Many Christians have come to believe that God used evolution to bring about our origins and that He intervened at times to direct its course. There are some variations to this belief, but all in all these ideas fall under the umbrella of theistic evolution. This comprises views of religious teaching about God as compatible with modern scientific understanding about biological evolution.
First of all, what’s a miracle? Miracles are signs of God’s particular grace to his people in particular circumstances. They are events that happen in response to prayer or a desire to connect with God. Their mechanism or timing defies normal scientific reasoning, and show us something special about God’s character. We think this is a Biblical definition of a miracle – a sign; a wonder; something that shows us how amazing God is and how much he loves us. And a miracle doesn’t HAVE to defy scientific explanation – some miracles are ‘ordinary’ events with incredible timing.
Why should a scientist believe in this sort of thing? Put quite simply, if God created the universe, he can do what he likes with it! We know from experience that things in the universe can often be reduced to ordered, rational principles, like the ‘law’ of gravity, the speed of light, and so on. We believe that God sustains the universe: if he wasn’t there the whole thing would disappear. And God chooses to sustain things in an orderly way – so we get seasons, patterns and the ability to do science. But is God bound by these laws? We don’t think so! Why should he be? Occasionally he chooses to act in a different way: in a way that defies scientific explanation, and the resurrection of Jesus provides a powerful example – something that all Christians believe happened.
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, His ways are not our ways. Isaiah 5:8-9.
Going back to whether a scientific explanation can be found for a miracle, we think our desire to find stories that defy scientific explanation is a symptom of our scientific culture. The mindset is to say anything significant these days one needs some sort of scientific evidence to back it up, and Christians often buy into this. This makes it extremely tempting to spend a lot of time justifying miracles – especially miracles of healing – as events that cannot be explained scientifically, and dismissing miracles that can be explained scientifically as nothing remarkable, when something very remarkable indeed has happened – God acted.
The Bible doesn’t differentiate between miracles that defy scientific explanation and those that don’t, for example:
The virgin birth of Jesus.
Jesus turning water into wine (grape juice).
Parting of the waters (Red Sea and Jordan).
Fig tree drying up.
The many healing miracles that Jesus performed while he walked upon earth.
Calling out demons of the possessed.
Raised people from the dead.
Feed thousand with a few fish and a few loaves of bread
Etc.
These ‘signs and wonders’ point to God’s incredible power and care for us.
More importantly, Jesus recognized that miracles alone will do nothing to convince people that God is serious about caring for us. Miracles were an important part of Jesus’ ministry, he met their physical needs and then their spiritual, but some of the people who watched Jesus heal person after person were the same people who cheered for his execution. And Jesus himself said that even if someone rises from the dead people still won’t believe if they don’t want to. It’s only within the whole picture of what Jesus came to do that miracles really make sense.
We must also remember that in the final hours of earth’s history counterfeit miracles will be performed and it is the miracles that will cause the world to wonder after the beast. It is when the counterfeit arrives as Christ, called fire down from heaven, heals, raises what appears to the dead, and those who have passed away are seen walking upon the earth.
We must know Bible truth in order NOT to be deceived by what is about to come upon earth.