1.Miracle
For an act of God to be an unmistakable sign from God,
the act would have to meet certain criteria—criteria that would distinguish God’s acts from any other unusual event. Like a king’s seal, God’s
sign must be unique, easily recognizable, and something only God can
do. In other words, it has characteristics that cannot be explained by natural laws, natural forces, or anything else in the physical universe. What
would these criteria look like?
As we saw from the Cosmological, Teleological, and Moral
Arguments, God alone has infinite power (power beyond that in the natural world), supreme design and purpose, and complete moral purity.
2.Providence
Religious people, particularly Christians, throw the
term “miracle” around rather loosely. Quite often they identify an event
as a miracle when it could be more accurately described as providential.
Providential events are those caused by God indirectly, not directly.
That is, God uses natural laws to accomplish them. Answered prayer and
unlikely but beneficial happenings can be examples. These may be quite
remarkable and may stimulate faith, but they are not supernatural.
For example, the fog at Normandy was providential because it helped conceal the Allied attack against the evil Nazi regime. It wasn’t a miracle,
because it could be explained by natural laws, but God may have been
behind it. By contrast, a miracle would require something like bullets
bouncing off the chests of our young men as they assaulted the beach.
3.Satanic Signs
Another possible cause of an unusual event could be
other spiritual beings. Since God exists, it is possible that other spiritual
beings exist. But if Satan and demons do exist, they have limited powers. Why? It is impossible for there to be two infinite beings. Since God is infinite, no other being can be infinite.
Moreover, pure dualism—an infinite Good power vs. an infinite Evil power—is impossible. There is no such thing as pure evil. Evil is a privation of or a parasite in good; it cannot exist on its own. Evil is like
rust to a car. If you take away all the rust, you have a better car. If you
take away all the car, you have nothing.
So Satan cannot be the evil equivalent of God. In fact, Satan has good attributes such as power, free will, and rational thought, but he uses them for evil purposes.
The bottom line is that God has no equal. He is the one infinite
Being who is supreme over all of creation. As a result, created spiritual
beings, if they exist at all, are limited by God and cannot perform the
kinds of supernatural acts that only God can perform.
So by natural revelation alone—without revelation from any religious book—we know that if other spiritual beings exist they are limited in their power. Incidentally, this is exactly what the Bible teaches.
But just how limited are these other spiritual beings? Now we need
special revelation.
According to the Bible, only God can create life and raise the dead
(Gen. 1:21; Deut. 32:39). Pharaoh’s magicians, who had imitated the
first two plagues, couldn’t imitate the third, which created life (in the
form of lice). These magicians acknowledged that the third plague was
the “finger of God” (Ex. 8:19).
Satan can perform tricks better than the best magicians—and there
are many examples of these in the Bible—but those tricks fail to meet
the characteristics of a true miracle. As we have seen, true miracles cause
one to think more highly of God, tell the truth, and promote moral
behavior.
Counterfeit signs from Satan do not do this. They tend to glorify the person ostensibly performing the sign, and they are often associated with error and immoral behavior. They also may not be
immediate, instantaneous, or permanent.
In short, only God performs true miracles; Satan does counterfeit
miracles. This is precisely what the Bible calls them in 2 Thessalonians
2:9 when Paul writes that, “The coming of the lawless one will be in
accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit
miracles, signs and wonders.” Of course, unless one is discerning, such
signs can be deceptive and may be mistaken for miracles (Matt. 24:24).
4.Psychosomatic
There are some illnesses and cures that are psychosomatic and are well documented. Perhaps not all allergies are purely psychosomatic. Mental stress can have a negative impact on our physical health,while having a positive mental attitude,faith,or happiness can have a healing effect. Yet there are some medical conditions -such as amputed limbs or severed spinal cords- that cannot be cured by mind over matter because they are not psychosomatic illness.A true miracle would have to occur to cure such conditions.
The bottom line is that psychosomatic cures are psychological, not
supernatural, in nature. They are evidence that the mind can have a limited but significant impact on the body. They are not to be confused with
miracles.
5.Magic
Perhaps the most familiar kind of unusual event is magic.
Magic is based on human sleight of hand or misleading the mind. A
good magician can make you think he has sliced a woman in half, pulled
a rabbit out of a hat, or made an elephant disappear. But it’s all an illusion, a clever trick. Once you’re let in on it, you say, “Now, why didn’t
I think of that?” Magic, being a trick under human control, is not a miracle. Only God can perform a miracle.
6.Anomalies
An anomaly is an unexplained freak of nature. For
example, at one time scientists couldn’t understand how a bumblebee
could fly. Its wings were too small for its body. Scientists considered
bumblebee flight an anomaly until they discovered a kind of “power
pack” that made up for the small wings. They knew it wasn’t a miracle
because of the observable pattern—all bumblebees flew. So they kept
looking for a natural explanation and they found one.
The skeptic might ask, “So why couldn’t the resurrection of Jesus
Christ be considered an anomaly?” Because the Resurrection was pre-
dicted. It had intelligent design behind it—God’s fingerprints were all
over it. Anomalies are not connected with intelligent truth claims, and
they lack moral and theological dimensions. If the resurrection of Christ
actually occurred, it was no anomaly.
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