City Life Starter

By Scott Fiddler

The Word: 2 Peter 1:16-18

16For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

17For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased”—

18and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

The Apostle Paul said the kingdom of God was not a matter of talk but power. (I Cor. 4:20).  In other words, the Kingdom is not merely a theological proposition but a realm in which the power of God is manifested. That demonstration of power, as Peter describes above, does not of fairy tales but events that actually happened in time and history.

I firmly believe in miracles, and I’m not talking about the I-lost-my-keys-prayed-and-found-them type. I’m talking about healings from incurable diseases, people being instantaneously set free from drug addictions and the like. I believe in such things because of what I’ve witnessed, and the testimony of others who have witnessed miracles. That science cannot explain miracles or predict them does not prove miracles don’t happen; it only proves science is a limited tool for predicting reality.

As a trial attorney, I don’t think it arrogant of me to suggest I know something about evidence. I also would like to believe I’m a rational person.  It’s surprising to me then that Christians are so often accused of believing in miracles because of their dogma, while materialists’ disbelief in miracles is claimed to be based on reason. Nothing could be further from the truth. As G.K. Chesterton has noted, Christians believe in miracles because of the testimony of persons who have witnessed them throughout history. Materialists disbelieve in miracles because their materialist dogma prohibits it.

Ask a materialist why he disbelieves the testimony of persons who have witnessed miracles and he will say those persons are not credible. Ask why he believes those persons are not credible and he will answer, “Because miracles are not possible.” His objection to miracles does not spring from evidence, or the lack of it, but from his a priori belief against them. Chesterton said it like this, “It is we Christians who accept all actual evidence–it is you rationalists who refuse actual evidence being constrained to do so by your creed.”

I’m glad I’ve thrown my lot in with those who are open-minded.