Did you know there are people who think the reason the children of Israel were able to cross the Red Sea is because they crossed in a shallow part of the sea that only had a couple of inches of water? These critics of miracles think all of the miracles in the Bible were allegorical or achieved through some natural means. Critics of biblical miracles say they are in the Bible to teach deeper life truths for people to live by.
While I appreciate anyone who wants to give a rational, logical explanation for things, my challenge with people who say all miracles are symbolic is they have a breakdown in their own logic. For example, if the children of Israel crossed a really shallow portion of the Red Sea, wouldn’t God have had to do an even greater miracle by drowning all of Pharaoh’s army in a couple of inches of water? You see what I mean? The logic is illogical when held up to greater scrutiny.
Another famous example critics of miracles cite is the story of the loaves and fishes. They say, the loaves and fishes the little boy had were really big, which is how Jesus was able to divide them up to feed 5,000 people. Think about that for a minute. How would a little boy carry two huge fish and five huge loaves of bread to Jesus? What size lunch box must he have had? And where did his mom find a big enough oven to cook all that food?
Trying to explain miracles away through symbolism and rational logic is one of the least rational things a person who says they believe the Bible is God’s word can do. To me, it’s more logical to say the Bible is a bunch of fairy tales and isn’t true because at least the logic would be consistent. If you’d like to learn why we can have confidence the Bible is God’s word, check out this article.
The belief system that all of the miracles in the Bible were allegorical began during the enlightenment in the 1700’s. Many enlightenment thinkers were intellectuals who wanted to be able to explain everything. Unfortunately, they reduced the Bible to a series of moral teachings that made Christianity more natural than supernatural. As a left-brained person who thinks linearly and likes to understand things, I appreciate their intellectualism. The problem is when we reduce the Bible to being natural instead of believing it’s supernatural, we take away its power to transform lives.
Eventually, some within the enlightenment took things a step further and said not only were the miracles of healing and provision symbolic, so was the resurrection. This led many people to question the divinity of Jesus. Once a person assumes Jesus is no longer divine, He doesn’t have the capacity to go to the cross and pay for our sins. At best, He is just a moral teacher that shows us a better way to live, but ultimately He’s not a lot different than Buddha or Gandhi.
As I close, I want to challenge you to not only believe in miracles, but believe they are for today. Throughout biblical and church history, when groups of people stop believing in the miraculous they ultimately backslide and walk away from faith altogether. Check out this message to learn more.
While you don’t have to believe in healing or the gifts of the spirit to be saved, there is a passion unleashed in people when we experience these things. This passion is what causes our heart to come alive and empowers us to be a difference maker in a way that are our intellect cannot. And I don’t say that to devalue intellect. We need both our head and our heart if we want to make a difference in our world today. It’s only logical, right?
If you’d like to learn more about why miracles are for today, check out the rest of my series here.
