PERSPECTIVES
By: Josiah Define miracle: 1: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs Example: The healing miracles described in the Gospels 2: an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment Example: The bridge is a miracle of engineering. 3: Christian Science: a divinely natural phenomenon experienced humanly as the fulfillment of spiritual law Let’s go through the first one because that is the definition expressed in the objection that miracles are impossible. In the Gospels of the Bible, (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) we find that Jesus Christ performed miracles such as giving the blind sight and healing the crippled so that they could walk. He even raised a man, as recorded, from the dead. Later the apostles and believers, being filled with the Holy Spirit also did miracles as well. We don’t only see this in the New Testament but also the Old Testament. For example, Moses parting the Red Sea and the miracles that the prophets performed. Miracles are performed throughout the Bible where God intervenes and makes something happen that would otherwise be impossible. But does this still happen today, yes it does. But before I explain we need to set one thing straight, not everyone one necessarily experiences a miracle and just because someone has not experienced such a thing does not make it impossible. God’s timing is perfect and He chooses to do what He wants, when He wants, to whomever He wants. Back to the matter at hand, miracles can only be proven by personal experience, science cannot explain it and the laws of nature cannot explain it, it could only be explained by personal experience or by God Himself. This means that you have to put a little bit of trust in what the witness of a miracle tells you. For example, there was a man at a church that had a miracle happen to him. His story was ups and downs in his life and his walk with God. He had walked away from God due to a tragedy in the family, his sister, a Bible believing Christian died in a car crash along with her husband and kids. One day he was driving a car next to a cliff something happened and he was quickly plummeting down the cliff. He then cried out for Jesus and in an instant, he appeared on the road, unharmed. He looked down the cliff and his car was totaled and in flames. As he told his experience he was bawling his eyes out because what had happened to him he knew was a miracle of God. There are many other stories of miracles that people have witnessed, I myself am a witness, and praise the Lord for it because today I’m alive and well. Someone can choose to believe this and he can choose not to but it does not take away from the validity of the account, especially in the Bible. God’s inspired word. Something similar happened like this in the Bible where a man is moved from one place to another by divine intervention. See Acts 8:26-40. By: Devon The most concise definition of a miracle is as follows; a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. The greatest miracle in the bible has already occurred and we have scientific evidence for it – the creation of the universe out of nothing. Believers and skeptics alike agree that at some point in the distant past there was nothing, and then the universe began to exist. It was a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Even if a person’s worldview precludes them from believing in a miracle worker, there are many things in the world that fit the description of a miracle. For example, consider the information that is found in DNA. In all of our prior experience, messages and information come from an intelligent source, a mind. To say that the vast amount of information that is found in DNA assembled itself together in all the many constructive patterns and messages we see in biology just by chance, without intelligent intervention, is to describe a miracle. That would be a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. IF macro-evolution were true, the process of gene mutations in a species that would cause it to transform into an entirely different species would also constitute a miracle since we have never observed the addition of new information being introduced into a genome by the process of gene mutation. That would make the process of macro-evolution a surprising event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws. It is a matter of historical record that Jesus died by Roman crucifixion, was buried and that 3 days later his tomb was empty. The best possible inference for the empty tomb, based on the evidence, is that a miracle occurred and He rose from the dead. While this may initially sound quite fantastic, a careful examination of the facts surrounding the empty tomb, along with even a brief investigation of the alternative explanations, will support the veracity of this claim. Watch this video of Gary Habermas explaining the minimal facts argument for the resurrection. The conclusion is this; no matter what your world view is, miracles are indeed possible. By: JT The fact is we live in the greatest single miracle and take it for granted every day. How could it be possible that humans just so happen to live on a planet that has all the necessities for us to live: enough oxygen to breathe, enough water to drink, and enough food to keep us alive. It’s miraculous. If the world being created and existing is a miracle then miracles of smaller magnitude, like miraculous healing, or people narrowly escaping catastrophe are not far fetched. By: Sy The word miracle has many definitions. One is an unusual or unlikely event. There is one miracle that no one can deny. The world had a beginning. This event was unusual and unlikely. This was a miracle. By: R. T.
