1. Chapter 6:
Miracles
Pocket handbook of Christian apologetics (2003)
Peter Kreeft & Ronald Tacelli

2. Name some Bible miracles
Are there some you find
“easy’ to believe and others
you find harder to believe,
why?
Why did Jesus perform
miracles?
Which biblical miracles are
essential and which are
optional for ‘true faith’?

3. Are miracles
something that only
happens to “special”
people or for all?
In the Bible how did
people respond to
miracles - deny,
rejoice, accept etc.

4. Jesus - Which miracles do you believe?
Born of a virgin Fed the 5000
Water into wine Cast out demons
Healed a paralytic Rose from the dead
Healed blind, deaf, mute Calmed the storm
Appeared to the disciples after the resurrection
CARM has a paper looking at miracles and
CARM has a paper looking at miracles and
rebutting arguments against miracles
rebutting arguments against miracles
http://carm.org/questions/about-jesus/cant-all-jesus-
http://carm.org/questions/about-jesus/cant-all-jesus-
miracles-be-explained-naturally
miracles-be-explained-naturally

5. The Objections most frequently leveled by
critics of Christ's resurrection
- Christ's resurrection is a myth, not history.
How would you
- The resurrection stories are full of
contradictions.
counter such
- Miracles are not possible.
- The body was stolen.
arguments?
- Jesus only fainted and then recovered from his
wounds.
- The witnesses were just “seeing things.”

6. • Acts 2:22 - “Fellow
Israelites, listen to this: Jesus
of Nazareth was a man
accredited by God to you by
miracles, wonders and signs,
which God did among you
through him, as you
yourselves know.

7. "It was Hume who first spoke
of miracles as violations of
nature. But Christians don't
believe that the Legislator is
subject to any of the laws of
nature."
Craig Keener

8. "Those who assume that
miracles cannot happen are
merely wasting their time by
looking into the texts: we know
in advance what results they
will find for they have begun by
begging the question."
C.S. Lewis

9. Why believe the biblical miracles?
1. God made the universe out of nothing
- a miracle is easy after that.
2.The factual nature of the miracle
stories is evident from the text of
Scripture - there were witnesses to the
healings etc. - nothing in the description
of the miracle events remotely suggests
that we should look for naturalistic
explanations for the miracles. They are
presented as truly supernatural.

10. 3. The miracles stories are not
embellished like mythology.
They are straight-forward
matter-of-fact historical
narrative accounts.
4. There was not enough time
after the events took place for
myths to have crept into the
accounts - miracles are part of
the text from the very
beginning.

11. 5. The writers of the Bible attested
to Jesus’ miracles (John 2:11etc) but
Jesus himself based his claim of
divinity partly on his miracles (
Matthew 11:4-6, Luke 7:22-23,
John 10:25, 38, John 14:11,
John 15:24)
6.Jesus’ greatest miracle, the
resurrection, has overwhelming
evidence in its favor - if the
resurrection is a fact of history,
Jesus’ other miracles are believable.

12. 7. To deny the miracles leaves
the Bible as a secular book,
which gives one the option of
ignoring it. If you start
throwing out the miracles, you
will [arguably] start picking
and choosing among other
things you like or don’t like in
the Bible.

13. 8. There is no compelling
reason to doubt the Bible. The
evidence supports the reliability
of Scripture throughout.
Norman Geisler, a
“demythological approach to
miracles and the New Testament
documents in general is unjustified.
First and foremost, it is contrary to
the overwhelming evidence for the
authenticity of the New Testament
documents.”

14. A miracle is
“a striking and religiously
significant intervention
of God in the system of
natural causes”

15. William Lane Craig: A
miracle is
“an event which is not
producible by the natural
causes that are operative
at the time and place
that the event occurs”

16. J.P. Moreland, the noted philosopher,
illustrates divine intervention with the
following example. According to the law of
gravity, if you drop an object, it will fall to
the earth. But, if an apple falls from a tree
and you reach out to catch it before it hits
the ground, you’re not violating or negating
the law of gravity; you, with your free will
are merely intervening, overriding the
natural causes operative in that particular
circumstance. According to Moreland, God
intervenes in a very similar fashion causing
what we call ‘miracles’.

17. Miracle: An event brought about by a special act of God.
There is much disagreement about the definition beyond this
minimum. Some thinkers argue that a miracle must involve an
exception to the laws of nature or (perhaps alternatively) involve
some event that exceeds the natural powers or capacities of
natural things. Others insist that a miracle is recognizable
primarily by its revelatory power as a sign that shows something
about God or God's purposes and that such events do not have to
be scientifically inexplicable.Traditional apologetics viewed
miracles as important confirmation or certification that a prophet
or apostle was genuinely sent by God.
C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion
C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion

18. “Since Christians do not have a
presupposition that excludes
the miraculous, we are able to
look at the resurrection of
Christ as recorded in the Bible,
weigh the evidence, and make a
choice to believe or not believe.
Of course, Christians by default
believed in the resurrection of
Christ.”
http://carm.org/miracles-cannot-
happen

20. Two questions about miracles
Philosophical question - are miracles
possible?
Historical question - are miracles actual
(do they happen)? This simply requires
some historical knowledge and/or
investigation, has it ever happened?
The philosophical question is the one that
apologists argue with people about - the
possibility of miracles needs to be decided
upon. People who do not believe in miracles
usually have some form of argument which
says miracles cannot happen.

