Where Are The Miracles?

Back in my preaching days, I always looked forward to the miraculous. Whenever I saw some symptom cured or some illness reversed, I’d “thank and praise god” for the manifestation.

Today I’m far less convinced. I am of the mindset that miracles emanate from the psyche of people and have a distinct, empirical, logical explanation.

The bible (buybull) is chock full of miracles. Multitudes being fed. Sick people healed. Blind eyes opened. Deaf ears hearing. Even the dead being raised.

The miraculous was apparently commonplace during Jesus’ time on earth. What’s really amazing is that Jesus said “Greater works than these shall YOU do.” That’s assuming, of course that Jesus was actually speaking to an audience over 2000 years later — more on that in another post.

So we see some more examples of the miraculous in the book of Acts. Then we see a few in the Pauline epistles — but the number steadily declines.

Until today — where it’s nearly nothing.

We live in the Information Age. News spreads around the globe at the speed of light. Thanks to google, we can search through google-bytes of data and get results in seconds. You would think that with this level of technology, we’d be witnessing the miraculous with increasing frequency. Like the shadow of Peter, we should be seeing people lined up to get healed.

Except it doesn’t.

Write this down: Where information is lacking and vetting isn’t possible, bullshit abounds.

In other words, if you are writing — that is, chronicling an event in the Bronze Age, you can pretty much write what you want and call it truth. Know why? Because there’s no fact checking. Indeed, most of the bible stories cannot be historically corroborated. There is some limited substantiation of the person of Jesus (likely a composite character — more on that in another post) but most of the characters of the bible are like the stories of the bible — works of fiction.

Let me get back to my original premise — where are the miracles?

I mean, if Jesus fed multitudes in his day with a two-piece fish dinner, why couldn’t he feed the hungry, today? There are seven billion people on earth but there is enough food produced for 12 billion people. Does Jesus have to bless and break some kid’s lunch? Nope. I’d be happy if he simply moved on the hearts of food producers and the supply chain to end hunger. Oh, and make it known that he was the one to do it. That would be a pretty sweet miracle.

One of the most challenging things I ever had to deal with was when my son was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. We had to life-flight him to a regional children’s hospital where he was stabilized and my wife and I got the crash-course on how to administer life-saving insulin to him and help him manage his blood sugar in the way his body was no longer able to. His life would never be the same and neither would ours.

As terrifying as this was, spending four days in the Arkansas’ Children’s Hospital was one of the most heartbreaking ordeals. As awful as the curse of diabetes was to our family, we saw children who couldn’t walk or talk. Kids missing body parts. And little ones stricken with life-threatening diseases like cancer. I was moved with compassion for them and “prayed to god” that I might minister healing to them. I spent hours praying for these children while my son slept — as I prayed for him. I bound and loosed and decreed all manner of things — according to the “word of god” and, guess what?

Nothing. No one got healed. And, fourteen years later, my son still has diabetes. And none of the kids I prayed for over that four day period were healed. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

Where’s the miracle god? You “promised” in your word. Your book said that by Jesus’ stripes we were healed. I mean, if healing is achieved for one, it should be available for all, right?

Finally, Jesus is supposed to be the firstborn of the dead. One of the gospel accounts has people rising from their graves following Jesus’ resurrection. A zombie apocalypse! Jesus raised a widow’s son, Jairus’ daughter, and his childhood friend, Lazarus, from the dead. Matter of fact, Lazarus wasn’t even freshly dead — he’d been in the grave for three days. One bible account said “he stinketh;” I always get a chuckle out of that.

Yet, when people die, they remain dead. Sometimes you’ll hear about someone regaining consciousness while in the morgue but these people probably were not really dead.

I can confidently say that if some christians successfully raised multiple people from the dead, the media (mainstream and social) would be all over it. The medical profession would be studying it. And the funeral profession would be trying to figure out how to survive. I must confess, if I see the dead raised, en masse, I might regain my faith.

Of course, the truly “faithful” will say that the miracles happen because faith is lacking. The funny thing about that is that while the bible says that many miracles didn’t happen because of unbelief, it also says you only need “mustard seed” faith. It also says that Jesus would help your unbelief. That said, I don’t think faith is the ultimate arbiter of miracles, either.

Here’s the deal. If god really exists and really wanted to make a statement, he could start with the miraculous. Hell, even the bible says signs and wonders are for those who don’t believe. And before some of y’all start saying “he works through people,” I will counter that people should start making the miraculous happen.

So, where are all the miracles? Methinks there never were any. I’m of the opinion that the bible stories are allegory intended to goad its audience into obedience with tall tales of “god’s” power and wrath. If there were an outpouring of miracles, today, they’d be reported and lauded. If you’re one so inclined as to inquire “Where are the miracles, today?”, there are none because there never were any.

That’s the view from my cockpit. Your mileage may vary.

Derrick Day is the author of Deconstructing Religion. He is also one of the co-hosts of the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast and the host of The Forward Podcast on the One Institution Media Network. More recently, Derrick is a contributor to the new book, Before You Lose Your Mind, published by Quoir.