Objections to Miracles - CA-011

Well, there was another delivery driver in the kingdom who had got stopped at a red light, and he had to wait 15 minutes at the red light. His deliveries were late, and when he got back to the warehouse where he worked, his boss really got onto him: "You were light with all your deliveries. You had people waiting. You let us down. I think I'll just fire you." So the man told him the truth. He said, "You're not going to believe this. I've never had anything like this happen before, but every light was red except the ones that were going a certain direction, and they were all green. I stopped at a red light for 15 minutes." And the boss said, "No, I'm not going to buy that. In this kingdom, there is never a red light that stays red longer than two-and-a-half minutes. I don't know where you were or what you were doing, but I know you were not sitting at a red light for 15 minutes." So he fired the man, because he knew that in that kingdom, no red light ever stayed red longer than two-and-a-half minutes. I'll tell you the rest of this story later.

Principles of Miracles

1. A Real Historical Event

   Here is one. A miracle is a real event occurring in history. It's not a fairy tale. It's not a parable like the one I just told you. It's not a made-up story. It is a true event that happens in time and space.

2. An Apparent Exception to a Well-Known Natural Law

   Secondly, a miracle is an event that shows apparent exception to a well-known natural law. A well-known natural law that most people agree on has been apparently temporarily suspended for this event to happen. It appears to be an exception of natural law.

   In 2 Kings 20:10 is the story where Hezekiah was sick, and apparently Hezekiah had sent for Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah said, "I've been talking to God, and He told me to come tell you that your time's up. Get your house in order. Make your will and all of these things, because this sickness is fatal." Hezekiah prayed and asked for more years." God said, "OK, I'll heal you and extend your life." Then there was a matter of making a poultice for King Hezekiah. Hezekiah said, "Well, how do I know, if you tell me that God has heard my prayer, and he's going to heal me? Could you give me some kind of sign?" So in 2 Kings 20:9, Isaiah says, "OK, this will be a sign to you from the Lord. The Lord will do the thing that he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or go back ten steps?"

   Now, this was a sundial (a sun clock) that they were talking about. In those days, the Egyptians had started making some sun clocks that were in the form of staircases. It could be a real staircase that people could go up and down, or it could be a miniature decoration type of staircase. So you could tell relatively the time of day it was by looking at what steps the shadows were falling on.

   So, Isaiah said, "Hezekiah, your majesty, would you like the shadow on the sun staircase to go up or down? God said he would do it ten steps." Hezekiah said, "Well, if we say for it to go down, then it's going to go down anyway. People could say, 'Well, it seemed to happen a little faster than usual, but they could explain it away.'" He said, "But if it goes backwards, they're not going to be able to explain that away." So Hezekiah answered, "It is easy for the shadow to decline ten steps. No. But let the shadow turn backward ten steps."

   So Hezekiah said, "If you're going to suspend natural law, then really suspend it."

3. It Always Arrests Attention

   It always arrests attention. Miracles always get attention. Either false miracles or true miracles always arrest people's attention.

4. Some People Consider it a Supernatural Act

   It is so unusual to see an actual event happen, which appears to suspend natural law, that some people consider it a supernatural act. They consider it an act performed by a supernatural agent. We're keeping this very general. So this could be any religion that claims to have miracles could use the same definition.

5. It is Non-Repeatable by Ordinary Human Beings

   It is non-repeatable by ordinary human beings. It's something that no one can repeat at will. Sometimes in the Bible, we see where a miracle can be repeated by certain people of God, but by ordinary human beings, it cannot be repeated. If someone performs what appears to be a miracle, and you set it up under the same circumstances, and you try it, there is no guarantee that it will happen. So it is non-repeatable by ordinary human beings.

Objections to Miracles

Nature is a Closed System

It's like a lady I know who is a teacher. She taught in an all-black school. The funny thing is, she was a white lady, but it seemed like the kids didn't even notice. They accepted her because she was such a good teacher. But anyway, one of her students asked her one day, "Why are all white people mean?" And she answered, "Well, that's not true. All white people are not mean." The girl said, "Oh yeah, all the white people I've ever known or heard are mean." Well, she'd never really seen many white people, but her parents had told her that all white people were mean. The only way the teacher could deal with that was to say, "Well, I'm white. Do you think I'm mean?" The girl said, "You're not white. You're nice, and white people are mean. So you can't be a white lady." But she convinced her that she was white. Then she pointed out some TV shows and she said, "Now look at so-and-so on this show. Don't you think he's a nice person? And look – his skin is white." So she finally convinced the child that just because she had been taught a world view that says, "All white folks are mean," it's not necessarily true.

