Will Wonders Never Cease? The Place of Miracles in the Christian Faith

Abstract

In the eighteenth century miracles were appealed to as a major proof of the authenticity of Christianity. The advancement of science in the next century reversed that and forced Christian apologists to defend the very possibility of miracles themselves. The presupposition of belief in miracles is belief in God. If God is active in the world, the manifestation of his power in unexpected ways is very possible. But Christian miracles are not merely sensational acts; their proper context is faith and the glory of God. Yet some Christians have attempted to have faith without miracles, even reducing the resurrection to merely a symbolic truth not a physical fact. However, to remove the miraculous, especially the resurrection, from the New Testament flies in the face of the clear affirmation of the apostolic witness. Today a large section of conservative Christians do not simply defend the possibility of miracles, they proclaim their continuing presence in the church’s worship and mission. Signs, wonders and miracles, they affirm, are the powerful means of Christian evangelism. Christians are divided today over the definition (is speaking in tongues a miracle?), role and frequency of miracles; but there is agreement among conservative Christians that God has acted, and is active, in our world.