Where are Miracles Expected

We would expect to see miracles occurring in theistic religions since a miracle would require a personal, rational and all powerful being. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all consider miracles to be a confirmation by God of a truth claim made in His name. God wishes to communicate with his creation. The presence of a miracle confirms the communication.

The criteria for miracles are that they are immediate, that more than one miracle occurs across time, that the miracle is done in the name of God and that in some cases the miracles involves a predictive element.

Some examples of these criteria follow. For immediacy we see Jesus in the synagogue healing a man with a withered hand. The cure was instantaneous. (Mark 3:1-6), for multiplicity we note that the Bible contains 60 miracles in the Gospels and 250 miracles in the whole Bible. For attribution we see Elijah crying out in 1 Kings 18, “’O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant’, then fire of the Lord came down and consumed the burnt offerings and the wood and stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench.” A predictive element is seen in Matthew 12:39-41 where Jesus proclaims, “39 But he replied to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves a sign. Yet no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah, 40 because just as Jonah was in the stomach of the sea creature for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment and condemn the people living today, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. But look—something greater than Jonah is here!

Judaism records multiple miracles as God worked with his people, Israel, Christianity records multiple miracles as Christ ministered to those around him. Islam accepts the claims of the OT prophets and of Jesus to have done miracles. There are no miracle claims in Islam itself.

The biblical miracles have all the qualifications of true miracles. They are immediate, multiple, connected to truth claim in name of God, and have predictive elements present. Therefore, biblical miracles happened. Since they are really miracles, they confirm the truth claims connected with them. These miracles confirm Christ’s claim to be God in human flesh.