Miracles are a hot topic in religious conversations. I don’t claim to have a deep understanding of them, but do wonder if there are perspectives that would help us see new ways that God might use the idea of “signs and wonders” today for proclaiming the kingdom. Below are some initial thoughts along these lines.
Through most of human history, people thought that the world was enchanted – that there was a pervasive spiritual aspect. In that context, miracles weren’t violations of the natural order (as we think of them now – violating the laws of physics), so much as examples of things that actually happened all the time. When people believed that the weather was driven by spirits and that healing was often supernatural, then the Biblical miracles would not have been unbelievable, just uncommon.
As such, they worked well as ways to get people’s attention and help them see beyond their daily lives. To cause wonder and be signs.
In our post-Enlightenment world, however, this doesn’t work the same way. With our increased understanding of the world, miracles become captivating. In other words, they are so unusual that people often cannot get past them. Description, or even demonstration, of miracles to atheists is likely to result in focus on the miracle itself – trying to explain it away, or understand what new science it teaches, and so on. Thus, they do not work as well as signs, as pointers to something else.
Perhaps this explains why we don’t see God working miracles as much any more. If the main reason for miracles is to proclaim Jesus and they no longer work as well for that, then we should expect less of them to occur. God might still miraculously heal out of compassion as Jesus sometimes did, but that’s not really the same thing.
However, if God still wants Jesus to be proclaimed, then there might still be a need for signs and wonders, only in a different form.
For example, it turns out that there are many things that are puzzling to the natural mind, to science, many of which can be shown to point to God. They are sometimes used apologetically to explain and rationally defend God’s existence. While some Christians present them as proof of God, what if we think of them instead as signs and wonders for our modern times?
In particular, note the two parts: “wonder” that refers to the attention-grabbing nature of the thing, and “sign” that refers to the way it represents, validates, or otherwise points to some idea or truth.
For example, scientists have found that the universe seems to be finely tuned to support life. In other words, if even the smallest change were made in the way physics works, then the universe would be so different that life could not exist. The very nature of reality seems exquisitely adjusted for the existence of life.
So far, the best scientific explanations for this involve an infinite number of parallel universes, an idea that has no evidence and may not be testable.
Of course, another solution is the existence of a Creator who designed the universe to support life.
In this case, the problem is interesting and has generated a great deal of discussion and investigation. It is as if God has provided it as a “wonder” that catches people’s attention, one that also acts as a “sign” because it obviously points to His existence.
Now, this is much different than the way we normally think of miracles, but could it be that the same spiritual principles are involved? Could it be that we need to look for more such “signs and wonders” for today?
In fact, there are many more examples of this. Not just in science, but also in philosophy, art, entertainment, and other places. While many are used apologetically, these idea suggest that there may be another approach to use them as simple pointers to the truth.
Of course, then the truth needs to be proclaimed in the appropriate language. But that is a different issue. The point here is that perhaps we need to be more sensitive to the way God has provided wonders that point to Him and seek His guidance for new ways to use them.
Exploring Antioch 