IN THIS ISSUE...

Miracles in the Bible

EVIDENCES: The Destruction of Jerusalem

"That Many Pastors Can't be Wrong!"

In English, the word "miracle" applies to anything that fills us with wonder. When we are convinced that God has answered our prayer, we call it a miracle. When a baby is born, we call it a miracle. And, it truly is wonderful when God answers prayer, or when a child is born. I do not wish to quibble with those who use the word in this way; I understand what they mean, and I agree that such events can and should fill us with awe. On the other hand, there is a specific type of phenomenon described in the New Testament by the word "miracle", and it is worth our while to learn what this is.

First, it is important to note that the word "miracle" appears most often in the King James version. Modern English translations make more use of the word "sign". For example, after Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding feast, John notes:

This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. (John 2:11)

Now, in order to get a handle on just what this phenomenon is that is referred to by the above words, let us look at some examples. We can start with the one mentioned above, where Jesus turned the water into wine. John tells us that in performing the sign, Jesus manifested, or revealed, His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. The sign was something that showed who Jesus was, and gave people a reason to believe in Him. And this is consistent with all of the miracles of the New Testament. They were performed by God through specific individuals, and they were demonstrations of such power as to testify to the divine origin of the individuals' teaching.

Another example is found in the second chapter of Mark's Gospel:

And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house. Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them. Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men. And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven you." And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, "Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they were reasoning thus within themselves, He said to them, "Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Arise, take up your bed and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins" - He said to the paralytic - "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!" (Mark 2:1-12)

There are several observations we need to make for our present topic. First, note that Jesus' own reason for performing this particular miracle was that the scribes would know that He had the authority to forgive sins: in John's words, to manifest His glory unto them. Second, the miracle was done in such a way that there was no doubt as to who performed it. Third, the nature of the miracle was such that no one could deny the fact that it had occurred; it provided clear, objective evidence that Jesus was exactly who He claimed to be. Finally, the effect of the miracle was that those who witnessed it were in awe, and gave glory to God.

Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the four Gospels knows that the above examples are not unusual; Jesus performed countless signs. The nature and quantity of the signs were such that even those who opposed Him could not deny them:

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." (John 3:1,2)

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." (John 11:47,48)

Clearly, Jesus performed miracles which no one could deny: not even His enemies. This is in sharp contrast to the "miracles" which some religious leaders perform today. The modern miracle-workers perform signs which are doubtful, and only those who are inclined to believe the message they preach are likely to believe that any miracle has occurred.

Jesus was not the only one to perform signs. Especially after He ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit upon them, His apostles were characterized by demonstrations of the power of God:

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. (Acts 2:43)

An example of these signs is given in the next chapter:

Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us." So he gave them his attention. "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them - walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3:1-10)

This is not, you will notice, the kind of miracle which occurs today. As has been observed, the "miracles" which occur today are the kind where you have to already believe the one performing the miracle, in order to believe the miracle. By contrast, this sign of the apostles caused people to listen to the gospel, and as a result, many believed:

However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. (Acts 4:4)

Just as we saw Jesus' miracles were designed to provide evidence of who He was, so also the apostles were empowered to perform signs that would prove the divine origin of their message. In fact, the signs performed by the apostles were such clear demonstrations of supernatural power, that even their enemies could not deny them.

In the case at hand, for example, Peter and John were arrested immediately following the healing of the lame man, because they had preached Jesus to the crowd that had gathered. The Sadducees, who had arrested them, did not believe that there was any such thing as the resurrection from the dead (Matthew 22:23). Therefore, they not only disbelieved the gospel, they were outright hostile to it. And even they could not deny the miracle:

But when they had commanded them to go aside of the council, they conferred among themselves, saying, "What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name." (Acts 4:15-17)

The Sadducees clearly were not tolerant of the gospel message, and yet they were forced to admit that the apostles had indeed performed a miracle. It may seem strange that anyone would see such evidence, and still deny the truth of the message, but it is really not at all unusual. The same thing has occurred throughout history, and continues to happen today.

