Jesus never did miracles on demand, as Herod had hoped to have a personal show of the supernatural. There was also never a biggie miracle or grandstanding that the Pharisees had demanded if they were to believe because of their cynicism. Jesus would not accommodate the Pharisees' demand for a "sign." Case in point: The bystanders told Jesus to come down from the cross and they would then believe in Him. The miracle was that He stayed on the cross--it was love them kept Him there and the temptation was to come down and use His powers independently of the Father's will. But Jesus did thirty-five recorded miracles and numerous ones not mentioned, but if they were, "the world could not contain the books that would be written!" The thing about miracles is that they only make the appetite for more miracles and don't make a skeptic become a believer--it takes a work of God in the heart to make a person a believer, which is also a miracle in its own right.
What Jesus did were called "signs" by John because they were not helter-skelter, to attract attention, or even for personal promotion, but to meet a need and teach something about Himself: He is the Bread of Life; the Light of the World; the Resurrection and the Life, etc. Each of the seven recorded signs of John's gospel (actually there are seven miracles in John if you count the one after His resurrection), are for a reason to bear witness of the Deity of Christ in a different aspect and light. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness to turn stones into bread and use His powers for personal advantage--but He never did take advantage of His powers! Christ didn't want to be known simply as a miracle worker or healer or even teacher or martyr, but He would've been a mere footnote in history had He performed none! Miracles are essential to prove the Deity of Christ and the ultimate proof is His resurrection. If you remove the miracles from other religion's Scriptures, the religion remains intact, but not so with Christianity--they are essential.
People believe that all they need to believe is a miracle. They say: Miracles do not produce faith; faith produces miracles! The Jews in John 12:37 "would not believe" despite Christ's miracles. If you are cynical and have a hardened heart, no miracle will make a believer out of you. The heart of the matter, then, is that it's a matter of the heart. There is plenty of evidence of the miraculous to those who are seeking it and are willing--just look in the mirror and you will see a miracle! Sunrise is a miracle, yet because it happens every day we don't give it a second thought; life itself is not some fluke of nature, but a miracle--if these things happened all the time we'd call them regulars.
Science cannot forbid miracles, it can only say that they don't normally or regularly occur. When you say they are against the laws of science, nature, or what they term natural law, you are personifying science and nature as if they are persons making up rules, and are not subject to rules. In our case we can make laws and break them; the penalty is inherent. God is a Lawmaker, Judge, and Executor of his will and laws. God is the Author of the laws of nature and its Lawgiver and can suspend, cancel, or revoke them at will, just like people commonly say rules are made to be broken. Jesus did miracles out of need and not to promote Himself: likewise, we should meet people's needs with the miracles of modern-day science and technology.
What then are miracles? All events are caused by God as He is the causa prima or First Cause; miracles are just unusual events caused by God. If you remember the "Miracle on Ice" back in 1980 you would attribute that to being a miracle, and the 1969 World Series when the New York Mets won, they may have been unusual, but they don't meet the definition of miracle: Which must defy the natural in such a way as to make a person come to a decision as to whether he believes in miracles (events unusually caused by God) or not. The purpose of miracles in Scripture is to confirm faith and authenticate the messenger by demonstrating God's power.
Miracles in the Bible are different: They are not performed for no rhyme or reason, for prestige, for money, or for power, but in sympathy for the suffering of man and to increase his faith. No! People were not gullible, ignorant, superstitious, or unsophisticated in His day and knew what was a miracle and what wasn't. There are false miracles and ones that could have a natural explanation. The presence of the counterfeit does not preclude the reality of the real thing and prove they are spurious.
But the timing is what makes them miraculous (like the drying up of the Red Sea). Laws describe what happens, and don't control what happens, so whether miracles occur is ultimately a historical and philosophical question, not scientific (which only describes repeatable, observable, and measurable events producible under laboratory conditions with controlled variables and constants). The question and issue is this: Are the documents accurate and the veracity of the sources reliable? If one believes in God, it follows by definition that God can do what He wants, and that would include miracles. However, modern-day Secular Humanism and Postmodernism deny the supernatural as a presupposition and won't even go there or admit a divine foot in the door.
