The miracles of Jesus

A miracle is an extraordinary event caused by something supernatural.

In the Bible, Jesus is recorded as performing four types of miracles in the Gospels:

• healing miracles

• exorcisms

• nature miracles

• resurrection miracles

Christians believe that Jesus performed miracles for several reasons:

• God was at work in the world;

• He was like the Old Testament prophets who also did miracles;

• God loves and provides for people;

• God has supernatural power;

• He had compassion for people on the fringes of society - not only in his words, but also through his actions.

Many people reject the idea of miracles today based on scientific reasoning. They say that the laws of nature are fixed and, therefore, people do not rise from the dead, walk on water or create huge amounts of food from a few loaves and fish.

Christians respond by saying that God is the creator of the world and is not subject to the rules that humans face because He is outside the world.

Some object to miracles from a historical perspective arguing that miracles do not happen now so they cannot have happened in the past.

However, Christians would argue that there are multiple accounts of miracles happening in the present. The Church often investigates and confirms events which people claim to be miraculous and there are things which happen in the world today which cannot be explained by science.

The philosopher David Hume made several objections to miracles having ever occurred. In particular, he said that miracles were claimed in the past by ignorant and uncivilised people and, therefore, miracles cannot be believed.

However, this fails to recognise that many ancient civilisations were extremely clever and sophisticated.

Many of our modern mathematical and scientific concepts find their origins in ancient civilisations who would not be fooled by pretend or false “miracles.”

Ultimately, for people of faith they recognise that miracles are a matter of personal belief. Everyone must decide for themselves if miracles do or do not happen.