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Biblical Miracles as Proof from God
by
Jeffrey Donley, Ph.D.
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- Christians believe God proves messengers
- Christians believe Jesus’ miracles prove him
- Biblical miracles confirm God’s messages
Christians believe that God gave the ability to perform miracles to those who spoke for him as proof that their message came from him. They also believe that the miracles of Jesus prove he was who he said he was: the promised Messiah (Luke 7:20–22; John 10:25; Acts 2:22; Romans 1:4).
When Jesus told a paralytic that his sins were forgiven, the teachers of the law accused Jesus of blasphemy. “Which is easier to say,” asked Jesus, “‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?” (Matthew 9:5). The teachers understood that it was easier to tell a cripple that his sins were forgiven. But so they would know that he had the power to forgive sins, Jesus told the paralytic to get up and walk. Amazingly, he did! For Christians, this proved that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2–8).
Though the evangelist Philip performed miracles himself, he didn’t have the power to give this gift to others. The apostles Peter and John traveled from Jerusalem to Samaria, where Philip was evangelizing, to give this gift to the Samaritans who were becoming Christians (Acts 8:14–17). The apostles didn’t give miraculous gifts to all the new Christians, though.
Luke writes that Simon the sorcerer, who had amazed his neighbors with his magic, was “astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw” Philip perform. Simon wanted to buy this power. But he wasn’t given (and absolutely wasn’t sold) the power of miraculous gifts (Acts 8:9–25).
Many Christians believe that the miraculous powers of the apostles decreased as God’s objective word was being written down and collected in the first century A.D. The last recorded miracle in the Bible was performed on the island of Malta (A.D. 60) by the apostle Paul (Acts 28:8–9). Three years later (A.D. 63), Paul writes that Epaphroditus almost died from some sickness (Philippians 2:25–27). Why didn’t Paul heal him?
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