reason.cck.org.uk

As a non-believer it is not uncommon to think that the way in which you are likely to become a believer is to see a miracle. So is this a reasonable way to pursue belief in God? Firstly, we need to back up a bit and see why Jesus performed miracles in the bible.

The purpose of miracles in the bible

It is true there are numerous accounts of supernatural healing which Jesus performed in the bible, and this was a key aspect of his claims to be God.  This was a wonderful way of Jesus reaching out and showing that not only was he powerful, but also that he was full of compassion for people.  However, physical healing in the bible is always temporary because ultimately people die! Healing is an indicator that Jesus is alive, is powerful to heal, and has the authority to bring people back into relationship with their heavenly father.

Ultimately healing that Jesus does is a pointer to the next life, where christians will spend eternity in heaven with God. It is here where there will be no more pain, suffering or death (Rev 21:4-5). Supernatural miracles are a foretaste of the complete freedom that there is to come.

Do miracles still happen today?

Despite our sceptical western minds, Christians do believe that miracles still happen today. This comes from our understanding that Jesus is not dead in the grave, but is alive and is still in the business of bringing restoration to people. God’s character has not changed; he hasn’t somehow become lazy or disinterested, but is working things out according to his sovereign plan. The bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), which means that he will continue to do the same things he did during his earthly ministry.

In fact Jesus made an amazing promise to all Christians in John 14:12 when he said ‘I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ Jesus does still heal people and he uses Christians as agents of his blessing.

It is our expectation today that God would still do many miracles through Christians by the power of the Holy Spirit, just like those in the early church. For a full account of these testimonies it is worth reading through the book of Acts in the New Testament. It is an absolutely enthralling account of what it means to be a Christian, living by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Are miracles the key to becoming a believer?

We might be surprised to see that in the New Testament (John 15:24, Mark 6:1-6) there are examples of people witnessing Jesus performing miracles, but some still do not become followers of Jesus. This teaches us a crucial principal; we do not live in perfect accordance with our reasoning. We tend to live in a state of cognitive dissonance.

Romans 3:10 teaches us that we are not naturally drawn to God, but that we all tend to want to want to suppress the truth about God (Romans 1:18-25). This is because there is more to becoming a Christian than simply coming to an intellectual realisation of what is true.

The bible teaches us that there is a battle for our hearts going on (Psalm 14:1) and this is why these people decided not to follow Jesus. It wasn’t for lack of evidence of Jesus’ capabilities; it was simply that they were stubborn-hearted. I was exactly the same prior to giving my life to Jesus in my teens, despite the overwhelming evidence for Christianity I refused to give to give my heart over to him.

Quite often miracles happen to people, and due to a stubbornness of heart, we try to explain it away in natural terms. I have often heard people respond to testimonies of healing of very significant things like cancer, by saying ‘It’s just the power of positive thinking’ , ‘maybe you just got lucky’, ‘It’s just a case of mind over matter’ , ‘It’s just a case of the placebo effect’ and a whole host of other clichés. So witnessing a miracle really is no guarantee to becoming a believer. (However, I have linked some video testimonies at the bottom of people recently healed from CCK).

How do I pursue whether Christianity is true then?

Although each person has a different story of how they have come to faith, God is very clear, the evidence is already there for all to see, whether you witness a miracle first hand or not. There are many different arguments which people down the centuries have found persuasive, such as the argument from meaning, the argument from morality, argument from fine-tuning to name but a few.

There is no one way that people come to faith in Christ, but one thing worth considering is reflecting on the very centre piece of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus. Sometimes we want a bolt of lightning to hit us from God, but realistically the resurrection is it! This is God screaming out to the world, Jesus is the answer. Dead men do not rise unless God has something to do with it!

The key miracle: The resurrection of Jesus

Throughout the bible we find that God is not against evidence based thinking at all. In Isaiah 1:18 we see God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, ‘Come now, let us reason together’. Similarly, this kind of reasoning continues in the New Testament as well as we can see through Paul’s writing in particular (Acts 17:2-3).

If Jesus did really die and rise again then God has clearly revealed himself in human history. We can know God personally. Why not look into whether this happened or not?

Recent video testimonies of people healed from CCK

Mitra Hajebi’s story:

Mark Edwards story:

This is a question made popular by YouTube videos, which dismiss the existence of God as they claim He doesn’t heal amputees. Their logic is as follows:

1) The Bible says God heals
2) Amputees don’t get healed
3) Therefore the Bible isn’t true

In my opening I would like to make it very clear that I believe God does heal amputees. In fact, there is even a man in the Bible that Jesus heals after his ear has been chopped off. (Matt 26:51-54)

As to why God does not heal everyone in this life, including obviously some amputees is a different question. Christians believe that they are in a stage between the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus (2000 years ago) and his returning again to bring his work into completion, to make the earth and all that is in it renewed.

This means that God has given Christians the privilege to pray in Jesus’ name with the power of the Holy Spirit for healing, which God will often do, but we are still not yet in a perfect world and will not be until Jesus returns. As a natural consequence not all people are healed and this is most obviously shown in the ultimate ‘illness’ which comes to everyone: death. Death is something no one can avoid and is what the Bible refers to as ‘the last enemy’ to be overcome. However, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, he has conquered death and enables those who trust in Him completely to live eternally.

Christians also believe that, after they die, they will receive renewed perfect bodies without any faults and which will last forever. Amputees will be a thing of the past!

Another question often linked with the one asked is that of ‘Don’t you need faith to get healed? Maybe amputees don’t have enough faith…’.

We are in no place to judge who has more faith than another. Only God can see the heart of someone and so I could never say with confidence that anyone has enough faith for healing except for those in which healing has occurred. The faith in question is mentioned in the Bible, in Matt 21:22. Many people assume that this is simply having a very strong will to be healed or the belief that God can heal them, but instead it is intrinsically linked with God’s will. I believe that the faith mentioned in the passage is the knowledge that it is God’s will to heal them; true faith, true depth of understanding about the will of God. This is something that I definitely do not claim to have.

My challenge to the questioner would be as follows: Is this really a question you personally struggle with or is it a sort of smoke screen/challenge and if God healed an amputee in front of you or if it was proven that God does heal amputees beyond reasonable doubt would you then trust in Him and follow Him, trusting Him with your life and choices or instead would you find another question to challenge him and the Christian?