Do Miracles really happen? Miracles are important to Christians. Our very faith rests on the miracle of Christ rising from the dead. Paul, just a few years after Jesus’ death, wrote this:
1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV)
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
If Christ has not been raised, Christians are in bad shape. Our faith is just a bunch of rituals and fantasies. So, miracles are important. But, can they be defended?
David Hume, an 18th Century Scottish philosopher, said something very interesting that has stood in the way of Christians for four centuries. He said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Sounds right, doesn’t it? Claiming a body was fully dead, stored in a cold damp tomb sealed from outside tampering could rise after being dead for three days – well, that’s just silly. We’ve never seen anything like that happen before. The evidence to prove it would need to be phenomenal, don’t you think? Hume thought so.
Hume’s argument, like so many other philosophical ideas, sounds intellectual, brilliant, and logical. But, is he right? Do we really need extraordinary evidence to show Jesus rose from the dead? No.
The soldier who pronounced Jesus dead on the cross pronounced people dead for a living. He was very aware of what it meant to die on a cross. Just to make sure, though, a spear was thrust through Jesus’ side, and the blood and water that gushed out was proof of His death. So, we’re certain Jesus was dead. No doubt about it. If he hadn’t been quite dead, three days in a cold damp tomb after being scourged, crucified, and speared would have certainly finished the job.
Now the question is if He was alive three days later. Well, He was seen by quite a number of people, people who were very familiar with Him. He showed Himself to His disciples demonstrating He was alive. He asked them to feel His body to show He was alive. This is all well documented in the gospels. The genuineness of the gospel of Luke is confirmed by biblical critics as a first century document written by Doctor Luke. This is all in that gospel.
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, also a document confirmed as genuine by biblical critics, tells us all the disciples saw Him alive as well as James, His brother, and over 500 others. Seeing if someone is alive is not extraordinary evidence. It’s common sense anyone can verify. If He’s walking, talking, and physically present – if He was confirmed dead just a few days earlier, He has risen from the dead.
A friend of ours had lumps in her breasts. Several of us prayed for her. When she went in the next morning to have them removed, the doctor couldn’t find them. He looked at the previous tests, and there they were. Then he felt her breasts to find the lumps, and they weren’t there. No extraordinary evidence. Like the rising of Christ, something was true one moment and false the next. She had been healed by the hand of God.
So, don’t be bullied by folks who tell you miracles can’t happen, and if you claim they do, you need extraordinary evidence to prove them. The evidence needed is usually pretty simple and there if you want to see it.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 