Sometimes we trivialize them like when we find a parking space or hit a hole in one in golf we attribute the events to something miraculous, but we mustn't downplay them and realize that we live in the presence of miracles--we just don't see them because they are all around us and happen without our awareness. Miracles are for the reason to elicit or evoke faith where a seed has been planted and a person is ready to believe with an open mind, needy heart, and willing spirit: "Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me" (John 10:25, NKJV). Jesus implored them to believe for His works' sake. Soli Deo Gloria!
What Jesus did were called "signs" by John because they were not helter-skelter, to attract attention, or even for personal promotion, but to meet a need and teach something about Himself: He is the Bread of Life; the Light of the World; the Resurrection and the Life, etc. Each of the seven recorded signs of John's gospel (actually there are seven miracles in John if you count the one after His resurrection), are for a reason to bear witness of the Deity of Christ in a different aspect and light. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness to turn stones into bread and use His powers for personal advantage--but He never did take advantage of His powers! Christ didn't want to be known simply as a miracle worker or healer or even teacher or martyr, but He would've been a mere footnote in history had He performed none! Miracles are essential to prove the Deity of Christ and the ultimate proof is His resurrection. If you remove the miracles from other religion's Scriptures, the religion remains intact, but not so with Christianity--they are essential.
People believe that all they need to believe is a miracle. They say: Miracles do not produce faith; faith produces miracles! The Jews in John 12:37 "would not believe" despite Christ's miracles. If you are cynical and have a hardened heart, no miracle will make a believer out of you. The heart of the matter, then, is that it's a matter of the heart. There is plenty of evidence of the miraculous to those who are seeking it and are willing--just look in the mirror and you will see a miracle! Sunrise is a miracle, yet because it happens every day we don't give it a second thought; life itself is not some fluke of nature, but a miracle--if these things happened all the time we'd call them regulars.
Science cannot forbid miracles, it can only say that they don't normally or regularly occur. When you say they are against the laws of science, nature, or what they term natural law, you are personifying science and nature as if they are persons making up rules, and are not subject to rules. In our case we can make laws and break them; the penalty is inherent. God is a Lawmaker, Judge, and Executor of his will and laws. God is the Author of the laws of nature and its Lawgiver and can suspend, cancel, or revoke them at will, just like people commonly say rules are made to be broken. Jesus did miracles out of need and not to promote Himself: likewise, we should meet people's needs with the miracles of modern-day science and technology.
What then are miracles? All events are caused by God as He is the causa prima or First Cause; miracles are just unusual events caused by God. If you remember the "Miracle on Ice" back in 1980 you would attribute that to being a miracle, and the 1969 World Series when the New York Mets won, they may have been unusual, but they don't meet the definition of miracle: Which must defy the natural in such a way as to make a person come to a decision as to whether he believes in miracles (events unusually caused by God) or not. The purpose of miracles in Scripture is to confirm faith and authenticate the messenger by demonstrating God's power.
Miracles in the Bible are different: They are not performed for no rhyme or reason, for prestige, for money, or for power, but in sympathy for the suffering of man and to increase his faith. No! People were not gullible, ignorant, superstitious, or unsophisticated in His day and knew what was a miracle and what wasn't. There are false miracles and ones that could have a natural explanation. The presence of the counterfeit does not preclude the reality of the real thing and prove they are spurious.
But the timing is what makes them miraculous (like the drying up of the Red Sea). Laws describe what happens, and don't control what happens, so whether miracles occur is ultimately a historical and philosophical question, not scientific (which only describes repeatable, observable, and measurable events producible under laboratory conditions with controlled variables and constants). The question and issue is this: Are the documents accurate and the veracity of the sources reliable? If one believes in God, it follows by definition that God can do what He wants, and that would include miracles. However, modern-day Secular Humanism and Postmodernism deny the supernatural as a presupposition and won't even go there or admit a divine foot in the door.
Sometimes we trivialize them like when we find a parking space or hit a hole in one in golf we attribute the events to something miraculous, but we mustn't downplay them and realize that we live in the presence of miracles--we just don't see them because they are all around us and happen without our awareness. Miracles are for the reason to elicit or evoke faith where a seed has been planted and a person is ready to believe with an open mind, needy heart, and willing spirit: "Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me" (John 10:25, NKJV). Jesus implored them to believe for His works' sake. Soli Deo Gloria!
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