And so when someone has a world view that says certain things can happen, and certain other things cannot happen, you can deal with that person. First of all, they can believe you. Secondly, they can let the evidence change their world view. If you believe that all black folks are mean, and you happen to meet a few people that are really nice people, and their skin is black, you'll start weighing the evidence. And you can do one of two things. You can either change your mind, or at least you can be open-minded about it.

So the prejudice is: "I don't like to even think about miracles. It gives me the creeps to think that there may be someone out there who is so powerful that he can actually suspend natural law. If there is, that means that I need to have a good relationship with Him. That just kind of gives me the creeps, because that means somebody owns me, and I don't like to be owned. I like to do my own thing. If there is a Creator out there, then He has a claim on me."

So what they're speaking of is a prejudicial world view. Someone says miracles just cannot happen. You're not dealing with a scientific statement. You're dealing with a prejudicial world view. It's just like someone said that all black people are mean or all white people are mean, or whatever. It's a prejudice. It's not a fact.

Natural Law

Well, again, we're discussing a prejudice. We need to focus on the meaning of the word "law." This is a misunderstanding of what the word "law" actually means. There are two definitions of "law." One is a pronouncement or a commandment by a sovereign authority. God says, "This is the way it is." That's the law: "Thou shalt not," or "thou shalt." These are laws.

Or a government (a king) can issue a mandate, and that's a law. So that's one definition of law, a commandment from an authority. The second definition is not a law. It would have probably been better if these things had never been called laws such as the law of gravity. This is a principle, or a generalization. Scientists have observed certain things. Isaac Newton observed that when an apple falls off a tree, it seems to always go down. He never saw one go up. So he says there must be some principle here that keeps things going down toward the center of the earth. Let's call it gravity. They got to calling it the law of gravity. But it's really not a law, because scientists didn't get together and say, "You know, I think we should have a law that says that things go down and not up." Scientists are not legislators. They're reporters of what they observe. So a scientific law is really a scientific observation. It's a generalization. Scientists have been observing things, and they say, "You know, I think it probably works like this." So they call it the law of thermodynamics, or the law of gravity, as we've said, or something like that.

But there is a big gap between that type of law (a natural law, or generalization) and a moral law. People use terms like: "A miracle is something that violates natural law." Well, you can't violate natural law. You can violate a moral law, but not a natural law, because natural laws are based on observation, and they're general principles (generalizations).

When Einstein came out in the early part of the 1900s with his theory of relativity, a lot of people thought that there was no way that this can be true. In about 1912, there was an eclipse, and certain planets were in alignment with each other, and Einstein said, "If I'm right, certain things will happen, and astronomers can observe these things." Sure enough, it worked out just like Einstein had said, based on his theory of relativity.

OK, all that meant was that everything in the universe was relative to the speed of light. People all over the world said, "Hooray! There are no such things as morals now. You can do anything you want to because nothing is absolute. Morals are relative."

Now, Einstein was not a Christian. He was a non-practicing Jew. He believed in God – one God as the Hebrew Scriptures teach, but he was not a Christian. He was a very moral man. He was very upset that people took his theory about the physical universe and made it an excuse, and they transferred it over to the moral realm, because of the misconception of scientific law – identifying that with moral law.

So this is a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word "law" when it's applied to scientific law, because it isn't a law. It's the generalization that scientists say, "You know, I think it works like this. So this is an agreed-upon principle based on observation. Scientists are not making laws. They are not legislators. They're reporters.

So another misunderstanding about this is based on faulty logic. If someone tells you that miracles can't happen because that would be a violation of natural law, first of all, they're saying that science has observed everything in the universe. Everything has been observed by scientists. Nothing can ever go against the generalizations of the scientists. Scientists are human beings. They're finite. They're limited. And they just haven't observed everything in the universe.

