Archive: It Took a Miracle

By George Anderson, Pastor, Mt. Oak United Methodist Church, Mitchellville, Maryland

I was a Church member and a pastor for several years before I became a regenerated Christian, a man of the second birth.

In those days before I found Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I was hard-put to explain the miracles in the New Testament. In discussions with young people, I would often be asked the question, “If God did such miracles as the Bible describes, then why doesn’t He do miracles now?”

I remember that I took great pains to explain that the Bible was written in a pre-scientific era by men who did not have the benefits of our advanced scientific knowledge. Therefore, many things that seemed miraculous to them in those far-off days could be logically or scientifically explained by us today. I also would explain to the young people that the Scriptures were written several years after the occurrences they were seeking to describe. And in the meantime, between the event and the reporting of the event, the story had been embellished—a perfectly human tendency.

Finally, I would explain that the Gospel writers were trying to present Jesus as a worthy individual of great importance whose teachings should be heeded. The disciples had to present Jesus as the chief miracle-worker of his age in order to build Him up in the eyes of primitive people who believed in miracles and miracle workers, and who would not have listened to Jesus if they had not felt that He had supernatural powers. Now, I reasoned, we live in a scientific age. We believe in Jesus’ greatness without any primitive reference to miracle working powers.

All this is what I used to say, before I became a regenerated man. Now I think the Lord has helped me to see that all this way of thinking which I have just been describing is essentially very dishonest. It is a nice way of covering up the naked truth which is that I didn’t believe in the miracles and felt that the Scriptural accounts of them were lies.

Of course I couldn’t come right out and say that. So I, like many other theological liberals, invented some nice-sounding ways of saying essentially the same thing while appearing to be very faithful and very intellectual. The truth is that the supernatural powers and results which Jesus displayed in the natural course of His reported day to day activities, and His dependence upon God to bring about ends which go beyond the natural expectations of unregenerated men, were as incredible to the people of the first century as they are to the people of the scientific 20th century. You simply can’t explain them. You either accept them or reject them as a matter of Christian faith.

As a regenerated man who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of my life, I find it very easy and natural to believe in His miracles. If Jesus is Lord, there is nothing impossible for Him.

Now, as a regenerated man, when I am asked the question, “Why doesn’t God perform miracles today?” I answer simply, “He does.” I have seen some of God’s miracles. He is healing the sick through faith. He is providing the means to expand many Christian ministries. He is answering the requests and providing for the needs of His people. He is moving among his people in fantastic and exciting ways more miraculous, even, than the supernatural happenings recorded in the Scriptures. The abundant life which is the goal of the regenerated people of God, takes as a matter of course the supernatural intervention of God to bring about ends which go beyond the natural expectations of unregenerated man.