Miracles being opposed to all experience, can we accept them? Can there be a religion without miracles?
That is the same as questioning if there is or can be any such thing as religion. But this is not all that is implied in the question; the first part implies that nothing can exist that we have not known or experienced, and also that we can never learn anything new. That form of unbelief which denies everything that it does not know, may be very gratifying to one's pride,-in that it assumes that one knows all that is worth knowing; but, on the other hand, it is at the same time the very humiliating confession that one is too dense to learn; for it is evident that the one who refuses to accept anything that he has not previously known, can never learn anything new.
The fallacy contained in these questions which, by the way, are not at all uncommon, may be exposed in various ways. First of all, some plain workingman may rudely throw the whole sophistical fabric down by declaring that he knows there is such a thing as religion, because he has experienced it, and that to the saving of his soul. Of what use is it to bring subtle arguments against religion, when thousands of men and women are living proofs of its existence. Such arguments are on a par with the statement of the lawyer who visited his client in jail, and, after hearing his account of the case, said,
"They cannot put you in prison for that."
"But," protested the other, "they have done it."
It is folly, and a waste of time, to argue that men and animals cannot swim, when the fact is that they do swim.
But the great, underlying fallacy consists in the assumption that miracles are opposed to all experience. The truth is that miracles are not opposed to any experience; and the one who is not conscious of seeing miracles daily, has his faculties very feebly developed.
There is another fallacy implied in this one, or, rather, this fallacy is virtually the statement of another one, namely, that the existence of God is opposed to all experience; for to say that there are no miracles is the same as saying that there is no God. To deny miracles, is to deny God; for if God did not from the very nature of His being, do things that men cannot understand, He would be no greater than they, and would not be God. The fact that "God is," (Hebrews 11:6) carries with it the doing of things that are utterly incomprehensible to mere human beings. God must do miracles, for they are His nature; they are His ordinary way of working. In very truth, God does nothing that is not miraculous to the thinking mind.
Many have the idea that it is only crude, undeveloped, inexperienced minds that believe in miracles, and that the more cultivated one's mind becomes, the less does one see to wonder at. This is directly contrary to the facts in the case. It is the close observer and student of nature, the astronomer and the microscopist, before whom the field of wonders is constantly expanding, and who is daily seeing things that pass all understanding. The person who does not know that miracles are continually occurring, has not yet had his mind awakened to appreciate what is going on in the world around him, and even in him.
Scientists tell what they see,--they describe phenomena, but no scientist professes to be able to explain the origin of anything. More than this, they are generally agreed that the ultimate cause of all phenomena, the origin of all things visible and invisible, is unknowable. Only the Bible reveals the truth that God is the Great Cause. This gives solid ground to rest and build upon, but it does not clear away the mystery. God's own existence, God himself, is the one, great miracle of the universe.
The simplest, everyday operations of nature around us and in us are miracles. The germination of a seed, the growth of a plant, the ascent of the vapor, and the clouds, the flight and migration of birds, the digestion and assimilation of food, the growth of bodies, and the repair of waste, are all miracles of the most marvelous kind. Whoever has his eyes open must not only continually find new things to admire, but be constantly lost in wonder at the miracles with which he is most familiar.
What is a Miracle?
Most people have a wrong idea of what constitutes a miracle. They seem to think that constant repetition of an act deprives it of its miraculous nature. A thing that has never before come within the range of their experience or knowledge, they regard as a miracle; but if it is done constantly before their eyes, their interest soon ceases, and if it should be referred to as miraculous, they would reply, "Ah, that is nothing strange; I see that every day."
Thus the bringing of water from the rock for the Israelites in the wilderness, is universally regarded as a miracle, that is, so far as the record is believed, because people suppose that it was a unique case. But when they traverse the mountains and the plains, and see springs gushing forth from the rocks, they think that it is "the most natural thing in the world." Yet it is the very same miracle, and nobody can explain it.
The miracle is just as wonderful today as it was the day that Moses smote the rock in Horeb. The water comes from the earth, and the earth gets it from the sky, and gives it back to the sky, to receive it from the sky again; and so the endless round goes on, and still the question remains unanswered,
"Where does it come from?"
