New Testament Field Guideნიმუში

Getting Ready: Behind the Text

Now consider how Westerners have been influenced by two very different approaches to the Bible and, especially, its miracles.

Miracles in the New Testament

As the scientific revolution developed, new challenges to the Bible emerged. One particular challenge that arose related to miracles. These challenges were typically directed at the New Testament, primarily the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and the book of Acts.

One form of what is called the “historical-critical method” argues that historical accounts must find a present-day parallel to be considered authentic. In other words, if we currently never observe the kinds of events being described by a historian, we should have doubts that they actually occurred. For example, if a battle between thousands of soldiers is described in which no soldiers of one side died, we can rightly consider this telling of the events to be false. We have never observed this in our lifetime, so we conclude that it is not possible.

By this logic, most, if not all, of the miracles described in the New Testament are false.

Notice several things about this “historical-critical method”:

• Our own experiences become the basis for judging what was or was not possible in the past. Yet, our own experiences are limited. (Craig Blomberg has pointed out that this is akin to a person who has only experienced tropical weather claiming that snow is impossible.)
• There are many people in our times who claim to experience miraculous events. We must come to the conclusion that all their claims are false if we presume that miracles don’t happen today.
• Since a miraculous event is, by definition, not an occurrence that regularly occurs, testing the miraculous by scientific method is impossible.
• Human history is filled with individuals and communities claiming to witness occurrences of supernatural intervention in the physical realm—by both good and evil forces. All those claims would have to be false, and yet convincing, to many people over many generations.

While our own experience is one way to judge whether miracles are possible, another factor is far more compelling—the existence of God. If an all-powerful God exists, then miracles must be possible.

Nonetheless, being convinced of the possibility of miracles only gets you so far. Just because God or other powerful supernatural beings exist and have the power to perform miracles, it doesn’t mean they have. The New Testament confronts every reader with claims that some world-changing miracles actually did happen. And one miracle in particular—the resurrection of Jesus—is the crux of the whole Bible.

For more information, see: Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, 1987, p.78ff.