I have a confession to make. I am not the type of person to get all worked up over the possibility of meeting a celebrity musician, or famous actor, or superhuman sports star. Bring a noted Bible scholar into town, however, and I’m the guy asking for autographs on my commentaries. Take Craig Keener, for instance. This past year my seminary hired on the brilliant socio-rhetorical Bible scholar, albeit at the campus in Wilmore, Kentucky. Not long ago, however, I received an email welcoming his visit to the Florida campus, and I showed up the next day to my Greek class toting his commentary on Matthew. My intent was to track him down after class and ask him to sign it. Unfortunately, I missed him.
The truth is, I have been using Keener’s IVP Bible Background Commentary since my undergraduate days circa 1998-2003. I also own a copy of his insightful commentary on Matthew, which become a primary resource for my series on the Sermon on the Mount. In addition to other noteworthy commentaries, he just released what is already an award-winning book defending the reality of miracles. His website and blog is a treasure trove of exegetical information, and he recently published an article with the Huffington Post highlighting the key areas of his most recent book. The following excerpt is from that article.
Many people today are familiar with miracle stories in the Bible — the parting of a sea, water turned to wine, and, most frequently in the New Testament, healings, even of blindness, leprosy, and the reversal of recent death.
Yet it is not just people in the first century who have believed in miracles. Various polls peg U.S. belief in miracles at roughly 80 percent. One survey suggested that 73 percent of U.S. physicians believe in miracles, and 55 percent claim to have personally witnessed treatment results they consider miraculous.
Even more striking than the number of people who believe in miracles is the number who claim to have witnessed or experienced them. For example, a 2006 Pew Forum survey studied charismatic and Pentecostal Christians in 10 countries. From these 10 countries alone, the number of charismatic Christians who claim to have witnessed or experienced divine healing comes out to roughly 200 million people. This estimate was not, however, the most surprising finding of the survey. The same survey showed that more than one-third of Christians in these same countries who do not claim to be charismatic or Pentecostal report witnessing or experiencing divine healing.
And the reports in these countries appear to be merely the tip of the iceberg. The survey did not include China, where one report from the China Christian Council over a decade ago attributed roughly half of all new Christian conversions to “faith healing experiences.” Another report from a different source in China suggested an even higher figure. Clearly many people around the world experience what they consider miracles, sometimes in life-changing ways.
What are we to make of such claims?
For the rest of the article, I encourage you to visit Craig Keener’s site. Or, you can go straight to the Huffington Post article, but you really should come back and poke around on his blog, as it is chock full of some great exegetical resources. Check it out!
And when you get back, let us know what you think!
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Shirley Anne March 22, 2012 at 10:40 am
Undoubtedly miracles do happen. Unfortunately there will be fake miracles and many doubting Thomas’s. By nature miracles are not governed by natures rules and some miracles are counterfeit, engineered by Satan. We have to be open to the fact that God does perform the miraculous but wary that counterfeits do exist too. God may be demonstrating His love and showing us a glimpse of what is to come but in what is to come miracles won’t be necessary will they?
Shirley Anne x
mbmarble2 March 22, 2012 at 10:50 am
Of course there are miracles, God still works through His divine providence. Why else would there be prayer? The only type of miracles I would say don’t exist is the gift of healing to believers, there is no reason for that to be any more as it was a sign that Christianity is real. Today there is no need for the gift of healing as we have the complete written word of God, which the early church age didn’t.
T. E. Hanna March 22, 2012 at 12:23 pm
If I may push back just a little, we could argue that ALL miracles are signs, to some extent, which serve as a sign to the reality of God. Certainly this is an important aspect, but I think we cut God a little short if this becomes the only aspect. The great proclamation of Jesus is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom, which continues to break through into our reality, is the process of restoring a creation which has been broken and tainted by sin to the rightful order under its rightful King. As such, God is in the process of setting right what has gone wrong; of making broken things whole. Sickness, death, and suffering are aspects of that brokenness which sin has caused. The deeper meaning behind the miracles of Jesus was just this – that the encroaching Kingdom of God is overcoming the darkness of our world. As such, I still think that the darkness of our world is being overtaken by light, and this includes miracles even in the realm of healing.
That said, God still calls us to operate with wisdom. He continues to work through the hands of doctors, and other medical professionals. It would not be a wise decision to refuse medical treatment because one believes in faith-healing, nor would it be wise to abandon the ICU in order to attend a faith-healing seminar. I know of examples of both, and I tend to think that the idea which suggests that God can ONLY work through flashy faith-healer encounters is far more limiting to God and debilitating to one’s faith (and health!) than recognizing that God uses doctors as well.
mbmarble2 March 22, 2012 at 12:43 pm
Yes, certainly all of God’s miracles can be used as signs I was speaking mainly of the gift of healing that was given to those in the early church age. So yes everything is ultimately to advance the Kingdom of God. As you stated in the reply, today he mainly works through the hands of doctors for healing, but that’s not taking away from His power as He’s in complete control of everything.
jelillie March 22, 2012 at 1:07 pm
Thanks for the referral!
