Bible miracles

  • Without Bible miracles …
    • The Bible is just another book
    • The God of the Bible is only a god
    • Jesus is merely a man
    • Christianity is just another religious system
  • Psalms 77:14 – “You are the God who performs miracles”
  • Exodus 34:10 – “Then God said … Before all your people I will perform miracles … it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you”
  • Miracles in Luke’s gospel
  • Miracles in Acts
  • Reliability of Luke in Acts
    • Specific names
      • 95 different people, 62 of which aren’t mentioned by any other New Testament writer and 27 are nonbelievers, mostly civil or military officials.
    • Specific titles
      • Titles of notable persons didn’t remain constant over time.
      • Luke always uses the correct title at the correct point in history.
    • Specific places
      • In Acts, he accurately mentions 32 countries, 54 cities, and 9 Mediterranean islands.
    • Specific events
      • Acts 11:27-30; 18:2 – Drought throughout all the world, expulsion of Jews from Rome.
    • Luke never made a mistake!
  • Sir William Mitchell Ramsey (1851-1939)
    • Raised an atheist
    • Trained as an archaeologist, set out to prove Bible, especially Acts, was fraudulent by traveling areas covered by Paul’s preaching tours looking for mistakes Luke made.
    • At conclusion of his travels, he wrote The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament.
    • Ramsey’s conclusion:
      • “Luke is an historian of the first rank; not merely are his statements of fact trustworthy … this author should be placed along with the very greatest historians.”
  • John Warwick Montgomery
    • History and Christianity
    • “The only way we can known whether an event can occur is to see whether is has occurred. The problem of ‘miracles’ then must be solved in the realm of historical investigation, not in the realm of philosophical speculation.”
  • 6 alleged trips to the moon
    • 6 manned landings July 20, 1969 – December 14, 1972
    • 12 men walked on the moon
    • Did these alleged events actually occur?
    • What historical evidence (written, audio, video material) is there?
  • I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek
    • “Now why would Luke be so accurate with trivial details like wind directions, water depths, peculiar town names, but not be accurate when it comes to important events like miracles? In light of the fact that Luke has proven accurate with so many trivial details, it is nothing but pure anti-supernatural bias to say he’s not telling the truth about the miracles he records.”

Matthew 9

Matthew 9:1-8 – Healing a paralyzed man

  • Matthew 9:2 – Jesus’ first priority was to forgive sins – not physical healing!
  • Matthew 9:4 – They completely overlooked the fact that Jesus could read their minds!