Philip Burchill
7/8/23 Miracles?
As 21st century North Americans we have been educated according to a naturalist worldview of that holds nature is all that exists is only what is verifiable by the five senses. Events according to physics have an explicable cause with a determined effect. Nature is an interlocked closed system. To a naturalist nothing exists outside nature, operates on its own accord and is determined according to the natural laws of regularity. Nature is the total mass of things which has little to no room for spontaneity or anomaly and is revealed to rational analysis and scientific measurement.
Common objections to miracles are they belong to another age who was ignorant of modern science, who had a mentality palatable for supernatural, superstition and fairytales. Now as progressive scientifically evolved rational agents we can see through the hocus pocus. Miracles are impossible, out of place, traitors to the senses and if they occur on a natural explanation only waits to be discovered. Spinoza a philosopher writing in the wake of the Enlightenment stated ‘miracles only appear because of man’s ignorance.’
According to the philosopher David Hume, nature’s laws operate according to a constant manner. If someone claims a miracle we must reject the testimony as a violation against the laws of nature as a form of unalterable experience has established these laws.’ A century later scientific material view infiltrated theology and Biblical studies who sought to make their discipline a ‘science’ to meet the modern university curriculum. As a result, teachers of religion adjusted the categories of religion to fit the rational orthodoxy. Miracles were written off as allegorical truths that did not have historical validity. The influential Biblical Scholar Rudolph Bultmann stated, ‘it is not possible in an age of science because we understand the process of nature is governed by law. There is only one wonder, revelation.’
The question arises is it the case a miracle a contradiction or a breach of natural law? C.S. Lewis the intellectual giant of the 20th century Christian philosopher author of Narnia wrote extensively on the subject of miracles lays down compelling arguments this is not the case. A miracle by definition is ‘the working beyond the order of nature’. ‘Laws of nature mean the observe course of nature. The method of analysis by scientific experiment discovers what regularly happens in nature is the norm or rule to which she works. Miracles are not denying such a rule they are only saying it is suspended. A miracle is an exception.’
Miracles do not break the laws of nature though the cause transcends our perception and induces wonder. Lewis puts forward this enlightening example on miracles and their relationship to natural law,
‘If I put six pennies into a drawer on Monday and Six more on Tuesday, the laws decree that other things being equal I shall find twelve pennies there on Wednesday. But if the drawer has been robbed I may in fact only find two. Something will have been broken (the lock of the drawer or the laws of England but the laws of arithmetic will not have been broken. The New situation created by the thief will illustrate the laws of arithmetic just as well as the original situation. But if God comes to work miracles, he comes like a ‘thief in the night’. Miracle is from the point of view of a scientist a form of tampering doctoring a supernatural force the scientist has not reckoned.’
It’s thereby inaccurate to define miracle as breaking the laws of nature. It introduces a cause from without by God and then continues its effects according to nature’s laws. For the Judeo-Christian worldview concept of nature stands apart from the naturalist and the ancient Greek. The creator is transcendent, prior beyond nature. Who is both intimately related and distinct from creation. God created the world and governs it according to natural law for habitable life to exist modern scientists call the anthropic principle. This view of nature is not limited at this horizon, the believer holds a supernatural entity God exists beyond nature who has the capability to interact with the laws of nature. Miracles suppose these laws are not final closed and permanent but they can be interrupted.
A Personal View
I’d like to take a moment to give a background of my own testimony in coming to faith and the role miracles played in my own conversion to Christianity. I grew up with my Father’s side Irish Catholic and my mother is British protestant. My exposure to the Christian faith was what some call CEO’s Christmas and Easter only. Christianity was for me growing up a mandatory routine of holiday or enforced rule by teachers in the classroom. I thought of Christianity as a killjoy of strict rules regulations enforced by those in higher positions with power to punish. As a rebellious teenager I thought religion was too restrictive, law enforcing a relic of the past out of touch with today for old people that bore no relevance or interest to the stage of life I found myself.
When I was 17 I stumbled into a Pentecostal prayer meeting in a home in a casual warm friendly setting of people speaking in tongues that was not so friendly and a little freaky at the time. I came discover later this is a spiritual gift in the Greek glossalia as ‘heavenly language’, though I did not know this at the time. I was invited to receive prayer. As I reluctantly went up I had my first conscious feeling of the presence of God with a vision of angels and heavenly fire surrounding me. I sensed electricity a strange warmth of comfort envelop my being and endowed me with the Hebrew word ‘shalom’ which is defined as peace, wholeness, well-being, absence of chaos and peace in the midst of a storm. At the time I had experimented with drugs found this feeling to surpass anything I tested found there ‘aint no High than the most high’. From that moment on I have never lost my faith though I wavered at times I discovered this eternal anchor of Christ revealed by a miracle a supernatural intervention into my world.
