Exorcising the blind and mute man ( Matthew 12:22–32, Mark 3:20–30, and Luke 11:14–23)—Jesus heals a possessed man who is blind and mute. People are astonished and ask, "Could this be the Son of David?" Exorcism at the Synagogue in Capernaum—Jesus exorcises an evil spirit who cries out, "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" [30] The original version of Miracles contained a different version of chapter 3 entitled "The Self-Contradiction of the Naturalist". In it, Lewis made the same argument but referred to atomic motions in the brain as "irrational". In a Socratic Club debate, Catholic analytical Thomist G.E.M. Anscombe criticized this, prompting Lewis to revise the chapter. The revised chapter presents a more detailed elucidation of the argument and distinguishes between "non-rational" and "irrational" processes. Anscombe commented on the process after Lewis's death that the rewrite showed "honesty and seriousness" on the part of Lewis. [4] See also [ edit ] The miracles of Jesus are miraculous deeds attributed to Jesus in Christian and Islamic texts. The majority are faith healings, exorcisms, resurrections, and control over nature. [1] [2] Exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac or Miracle of the (Gadarene) Swine—Jesus exorcises a possessed man (changed in the Gospel of Matthew to two men). When Jesus asks the demon's name (finding the name of the possessing demon was an important traditional tool of exorcists), [31] he is given the reply Legion, "for we are many". When the demons ask to be expelled into a nearby group of pigs rather than be sent out of the area, Jesus obliges, but the pigs then run into the lake and drown. [32]

When I was in graduate school, I took part in the regular meetings of a group called “Apologia” which consisted of a number of believing graduate students from various disciplines. I remember spending many hours on Hume’s philosophical critique. The more we explored the argument, the stranger it seemed to me. I asked one philosopher who had been deeply impacted by this argument: Twelftree, Graham H. (1999). Jesus the Miracle Worker: A Historical and Theological Study. IVP Academic. ISBN 978-0830815968. The miraculous catch of fish takes place early in Jesus's ministry and results in Saint Peter, Saint Andrew, James, son of Zebedee, and John the Apostle joining Jesus as his apostles. [38] Meier, John P. (1994). A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, Volume II: Mentor, Message, and Miracles. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-14033-0.

Changing the nature of three of his called twelve disciples in the Book of Mormon so that they could live until his Second Coming and the other nine that they would live until the age of 72 and be taken "up to his kingdom" 3 Nephi 28:1–23.

I’ve given this book a five-star rating on account of the tremendous research effort Mr. Keener has embarked upon, the herculean task he has undertaken to overturn Humean ideas that are firmly entrenched in academia, and the success he enjoys with providing a wealth of examples to support his contentions. This does not mean the book is perfect.In philosophical circles, it is common to argue that miracles are improbable. In fact, David Hume’s famous argument against miracles maintains that it is always more likely that any particular claim to a miracle is false than that the miracle really took place. In other words, it is always easier in light of the “firm and unalterable” laws of nature to believe that those who testify to a miracle are in error than that they are telling the truth. For instance, there are billions of instances in which dead people stay dead and only occasional stories of dead people rising. The odds would be several billion to one (or two or three or so on) against such a report being true. Dr. Keener has crafted a tome (in two volumes) that will surely be one of (if not the) most enduring and thorough works on the subject of the supernatural for many years to come. One of the factors that brought Lewis to public attention was his unblushing affirmation of the supernatural—God, demons, miracles, and all. How could a sophisticated Oxford professor believe such things in the twentieth century? When his face appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1947, it read, “Oxford’s C. S. Lewis: His Heresy Christianity.” What made Lewis such a “heretic?” Well, he rejected the fashion to lower the bar of belief, minimizing the things you really needed to embrace to be a Christian. German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) had reinterpreted the faith so that it could be quite palatable for its “cultured despisers.” Rather than confront their objections, he gave ground so that there would be no obstacles such as miracles to get in the way.

Mr. Keener set out to erase the foundation of academic prejudice against acceptance of the immaterial realm. Though he knows his task is difficult, he lays out a strong case, researching high and low, near and far to gather the strongest evidence he can find. Readers will draw their own conclusion about the validity of his arguments, but Mr. Keener has done a fine job of stating a case for the existence of the immaterial realm. If you throw the dice to get the solution to your math problem, how likely do you think that the first or second throw would give you the right answer? The complexity of the universe is far greater than 2 + 2 = 4. It would always be more likely that you would come up with an erroneous result than the true one. Lewis is dealing here with something much more than a math problem: the whole validity of our reasoning shaped by the cosmic dice roll. Even if perchance these reasoning powers were valid, we would never know or have an adequate basis to know that they were valid. Thus, on a naturalistic foundation, all our confidence in the reason used to establish naturalism is undermined. The only slim hope is that one in a billion rolls of the dice has produced the correct result. The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion 1805–1900, edited by Gary J. Dorrien (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), passim, search miracles. offers what professes to be a full account of our mental behavior; but this account on inspection leaves no room for the acts of knowing or insight on which the whole value of our thinking, as a means of truth, depend. Garrett, Lynn (March 7, 2005). " 'Disappearance' Appears Big Time". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on August 9, 2017 . Retrieved August 8, 2017.Keener and his wife are no strangers to personal tragedy--having endured eight painful miscarriages. This is not a scholar who has a "pie int he sky" view of the miraculous, or expects God to intervene dramatically all the time. He simply wants or demonstrate that miraculous did, and do, happen. For many Christians and Muslims, the miracles are believed to be actual historical events. [4] [5] [6] Others, including many liberal Christians, consider these stories to be figurative. [a] Licona, Michael R. (20 November 2014). "Historians and Miracle Claims". Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. 12 (1–2): 106–129. doi: 10.1163/17455197-01202002.

Funk, Robert W. and the Jesus Seminar (1998). The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus. Polebridge Press, San Francisco. ISBN 0060629789

C.S. Lewis on Miracles

For instance, in Hinduism, the principle of non-distinction (All is One) rules out any validity to the distinction between natural and supernatural. Since all is “maya” or illusion, how can it be important to demonstrate power over the illusion? Granted, there have been claims of gurus levitating or healings in New Age circles, but within the system of thought how important are these “illusory” acts? Many Christians believe Jesus's miracles were historical events and that his miraculous works were an important part of his life, attesting to his divinity and the Hypostatic union, i.e., the dual natures of Jesus as God and Man. [45] They see Jesus's experiences of hunger, weariness, and death as evidences of his humanity, and miracles as evidences of his divinity. [46] [47] [48] Andrew Breen on A Reflection: Disappointment, Divorce, Teaching, and Biblical Studies…and Why I Don’t Like May/June Skutch, Robert. Journey Without Distance: The Story Behind A Course in Miracles. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA, 1984, p. 58. One of the things I sometimes think about (and it came up while I read this book) is about those times when healing doesn’t occur–which Keener openly says seems to be most of the time. When I was in grade school, a family in our church had a toddler who came down with leukemia. Everyone in the church continually prayed for her healing, but eventually she died. The strange thing (i.e. supernatural thing) that happened, though, was what happened at the moment she died. I don’t remember what the actual time was (let’s say 12:30 pm), but at that very time Kimmy passed, there was a woman from the church who was at home who, out of nowhere got a vision of Kimmy in heaven, completely healed. This woman had no idea that Kimmy had died–but it was at the very moment she died that the woman had the vision.