Miracles & Philosophy

This is just a short piece on the reason I believe in miracles

The reason there is widespread scepticism of prophecy, and other supernatural activity, among scholars, is something that happened in philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. It all centres around the thinking of a number of philosophers the most notable of whom are           Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and David Hume (1711 -1776). Actually, changes in thinking really started when scientist Isaac Newton (1643-1727) put forward his laws of motion. The first law put simply is, “to every action is an equal and opposite reaction.” 

Newton’s laws led to the view that everything that happens in the world is just on the basis of cause and effect. In the Christian religious world, this led to the rise of a belief called deism, that our world was created by God, that he observes from a distance but now it is a sealed system in which he does not intervene. 

Spinoza was one of the minds behind deism, although he believed in God he was vehemently opposed to ideas of the miraculous. In his view, because God is unchanging and eternal so are the laws of nature that he created. If a miracle were to occur, it would go against the laws of nature which would suggest that the nature of God had changed, something he concluded was impossible.

Actually, Spinoza was seeking to oppose ideas that might lead to Atheism, for him the natural world had to be totally constant and consistent reflecting the unchangability of God. For him ideas of miracles disturbed that order bringing the existence of God into question.

This was later added to by Hume who was just as opposed to miracles. He took the line that miracles are impossible to prove, that belief should be proportion to evidence. Like Spinoza, he believed in the unchangability of the natural order. He argued, that if evidence could be presented that seemed to prove a miracle had happened, at best this would be equal to the evidence that said it hadn’t. So, he took the line that proof of miracles could not be argued with absolute certainty.

In his observation, so called evidence for miracles was insufficient to make them even probable. The reasons he gave for this view was, witnesses of miracles are not generally credible. People, he argued, wanted to believe in the extraordinary suspending their critical minds. He noted the tendency for miracles to occur among the more uncivilised. His conclusion was that reason could not be the basis of belief, that he argued required faith. 

Up until the 17th century almost everyone believed in supernatural forces acting in the world through God or other supernatural beings such as angels and demons. But with the changes of thinking stimulated by Spinoza and Hume widespread scepticism of the supernatural arose. In the world of theology this ultimately became most apparent in the work of scholars such as Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976). Bultmann sought to ‘demythologise' scripture by finding natural explanations for the miracles of Jesus. It was his thinking, along with those who agreed with him, that led to the sort of think that I describe at the end of chapter 1. 

Of course, the thinking of Spinoza and Hume was opposed by a number of more orthodox Christian thinkers, most notably William Paley (1743-1805). He wrote a very influential book called, A View of the Evidences of Christianity. In response to Hume he said that unchangability of the order of nature was in no way conclusively proven. Even if our own limited but regular experience is that nature is consistent this is a long way from saying that things cannot occur that go against nature. Paley argued that if God exists, he would want to reveal himself and that inevitable would be miraculous. This he explained in terms of what happened at the beginning of Christianity in the life of Jesus. He qualified this by saying we might not see the sane miracles today because they were for his particular purpose at that time. Responding to Hume’s comments about lack of evidence, Paley cautioned that great care needs to be taken in responding to claims of miracles in our current time. He saw the miracles of Jesus as unique, that their evidence in the history presented in the gospels was excellent.

Now even before I encountered the above philosophical arguments, I have always had the opinion that if we believe in a God who created the Universe in all its immensity, why could he not suspend the laws of nature and physics to suit his own purposes? So, belief in the miraculous and an interventionist God has always been totally credible to me.

My observation is that much academic critical theology tends to dismiss Paley and still retain elements of the scepticism of Spinoza and Hume and that accounts for the sceptical attitude towards to prophecy of Jesus regarding the temple. I remain sceptical of the sceptics and take the view that if Jesus really is the Son of God, why on earth could he not know what was in the future? So, I believe the gospel accounts are reasonable and are to be trusted. 

The miracles of Jesus happened for a number of reasons. In the gospels two significant words are used to describe the miracles of Jesus. The word Semeion occurs most often in John but it does occur in the synoptics as well. Semeion means signs, so in one sense the miracles of Jesus were a sign of who he is. The other significant word is dunamis meaning powers, they revealed that the power of God worked through Jesus.

Of course, there are other words associated with New Testament miracles Ergon meaning works and Teras meaning wonders. Wonders, and might works of power were widespread in Jesus ministry according to the gospels. They were signs of his divine nature and the compassion and love of God working through Him.

Jesus of spoke of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven (in Matthew). This term ‘The Kingdom’ described the place or more usually the people in which God reigns as King. Miracles can be understood as the future fulfilled Kingdom of God breaking into the present. What theologians call ‘realised eschatology’. The Greek word eschaton means ‘the last’ or ‘the end’, so eschatology is the theology of the end when God’s purposes for humanity and the world will be fully realised. Miracles are a breaking in of that fulfilled future into the present.

You may well pick up the signs that I believe miracles still occur today. I have experienced them in my ministry, not that I could easily prove them. I know what I’ve experienced and that’s good enough for me. I also believe they’ve been around throughout the history of the church, although many have sought to discredit them against the superstitious behaviour of various Christians in Church history.

Copyright Glyn J. Ackerley 2020

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