Can anyone provide evidence that miracles are impossible? I really don’t think so. I’ve never seen any scientific evidence that proves them to be impossible. If everything in the world has to be proved by science then this question has not yet been answered. We often see things in nature that do not follow normal expectations. Should we consider these to be miracles or must we require science to prove them in one way or another? If science cannot prove them then did they really happen? If we follow the evidence where it leads, we have to accept that miracles do happen and that God exists. Not everything in life is explainable no matter how hard we try. There are so many instances of something so impossible happening that it has to make you wonder. Science tells us the normal way in which the world works, things that are observable and provable, but science has yet to prove and explain everything. Has science proved that all life began from a single organism? No it hasn’t. Has science provided proof that humans have evolved from some other species? No it hasn’t. There is no proof whatsoever of either of these pivotal events. In contrast, if there is a God, this explains all kinds of things that have happened through history. What reason is there for not believing in miracles? Could it be that many people don’t want there to be a God that performs miracles? It might be a really big reason, let me explain. If there is no God then we are not accountable for our actions, we can do anything we want and not feel guilty or seen as immoral by others. If there is no one who sets the standard for morality then we don’t have to live up to that standard. If God does exist then the greatest miracle has already happened as explained in Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth. If this miracle is true, then every other miracle in the Bible is possible. If those miracles are true then we would have to accept that miracles continue to happen. So yes, miracles do happen and they are not impossible. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines a miracle as: “A miracle (from the Latin mirari, to wonder), at a first and very rough approximation, is an event that is not explicable by natural causes alone. A reported miracle excites wonder because it appears to require, as its cause, something beyond the reach of human action and natural causes. Historically, the appeal to miracles has formed one of the primary lines of argument in favor of specific forms of theism, the argument typically being that the event in question can best (or can only) be explained as the act of a particular deity.” If you believe that all life on the planet evolved from nothing, then you believe in miracles. In 1662 physicist Robert Boyle established the law of gas which determined that gas can’t be compressed without something to compress it. This is what is required for the evolutionary big bang theory to have happened. It’s not provable or possible for gasses to have been compressed when nothing existed which clearly makes the evolutionary big bang impossible. If you believe that soupy cells transformed themselves into living creatures, then you believe in miracles. If you believe that one animal has offspring of a different animal, then you believe in miracles because there are no transitory examples to be found anywhere on earth, not one single example. Believing that apes have over time become humans is monkey-business. Let’s take a brief look at DNA testing with 23andMe. When you provide a sample for testing they will send a report that explains all the areas of the world your DNA identifies in your ancestral line. One of the areas they provide information for is how much Neanderthal you are. Population geneticist Kasia Bryc with 23andMe says: “To estimate ancestry for Ancestry Composition [the report where you saw your African results], we use reference data of individuals whose ancestry we know, in order to figure out the ancestry of individuals whose ancestry we don’t know. Using reference data allows us to build an algorithm to disentangle ancestry from different parts of the world, but this is actually quite a hard problem.” Read that very carefully. She indicates the results are an estimate and they use an algorithm, a mathematical formula, to determine your Neanderthal percentage and it’s quite a hard problem. The results provided by 23andMe for Neanderthal percentages is simply a marketing gimmick used to sell their tests. If 23andMe is able to detect or estimate how much Neanderthal DNA you have as far back as 400,000 years, then scientists should also be able to detect in the DNA of all animals the traces of their ancestry such as other species and other non-related animals in their test results. This has not been found in any animal. Scientists can’t find the DNA of a mouse in a rabbit, or the DNA of a badger in a dog and there is no ape DNA in a human. Scientists are unable to find the ancestry of any animal other than the DNA of the animal that it truly is. This means that evolution is just a made up story or a miracle! Do you believe in miracles? On the other hand, if you believe that God created the world by speaking it into existence, then you have evidence for that, you have the earth, the sun and moon, the stars and galaxies and all life on this planet. I have to ask myself, do I believe in miracles? My answer is YES! And I have all the proof in the world to show you that miracles are possible and God is the one that performs them! Comments are closed.
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