Did the Miracles in the Bible Really Happen?

Are Miracles Possible?

Many in our science-oriented world today just don’t find the Bible to be credible when it talks about miracles. It tells of people walking on water, turning water into wine, and coming back to life after they died. Those are not occurrences we are used to seeing in everyday life.

So the question naturally arises: does it make sense to believe that these things really happened?

I think it does, and here’s why:

Did Miracles Really Happen the Way the Bible Says They Did?

Most Christians believe that as incredible as some of the accounts in Scripture may look to modern eyes, they provide a reliable historical record of what actually occurred in time and space. To such believers, the Bible literally is what it proclaims itself to be, the written word of God. And it was God Himself who ensured that the recorded reports were accurate. That‘s why people who believe the Bible have confidence that those miraculous episodes actually happened pretty much the way the biblical accounts say they did.

On the other hand, there are several major religions on the world stage that have holy books adherents believe to be sources of divinely inspired information. Yet, it’s painfully clear that some of those books simply aren’t credible when reporting supernatural events.

Is the Bible any different?

What the Bible Says About the Credibility of Its Reports

The question of credibility is one the Bible itself anticipates and provides an answer for. The apostle John produced five of the New Testament’s twenty-seven books. In his introduction to one of those books, John wanted to make sure readers understood why they could trust his accounts.

1 John 1:1-3 (NKJV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life- 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us- 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

John’s point is that the accounts given by him and the other apostles (men who had been with Jesus throughout His earthly ministry) are entirely trustworthy because they are eyewitness reports.

These are not things that somebody told a friend of a cousin of an acquaintance whose name I can’t quite remember. John wants it clearly understood that he is speaking only of things “which we have seen with our (own) eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled.”

He and the other apostles were there, and not only witnessed but were personally involved in the events they recorded. And that fact is of the highest significance in assessing the Bible’s reliability.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you.— The Apostle John

The Importance of Eyewitness Testimony

Someone once asked me, “Why wasn’t the resurrection of Christ reported anywhere outside the New Testament? Seems like an event that astounding would have been reported all over the place.”

But of course, it couldn’t have been. Who would have carried the story? The New York Times wasn’t yet printing “all the news that’s fit to print,” and CNN wasn’t yet broadcasting 24/7 on cable television. The Roman and Jewish authorities wanted to suppress the news of the resurrection, not spread it.

That’s why God prearranged for a group of eyewitnesses, called apostles, who could give first-hand testimony about what happened during the ministry of Jesus. These were men who were there when Christ is reported to have walked on water, and when He raised Lazarus from the dead.

Because they were on the scene when they report in the New Testament that these things actually happened, they are either deliberately lying, or they are truthfully reporting what they personally saw and heard. And these were men who understood and believed the scriptural injunction that “all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8).

If there had been only one of them, it might be claimed that he was somehow confused, was mentally unstable, or simply had a bad memory. So, God arranged for there to be at least twelve of them, all giving the same basic account of events.

The Answer to the Question

History records that most of that apostolic group proved their veracity by their willingness to die a martyr’s death rather than recant the claims they made. In the 21^st century we know that it is not unusual for suicide bombers, and other fanatics, to be willing to give up their lives for what they believe in. But nobody willingly goes to their death for what they know to be a lie.

Nobody willingly goes to their death for what they know to be a lie.

Skeptical moderns often have difficulty believing that accounts recorded hundreds or thousands of years ago, even by people who were on the scene at the time, can possibly be trustworthy. Yet, that kind of eyewitness testimony to long-ago events is the foundation for our understanding of history. For example, it’s exactly that type of evidence that convinces historians that a man named William Shakespeare wrote a play titled Julius Caesar, and, for that matter, that Julius Caesar was once a Roman emperor. Both are “proved” only by documentary evidence left to us by long-dead eyewitnesses.

Courts routinely accept eyewitness testimony as significant evidence, leaving it to a judge or jury to decide how credible that evidence is. From a historical perspective, the apostle John’s testimony detailing the eyewitness basis of the New Testament miracle accounts provides ample reason to rate those accounts at the highest level of credibility.

Further Reading:

• 5 Biblical Steps to Controlling Anger
• How to Set Personal Boundaries to Resist Temptation
• What Is Love in the Bible?
• How to Get Back Up When You’ve Messed Up

© 2013 Ronald E. Franklin