If it were true that a miracle cannot happen, the only way you could know this is because it would upset or violate natural law, is if you were omniscient. But the person who said that is not omniscient. Or if you had some private revelation – if God had spoken to you and revealed that to you. And if that had happened, that would have been a miracle. So if you say that, you have defeated your statement, because the seeds of its own destruction are in your assertion.

So what it has to be is personal preference: "I don't want miracles to happen, so I'm going to say they can't happen."

Chronological Snobbery

Let me tell you just how far this has gone. Some people really believed it. Do you remember Madalyn Murray O'Hair? She used to say, "Sure, people used to believe in the virgin birth because you know what? People didn't even know what caused babies." Really, she actually said that. All you have to do is read the first of Matthew and you can see that Joseph knew, and this was 2,000 years ago. He knew what caused babies. His fiancé, said, "Guess what, Joe I'm pregnant." He could have had her stoned. If he had divorced her publicly, there would have been Pharisees who would have wanted to execute her. But being a just man and a fair man, he didn't want to do that.

So he thought, I'll just keep it quiet and divorce her privately. It took a special trip of an angel from God to convince Joseph that a virgin conception had actually taken place.

What about the man born blind? People knew that that type of healing didn't just happen. Sometimes there might be someone who has lost his sight for a psychosomatic reason and you tell him to do something: "Go bathe in the river four times," or "bury an ear of corn under the full moon," and he'll receive his sight. And sometimes it works because if your emotions are giving you a physical ailment, your emotions can remove it. But what about someone who's born blind – someone who has never seen anything, and they're healed? What about feeding 5,000 people?

So the people back then, they were smart. When they would observe these things, they would say something like, "Surely this is the prophet," or, "Surely this is the Messiah." So the chronological snobbery argument just doesn't work.

We touched on another reason people object to miracles. They say, "Sure, all the miracles in the Bible were just psychological." I read an article once by Reverend Ike. Some of you might have heard Reverend Ike on the radio. He's a faith healer. He wrote an article years ago in a magazine. He told about how he manipulates crowds. He said, "I'll tell you something I'm really good at. I can get my voice down real quiet, and I can get everybody, while the organ is playing really softly, and I can speak softly, and I can say, 'You know, I believe you're going to be healed.' Then I'll clap my hands, and I'll yell, 'In the name of Jesus, get up and walk.'" He said, "Boy, I'm good at that. I jerk people out of wheelchairs and they walk around." If you know how to manipulate people, and if you're a good amateur psychologist, you can do a lot.

So people say, "Well, Jesus was a master faith healer, and He knew how to manipulate people's emotions and make people think they were healed. He was something like the W.V. Grant or the Oral Roberts of New Testament days." Well, even if we could say maybe he's got something there, which we can't, because that still wouldn't explain people born blind man; with a withered hand, as we saw last week; or, restoring an amputated ear. What about walking on water? What about stilling a storm? What about Lazarus, who had been dead for four days and had already begun to decay? So that's not a valid argument – that the miracles of the Bible are a result of psychological manipulation.

All Religions Have Miracles

You remember a few years ago, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation, the one who got the Beatles involved in Indian mysticism. He claimed that he was teaching people how to do that. They even had pictures in some of the national magazines of people sitting Indian-style and floating a few feet off the floor. Supposedly, they could only do this for a little while. But that's an example of a Hindu miracle. They are very few, very far between, and very questionable. And it doesn't do anyone a bit of good. Another miracles that Hinduism claims is that if you're such a holy person that you devote yourself all the time to self-deprivation and meditating, practicing yoga, and meditating on the Hindu gods, that you'll be able to do some miracles. Well, you've seen films of them: people sticking pins to their cheeks; or, laying on a bed of nails, and apparently feeling no pain. These are the miracles that Hinduism claims.