21. 1. The idea of miracles
contradiction
presupposes that nature is a self
|ˌkäntrəˈdik sh ə of
contained systemn| natural
causes - only in that there are
regularities can there bestatements,
* a combination of irregularities
ideas, or featuresaof a situation
2. A miracle is not contradiction
- a man walking through aone is a
that are opposed to wall
miracle, a man both walking through a
another
wall and not walking through a wall at
* a same time thing, or situation
the person, is a contradiction - God
performs miracles but not elements
in which inconsistent
contradictions (which are
are present
meaningless)

22. a priori |ˈ ä prēˈ ôrē;
To believe miracles happen you have
* believe in a miracle worker - you
to relating to or
denoting some form of Godor
have to believe reasoning
knowledge that
exists. Then we can say miracles are
possible - although God might
proceeds from
choose not to make this possibility a
theoretical deduction
reality.
rather than from open to
Are God and the world both
observation or
miracles happening?
experience
There is nothing in the nature of
God thata waywould not make a
* in says he based on
miracle happen - he is omnipotent
theoretical deduction
and can do it, we cannot know a
ratherwill though.
priori if he than empirical
observation

23. Can we object to miracles
from the position of nature -
here we have already
acknowledged that God
created nature - if God can
bring the world out of a Big
Bang then he can add some
smaller bangs of miracles! If
nature is made by God for
God - then he can do
miracles.

24. Objections against miracles
As apologists we have to consider
what objections rememberbring
We should people might that
against miracles. This is not to be
dealt withof the fundamental
much on an historical level, the
people herethe probably objecting
truth of are Christian faith
on the basis of philosophical ideas
not historical validity - in other -
is based on “miracles”
incarnation, resurrection,
words we are arguing on the level of
possibility (or an argument that they
salvation, biblical if they
are very improbable) - after all
inspiration...
are impossible we do not need to
consider historical “occurrences”.

25. “Vital to the discussion of whether or not miracles can
occur is the issue of a person's presuppositions. If someone
believes that there is no God and also believes in what is
called naturalism - that all things in the universe are subject
to natural physical laws - then miracles are defined out of
existence - the universe is defined in such a way as to make
miracles impossible.Therefore, if someone says that
miracles cannot happen, then it is most probable they deny
the existence of God and/or believe in naturalism/evolution.”
http://carm.org/miracles-cannot-happen

26. Once God revealed the entirety of the
information that He wished to make
available to mankind…the need for
This extract came from a
miraculous confirmation of the oral
Christian apologetic website -
Word came to an end. Now, people can
http://
sit down with a New Testament, the
written Word of God, and, with honest
www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=1
and diligent study, conclude that it is
God’s – it is Many preachers and an
Word. shown here as
teachers today havethe reasoning
example of failed to
acknowledgeby some believers for
provided this crucial biblical factor.
They fail to face the fact that we have
not believing in modern day
absolutely no need for the miraculous.
miracles
Since the purpose of miracles has been
achieved, the miracles, themselves, have
ceased

27. I repeat: the Bible teaches that miracles
are no longer necessary.We have
everything we need to function in this
life, to be pleasing to God, and to survive
spiritually (2 Peter 1:3). Spiritual
maturity is now within the grasp of
every single individual who chooses to
access the means to maturity—the
written Word of God. To insist that we
have need for the miraculous today is to
undermine, and to cast aspersions upon,
the all-sufficiency of God’s Word (cf. 1
Corinthians 1:22; 2 Timothy 3:16-17).

28. Objection #1
Miracles violate the principle of
uniformity of nature
Reply: what is the uniformity of
nature? Is this meant to suggest
that only natural causes lead to
events in the world - in which case
it is like saying that “miracles
violate the principle that miracles
never happen”

29. Objection #2
A miracle must by definition,
violate some law of nature, and
therefore must be a maximally
improbable event. But then it is
always more likely the event
never really occurred as
described (or remembered), or
that it did not violate the laws
of nature.

30. A miracle does not violate the laws
of nature in the same way the college
principal does not violate college law
by cancelling classes for a special
event. A violation can only take place
when an established order has to be
upheld and someone refuse to do so.
God has authority over the whole
universe and so he cannot violate it
(and would not feel guilt or
embarrassment about it). In a miracle
all God does is change the schedule
for the day.

31. A second response goes this way: why should miracles
be considered maximally improbable?
They are unusual but how do we know whether or not
they are likely to occur? Such a conclusion only comes
from already having decided that God does not exist or
that he would never work a miracle.

32. Objection #3
How can we ever know it is
God and not a mere god
(or a demon) who is
responsible for this or that
striking intervention in the
natural order of things?

33. Context is important here -
looking at the miracles of Jesus
and the relationship he claimed to
have with the Father, we come to
three possible conclusions:
1. Sincere lunatic
2. Demonic fraud
3. The Son of God, and therefore
his deeds were in the fullest sense
miracles.

34. The three possibilities
need to be considered
in the light of the life,
character and message
of the one performing
the miracles.