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

Let us now consider in what sense miracles are a proof of the truth of a divine revelation.

I lay down that the proper function of miracles is to establish the truth of a divine commission. From this we argue to the truth of the assertions of the persons who are intrusted with it.

If an ordinary man, such as a prophet or an apostle, were to affirm that he had a communication from God which he was directed to make to others, or in other words that he had a divine commission, it is evident that no one would be bound to believe him on his mere affirmation. The simple and obvious reply would be, Give us some proof of the reality of the fact. Your claim is far too lofty to be admitted as valid on your simple affirmation. The question then is, how is such a claim to be tested? I reply by the person who makes it performing some action which is adequate to prove that the Great Governor of the Universe ratifies this claim. He must do something analogous to what all persons who claim to be acting under commissions from others do, i.e. he must produce some direct and formal credentials from the authority in whose name he claims to be acting. In this case the authority is God. He must therefore perform some action which directly identifies himself with God.

How is this to be accomplished? I answer by the performance of an unequivocal miracle which will directly connect him with the Great Governor of the Universe. I say unequivocal miracle, because if there were any doubt as to its supernatural character it would be useless. Nor would it be of any avail if it were a bare objective fact in external nature, devoid of its moral and spiritual environment. What is required is some direct manifestation of the divine on the sphere of the human and the natural. It must, in fact, exactly fulfil the character so often assigned to miracles in the Gospels. It must be a σημεῖον, or indication of the presence of God, resembling as it were the Great Seal which is affixed to state documents as the final mark of sovereign authority. Of such a character are all the chief miracles recorded in the Gospels.

The question about miracles has been beclouded by debating it in an abstract instead of in a concrete form; thus forgetting that it is not every conceivable form of alleged supernatural occurrence with which we have to deal, but the miracles recorded in the New Testament. By discussing it in this form it has been possible to raise a number of difficulties which may be abstractedly conceivable, but which have no bearing whatever on the miracles in question. Thus it has been frequently urged that to enable us to be certain that an alleged miracle is really due to supernatural agency, a jury of savants ought to be impanelled, before whom the worker of the miracle should exhibit his miraculous operation. They are to subject it to a variety of scientific tests. Even then if they have failed to discover error, they are to demand a second and a third performance, in order that it may be again and again submitted to the same process of scientific scrutiny. Until miracles can be submitted to and verified by tests of this description they have been affirmed to be unworthy of credit, even on the strongest ordinary testimony.

I shall discuss this and kindred questions more fully in the subsequent portions of this volume, when I consider the nature of the evidence which is adequate to prove the performance of a miracle. For the present I shall only observe that the entire plausibility of this position arises from its being stated in an abstract or general form. We cannot help seeing in reference to the chief miracles recorded in the New Testament, such as the care of blind, lame or leprous persons, instantaneously by a word or a touch, that common sense is fully adequate to determine that such occurrences must belong to the regions of the supernatural and to no other.

Two things are necessary to establish the reality of a supposed miracle. First, that the alleged fact should not only have been brought about by supernatural causes but previously announced by him who performs it: secondly, that the fact actually happened as it appeared to happen.

There can be no doubt that the power of juggling and sleight of hand, to perform actions which would be supernatural, if they were only what they appear to be, is considerable, and the difficulty of detection is great. Enthusiasm also when once excited, is capable of generating various unreal appearances which if actual, would be supernatural. It is also mighty in those regions where the union takes place between mind and matter, but the chief miracles recorded in the Gospels belong to a wholly different order of occurrence. If they took place as they are reported, no one possessed of common sense can doubt as to whether they were due to supernatural agency. It is no less clear that such miracles were occurrences in which successful imposture was impossible. What is required to prove them is the evidence of common sense, and not of scientific analysis. Let it be observed that it is not my intention to affirm that the whole of the supernaturalism recorded in the New Testament is of the same unequivocal character.

The evidential value of a miracle viewed as a matter of common sense maybe briefly stated thus. A person comes to me who affirms that he has a divine message to communicate. I ask him to prove it. He lays his hand on one whom I have known to be blind for the last twenty years, tells him in the name of Jesus Christ to receive his sight, and he forthwith receives it. There is probably no person gifted with ordinary understanding [pg 077] who would not consider such an act to be an adequate proof of divine agency, all theoretical or metaphysical difficulties to the contrary notwithstanding.

It will doubtless be objected that such an act would prove only the presence of a superhuman instead of a divine power. This point will be fully considered hereafter. For my present purpose it will be sufficient to fall back on the decision of common sense, that he who can restore sight to the sightless eye-ball, by no other apparent instrumentality than a word or a touch, can be no other than the Maker of the Universe.