The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

The use of the term “law” in physical science ought to be confined to denote the invariable sequences of the material phenomena. Physicists profess to know nothing of efficient causation; or of a lawgiver standing outside his laws and possessing power to enforce them. The whole question of intelligent agency or purpose lies in a region outside their province. Law, as far as physical science is acquainted with it, can consist only of a set of antecedents, followed by an invariable set of consequents. Of any inherent efficacy in these antecedents to produce their consequents, it can affirm nothing. A very popular philosophy even denies the power of the human mind to penetrate beyond this, and affirms that its entire knowledge is limited to phenomena.

But physical science also deals with forces. These, and not its laws, are its true principles of causation. Mere invariable sequences can effect nothing; but forces, such as gravitation, heat, electricity, and the entire body of chemical forces, or whatever force they may ultimately be resolved into, can effect much. They are in fact the antecedents of which the invariable order of events are the consequents. Respecting the ultimate principle of force, or what is its real nature, or how it is directed, or came to be, physical science is silent. All that it can do is to observe the order of their occurrence, measure their quantities, and tabulate their results. By this means it rises to the conception of what are called the laws of nature.

If in the present controversy the word law had [pg 036] been used in this sense only, it would have been wholly unexceptionable. But it becomes far otherwise when the idea of force or efficiency is introduced into it. Nothing is more common in the reasonings of those who attempt to prove that miracles are impossible, than to import into the term law the idea of force, or efficient causation, even at the very time when the presence of intelligent action is denied. It is this which imparts to this class of reasonings their entire speciousness. The laws of material nature are continually spoken of as though they were forces which are energetic in the universe, and to the energy of which all things owe their present form; or in other words, it is assumed that the laws of nature are causes which have produced by their unintelligent action the present order of the universe.

Nothing however can be clearer than that a law of nature, in the sense in which purely physical science can take cognizance of one, can effectuate nothing. What can an invariable order of sequences effect? Before the idea of efficiency can be attached to law, the conception of force must be introduced into it. Modern controversy, however, is constantly in the habit of speaking of the laws of nature as though they were efficient agents. We hear of creation by law, evolution by law, of results brought about by the action of invariable laws, and a countless number of assertions of a similar description. To such expressions in a popular sense when no accuracy of expression is required, there is no objection; but when they are introduced into the controversy respecting the credibility of miracles, they create nothing but confusion. What is really meant is, that such results are brought about by the action of forces which act in conformity with invariable laws, but the idea of intelligence [pg 037] and volition is carefully excluded from the conception. It is clearly inaccurate to speak of laws reigning. Laws do not reign even in political societies; but only the power which is able to enact and enforce them. In material nature the only things which possess efficiency are its forces.

There can be no objection to the use of the expression, “the laws of mind,” when care is taken to use language which clearly distinguishes between them and unintelligent and necessary sequences of material nature. But when the term “law” is without any qualification applied to both sets of phenomena alike, it is certain either to lead to fallacious reasoning, or to involve the assumption of the point at issue. Whatever may be the origin of the moral and spiritual in man, it is certain that as they at present exist in him, they stand out in the strongest contrast with the forces which act upon material things, and with the laws of their action. Nothing can be more entirely different in character than the force of gravitation and the principles of volition and self-consciousness, or than the unconscious forces of material nature and those principles which constitute our rationality. If we affirm that the forces of mind act in conformity with law, it ought to be clearly understood that they act in conformity with a law of their own, which affords free action to the principle of volition. Otherwise there is the greatest danger that the expression will involve the covert assumption of the truth of the doctrine of philosophical necessity, or in other words, that all mental and material forces are of the same character, that is to say, that they are both equally necessary. This involves the assumption of the very point on which the entire controversy turns, for if moral and material forces and laws are all alike, it destroys the conception of a God, and the significance of a miracle.

