Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (2 Volume Set)

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Mark's gospel gives an account of Jesus healing a blind man named Bartimaeus as Jesus is leaving Jericho. [17] The Gospel of Matthew [18] has a simpler account loosely based on this, with two unnamed blind men instead of one (this "doubling" is a characteristic of Matthew's treatment of Mark's text) and a slightly different version of the story, taking place in Galilee, earlier in the narrative. [19] The Gospel of Luke tells the same story of Jesus healing an unnamed blind man but moves the event in the narrative to when Jesus approaches Jericho. [20] [21] Authors Donahue and Harrington argue that the healing of healing of Jairus's daughter teaches that faith, as embodied in the bleeding woman, can exist in seemingly hopeless situations and that through belief, healing can be achieved, in that when the woman is healed, Jesus tells her, "Your faith has healed you". [59] Liberal Christianity [ edit ] As a Christian, I am not totally shut off from other spiritual books; I do not consider myself so dogmatic as to not consider other ways to grow more spiritual. But I found the book's redefinition of Christ disturbing, and when the writer/author/narrator told me I am "pathetic" for believing in the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, I was offended. I am told "[I] can overcome the cross." Why would I want to??? If the writer is the voice of Christ, then I wonder why He doesn't preface the volume with this statement: "Your Bible is completely wrong and misguided, and your perception of Me is skewed. Let Me redirect your thinking." Instead, the writer quotes liberally from the Bible when it seems to be useful but then contradicts the Bible's messages in the very next paragraph if not the very next sentence. So, miracles do not have the same place and significance—the same fitness in pantheism or paganism as in theism. It is particularly in Christianity that miracles have decisive significance converging on Christ. Prophecies, miracles, and the resurrection all demonstrate that He is one sent by God. In the Old Testament, miracles are present around agents of revelation or as a deliverance of God’s people (i.e. Red Sea) but do not have the same focus as in the New Testament (on Christ). In the Koran, Mohammed does not do any miracles—except the revelation of the Koran; whereas, Jesus is reported there to have done 16 miracles. Only in later Islamic tradition are there reports of miracles done by Mohammed. Wilson, Brandy (July 29, 2006). "Community of Faith: News from Houses of Worship: 'Disappearance of Universe' author to host workshop". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Archived from the original on December 1, 2018 . Retrieved August 8, 2017.

Needless to say, Dr. Keener's first thesis, it seems to me, is easily supported and proven: eyewitness accounts of miracles can and do exist (and, thus, we have no reason to think that the biblical accounts of miracles are any less credible simply because we are ~2,000 years removed from their recording).

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Exorcism of the Syrophoenician woman's daughter (Matthew 15:21–28 and Mark 7:24–30)—A Gentile woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter, but Jesus refuses, saying that he has been sent only to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel". The woman persists, saying that "dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table". In response Jesus relents and informs her that her daughter has been healed. [33] John Beversluis C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. erdmans, 1985. ISBN 0-8028-0046-7

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar. The acts of Jesus: the search for the authentic deeds of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco. 1998. p. 566.

C.S. Lewis on Miracles

Another one of Hume’s arguments is that people from earlier ages were uneducated and uncivilized and therefore easily duped by miracle claims. I suppose that there is truth in this, but if true, it would not mean everything they report was false. People of earlier ages knew that the dead do not normally rise and virgins do not normally have babies. In fact, Joseph was ready to break his engagement with Mary when he heard of her pregnancy. He was under no illusions that virgin births regularly happen. Joseph was only persuaded otherwise by a supernatural encounter. Inappropriate Mr. Keener set out to erase the foundation of academic prejudice against acceptance of the immaterial realm. Though he knows his task is difficult, he lays out a strong case, researching high and low, near and far to gather the strongest evidence he can find. Readers will draw their own conclusion about Linda Woodhead, "Christianity," in Religions in the Modern World (Routledge, 2002), pp. 186 online and 193.

I was assured that “no” it would still be several billion versus 5,000 in each case. It would not matter if I and all my friends witnessed 100 miracles; the result would still be the same. As I thought about it, the question emerged: “Why do the instances that establish natural law have to count against a reported miracle?” Rather than weighing the evidence for a miracle, natural law, the usual way things work, was being used to exclude the unusual (miracle). Lewis says:

Christian authors also view the miracles of Jesus not merely as acts of power and omnipotence, but as works of love and mercy, performed not with a view to awe by omnipotence, but to show compassion for sinful and suffering humanity. [45] [49] And each miracle involves specific teachings. [50] Licona, Michael R. (20 November 2014). "Historians and Miracle Claims". Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. 12 (1–2): 106–129. doi: 10.1163/17455197-01202002. In most cases, Christian authors associate each miracle with specific teachings that reflect the message of Jesus. [10] Keener and his wife are no strangers to personal tragedy--having endured eight painful miscarriages. This is not a scholar who has a "pie int he sky" view of the miraculous, or expects God to intervene dramatically all the time. He simply wants or demonstrate that miraculous did, and do, happen. In the healing of the man with a withered hand, [27] the Synoptics state that Jesus entered a synagogue on Sabbath and found a man with a withered hand, whom Jesus healed, having first challenged the people present to decide what was lawful for Sabbath—to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill. The Gospel of Mark adds that this angered the Pharisees so much that they started to contemplate killing Jesus.