For those who believe that God can interrupt nature at his own bidding, it is important to weigh the uncertainties and distortions in the general population related to beliefs in miracles. If there are miracles they are interruptions of the patterns of nature. Understanding miracles, or even the existence in true miracles, declines with the greater acceptance that life and phenomena are guided by the disciplines of science that do not court miracles. For persons who do not believe in a personal God, or those who accept the parameters of science as the only source of truth for all things related to mankind, the concept of miracles is not only unbelievable in nature’s reality, but may be an enemy of the search for knowledge, and our adjustment to logic and solutions that can be applied in nature. In patterns of objection it is held that the time taken to study and debate about miracles, that preoccupation might be dedicated to the disciplines in which provable facts are guides. When a researcher holds an almost supreme confidence in nature’s context, it may be difficult currently to accept miracles, even if the researcher believes in them.
Miracle as commonly defined by the general public is applied to occurrences that can’t ever, in nature’s evidence, be explained. For Christians accepting Scriptural guidance, miracle is an act of God, generated from special activity beyond nature. In this the occurrence of miracle will never be adequately explained in the laws of nature. For Christians, the laws of nature come from God, as do miracles, if miracles occur. As noted elsewhere in this writing God may interrupt nature with a miracle, as a ball player interrupts the law of gravity when he catches a falling ball. The law of nature is not changed, but is interrupted for the specific occasion and purpose. A person has intervened. In this sense there is human miracle. Miracles from God can’t be subject to verification. There is no redundancy. Each is special. There is no pattern.
If my friend does not believe in God how can he believe in divine miracles? To press the point of miracles drives him away from the main issue that God himself is the first focus of our best attention – not what God may do in nature. Miracle or no miracle, the first concern is for faith in God. One may believe in God, but he can’t believe in miracles, as we define miracles, without believing in God. It requires a living God to produce a miracle – God who cares enough to be engaged with us. God means for his children to witness his reality not verify it in the way nature proves things. God is not subject to his creation, but we are – unless we are interrupted. Proofs in nature are for nature. They do not cover the scope of whatever is yonder. We rest much practicality in that understanding, so give careful attention to natural processes. We do not form our lives by accidents. For the humanist, a miracle would be accidental, so leave it there. In the beginning God commanded Adam and Eve to know the Garden (nature), and to take care of it. That can’t be well done without knowledge that causes us to care for nature in its parts so to protect the whole of it. If we do so, it will also care for us. If we do not, it will fail us in our own failure with it.
Scripture suggests a main duty of Christ’s followers is to provide personal models. They walk the talk. They live, or are supposed to, by the value system of Scripture that clarifies, makes practical, a life of righteousness from God. For the assignment, Christians are provided all they need to know. This is followed by direction from Christ to witness, which is to say that believers are both inward with self–life and God, and outward with God and others. The Gospel is not secretive, is not done in a corner, and is to be communicated/modeled in any legitimate way. On occasion that Gospel is presented in odd ways, in some public demonstration, in variant contexts by the devout, and in whatever way a person might conjure for communication. The point made here is that the Gospel is a daily proclamation of the most common of all miracles – from outside nature. Christ visited earth for the redemption of all who can accept that miracle. Earth life continues – with that miracle. On occasion, as demonstrated by Jesus and the Apostles, there may be miracles that gain attention – not so much to solve the human problems (usually left to nature’s workings) but to gain attention of the populations that there is God who can interrupt lives for the purpose of good, the main one of which is to offer the gift of immortality. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020