You have probably heard stories about the Indian rope trick. When I was a kid, people talked a lot about that. There are these Hindu holy men – gurus, we call them now. But back then they were called "fakirs." I think it means "holy man" or something in Hindi. But I think it's very appropriate to call them "fakers." But I was told by people who had been in India that you would see these guys walking down the street. They would go to a street corner where a lot of people were standing around, and they would ask for money: "If you'll give me money, I'll perform a miracle." Then they would throw their rope on the ground, and play a flute, and the rope would rise up just like a snake. Then the fakir would climb to the top of the rope and disappear. And there were a lot of people who had claimed they had actually seen this. An interesting fact is that several people took pictures. When they did (when they had their pictures developed), there was nothing there. There was no rope climbing. There was no rope pointing upward. The fakir would be standing on the ground. So there's a good case that can be made that the Hindu fakir was practicing hypnosis, or some sort of deception, and making people think they saw something that they didn't.

But anyway, sure, Hinduism claims that they have miracles, but these are the types of miracles that Hinduism has. They don't have raising the dead; calming the sea; or, feeding 5,000 people at one time. They're not going to touch that. Forget it.

Joseph Smith never performed a miracle. He did claim to be a prophet, and he did make some prophecies, all of which proved to be wrong. Muhammad never performed a miracle. He never claimed to be able to perform a miracle. Again, he did make some pronouncements that certain things had happened already, and he claimed to know these things because he was a prophet. But they found out later the things that he had said had happened did not happen. Muhammad had a way of getting revelations from Allah which were very convenient for him. For example, he said, "You can't practice polygamy anymore. Allah revealed to me that a man should have one wife." Then Muhammad met another girl that he liked. Then he said, "Well, I think maybe you can have two wives." Then it kept increasing to four for the common man. Then he had to get another revelation that the prophet could have as many as he desired, and so on.

Yes, there are religions (weird cults) that do claim to have miracles. But if you say that all miracles are false, and the miracles of the Bible are not true because the miracles of Hinduism or Islam are very questionable at best, that's like saying that since there are some fake diamonds out there, there's no such thing as a real diamond. So to say that all religions have miracle goes, first of all, is not true. Secondly, the religions that do have miracles, they're very careful about what miracles they claim. Like I say, there is never someone feeding 5,000 people at one time, and not only doing that once, but twice; making people who were born blind, and they're 40 years old, and you restore their sight; restoring a severed ear; or, restoring a withered arm. There is not a religion in the world that will touch these kinds of things with a ten-foot pole. During the three-year ministry of Jesus, He did these things all the time.

No Miracles Today

Miracles occurred during the time of Moses, and then the time of the Lord Jesus Christ, with just a few scattered in between. Then during the three-year lifetime of Jesus, the land of Palestine was just saturated with miracles. Wherever Jesus went, these miracles happened. Then when Jesus left us, for a little while in the book of Acts, there were a few miracles. The apostles were able to perform miracles, and then miracles were phased out. We don't see miracles anymore. Miracles are not a part of Bible doctrine in the epistles, except to say that we've seen some miracles, but they phased out. By the time we get to the end of the New Testament, it's obvious that the day of miracles has passed away.

So to say, "Well sure, the Bible is full of miracles" is not an accurate statement. Miracles are few and far between, even in the Bible, except during the Ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the early days of the church.

Providential Miracles

I witnessed these all the time. Now, I'm not a charismatic, in the popular sense of the word (or Pentecostal), and I don't see the dead being raised, and the sick being miraculously healed. But I experience providential miracles frequently.

You have a health problem, and you go to the doctor, and it just happens that just that morning he has read an article in a medical journal that gives him some insight about how to treat this problem. I know of a man who had a rare eye disease, and he was told that he would be blind. There was nothing that could be done about it. Then a few weeks later, his doctor called him and said that on the other side of the world, he didn't even know this, but someone was doing research on this disease, and now they could treat it successfully.

You need a job, and you just happened to run into a friend who gives you a lead, and you go get the job.

You're broke and you're praying for money. And I actually had this happen once. I was praying for God to meet my financial needs, and the telephone rang, and I thought, "Man, a guy can't even pray without being interrupted by the phone." It was a man that God had sent who wanted me to do some work for him. Of course, he paid me for it, and it met my need. So we see these happen all the time. If we want to be technical theologically, these are really not miracles. We know they are. They are providential miracles, but they don't seem to violate natural law. People, if they don't know the truth or they don't believe the truth, could always say, "Ah, that would have happened anyway."