jrsorrow March 22, 2012 at 7:11 pm
Once while praying for a Japanese friend who had suffered a stroke and could not shallow or move from the neck down, he was a high official with a Japanese Car Company I might add and he didn’t believe there was a God. As he laid in his hospital bed surrounded by family and friends I simply prayed God reveal yourself to this man. He did that night he dreamed of me praying for him, he woke up and was healed. He and his family accepted Christ. But he would not go where the “pastors” dressed up and acted churchey he liked me with my levies and t-shirts:)
Derek Mansker March 22, 2012 at 10:44 pm
It is especially fun to watch a Doctor get somewhat baffled and state that the response to the treatment was “unprecedented.” What a joy to tell them that is was a powerful act by a loving God.
donenevoldsen March 23, 2012 at 12:15 am
Many years ago, in my youth, I heard Kathryn Kuhlman answer the claim that many of the miracles of healing in her ministry were nothing more than psychosomatic manifestations. Her answer was simply that she didn’t think it mattered. Nothing else worked for those people, so what difference did it make. Having said that, I have personally witnessed many healings, and in at least a couple of cases, none of the explanations other than divine intervention were plausible. One, for example, was a person with severe leukemia. The disease not only disappeared overnight, but the person’s blood type even changed. Theology aside, it became hard to argue the point after seeing it for myself.
T. E. Hanna March 23, 2012 at 12:17 am
I remember when, as a youth, I witnessed a friend of mine recover from deafness in her right ear. This was not someone who could hear, then had a bout of not hearing, and then could hear again. This young lady was born without an ear drum. I agree, some things defy explanation, and having experienced it, it’s pretty hard to argue.
donenevoldsen March 23, 2012 at 12:28 am
Aside from that discussion, last year I helped edit a book with twelve authors contributing a chapter each. Craig Keener was one of them. I never met him, but I had the opportunity to email back and forth with him and to read much of his material. I am now a lifelong fan. The man is absolutely brilliant.
T. E. Hanna March 23, 2012 at 12:31 am
You edited a book that Keener wrote for? I’m envious. That must have been quite the experience.
Don Enevoldsen March 23, 2012 at 12:47 am
It was. The book is called Awakening the One New Man. The other authors included Jack Hayford, Coach Bill McCartney (Founder of Promise Keepers), Jane Hansen Hoyt (Aglow International), Dr. Michael Brown, Daniel Juster, and Jonathan Bernis. It was truly the most rewarding project I’ve ever been involved in. I wasn’t very familiar with Craig Keener when I started, but now he is one of my all time favorites.
Don Enevoldsen March 23, 2012 at 12:53 am
It was without question the most fulfilling project I’ve ever been involved with. The book was called Awakening the One New Man. Some of the other authors were Jack Hayford, Coach Bill McCartney (founder of Promise Keepers), Dr. Michael Brown (Ask Dr. Brown) and Jonathan Bernis (Jewish Voice Broadcast). I wish I could say I contributed a lot, but the authors are so good that I really had limited work to do on their material. I was not that familiar with Craig Keener when we started, but he is now one of my all time favorite writers.
T. E. Hanna March 23, 2012 at 1:25 am
If that is your field, I would love to pick your brain sometime. I am in the early stages of a book regarding how we discover purpose and fulfillment through recovering what it means to be the image of god
T. E. Hanna March 23, 2012 at 1:26 am
I have no knowledge of the publishing industry tho, so I would welcome your wisdom.
Don Enevoldsen March 23, 2012 at 1:51 am
Let’s talk. My email is [email protected]. We can exchange contact info and connect. I would love to help any way I can. I like your writing a lot.
T. E. Hanna March 23, 2012 at 2:47 am
Wonderful! I will send you an email. Out of curiosity, what church were you affiliated with as staff pastor? If it was CCoJ my head is going to explode…
Eugene Adkins March 23, 2012 at 7:02 am
Hello, T.E.
The so-called miracles of today have nothing in common with the true miracles recorded in the Bible. Someone survives a bad car crash and they call it a miracle. Someone survives a dangerous illness and they call it a miracle. The truth with such situations is that we still don’t understand the natural phenomia that leads to these things.
The miracles of the Bible were events that went against nature itself. There were public healings of well known people that were verified beyond a doubt.
I don’t want to be misunderstood when I say this, but today’s “miracles” are surronded emotional hype and not built upon the same substance as the ones that are found in God’s word.
God’s word was always primary and the miracles secondary. Many people today who place so much reliance on miracles treat the “miracles” as the primary and the word of God as secondary. http://wp.me/p20YNR-7D
It’s hard to discuss this issue with people who are so emotionally involved, but like I say, if a true miracle happened today all a person would have to do is call the news media and get it verified…that would put the issue to bed and the news station would love the ratings.
Heather C. King March 23, 2012 at 1:12 pm
On the subject of miracles, I just recently read a quote by C.S. Lewis that has kept me thinking: “a slow miracle is no easier to perform than an instant one.” I wonder how many of God’s miracles we don’t even recognize because we expect them to be immediate and perhaps even showy.
andrejoy18 April 5, 2012 at 8:40 am
I was just going to comment saying something similar! I think that the redemption of the world by Christ in all kinds of ways (instantly miraculous, His natural process at work, His common grace) could be considered miraculous if we only saw it that way!
For example, so many people die of cancer every day. When someone survives the cancer, couldn’t we consider this a miracle? Just because God used the doctors and treatments we have now doesn’t mean it wasn’t miraculous!