This is one of the reasons I found Christianity so compelling is it dissolved my prior notions of religion as cold indifferent formality, empty words or mindless repetition. I came to find Christianity is living, tangible, dynamic and contains solutions to the ultimate existential questions of life such as what is my relationship to eternity? And what happens after death? Here in God’s presence I’ve experienced rest in the unknown by faith and it dissolved the existential anxiety about death and eternity. It is because Christianity is experiential, tangible and real I found the scripture come alive we heard earlier ‘The Kingdom of God is not of talk but of power.’
For example in the Birth of Christ by a virgin birth this is a scientific impossibility that Christians holds to as belief in a miracle. First people seem to have the ideas as this were ignorant of the course of nature. From scientific advances and the ancient worldview Joseph would know as now a virgin birth is impossible unless the regular process of nature were taken over by something beyond. Belief in miracles far from being ignorant of the laws of nature is only possible so far as those laws are known. ‘Miracles often excite wonder awe. St Thomas Aquinas accurately defined a miracle as, ‘we wonder when we see an effect and do not know the cause.’
Miracle is a transcendent cause with a natural effect. ‘ with the cause of the virgin God creates a natural spermatzon in the body it does not break the laws. The laws take it over. Pregnancy follows according to normal laws. ‘The moment it enters her realm it obeys her. God is the cause natural law is the activity which it follows.
A couple years later I went to earn a Bachelors in Biblical studies where I worked with local Pentecostal churches served on missions trips during breaks to Mexico, southeast Asia and Africa. It’s the ladder I would like to share a couple stories relating to miracles. I went to work with Heidi Baker who is considered a modern mother Theresa. Heidi is from the same area I grew up in Laguna Beach. She left at 21 years old newly married with her Husband Roland a couple hundred dollars and a one way ticket to Indonesia. Today she has planted over 10,000 churches in the south east region of Africa planted schools hospitals and a university. Her motto is to go low and slow, stop for the one and to be a laid down lover for Jesus.
Heidi testifies if we empty ourselves like Christ preach the gospel serve the poor signs wonders and miracles will follow that great commission becomes a reality. I heard about the miracles happening and I wanted to find out for myself. On one occasion our group a missionary students went out to a remote village to share the Jesus film, pray , offer food medical care. The team brought roughly 1000 bread loaves to feed the village but word got out and people from nearby villages heard this was happening and traveled a day bear foot to be there. Somehow everyone over 2500 people were completely fed and satisfied. On another occasion with my school one lady brought her child who was six weeks old with cataracts which had completely white in the eyes since birth. Heidi baker laid hands to pray for this newborn, tears streamed from the closed eye lids lo and behold beautiful brown pupils appeared.
The following week we went to another village where I met a man with a type of arthritis who could not move his hand for years. After receiving prayer, he could move his hand with complete mobility. Now everything in my scientifically educated mind fought against the evidence I witnessed with my own eyes. I realized the paradox seeing is not always believing but believing is seeing. As Lewis pointed out earlier this is not a contradiction to the laws of nature as it is a case of the Holy Spirit enhancing nature’s effects.
For the Christian we do not hold to a view of the universe as a fixed closed system is the limit of existence. We believe nature is dependent on God and is open to the intervention of God as when Christ stepped into history and split time forever which we will come to shortly. Two obstacles seem to hinder the western mind to accept miracles, one is intellectual as at face value we assume a miracle seems to contradict nature. With a deeper look we see this is not the case since nature’s laws are averages not absolute permanent fixed. The second obstacle is the in our culture of self sufficiency, dependence on modern medicine. In the Scripture reading today we saw the example of Peter healing the blind beggar we saw silver and gold I have not but what I have walk in the name of Jesus. A famous story occurred with St Francis that recalls this healing by Peter in acts. St Francis was walking in Rome admiring the architectural majesty of Rome to which St Francis aptly responded the reverse of peter was being performed by the Pope ‘Silver and gold you do have however neither can you say walk in the name of Jesus.’