But a true class-A miracle is always something that is unexplainable without invoking the supernatural. For example, in Exodus 8:19, Moses had performed several of the plagues in Egypt, and the magicians in Pharaoh's court would do the same thing. Then finally, Moses brought forth gnats. God created some life, and the Egyptians said, "We're not going to touch that one. We can't do that. In verse 19, the magician said to pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." That's what we say when we see a true miracle in the Word of God: "This has to be of God."

John 6:14: "Therefore, when the people saw the sign, which He had performed (when He had fed the 5,000 people), they said, 'This is truly the prophet who has to come into the world.'" In other words, "This is the Messiah." This is God's work. Nobody else.

Now, miracles are very important in Scripture. Someone says, "Well, I believe the Bible has got some good stuff in it. I just don't believe all that stuff about miracles." They missed the main thing. Christianity (the Christian faith) stands or falls on the historicity of the miracles that it records.

Let's review some of the Scriptures that we looked at last time just to underline this. In John 10:25, some of the Jewish people had asked Jesus, "Are you the Messiah? Or are you not the Messiah?" Verse 25: "Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe me. The works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me. So if you don't believe Me when I say I'm the Messiah, just look at what I've been doing. Just look at what I can do. Look at the works.'"

John 14:11: "Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Otherwise believe because of the works themselves." Jesus said, "Hey, just look at what I've been doing, and you can't explain this except by the fact that I am the Messiah, the Son of God. So if you don't believe it because I say so, then believe it because of the miracles.

In John 20:30, John writes near the end of the gospel, "Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in His name." John says, "For three years, this man went about healing people and doing things that only God can do. I couldn't begin to write about all that He did during this three-year period, but I've written a few of them just so you can become convinced that He is the Son of God. In so doing, you can receive eternal life."

Luke 7:22: "Jesus answered and said to them." This was when John the Baptist had sent word, "Are you really the Messiah? You know, I thought you were, but I've been kind of having some doubts. So are you really the Messiah?" And Jesus answered the messengers, "Go and report to John what you have seen and heard. The blind received sight; the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; and, the poor have the gospel preached to them. So just go tell John what you've been seeing, and he's sharp enough. He'll know whether I'm the Messiah or not, when He hears what I've been doing."

Then another Scripture we looked at last time is in Hebrews. Hebrews was probably one of the last books written in the New Testament canon. It was written to second- or maybe even third-generation Christians. Hebrews 2:3-4: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. The people who were alive when Jesus was on the earth, they told us, 'Yes, this is true. I know, because I witnessed these things.'" Verse 4: "God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will."

Then in 1 Corinthians 15, Christianity rises or falls on the historicity of miracles, and in particular, one miracle, the Resurrection. No leader of any world religion has ever been able to back up his claim that he would rise from the dead.

I remember when I was a kid, there was a black man in Chicago who claimed to be God in human flesh. I loved the way Dr. Danish used to explain this. He called himself the great I am. Then the great I am died, and became the great "I ain't." But he had claimed that he would rise from the dead. Of course, when he died, they waited and waited, and nothing happened.

But in 1 Corinthians 15:12, Paul says, "Now, if Christ is preached (that He has been raised from the dead), how do some of you say there is no resurrection? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith also is vain."

Verse 17: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You're still in your sins. Those then who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all men, most to be pitied." So Christianity is based on the bedrock of the miracle of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If God can raise His Son from the dead, then His Son could have, and did, perform all of the miracles that are reported.

Now, I told you I'd finish the modern parable about the delivery truck driver. Well, he did get fired, but he took it to the union, and they took it to court, and they had a big hearing. This fired truck driver was able to bring 500 witnesses who said, "Yes, I can't explain it, but that red light stayed red 15 minutes, and then it changed to green. So the man was given his job back and paid back wages. Everyone was happy except his boss, who was unhappy. But he had to believe that the man was telling the truth, even though he didn't want to believe it.

In John 20:20, Jesus appeared to the disciples in one of His post-resurrection appearances, and he said, "Shalom." "When He had said this, he showed them both His hands and His side. And the disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord."

We rejoice because we know that He was and is the miracle-working Son of God raised from the dead, and we are to spend eternity with Him.

Leon Adkins, 2003

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