Episode 73 – Miracles Part 6 – Objections to Miracles 2

Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.

Script: (Bible quotes from the New Living Translation)

About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” … After this interview [with Herod] the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.

The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 2 and 9 through 10, New Living Translation

But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. … When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

The Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4, verses 37 and 39 through 41, New Living Translation

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VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Today on Anchored by Truth we’re going to continue our discussion of miracles in the Bible. I’m here today with RD Fierro, author and founder of Crystal Sea Books. Today we want to continue our discussion about the objections that are frequently raised about the Biblical accounts of miracles. On our last show we saw that probably the most common objection against the Bible’s accounts of miracles is that miracles are impossible because they violate natural laws. And in our experience natural laws always govern how energy and matter behave in our universe and world. RD, would you like to remind us about some of the comments that you made about this objection?

RD: Certainly. There are three important points that I think people should keep in mind when they think about this objection – that miracles are impossible because they point to a violation of natural physical laws. First, natural laws are descriptive not prescriptive. That is that they tell us how things behave normally or usually. Miracles are singular events that were used by God for His specific purposes and they always were used to advance the His plan of redemption, usually be authenticating a particular person as a messenger of God. Second, whether or not a miracle occurred at a particular place and time is a historical question. As such, the evidence that supports the historicity of miracles is historical evidence. Natural laws pertain to operational science but are of much less value when it comes to origins or past singularities. We cannot know from natural law whether any past unusual event occurred. For instance, Alexander the Great’s conquests were unprecedented in their scope and rapidity but their extremely unusual character doesn’t mean that they didn’t happen. Third, if there is valid, historical evidence for the occurrence of one or more miracles, simply doubting the evidence is not a form of evidence. Doubt is just that, doubt. Doubt has to do with a person’s evaluation of facts or evidence but has no evidentiary value.

VK: And just to build on that last thought a bit, even a lot of people doubting evidence does not become evidence. We’ve talked about on Anchored by Truth that truth is not determined by majority opinion. So, it doesn’t really matter whether 1 person, or a 100, or a thousand doubt whether a miracle occurred. The really important point is whether or not the historical evidence is valid and substantive. And of course, we recognize that there can be legitimate disagreement about the strength or persuasiveness of any particular body of evidence but what we need to focus on is the evidence and not just people’s opinions of the evidence. So where do we go from here?

RD: Well, there are two other forms of objections to miracles that I want to cover today. The first is what I think of as being “non-miraculous miracles” and the second is what might be thought of as embellished accounts. The difference between these objections to the traditional view of miracles as supernatural interventions into the created order by a supernatural God is that these two views try to preserve the nucleus of a Biblical account but strip the account of its supernatural power or meaning. The difference between these objections and the view that we discussed last time, that miracles don’t occur because it is impossible to violate natural law, is that critics who simply believe miracles don’t occur at all typically just classify the Bible’s miracle accounts as being myth or fable.

VK: So, your point is that there are some people who just dismiss the Bible’s accounts of miracles as being fantasy stories akin to a fairy tale or legend. Those critics simply do away with the story altogether so obviously they’ve dispensed with any supernatural implications of the story. Whereas the people who see miracles as being embellished accounts of a true event or offering a natural explanation for an unusual event to try to preserve the history but do away with any supernatural attributes of the history.

RD: Exactly. Some critics of the Bible’s miracles see miracles as pious fraud or fiction. Other critics are willing to allow that something unusual did occur but stop short of being willing to acknowledge that God supernaturally intervened in his creation.

VK: So, let’s start out with what you mean by embellished accounts. What are you thinking when you say that some people classify Biblical miracles as being embellished accounts.

RD: People who see many or most of the Bible’s accounts will usually take a Bible miracle story and say that a real event happened but that when the author recorded the story or over time the account has been enhanced or embellished to make it seem miraculous. Take, for example, our second opening scripture for today. We heard the account from Mark about Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee. People who see that as an embellished account might say that the storm was not as bad as Mark described it to be – that yet a storm arose but it was not any more dangerous than just a bad rainstorm.

