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THEMIRACLES
OFJESUS
FactorMyth?
by
John Ross Schroeder
For many, miracles are a barrier to believing the Bible.
Did Jesus' miracles really happen?
N
EARLY
40 miracles are
recorded in detail in
the gospel accounts in
the Bible. Beyond these ,
many more are reported in
summary form.
Later, . the apostles are re–
corded doing even greater works
than J esus did . The book of
Acts records many heal ing mir–
acles in early church history.
Yet to many in the 20th century,
these miracles are the chief diffi–
culty in accepting the validity of
the New Testament.
l sn't it time we examined the
historical evidence?
The Word of the Apostles
Jesus did not write an autobiogra–
phy. He left the writing of his life
to his apostles and their chief asso–
ciates. Four separate accounts have
been preserved through the centu–
ries. The four gospcls- Matthew,
Mark, Luke and J ohn- form a
major part of the New Testament.
In one of them we read: "Because
you have seen Me, you have
believed" (John 20:29, Revised
Authorized Yersion throughout).
Earlier Jesus had prayed: " 1 do not
pray for tbese alone, but also for
those who will bel ieve in Me
through their word"
(John
17:20).
July/ August 1985
Today we rely on the validity of
the apostolíc
word,
for the original
apostles are dead .
T heir first-century writings re–
port many miraculous happenings.
There is no way to decouple the
miracles of Jesus from the gospel
accounts-and still retaín a sensible
story. There is no way to justify
calling one part of the record fact
and another part myth.
Miracles are part of the gospel.
T hey are woven into the warp and
woof of all four gospel accounts.
Writes British scholar F.F. Bruce:
"No matter how far we may press
our researches into the roots of the
gospel story, no matter how we
classify the gospel material, we
nev–
er
arr ive at a non-supernatu ral
J esus"
(The New Testament Docu–
ments-Are They Reliable?
page
33, emphasis mine).
The chicf miracle of the New
Testament is the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul
sums up the evidence in
1
Corin–
thians 15: "Moreover, brethren, I
declare to you the gospel which 1
preached to you.... For 1 deliv–
ered to you first of all that which 1
also received: that Christ died for
our sins ... and that He was bur–
ied, and that He rose again the
third day ... and that He was seen
by Cephas [Simon Peter], then by
the twelve. After that He was seen
by over five hundred brethren at
once, of whom the greater part
remain to the present, but sorne
have fallen as leep [have
died] .... Then last of all He was
seen by me also" (verses 1-8,
excerpts).
The apostle Paul was converted
in the calendar year A.D. 35-36, at
which time he received special
revea1ed knowledge of the resur–
rection. About 20 years after, he
presents the evidence to the
Corinthian church in summary
form . He reports that 500 brethren
saw the resurrected Jesus at once.
He explains that most were still
alive at the t ime of his writing. The
gap between the oral and the writ–
ten evidence is all part of one gen–
eration.
Though then only a small boy, I
remember the main events of
World War Il very well. Movietone
newsreels kept one informed. There
were POW camps in my home–
town. A story that World War
li
either never occurred--or tbat the
essential known facts were false-· -
would be immediately refuted by
those of my generation. The same
would be true of the witnesses of
the holocaust in Europe under the
Nazis.
The Second World War ended
40 years ago. But the gap between
the resurrection of Jesus in A.D. 31
and Paul's letter to the Corinthians
is not even 25 years.
If
you had
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