found in the Bible).

“Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.”

(1 Corinthians 14:22)

     Modern day “miracles” seem only to work to show how spiritual the person performing them is, to prove they have reached that next plain of spirituality. In fact they have more to do with ancient Gnosticism (where it was believed secret truths would be revealed to the spiritual elite) than Biblical Christianity. The miraculous is never held up as something to be continually desired or searched for, in fact the Bible often praises those who do not require a sign and condemns those who do!

“Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed.”

(Matthew 16:1-4)

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.”

(Hebrews 11:1-2)

“Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

(John 20:29)

     Let me finish this admittedly brief discussion of miracles by saying that I do believe in them and I even believe that if God wills they can exist in this day. The problem is not that God has changed or that He no longer acts at all, it's that the ones who claim these miracles have so much about them that does not mesh with scripture. Silly 'miracles', wrong use of them, inaccurate prophecy, bad theology, horrible doctrine, and more. Not everyone in this movement is an extreme case, let me be clear that I don't meant to say that. I only mean to refocus our attention on the Bible and remind everyone that the given Word -alone- is our source of truth. Every thought, idea , and experience has to be brought to that measure and cast aside if it does not pass the test. We don't need to be excited and impressed to be faithful, we know ourselves and we ought to know God. We know who we would be without God. The power of that changed life is more than enough.

A Rebuttal

     Recently A friend pointed out -This- article to me, asking my thoughts on it. After a few days I responded with the following. I have cleaned up my response and made it more 'post-like' but the content is mostly the same. Warning: some of these quotes from the article (in green) are somewhat off-color.

     First off, remember that Christianity never claims that those who follow God are perfect.  We all make mistakes and we often have the wrong ideas on things, so just because someone isn't following something correctly that's an issue with them not the Bible.

     Numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 10: People are always bringing these and other related OT laws up. Now let me be clear I am not brushing these under the rug because though I will claim that a Christian is not bound to the Levitical law, the spirit behind the laws as a whole is still connected to the God who gave them. The main point to remember here is two fold; the Bible is not -like many other 'religious' texts- simply a collection of sayings and rules, and the laws that governed OT Israel were very particular because they were being set apart as unique and peculiar people. So many people assume the Bible is just like the Koran or the Vedas etc. and misunderstand that it's written primarily as a history book. You have to take what it talks about in that sense and in that context. The people of OT Israel were a covenant people, they had made a very specific agreement with God and were meant to be a nation that would stand out and be apart from the rest of the world. These laws weren't some odd and randomly assigned belief that things like mixed fabrics were inherently evil, those things were banned because God had a specific life and direction for Israel. When we get to the NT, Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the bringer of a new covenant, one of grace not of law. The old law's main purpose is brought to light, mainly to show that we cannot possibly measure up to a perfect God and thus see our need for His grace and mercy. A Christian is not bound by these laws because our relationship with God is one of adopted sons (and daughters) and not merely that of servants. We still obey the spirit of God's laws, but now through a feeling of love and devotion to our savior; also many things are still specifically forbidden, which brings me to..

Number 3:

“Fortune telling. Before you call a 900 number (do people still call 900 numbers, by the way?), read your horoscope or crack open a fortune cookie, realize you're in huge trouble if you do.

Leviticus 19:31 reads "Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God." The penalty for that? Check Leviticus 20:6: 'As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.' Seems like a lifetime of exile is a pretty harsh penalty for talking to Zoltar.”

     The Bible makes it quite clear that there is only one God and He alone is worthy of praise and of following. Furthermore the world of the Bible is less mystical than others (especially the R. Catholic church) would have you believe. It's really quite simple, the only spiritual entities are God,Angels,Fallen Angels(demons),Satan(really just another fallen angel),and Man. Man is also a physical being but the specifics of that are another discussion in themselves. The point is that God speaks to you through His Word, Angels will point you toward God and that's it, Man is confused and really shouldn't be trusted at all, and anything else is an evil. That's why we shouldn't seek them out and I agree that no one, Christians especially, should be.

Number 4:

“Pulling out. The Bible doesn't get too much into birth control... it's clearly pro-populating but, back when it was written, no one really anticipated the condom or the sponge, so those don't get specific bans.

But... pulling out does. One of the most famous sexual-oriented Bible verses... the one that's used as anti-masturbation rhetoric... is actually anti-pulling out. It's Genesis 38:9-10: 'Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; so He took his life also.'

Yep -- pull out and get smote. That's harsh.

     If you read this section in context you see that the sin of Onan is not taking care of his brother's “legacy”. Later in Israel's history we see that the land was God's gift to the people of Israel, it was their reward for fulfilling the covenant and God's promise to His people. Because of this it was very important that the land and the inheritance stay with Israel. Several OT laws were centered around this idea (the Sabbath year and the return of land for example). One of the laws was that if a man dies without children his brother should marry his wife (assuming he had a single brother) and that the first children born would be receive the dead brother's inheritance, essentially they would be the dead brother's children legally. Now this is before the law came but the spirit is the same and on top of this Onan is intentionally disobeying direction from His father Judah, which any Bible reader can tell you God doesn't look too kindly on.

Number 7:

“Divorce. The Bible is very clear on this one: No divorcing. You can't do it. Because when you marry someone, according to Mark 10:8, you 'are no longer two, but one flesh.' And, Mark 10:9 reads, 'What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.'

Mark gets even more hardcore about it a few verses later, in Mark 10:11-12, 'And He said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

     Easy, Divorce is bad, don't do it, those who do need to repent. There are more touchy situations such as abuse but again that's another discussion.

Number 9:

“Wearing gold. 1 Timothy 2:9 doesn't like your gold necklace at all. Or your pearl necklace. Or any clothes you're wearing that you didn't get from Forever 21, Old Navy or H&M.

'Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments."

     That verse is not banning the wearing of gold the context of that verse is people drawing attention to themselves and being prideful. You're adornment, your jewelry should be your character. Here is the immediate context: “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.”(1 Timothy 2:8-10) Obviously Paul here isn't saying that women should be naked save for their good works! He means that your major defining factor, the thing that others notice should be who you are not what you have.

Number 11:

“Your wife defending your life in a fight by grabbing your attacker's genitals. No joke. Deuteronomy actually devotes two verses to this exact scenario: Deuteronomy 25:11-12.

'If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity.'

That's impossible to misinterpret. Ladies, if your husband is getting mugged, make sure to kick the mugger in the pills. Do not do the grip and squeeze (no matter what "Miss Congeniality" might advise). Or your hand needs to be cut off.”

     This one is a bit more “interesting.” I would lump this into the OT rules for holiness as a peculiar people, and that does fit. But the verse isn't saying if she “accidentally” touches the guys bits, she's dirty fighting. On top of that she's come into contact -willingly- with the anatomy of a man who is not her husband, and given the OT laws regarding uncovering the nakedness of another (which does mostly mean to have sex with) it's not terribly surprising that there would be some kind of punishment for this, and gain I have to point out that her husbands fate is up to the Lord. What is primary importance is not the continuation of life on earth but the manner in which that life relates to God.

     I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a scholar, not really, but I've read my Bible. I know that these aren't complete answers to these 'issues' and as always if anything I've said is off in any way let me know so I can double check and post a correction/apology. There are plenty of good books out there by people a heck of a lot smarter than me going into these details in more depth for those who actually want an explanation and I strongly encourage everyone to seek out the answers for yourselves.