Most of us in the west are filled with knowledge, expertise of a trade or specialty are endowed with a certain level of self reliance in alignment with the naturalist view do not think of a spiritual source for a physical healing. Our glass is full we have not made space for this possibility or perhaps we have hardened our hearts closed our minds to a disappointment tragedy. This I cannot answer that may adequately resolve a grief. Only one thought I can venture forward is based on my experience analysis of scriptures and reading from testimonies is that bad things happen and miracles occur they do not prove or invalidate one another they mysteriously co-exist.
On the infrequency of miracles in the West Heidi Baker writes , ‘People often ask me why we see so many more miracles among the poor than among wealthy, comfortable westerners. The answer is simple: the poor know that they are in need. They know what it is to be desperate and hungry, and they turn that desperation and hunger toward him. They stay desperate. They stay hungry. God lifts up the humble and He fills the hungry with good things (Luke 1:52-53). ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.’
One might wonder what is the point of miracles? Magicians perform tricks, seeming miraculous disappearance of objects stunts that wow the crowd and form a spectacle. In the Christian context miracles are signs that point to the end of salvation for us to be furthered in our relationship with God. One must also be on guard for the place of miracle to eclipse our view of God.
Philosopher Blaise Pascal writes ‘miracles carry such strength that God had to warn people not to think about them in opposition to him’. To worship of a miracle would be a mistake the sun as one of its rays. Miracles in context always point back to the source God as it deepens one’s relationship with Jesus Christ. This is a pitfall one can to easily fall into that I’ve also witnessed in Charismatic movements one must be on guard for. Pastor John Wimber writes, ‘Christian signs and wonders serve a rational purpose to authenticate the gospel’.
Miracles interrupt the usual case and assist the unity and self consistency of total reality at a deeper level and shows the dependence of nature upon God. In our bulletin we read by St. Augustine ‘By reason of their wonderfulness miracles stir material human beings who are a legion to raise their gaze to heaven and synonymous with sign which signifies a reality beyond itself and it causes us to wonder. It exceeds our comprehension as it comes from a force related to and beyond nature. It tells us the nature of God is one who is involved is not distant aloof disinterested where everything is determined rather God is personally involved by his own free will. Miracles anticipate the new heavens and earth. They are the future invading the present and giving it meaning, they manifest God’s transformative work in the world.
A former professor of mine once shared a former college student he went to school with in Santa Barbara grew up in a divorced family his mother delt drugs and the apple did not fall far from the tree with him. His family struggled to get by he went to college in Santa Barbara doing much of the same slinging drugs he ended up having a Christian room mate and he became a Christian. As a result he turned around his grades quit drugs became focus and went on to get a PhD at the top philosophy program in the country. Once destined for dysfunction based on his background upbringing, environment he miraculously pulled off a 180 became a new creation every area of his life relationships career were changed as a result. Miracles demonstrate fruit of a holistic transformation.
As a last testimony of the miraculous I’d like to share with you this miraculous portrait of Jesus Christ. This was painted by a child prodigy at the age of 8 years old who grew up in an atheist family where the concept of God was never talked about. At 4 she said she had dreams and visions of God. One day she said I met God today. To which her family replied, ‘what is God?’. Four year old Akiane responded, ‘God is warm light and good he’s my parent and he knows everything’. They were increasingly astonished as she continued to draw visions of quantum mechanics, concepts in science depictions of the Bible places she visited in heaven with exceptional skill with dexterity near impossible at the ages she was painting.
At 8 she drew this painting and story has it she was looking for a model for two years since she was 6. Apparently a handsome tall carpenter came to fix her parents home who she thought was perfect. When she asked him, his initial reply was ‘I am not worthy to depict my master’. Two weeks later he came by agreed to be the model for this portrait and was never found again. A comparative analysis looked at the image of this painting and the shroud of Turin the linen wraps of Christ’s body in the catacombs of Italy and the study found a 90% accuracy rate.
Several years ago a story went viral of a Pastor’s son in Nebraska momentarily died on the operating table getting surgery on a ruptured appendix at the age of 4. During the term of its operation he told his father the exact words he was praying while he was having an operation, he relayed to his father a conversation he had with his grandfather 25 years prior before he was born and that he had a sister who he had not known about and later found out was a miscarriage. After the experience increasingly more descriptive information came out that he had met Jesus. His Dad showed him hundreds of photos of what Christ looked like and when he came to this painting by Akiane at age 8 and he said, this is the one!