VK: And the Sea of Galilee is well known for being tempestuous – for having storms that come up very quickly and that sometimes disappear very quickly. According to an article on the website christiananswers.net “Such storms result from differences in temperatures between the seacoast and the mountains beyond. The Sea of Galilee lies 680 feet below sea level. It is bounded by hills, especially on the east side where they reach 2000 feet high. These heights are a source of cool, dry air. Directly around the sea, the climate is semi-tropical with warm, moist air. The large difference in height between surrounding land and the sea causes large temperature and pressure changes. This results in strong winds dropping to the sea, funneling through the hills. The Sea of Galilee is small, and these winds may descend directly to the center of the lake with violent results. When the contrasting air masses meet, a storm can arise quickly and without warning. …The Sea of Galilee is relatively shallow, just 200 feet at its greatest depth. A shallow lake is “whipped up” by wind more rapidly than deep water, where energy is more readily absorbed.”

RD: Yes. This description of the topology tells us that Mark’s depiction of a storm that could suddenly pose mortal danger is entirely reasonable. Nevertheless, a critic of the story from Mark would say that this storm was just a normal Sea of Galilee storm. It came up quickly and died away quickly. The problem with this explanation is that the other details of the story don’t permit this to be a valid possibility. Mark specifically says the disciples were terrified. Remember that Jesus’ disciples included seasoned fishermen who had fished on the Sea of Galilee their entire lives. They were used to storms and they knew how to handle them. Also, Mark says that when Jesus calmed the wind and the waves the disciples were as terrified of Jesus as they had been of the storm. So much so, that after Jesus calmed the storm they said to themselves, “What kind of a man is this? Even the wind and waves obey him!” The disciples own words and behavior tell us that this wasn’t business as usual. So, the notion that Mark simply embellished a real story to give it a supernatural character looks very implausible. And, as we have said before, Mark wrote his gospel shortly after Jesus’ death. If he were just making things up it would have been easy for other observers to dispute is account.

VK: Ok. All that makes sense. Some critics think the Bible miracle accounts are just embellished accounts of otherwise true events. What about what you call “non-miraculous” miracles?

RD: Sometimes people will try to present a “natural” explanation for an event that the Bible describes as having a supernatural character. For a sample of this type of criticism let’s look at our opening scripture of the account of the wise men or Magi visiting Jesus at his birth. The wise men were guided to Jesus’ location by a star. Now some advocates of the “natural explanation” for miracles crowd …

VK: “Natural explanation” for miracles crowd … really?

RD: Ok - observers who want to strip the supernatural character from the Bible’s miracle stories – anyway I’ve read various explanations that say that the moving, super-bright star was actually caused by the convergence of various heavenly bodies that are normally separate and distinct but the convergence produced an extraordinarily bright light in the night sky. Some have speculated that it was the convergence of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Another theory is that it was the first sighting of the planet Uranus or possibility a comet moving through the sky such as an early appearance of Halley’s Comet.

VK: Well, any of those would seem to be a plausible explanation for the sudden appearance of a super-bright object in the night sky. But you don’t favor any of those explanations do you?

RD: No. Again, the details of the star of the Magi story are inconsistent with the behavior of normal stellar objects. Note that the scripture says “…the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was.” So this star wasn’t something that just appeared and shone steadily light a lighthouse beacon. From the fact that the star went ahead of them and stopped directly over Jesus’ location it seems far more likely that God was supernaturally affecting the movement of one or more heavenly objects for His intended purpose – that of guiding the wise men. And here I think it’s important to take note of two other elements of the description.

VK: Which are?

RD: Naturally, we understand that there is a difference between stars, planets, comets, etc. but when the Bible uses the term “star” here it is speaking phenomenologically. That is the Bible is simply using a term to describe how a viewer in that location and at that time would have seen the object. The Bible is not trying to make a distinction between a star that produces its own light and heat from nuclear fusion and a planetary or moon-like body that just reflects light. And that is exactly how we speak today. We will frequently use the term “star” to describe bright night time objects even though the body may actually be a planet or even a visible, distant galaxy. Second, there is no need to conclude that God created this astronomical body just for this occasion. God will frequently make use of existing parts of creation for special purposes when it suits Him.

VK: In other words God might have used existing planets, comets, or something else to create the moving star. But even if He did so, He did it in time to give the wise men time to ride to Bethlehem from their starting location – likely a period of weeks or even months. He also used those objects to give direction to a very precise location at a very specific period of time. As someone once said, even if God used the wind to part the Red Sea for the Hebrews to cross the miracle would have been that He did it at exactly the right time.

RD: Exactly. I understand that when people try to find natural explanations for the Bible’s miracle accounts it’s normally because they’re trying to respect the text of scripture and that’s a positive motive. But that approach has some danger.