This brings us to the conception of force, what is it? Various definitions of it have been given sufficiently accurate for practical purposes. It should be observed however that physical science can know nothing of it except as a phenomenon. The determination of its nature, and its ultimate cause lie entirely beyond its limits. Many facts respecting it, have been ascertained and tabulated. Many of its manifestations, which bear a different phenomenal aspect, it has ascertained to be capable of transmutation into one another. But it must never be forgotten that it is able to affirm nothing respecting the source in which the forces of the universe originate. All that it can affirm is, that they do exist. The original conception of force is one, however, which we derive, not from the material universe, but from the action of our own minds. We are conscious that we are efficient agents, and that definite results follow the action of our wills. This gives us the conception of force. We apply it in a metaphorical sense to certain things which we observe in the material universe and call them forces, having abstracted from our primary idea of force the conception of volition. But all that we really know about force tends to prove that its origin is mental and not material.

It is of the utmost importance to preserve a clear distinction between the unconscious forces of matter and the intelligent ones of mind; otherwise we shall inevitably be misled by such expressions as “the forces of nature.” It is impossible to argue the question unless the distinction is admitted as a fact, whatever theory may be held about their origin. It is absurd to confound principles so distinct as heat, or gravitation, or electricity, with those which produce the most disinterested moral actions, and designate them by the [pg 039] common term “natural forces.” In common language we are in no danger of error when we speak of the force of conscience, or the force of a motive; but in discussions like the present, where such expressions really involve the assumption of the whole controversy, it is absurd to classify such phenomena, and the unintelligent forces of matter under a common designation, unless it can be demonstrated that they are all manifestations of the same power.

We come now to the much vexed question as to the meaning to be attached to the words “miracle” and “miraculous;” and the terms closely allied to them, “supernatural” and “superhuman.” Is there any valid distinction between miracles and supernatural occurrences? Are, in fact, all miracles supernatural occurrences, and all supernatural occurrences miracles? The determination of this question is closely connected with an important point which will be considered hereafter, viz., whether a miracle could have any evidential value if it were brought about by a special adaptation of the known or unknown forces of material nature.

Let it be observed that we are not discussing this question as a purely abstract one, but in reference to the truth of Christianity. What miracles may be in themselves, I shall not inquire; but in relation to the question before us, what we mean when we call an occurrence a miracle ought to be made sufficiently clear and distinct. In this controversy it would greatly tend to precision if we used the term “miracle” as distinguished from an occurrence which is supernatural or superhuman, to denote only those supernatural occurrences which have an evidential value in connection with the evidences of a divine revelation, since there may be supernatural occurrences which would not be in any proper sense evidential.

But the further question arises, Is it necessary in order to constitute an event a miracle that it should be one which transcends the known or the unknown forces of material nature to have produced? It is clear that to constitute an event a miracle it must involve supernatural or superhuman agency of some kind; that is to say, it must be either supernatural in the mode of its production as an objective fact, or superhuman in its productive elements, by which I mean, that it must be preceded by an announcement that it is going to occur, which must be beyond the sphere of human knowledge. In order to render a supernatural event evidential, or in other words to constitute it a miracle, it must not only consist of an external objective fact, but its occurrence must be unknown beforehand, and take place at the bidding of the agent. Such previous announcement, or prediction, is necessary to render even a supernatural occurrence in the strictest sense of the word a miracle. The prediction of some occurrence in physical nature previously unknown may therefore convert such an event into an evidential miracle, although the occurrence itself as a mere objective fact may have been brought about by some known or unknown forces of material nature. To render it such it would be necessary that the knowledge of the occurrence should be clearly beyond the bounds of existing knowledge. Thus, if any person, when the science of astronomy was utterly unknown, had announced beforehand the day and the hour of the occurrence of the next two transits of Venus, and the various places on the earth's surface in which they would be visible, and if the events had taken place accordingly, this would have unquestionably proved the presence of superhuman knowledge. The only question which in such a case would require to be determined would be [pg 041] whether such a knowledge must have been communicated by God, or by some being inferior to God. As however none of the miracles recorded in the New Testament have the smallest appearance of being of this character, I need not further discuss a supposed case. My only reason for referring to it is, that if it is supposable that any of the miracles recorded in the New Testament could, at some future day, be shown to have been due to a combination of physical forces, their occurring instantly at the direct command of the agent would still give them an evidential value.