You
will find the following on Page 10 but we felt it would be useful
to also have them available here as a separate Appendix that is easily
accessible.
a)
Miracles Happen.
If
we accept the definition that a miracle is a change in the natural
order, then I am utterly convinced that they do happen. Apart from
a variety of things I could cite in my own experience, if I thought
it of value, I have friends who have travelled abroad, friends who
I would in no way describe as gullible, who have witnessed first hand,
for days on end, particular healing ministries where the ‘impossible'
happened again and again before their eyes. I remember a young Christian
on a trip I was involved in, in the interior of Sarawak,
who prayed for a blind person and the blind person saw. Without going
into the details that I checked, I have no question of the reality
of what happened.
b)
You can't turn on miracles.
If,
as Christians believe, miracles occur at the hand of God, then you
are talking about a person and not a machine or mechanism. Thus the
demand for miracles is a futile demand. God decrees when He will do
what He does.
c)
Miracles can be counterfeited.
As
much as I believe in the power of God, I must also believe in occult
powers, especially in the light of limited demonic experience in this
country, and wider occult experiences abroad. Thus I have no problem
with accepting that Pharaoh's magicians could counterfeit or copy
the early miracles performed by Moses. It is interesting to note that
after a while he was moving in a realm beyond them.
d)
Miracles are virtually impossible to believe in unless you've been
involved.
I
accept that it is almost impossible to believe in the impossible unless
you see it with your own eyes. By definition, a miracle goes against
what is naturally possible. My friends, who I referred to above, said
that their biggest difficulties for the first three days was in getting
their minds to catch up with what their eyes were seeing. It is almost
impossible to ‘prove' that something was a miracle, unless you have
just witnessed it, and even then, sometimes, it is difficult to know
if it was a specific act of God, or whether it was the way God had
designed the body to act.
e)
Healing ‘miracles' can happen naturally.
I
fully accept that sometimes the human body seems to completely reverse
the natural downward trend in an illness, apparently without cause.
However, it is a wrong assumption to say that therefore all such ‘miracles'
are just the way the body works. When a cancer has been completely
eradicated, when ulcers are completely removed, or when a cripple
is made completely well, all immediately in answer to brief prayer,
I'm not sure the point of debating the issue.
I
know of all of these experiences and many more. When there is total
transformation, a total reversal of the natural, then it is only the
stubborn anti-God unbeliever who wants to debate the issue. To this
list I would also add the matter of raising the dead. The sceptic
says, “Well of course they weren't dead,” but when a doctor certifies
that pulse and heart beat have stopped and have stopped for over an
hour, and someone comes and commands life in the name of Jesus and
the person immediately gets up, you've really got to have a degree
in scepticism to reject the evidence. As I have commented about prayer
before, I agree with a friend who used to say, “Well, all I know is
that when I stop praying the coincidences stop happening.”
f)
Present day miracles aren't 'needed' for Christian faith.
As
much as I am convinced that God does intervene in His world when He
deems it right, neither I nor any person in my church ‘need' miracles
today to believe. Our faith is built on the historical evidence of
the Bible and specifically of Jesus Christ.
g)
Superstitious ‘faith' looks for miracles.
Around
the world there are indeed some weird and wonderful things that go
on. I don't pretend to understand them all by any means. I, and most
Christians that I know personally, do not go looking for miracles.
I am sure there are counterfeits (see above) and I am sure there a
natural explanations and I am equally sure there are miracles. Where
‘faith' is weak, and in certain parts of the world where, I believe,
Christian faith appears as a form of religion without the reality
of it, it can often be akin to superstition, and superstitious people
look for ‘good miracles' to bolster their weak and often fearful beliefs.
That has nothing to do with genuine faith.
h)
Human beings look for meaning in natural disasters.
Although
this may not fit exactly in the definition of a miracle, I believe
there is a natural tendency to look to put blame for a natural disaster.
Does God bring natural disasters? Yes, I'm convinced that sometimes
He does. I feel more comfortable with the thought that He does in
that He has designed this world to work in certain ways and that does
include the existence or reality of spiritual powers (which I think
the occult around the world reveals). Where sin is especially prevalent
that, I suspect, opens up the way for ‘natural upheavals' to occur,
but I still also believe that sometimes He specifically brings such
things, to bring a people to its senses (which such events manage
to do like few other things.)
As
for blaming God for such things because of specific sins, such as
the downward moral spiral witnessed by specific practices that run
contrary to God's design laws in the Bible, the bigger issue is why
isn't the church being a voice that spoke long ago and stopped this
downward spiral. Judgement is something every human being has to face
on death. The Christian faith is all about how that judgement need
not be feared. Jesus himself was loath to attribute disasters as a
form of blame. See Luke 13:1-5. The call is for all to repent, not
just those of some of the more obvious and blatant sins.