From an aesthetic perspective it tells us a profound idea about the nature of reality goodness evil and God’s place. The half shadow and half light depict the world as mixed with good and evil, suffering and joy, blessings and hardships. On the dark side Christ’s eye is lit showing us God’s presence is with us in the midst of our dark times and hardships. I share these variety of testimonies with you in hopes of encouraging strengthening your faith that God is living, active, miraculous at work in the world today. A necessary reminder to hear as we are so inundated with tribal politics, threats of nuclear war the terrifying prospect of automation. The testimonies of miracles are the Goodnews channel an oasis in the desert of ordinary life. To only view the negative news would be to splice the painting and only witness the dark side of the painting it is only one side of the coin. Attention brings our perspective back to the whole picture of reality as balanced and two sides.
In closing I’d like to end our attention to what C.S. Lewis calls ‘the Grand Miracle’. This is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul says without the resurrection our faith is futile and falls apart. A miracle far from being a contradiction to nature is a perfection of nature by supernatural intervention. The incarnation of God taking on human form is the climactic phenomenon of salvation history. It is the grand miracle that illuminates all other phenomenon it is the destination all other signs direct towards.
The incarnation takes the existent form of nature brings it to fulfillment in it’s process of death and rebirth.’ God who is higher super-nature descends into nature who is lower to reascend. ‘God became man in order man should become like God.’ ‘God must stoop in order to lift’ as a trees roots must dig into the depths of soil for its branches and leaves to stretch its growth to heaven. Lewis points out this pattern of descent to reascent is a pattern universal over nature it is the formula of life. ‘It’s the pattern of all vegetable life. It must belittle itself into something hard and deathlike to fall into the ground then new life reascends. Death and rebirth one goes down to go up. This pattern we witness in nature first exists in God and it is demonstrated in Christ’s coming to earth and re-ascension.
The Scripture states the ‘wages of sin is death and the gift of God is eternal life’. According to Christianity evil suffering and depravity is the cause of man’s sin choice to rebel. This was rendered possible by the choice of man’s free will a shred of God’s quality endowed to mankind who is made in the image of God. Which the Creator deemed it better for man to be free to love than to be determined without choice. Thus when we chose to disobey welcome sin and death. Christ came by descending as the cosmic seed into the earth to initiate redemption to reascend our physical nature to our spiritual fulfilment in reunion with God. Christ initiates the greatest miracle of conquering death through his death and resurrection destroying the sting of death. Death is no longer the last word it is a door to a higher stage of existence in perfect communion with God.
For the Christian death has a double meaning, it is the tragic wages of sin and the victory of the enemy. It is also the very means of redemption from sin, God’s medicine for man his weapon against Satan’ the instrument for which he achieved the keys to eternal life. It is this pattern of descent and re-ascension in the cycles of nature that finds its principle fulfilment in the work of God achieving salvation for humanity.
This same pattern of descent to re-ascension in the movie I saw last night I want to encourage all of you to go see at the theatres called ‘Sound of Freedom’. Interestingly played by Jim Caviezel the actor of Christ in the Passion of the Christ follows this same pattern of descent to renascent. Based on a true story, the film follows a special agent Timothy Ballard of American Homeland Security who cracks down on pedophiles and rescues children from the child sex trafficking industry and becomes especially attached to a case Rosario a nine year old girl. Timothy leaves southern California to embark on a rescue mission risking his career, his pension, security and his life to enter the darkest regions nearing hell in Columbia in order to save a nine year old from the nefarious evil of a life in imprisoned to sexual slavery and exploitation. Without giving more of the film away and my strong encouragement for you to go see it in the theatres because It is perhaps the most moving film I have ever seen and it speaks to the same action Jesus Christ took on our behalf who left security of paradise to live die for us to be resurrected to rescue us from sin and death.
What began with the curse on a tree ends with the reversing the curse on the tree of the Cross. Eve and Adam tasted the fruit from the garden breaching separation with God. Christ voluntarily dies on the tree of the cross and resurrects attaining reunion and eternal life for humanity. ‘God became a man who did not have to unless he chose, as one who served in our sad regiment as a volunteer’, A perfect man who lived a perfect death tasted death voluntarily on our behalf. Christ descended into the lower realm of nature in the mixture of co-existence to lift us into the higher realm of spiritual life with Him. As the Author and finisher of our salvation Christ plunged into the abyss to conquer death and raise us to eternal life with him. Miracles are the preview of this grand miracle God has achieved for mankind that we will witness its fullness in heaven. These miracles stop us in our tracks from the ordinary repetition of life lift our gaze in wonder and gratitude for this Grand miracle of Christ’s redemption the supreme light of all Creation. Amen.