MIRACLES AND NATURAL LAW

Hugo McCord

Since a miracle (miraculum) is “a wonder or a wonderful thing” (WEBSTER’S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY), one can say that the whole of God’s creation is a miracle. The psalmist exhorts all people, “Give thanks to the Lord of lords” because “he alone does great wonders” (Psalm 136:3-4).

On the other hand, “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,” all conforming to the laws of nature, are not miracles (Genesis 8:22). A miracle “in theology,” according to Webster, is “an event or effect ... due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God.”

Accordingly, when we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), we do not expect a miracle because Adam was told “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). But it was a miracle when the Israelites for 40 years, six days a week, found bread (“manna”) outside their tent doors, supplied by a heavenly caterer (Exodus 16:13-35; Joshua 5:11-12).

Similarly, Jesus by a miracle multiplied bread and fish (Matthew 14:14-21; 15:32-38), but since that time one has to say that “while the earth remains” bread arrives on a man’s table, not by a miracle, but by “seedtime and harvest” (Genesis 8:22).

One also has to say that biblically, since the last person died on whom an apostle had laid his hands (Acts 8:18), no miracles of any kind have occurred. The fact that everything now follows the laws of nature explains seven Bible teachings: (1) prayer; (2) faith; (3) fasting; (4) anointing with oil; (5) hand-laying; (6) the indwelling of the devil; and (7) the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

1. Prayer. Jesus encouraged prayer because sometimes repeated praying will change God’s mind, which he illustrated by a widow’s persistent appeals to a judge who finally gave her relief (Luke 18:1-5). Indeed, one of the reasons by the Old Testament has been preserved (Romans 15:4) is that we might read that Abraham and Moses and Hezekiah changed God’s mind and changed the course of history by their praying (Genesis 18:22-33; Exodus 32:9-14; Numbers 14:11-20; 2 Kings 20:1-6).

Apparently, Paul, in praying, “May our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you” expected nothing supernatural in his journey from Corinth to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:11).

Several times in England, when Lois and Hugo were leaving to return to America, leaders in public prayers asked God to extend “travel mercies.” Those good people did not expect a miraculous Atlantic crossing, but were praying safe passage in the Lord’s providence.

Nothing supernatural is suggested in the prayer of the apostle John for his “beloved Gaius”: “I pray that in everything you may be prosperous and be healthy, even as your soul prospers (3 John 2).

“The prayer of the righteous has powerful results” a principle illustrated by Elijah’s prayer for a drouth and his prayer for rain (James 5:16-18). Though Elijah had miraculous power, even to raise the dead (1 Kings 17:14-16), James made it clear that Elijah’s powerful praying was not because of his miraculous power, as he wrote: “Elijah was a man whose nature is like ours” (James 5:17).