About miracles
Miracles in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament)
and in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament)
Sponsored link.
Miracles described in the Bible:
Authors Ankerberg and Weldon
believe that:
"miracles
and the supernatural are inherently a part of what God does in history,
because God is a supernatural being. The Bible is checkered with miracle
from beginning to end. ..." 1
Examples from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old
Testament) include:
 |
Creation of the "heaven and the earth"
out of nothing in 7 days [or 4.5 billion years, depending on the
interpretation]. (Genesis 1) |
|
Creation of plants, and animals, again
apparently out of nothing. (Genesis
1) |
|
Creation of Adam out of dirt and Eve out
of Adam's rib (Genesis 1 & 2; conflicting accounts) |
|
Creation of "The "Tree of Knowledge of
Good and Evil" with magical powers capable of generating a moral sense
in proto-humans who previously lacked an understanding of morality. Eating
the fruit of the tree made them fully human.
(Genesis 2) |
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A snake capable of speaking to humans.
(Genesis 3) |
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Guidance of 2 or 7 of every "kind" of
animal from various locations in the world across vast distances to the ark. (Genesis 7) |
|
God promised that, in the future, when
God pushed a cloud over the earth, he would create a rainbow as a sign of
his covenant that he would not perpetrate another mass Genocide of humans by
drowning. The miracle here is that prior to the covenant, rainbows did not
exist -- in violation of the laws of nature. |
|
The builders of the Tower of Babel all
spoke one language; God confounded their languages so that they could not
communicate. (Genesis 11) |
|
Destruction of the cites of the plain --
Sodom and Gomorrah -- by raining down brimstone and fire. (Genesis 19) |
|
Instantly turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt.
(Genesis 19). |
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The worldwide flood deep enough to submerge every
mountain under water (Genesis 6). |
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Noah's ark. (Genesis 7). Although it was
constructed of regular materials using ordinary construction methods, its
leakage rate was apparently a miniscule fraction of normal, so that a team of 8 people could
manage to keep it
afloat. |
|
The overnight mass murder/genocide of the firstborns of
the Pharaoh and other Egyptians, their slaves and animals, made necessary
because God hardened the heart of the Pharaoh. (Exodus
11) |
|
A pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night to guide the Hebrews through the desert. (Exodus 13) |
|
The Sun and Moon standing stationary in
the sky. (Joshua 10)
According to a course sold to public schools by the National
Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, "documented
research
through NASA" supports this verse from the Bible. They
appear to be sincere, but sincerely wrong. |
|
A magical brass serpent that cured people
of snake bite. (Numbers 21) |
|
A talking donkey (Numbers 22). |
In the above examples, we have not included many events that might have had
natural causes, like:
|
The drying up of the river (Joshua 3 & 4) and the destruction of the
walls of Jericho prior to the mass murder of its citizens (Joshua 6). Both
of these might have been caused by earthquakes. |
|
The various plagues in Egypt that might also have had a natural cause. |
|
Spontaneous health cures in which the blind see, the mute speak and the
lame walk. |
Examples from the Christian Scriptures (New
Testament) include:
|
The presence of the
"star" of Bethlehem --
some kind of celestial object -- that provided a fixed point of reference in
the sky for the unknown number of Zoroastrian astrologers. That is, they did
not rise in the East and set in the West as the stars, planets and comets
did. |
|
The virginal
conception. (Luke 1, etc.) |
|
Raising Lazarus from the dead after four
days in the grave. (John 11) |
|
Re-attaching a severed ear. (Mark 14) |
|
Feeding 5,000 men and an unknown number
of women and children with five loaves and two fish. (Mark 6) |
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Walking on water. (Mark 6) |
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Feeding 45,000 persons with seven loaves.
(Mark 8) |
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Restoring a man's withered hand. (Mark 3) |
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Healing a slave's severed ear. (Mark 14) |
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Turning water into wine at Cana. (John 2) |
|
Moses and Abraham appearing with Jesus
during the transfiguration, even though they had been dead for over a
millennium. |
|
Many followers of Jesus who had died rose
from their graves, walked to Jerusalem and appeared to many people (Matthew
27:57-58) |
|
Jesus resurrection. |
|
Jesus ascension
into the clouds |
In the above examples, we have not included many illnesses that might have
been due to psychosomatic causes, coincidence, sick persons mistaken for dead,
etc. like:
|
Exorcisms that allegedly drove demons out of people. (Mark 5, etc.) |
|
Healing a paralytic. (Mark 2, etc.) |
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Restoring sight to blind men. (Matthew 9) |
|
Curing leprosy (Mark 1, etc). Actually, the Greek word translated as
"leprosy" covered many skin conditions. |
References:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
- J. Ankerberg & J. Weldon, "The
Facts on False Views of Jesus: The Truth Behind the Jesus Seminar," Harvest
House (1997)
Copyright © 2008 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2008-JAN-18
Latest update: 2008-JAN-18
Author: B.A. Robinson
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