How do we understand miracles?

 Twelfth Tuesday after Pentecost

Today we return to our Bible study of Acts. Read Acts 3:1-10. The short of the story is that a crippled beggar is carried to one of gates of the Jerusalem Temple everyday to beg for alms. Peter and John are going into the Temple outer court. The man asks them for alms. Peter's response reads a little better in the old RSV, "Silver and gold have I none, but I give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk." The man then rises, walks, leaps, and praises God. He enters the Temple, which he could not previously do, because the ritual purity laws deemed him unclean, because he was crippled.

One of the themes that Luke runs throughout Acts is that the Apostles can do everything that Jesus did. Here Peter displays God's healing power just as Jesus had a few months earlier. Miracles, especially healing miracles are a central part of first century Christianity. 

How do we understand these miracles today?

Do we still have healing miracles today? By healing miracles, I mean miracles totally apart from medical         science, and inexplicable on the basis of all we know through science.

Do some people have the spiritual gift of healing that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14?

As you might expect of me by now, I don't have clear, absolute answers on any of these questions. I do deal with these issues in a chapter of my book, Jesus and the Pleasures, which a number of you have read. 

One form of the theology called "Dispensationalism," understands it this way. Miracles were a part of the Apostolic Age. After Jesus and the Apostles had all died, miracles ceased. 

Another view, called "Demythologizing," sees people of the ancient world as living with a mythological world view. Thunder, lightning, eclipses, all sorts of natural phenomena, they would see as having direct divine causation. Healings not readily explicable would be miracles. We live with a scientific world view. In order to understand the first century miracles, we must take the mythological element out of it. Jesus, with superior understanding of psychology, healed people with psycho-somatic illnesses. 5000 people shared 5 loaves of bread. Their sharing, even though each got only a tiny piece, made them feel full in the presence of Jesus. Also, the number 5000 was a big exaggeration.  The resurrection was a resurrection of the Spirit in the hearts of the believers. It felt real to them. 

Another view seeks to scientifically quantify the miraculous. University studies of thousands of cases show that people who pray, and know that they are being prayed for, fair better in healing. I should note that the results of these various university studies are not entirely consistent.

Another view, I could call it the Pentecostal view, is that the miracles of the Bible happened exactly as told and can happen today, even as they did then, especially when guided by ministers who have the gift of healing. Not being healed is evidence of a lack of faith on the part of the person who needs healing.

Another view is that miracles don't happen. The Biblical miracle stories are fiction. Modern day miracle stories are either fiction, or have a natural explanation.

So here is what I think today (it might be different tomorrow). Jesus, the Apostles, and many who followed them in subsequent centuries did work miracles and healings. Miraculous healings can still happen today, though nowadays we have scientific explanations for most of them. The healers of today are people in the health care professions. God has given us the ability to learn and research the causes and cures of diseases and injuries. We heal with medicine. The human body has natural healing mechanisms as well. Medicine is the way that God has led us to work for healing now. Miracles can happen, but let's work through medicine. The Apostles had only the most primitive forms of medicine that worked. They needed miraculous healings more than we do. 

I have a terminal disease, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Lung transplant is the only cure, but it's not recommended for people my age and my health. I definitely do not want to go that route. Average lifespan after diagnosis is 3-5 years. I have now gone 3 1/2. Since 2014 there has been medicine which can extend the lifespan of IPF patients by half the previous average. I am taking that medicine. My lung function has diminished, but very slowly, slower than the average patient. I am on oxygen part of the time now--when I do anything at all strenuous. I'm not praying for a miraculous healing. I'm simply accepting my disease and trusting God to keep me on earth for as long as is good for both God and me. I do pray and plan for Marianne and my other family members to do well when I'm gone. I am totally satisfied with the life God has given me and gives me now, and I'm ready to go when that time comes.

Faithfully,

Christian