VK: Trying to defend scripture would seem to be a good thing. What kind of danger do you see arising from that?

RD: First, if we start looking for natural explanations for every miracle in the Bible we’re going to quickly hit some big roadblocks. How do you come up with a natural explanation for the appearance of a chariot of fire being drawn by horses of fire when Elijah was transported to heaven on a whirlwind?

VK: Or Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days? When Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead she had been dead for only a matter of minutes or hours. So, it’s possible the bystanders only thought she had died. But Lazarus had been buried and in the tomb for days so the likelihood he had only fainted or passed out is beyond remote.

RD: Yes. So there are some miracles in the Bible that are simply beyond reasonable attempts at natural explanations. But, even worse, when we try to excise all the supernatural character from the events in the Bible we begin to cast doubt on the details of many of the Bible’s stories. This then begins to erode the historicity of the Bible so we then have to surrender claims for the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of scripture. We also begin to deny God’s omnipotent sovereignty because we imply that God can’t just intercede in His creation at times of His own choosing. Quite without meaning to such well-intended explanations start to impugn God’s attributes while trying to defend or explain God’s word. Such attempts run the risk of diminishing God’s superintending glory because they imply that God isn’t or can’t watch over the affairs of His people closely enough to provide help and relief when they need it. I become concerned that it is a way of putting God into a box where we feel more comfortable with him.

VK: And that’s a great point. God does things that are sometimes mysterious to men but the Bible is filled with expressions of awe from believers of great faith who came to the realization that sometimes we must surrender comprehension to simple adoration. In Psalm 8 David expressed this sentiment well when he said “what is man that you are mindful of him?” After Jesus provided the evidence of His resurrection that Doubting Thomas had demanded all Thomas could do was exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” It’s not that we shouldn’t seek greater understanding of God and His works. But sometimes we are forced to proclaim “amen” to God’s declaration in Isaiah 55:8 that “my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” God said this to Isaiah who, at the start of his ministry, had been given a detailed vision of the throne room of God. Imagine how much better Isaiah comprehended God’s magnificence than any of us probably do. He had been in the very throne room of God. Yet, God still told Isaiah that he didn’t have the capacity to imagine the ways of God. This was God’s way of reminded Isaiah that God cannot be reduced to some kind of manageable concept whose mysteries we can penetrate with our finite limitations. Surely, some of those ways of God include His deeds that we call miracles.

RD: Yes. People who see the Bible’s miracles as being authentic events but susceptible to an explanation that doesn’t require the suspension of natural law inadvertently try to preserve the fruit of the word without acknowledging the root of the Christian faith. The first verse of the Bible says that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So, right at the opening of the Bible we find a God who is able to create our entire cosmos out of nothing or as it is sometimes said “ex nihilo.” The Bible unambiguously declares God’s omnipotence and omniscience and sovereignty right at the start. That’s what we must keep in mind whenever we come to challenging parts of scripture. The Bible’s accounts of miracles challenge our understanding of how the created universe works, but they are entirely consistent with our understanding as the book of Hebrews 11:3 puts it, that “We also know that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.” As remarkable as it is, the created universe is not the entirety of what exists. The Bible’s miracle accounts testify to that. Granted, it takes faith to accept that, but that faith is a faith that is firmly grounded in logic, reason, and evidence. You cannot preserve the essence of the Christian faith without accepting the existence of the supernatural.

VK: So, the main point is that someone who wants to remove the supernatural attributes from scripture is on a hopeless quest. God never intended for us to limit our understanding of how He operates His universe to those elements of the universe that can be seen or felt of measured. He is transcendent – above, beyond, and behind the created order and He refuses to let our limitations affect how He chooses to interact with His universe or within the history of mankind. Sounds like a perfect time to close with prayer. Since so many of our children are starting their new academic year and getting very close to taking tests as part of their education, today let’s listen to a prayer for help for those who need a little extra help in preparation for and taking tests.

---- PRAYER FOR TAKING A TEST

VK: We’d like to remind our audience that a lot of our radio episodes are linked together in series of topics so if they missed any episodes or if they just want to hear one again, all of these episodes are available on your favorite podcast app. To find them just search on “Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books.”

If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”

(Bible Quotes from the New Living Translation)

The Gospel of John, Chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, New Living Translation

https://christiananswers.net/q-eden/ednk-seaofgalilee.html