Yet people might know, if they would but recognize the presence of the Lord among them, and acknowledge that "they drank from that Spiritual Rock, ... and that Rock was Christ." (1 Corinthians 10:4)
Not only as great miracles, but the very same miracles, are now being performed as are recorded in the Bible; for those miracles were wrought, and the record of them has been preserved, in order that men might have their attention called to God's manner of working, and become acquainted with it. The result of such thoughtful consideration will not be contemptuous thought of the miracles recorded in the Bible, but awe in the presence of God's works, and reverence and adoration of the Creator. "Remember that you magnify His work, which men behold." (Job 36:24)
Take the miracle of the turning of water into wine, recorded in the 2nd chapter of John. "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory." (John 2:11)
But ever since the creation the same miracle has been repeated every year; for Christ is the True Vine, the Father is the Husbandman, and "the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3) "In Him all things consist," (Colossians 1:17) and every year the vines of earth, in Him, the true Vine, have changed water into wine; and men have seen it, and have not believed on Him. Like the unbelieving Jews, who had just been filled with the loaves so miraculously produced by His hand, they have said, even while looking at His wondrous works, "What sign do you show, then, that we may see, and believe you? What do you work?" (John 6:30)
The thoughtful reader will have observed that the question as to whether or not God can "suspend the laws of nature" in order to perform miracles, is already answered. The "laws of nature" are simply what men have observed and noted of God's ways of working; and at the best they have seen but "parts of His ways." (Job 26:14)
Every "operation of nature" is itself a miracle, performed, not by the suspension of law, but by the execution of it. The age of miracles is not past, and cannot be as long as God lives.
The Perfect Rule of Law
I have intimated that the performance of miracles does not imply the suspension of any "law of nature." It must be plain that it cannot be, if one but remember that God "cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)
But I would go farther, and maintain that the greatest miracles are not contrary to the laws that govern the universe, but are only the more perfect and unhindered working of those laws. Take, for example, the raising of the dead to life. No miracle can surpass this, and no other miracle so completely exhibits the perfect working of the law by which God governs the universe. "God ... is the living God." (Jeremiah 10:10)
His Spirit is life, (Romans 8:10) and: "His commandment is life everlasting." (John 12:50)
From His own life all things came, and by His life they are maintained. His life is the law that governs all creation. "Sin is the transgression of the law;" (1 John 3:4) and death comes by sin. Death is therefore a temporary interference with the law, a hindering of its action; and the raising of the dead is the resumption of the perfect rule of law. It is not contrary to nature for God to raise the dead. It is death that is unnatural, and life that is natural; for it is spiritual law: "The law of the Spirit of life," (Romans 8:2) that rules in "the natural world" when everything moves without a jar. Death ensues only when this law of nature--"the Divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4)--is transgressed.
This is demonstrated before our eyes and in our bodies every day. Because of the violation of law, death is in the world, and our bodies are undergoing a constant process of decay; yet we live. We are severely wounded, or are brought to the verge of the grave by illness, and our bodies are mysteriously and miraculously built up whole as before. Everywhere we see God at work to build up, to heal, and to restore, showing that His law is life. And since the greatest of miracles,--the restoring of life,--is but the full and free operation of His law, it is evident that no law is ever suspended by the performance of any miracle. The working of God's laws results in a constant succession of miracles, more than can be numbered.
And this mysterious, miraculous, yet most common power of God, is that by which men are saved. To yield implicitly to it constitutes the perfect religion. For: "the Gospel ... is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes;" (Romans 1:16,RV) and, "His everlasting power and Divinity...are seen [in] the things that are made." (Romans 1:20,RV)
Thus in order to be saved, one has only to have a perfect faith in miracles, not past, but present; and in order to believe in present miracles, one has but to have his eyes opened. There are many miracles that Jesus did, "which are not written in the Book; But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you might have life through His name." (John 20:30-31) "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21)--Present Truth, April 2, 1903.