The next section of Tim Chester’s book, Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to summarise is that part of chapter 5 which deals with ‘miracles and the purposes of faith.’
Chester believers (with John Stott) that miracles are certainly possible, but not as common as they were in, say that time of Jesus and the apostles, because one of the main purposes for miracles – attesting to God’s unfolding revelation – no longer applies.…
A third section of Tim Chester’s Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to consider is the part of chapter 4 where he outlines the circumstances in which miracles are more likely to happen today.
1. On the frontline of mission. John Stott writes: ‘Especially on the frontiers of mission, where a power-encounter may be needed to demonstrate the lordship of Christ, miracles have been and are being reported.’
As Chester says: ‘There are a number of things that make people more inclined to pay attention to the Christian message: the lives of Christians (Titus 2 v 9-10); our response to persecution (1 Peter 2 v 11-12); the community life of the church (John 13 v 35; 1 Peter 3 v 8-15); the worship of the gathered congregation (1 Corinthians 14 v 23-25).…
The second part of Tim Chester’s little book Do Miracles Happen Today? that I would like to summarise and reflect on comes in chapter 3.
While insisting that God can and does do miracles today, Chester says that, in fact, they are fewer and lesser in scope than those that happened at the time of the Gospels and Acts.
Some Christians put this down simply to a lack of faith on our part. If our expectations were greater, then so would the provision of miracles.…
Introducing a short series based on sections of Tim Chester’s book, Do Miracles Happen Today? And other questions about signs, wonders and mighty works. The Good Book Company.
In chapter two, Chester discusses the definition of ‘miracle’.
An unusual feat? The success of Leicester City football team in winning the Premier League in 2016 was an extraordinary achievement (they had odds of 5,000 to 1 against them at the start of the season). But it was not a miracle.…
27:52f And tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints who had died were raised. (They came out of the tombs after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.)
Did these remarkable events actually happen?
So-called ‘mainstream’ critical scholarship regards it as ‘legendary’. According to Harper’s Bible Commentary, for example, ‘One wonders what the resurrected saints were doing between Good Friday and Easter. The story flatly contradicts Paul’s teaching that other resurrections will occur only at the Parousia (1 Cor.…
Miracles: the Bible seems full of them, and yet we see so few today. How do we account for this?
That question was recently put to John Piper, and here’s the substance of his reply.
See Psalm 77:11 ‘I will remember the works of the Lord. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago!’
Even in OT times God’s people saw miracles as predominating in days past – especially the days of Moses and Elijah. …
Why did Jesus perform miracles? A number of reasons may be suggested:-
Marcus J. Borg describes himself as ‘moderate to liberal’ scholar. In setting out his ‘appreciative disagreement’ with Tom Wright (in response to the latter’s Jesus and the Victory of God), Borg homes in on the question of miracle. He sees the Gospels as a combination of ‘history remembered’ and ‘history metaphorized’. The first of these terms refers to those events that are recorded in the Gospels simply because they actually happened. The second term refers to other things that are related in the Gospels. …
The account (in Genesis 22) of how God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, is one of the most problematic in the whole of scripture. It seems to teach that blind, irrational faith is a ‘good thing’, even the result is that you are willing to slaughter a member of your own family because you think that God has told you to do it. Of, course, God prevented Abraham from killing Isaac in the end (Gen 22:12), but that does not seem to get us off the hook: we presume that Abraham would have gone through with the terrible deed if God had not intervened.…
…and I (sort of) agree with him!
In the course of a wide-ranging interview with Justin Brierley on Premier Christian Radio’s Unbelievable show, Tom Wright explained why he’s uncomfortable with the word ‘miracle’, as popularly understood. ‘Let’s give up the word “miracle”,’ he said,
…The word comes from an Epicurean or deistic worldview which envisages a God who is outside the process and occasionally reaches in, does something funny, and then pushes off again. That’s not what the New Testament is talking about.
