Are Miracles Possible?

Photo by Anupam Pal (Kanpur, India)
Photographed December 2007, Chakdaha, India

It's interesting to me that there are people who claim to be Christians who also will claim, sometimes in the same breath, that there are some miracles in the Bible that they think could not possibly have happened.  So, God is powerful enough to make the earth--just by speaking--but then He struggles with parting the Red Sea or sending a great fish to swallow Jonah or walking on water?

This seems inconsistent to me.  Frankly, I can't see how anyone who believes in God--especially the God of the Bible--can deny that He has control over all of nature.  (Just read Job 38-41 if you have any doubts as to the kind of power ascribed to Him.)  But, it's deeper than that.  It's much more than God having "control over" nature.  God doesn't just control nature.  Nature is a reflection of God in the same way a painting is a reflection of the artist.  God is in nature.  (But, to be clear, God is not "in the tree" or contained by His creation like a sprite or a 'force'.  See:  I Kings 19:11-13)  He works through it, but He is also glorified by it--in its beauty and in its power.

But, I digress...

One thing that kind-of bothers me is that some theologians like to split up miracles into categories. There are miracles that work with nature--like the first 9 plagues of Egypt or the calming of the storm.  And then there are miracles that work above/against nature--like the 10th plague of Egypt or Jesus turning water into wine or the axe-head floating.  They seem to suggest this shows how God is powerful in different ways, but really, I just think it shows more about us.  The only real difference between a miracle that works within nature (as we understand it) or against nature (as we understand it) is our understanding or lack there of.  We act as if one is harder for God than the other, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Think of it this way: What is a miracle to God? ...Um... nothing. Nothing is a miracle to God. It's all the same. It's all easy. Our "miracles" are just God breathing (so to speak).

Think historically for a moment.  If I was to go back only a mere couple hundred years with my iPhone, I bet I could convince some folks I was capable of performing a miracle. That's because they simply wouldn't understand how I did it. Now, I'm not saying God doesn't really perform miracles. I'm saying everything God does is a miracle. It doesn't matter if it seems simple to us--like photosynthesis or rain or seeing a sunset. But think for a moment about each of those things. They are extremely common, but also extremely complicated, when you really study them. We don't think of them as miraculous because we experience them often and because we think we know how they work. (Most of us really don't, when pressed.) So, the only real difference between what we think of as a common, everyday occurrence and a miracle is our perspective (not God's). Frankly, we could no more imagine or create the process of photosynthesis any more than we could walk on water. Only God can do either with equal ease.

So, it's a little comical when we have the audacity to claim God can create the sun, imagine a sunset into being, give us the power of sight so we can enjoy it, and then start listing all the things God "can't" do. As if we, in our infinite wisdom, knowledge, and cosmic understanding, can decide which things would be harder for God to do. (That last clause doesn't even make sense to me!)

So, here are some questions for you:

Is God really pitted against science or nature? What does that even mean? (Science, by the way, is a process, not a thing.)

For those of you who believe in God, do you also believe in miracles? What about the miracles of the Bible--all of them? Why or why not?

If some miracles are harder for God than others, what does that say about God's character? And, what source do you trust for describing God's character?

Things I've Learned About God

It's amazing to me how much we can learn about God's character, the Bible and life even after growing up in a Christian home and church. That's not to say I didn't have good teachers and role models, only that God can always surprise you. Here are a few things I've learned:

1. God's primary characteristic (contrary to what many think) is not love, but holiness. Look at how many time God is called love in the Bible vs. how many times He is called holy.

2. God does not save us because He loves us. He loves everyone, but He will not save everyone. He saves us only when we allow the death and resurrection of Christ to take the place of the death that is demanded of us as payment for being the property of Satan--making us the property of God. Why does it have to be this way? Again, because He is holy. We are not.

3. Good and evil don't exist in the normal, conceptual way we think of them. That is why atheists (rightly) have trouble accounting for them as 'real'. The only way we can know "good" is to know God--(again, He's holy--He is the standard of goodness). Evil is the antithesis of God--anything that is contrary to God. God--a Being, not a belief or a concept--IS the standard. There is no such thing as a standard for goodness or a measure of evil without accepting that God is who He says He is. It just doesn't make any sense. This is also why asking questions like, "Why does God do evil things?" is nonsensical. Whatever God does is "good"--because He's the standard. He cannot be judged by any other standard aside from Himself. (Certainly not by us.) Good and evil are exclusively relational terms and always find their essence within a relationship or lack of relationship with God.

4. There is no such thing as blind faith. All faith is based on a reason or a set of reasons. (Although, they may not be good reasons.) Just ask someone--even the crazy guy in the asylum who talks to his magic marker--why they believe or act the way they do. They'll have some kind of reason.

5. Satan is evil, but he's not the "embodiment of evil." Evil entered the world through man, not through Satan. Creation was given to us and we promptly handed it over to Satan--practically gift-wrapped it for him. That's why he's called the prince of this world.

6. Angels don't have wings. Seraphim and Cherubim (never called "angels" in the Bible) do have wings. Regular angels don't. These are distinctly different beings created by God.

7. There is no foundation in Scripture for the belief that the fallen angels became the demons.

8. The Bible doesn't ever, not in a single translation I could find, says that in heaven the lion will lie down with the lamb. There is a brief mention of a lamb lying down with a wolf, but not a lion.


Well, that's it for now.