Objection: If God is Real Then Why Are There No Miracles Today?

Some have challenged Christianity’s validity on the basis that miracles simply don’t happen. The objection is usually formed in a statement like “If miracles are real then why have I never seen one?” Some have even boasted “If God would do a miracle right now in front of me I would believe He was real!” Somehow I doubt that would be true for many of them as committed to naturalism as they are. You could raise their 30 years dead grandmother from the grave right in front of them and they would be looking for a naturalistic explanation.

Even so, it is not an altogether unfair question to ask “Where are all the miracles today?” A cursory reading through the Bible would might give a person the impression that from the time of Adam and Eve until the death of the apostles that miracles were an almost daily occurrence (or at least monthly, right?). So why is it that God, if He is really real, just stopped performing miracles? Doesn’t this point to the reality that the Bible is little more than a bunch of mythical tales full of legends gone wild?

Well, if there is one thing I have learned over the years it is that you need to take a closer look and be very careful before you come to snap conclusions. So here is a key question in this discussion that I would ask an objector “Is it really true that miracles in the Bible are as common as you think?”

Actually if you take the number of miracles talked about in the Bible, around 350 give or take (depending on how you define miracles this list can fluctuate some) and divide them across the time span of the writing of the Bible (about 1,500 years) then you end up with 0.2333 miracles a year or one miracle about every 4 years. So miracles were not happening every day apparently, but there is even more that ought to be said here. The miracles in the bible, as it turns out, are not evenly spaced throughout the biblical timeline.

In fact, the majority of miracles occur surrounding figures like Moses, Elijah, Jesus, Peter and Paul. In other words, large bulks of these miracles happen around a specific people and at a specific period of time. A relevant question to ask would now be “Why is this the case?” Well I am glad you asked! The answer is because God has often used miracles as a way to validate the message or ministry of a certain individual. When Moses claimed in the Exodus account to be Yahweh’s chosen leader of His chosen people how did he prove this was so? God did miracles all around him to validate that Moses really was God’s servant (e.g. staff turned into a snake, 10 plagues, parting of the Red Sea, water from stones, etc.). And God did this with Elijah and Jesus and the apostles too.

So, in reality, most people throughout biblical history never saw miracles either! There were long periods of time where God (as far as we know) performed no miracles among his people. That such events more often than not surrounded certain figures at certain times and in certain places guarantees that the majority of people throughout history are much like you and I and have not seen one of these acts of God first hand. This is not to discount their validity in any way though for there are good reasons to believe that miracles have occurred and still can.

In fact the eye-witness accounts of Jesus found in the Gospels and even earlier in Paul’s epistles weigh in as strong evidence that Jesus really died and rose from the dead. A great book for considering this is The Case for the Resurrection by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona. The historical evidence surrounding Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are staggering. Furthermore, the fact that we have not personally seen something doesn’t negate its possibility. I have never personally seen many things in this world that I believe to really exist and the same goes for you I am sure.

So then arguing that miracles don’t happen or that God doesn’t exist because you haven’t seen a miracle happen isn’t all that strong of a case. The Bible gives a logical reason for the sparsity of miracles, and there are plenty of things that are real that you and I may never see but don’t doubt. Ask yourself this also, if miracles happened every day, would they still be considered miracles? If a miracle occurred in front of you on a daily basis you would probably draw the conclusion that miracles are like gravity, a part of the natural order of things! It is the rarity of miracles that in part makes them so powerful for affirming God’s plan in this world. If they were common place then you could raise someone’s 30 years dead grandma from the grave and they would simply exclaim “Big deal! Happens all the time.”

Objection: You Are Only A Christian Because of How and Where You Were Raised!

This objection is all too common. When Christians share their faith and insist that Jesus is the one and only way to God and that Christianity is the truth, people of all sorts often respond with “You’re only a Christian because of how and where you were raised! If you’d been raised in the Middle East you’d be a Muslim, or if you were raised in Asia you might be a Buddhist. You’re only Christian because your parents are or that’s what is so common in your culture!” So how might we respond to this?

At first encounter with this objection it may seem like it has some tread on it and that maybe there is some truth to it. And indeed, there is “some” truth to it. After all, if you look at religions geographically it is undeniable that Christianity is big in Western culture, Europe and America, whereas Islam is predominant in the Middle East and Buddhism and Hinduism, aren’t called “Eastern Religions” for no reason, right? So is this objection valid? Not entirely.

Certainly where and how we are raised is a major factor in our life decisions. Our culture and our parents affect all of us in ways that we are often not even conscious of. These are indeed major influences in our lives and it follows that, as such, we are in some ways very much a product of our culture and our parents. But, even so, should we look at parents and cultures in such deterministic terms so as to say that you or I couldn’t be anything other than what we are? It doesn’t take long to think of some examples that seem to stop this objection dead in its tracks.

For instance, consider China which is steeped in thousands of years eastern philosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and even Islam, not to mention a whole host of other small religions full of ancestral worship. Even though today the government is officially communist these religions persist. And Christianity, which is hotly persecuted, is booming there now. Even in places like Iran where conversion to Christianity may mean losing your life, people are still placing their faith in Christ! Could we say to an Iranian Christian ”You’re only a Christian because your parents and culture are!” Not in most cases we couldn’t!

It doesn’t follow that just because our parents and culture strongly lean one direction that we are therefore determined by them and cannot choose another way. Certainly there are those who go with the flow and never have thought deeply about their faith in Christ or are simply nominally Christian or Muslim, etc. But there are enough counter examples to suggest that this objection isn’t all that strong when one thinks about it.

After all, we could respond to the one making this objection in kind and say, “You’re just an Atheist or (Fill in the blank) because of how and where you were raised!” And if that’s true then whatever they believe is just as invalid as what we believe. Perhaps it’s more reasonable to realize that many people of all stripes haven’t thought deeply about what they believe and why, but that some have. Indeed some have changed their beliefs under threat of death and persecution. Atheists have become Christians, Muslims have become Christians, Hindu’s have become Christians and all of this despite their culture and parents. Some of us believe what we do because we have thought through it. Have you thought through what you believe?