The miracles of Jesus and His apostles provided people with objective evidence, which they could examine rationally, and upon which they could build a conclusion regarding the truth of the gospel. And this was the purpose of the miracles:

"If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." (John 10:37,38)

The fact that no one on earth today is given the authority to perform such miracles should not trouble us. Throughout history, it has been the exception rather than the rule for God to manifest Himself in that way. Moreover, God has provided us with an abundance of evidence which, though not as exciting as first- century miracles, is nonetheless compelling:

And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:30,31)

John indicates that his Gospel provides us with reasons to believe in Jesus. Indeed, the scriptures are replete with sound, rational evidences that they are of divine origin. The fact that many refuse to examine these evidences and follow them to their necessary conclusion, does not mean the evidences are unsatisfactory. On the contrary, we have seen that despite the countless miracles performed by Jesus and His disciples, there were many who refused to draw the appropriate conclusion. So, rather than being troubled by the lack of miracles in our day, we can take comfort in the fact that God has provided us with many good reasons to believe that the first century Christians did not have. We also need to recognize that those who have a heart to seek the truth will accept the evidence we have, and those who do not have that desire will not accept any evidence whatsoever: whether it be ordinary or miraculous.

Please note that I nowhere have indicated that I believe God is unable to perform miracles today. I have simply observed the fact that He does not choose to do so. I do not limit God. I affirm that the miracles recorded in scripture are historical facts. I affirm that God continually hears and answers prayer. I also affirm that the miracles performed in the first century were for a specific purpose, that their purpose was fulfilled, and that God no longer manifests Himself in that particular manner. That's what scripture teaches.

As has been noted, the working of signs and wonders was characteristic of the apostles. In next month's issue, we will look at some other aspects of the apostles' lives and work. Our goal will be to see just exactly what the phrase "apostle of Jesus Christ" means.

The city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The siege and fall of Jerusalem is described in graphic detail by the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, in WARS OF THE JEWS, which was published around 75 AD. According to the Gospels, Jesus prophesied this event in approximately 30 AD. Let us look at Matthew's account of Jesus' prophecy, and compare it with Josephus' history.

1) Jesus: "Therefore, when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes." (Matthew 24:15-18)
Josephus: "It is now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food... the famine was too hard for all other passions... insomuch that children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating, out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants... when they saw any house shut up, this was a signal to them that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they broke open the doors, and ran in... the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing... (WARS OF THE JEWS, book 5, chapter 10, section 3).

2) Jesus: "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!" (Matthew 24:19)
Josephus: "She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, 'O thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition?...' As soon as she had said this, she slew her son; and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed." (WARS, book 6, ch. 3, sec. 4)

3) Jesus: "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be." (Matthew 24:21,22)
Josephus: "I shall therefore speak my mind here at once briefly:- That neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning of the world." (WARS, book 5, ch. 10, sec. 5)

4) Jesus: "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened." (Matthew 24:22)
Josephus: "Now the number of those that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege, eleven hundred thousand, the greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation, but not belonging to the city itself; for they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army..." (WARS, book 6, ch. 9, sec. 3).

5) Jesus: Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Matthew 24:1,2)
Josephus: "And now, since Caesar was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more,... thus was the holy house burned down, without Caesar's approbation." (WARS, book 6, ch. 4, sec. 7). "Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder,... Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple..."(book 7, ch. 1, sec. 1)

In last month's edition of Evidences, we looked at some of the manuscript evidence for the New Testament, and saw that it all points to the conclusion that its contents were written when and by whom they claim to have been written. In fact, in the case of the Gospel of Matthew, there is a recently discovered fragment that dates to sometime before 68 AD. As noted above, Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD.

When the twelve spies returned to the camp of Israel to report what they had seen in Canaan, ten of them said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us" (Numbers 13:31), while only two said, "We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it" (Numbers 13:30). The people, evidently thinking that surely ten spies couldn't be wrong when only two spies offered a contrary opinion, balked at trying to invade Canaan. The ten were wrong - the two were right.

Goliath was a giant who opposed the army of Israel in the days of King Saul. It was the prevailing opinion that Goliath could not be defeated. "When all the men of Israel saw the man, they fled from him and were greatly afraid" (1 Samuel 17:24). It would have been easy for a youth such as David to assume that so many trained soldiers could not be wrong. But you know the rest of that story.

The law of Moses warned against being swayed by a multitude: "You shall not follow a multitude in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to pervert justice" (Exodus 23:2).

And Jesus said, "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).

And yet the stumbling block for many in obeying the pure gospel of Jesus Christ is that doing so would be an implicit denunciation of what the world views as Christendom, and it seems that "millions of professing Christians can't be wrong!" They can be, and they are. And the only way I can be right is to follow God's word without being swayed by the multitudes.

- by Jeff Smelser