Chapter 8 Miracles: Signs of God or Gullibility?

The halfway point in the book marks a transition from proving the existence of God to proving Christianity.  Here again are the twelve points the book sets out to make.⁴  I have summarized them below.

1. Truth about reality is knowable
2. The opposite of true is false
3. It is true that the theistic God exists. There are 4 types of evidence for this truth
4. If God exists, then miracles are possible
5. Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God (acts of God confirm a word from God)
6. The New Testament is historically reliable, based on 4 key points of evidence
7. The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God
8. The Jesus’ claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by
   1. His fulfillment of many prophecies about himself
   2. His sinless life and miraculous deeds
   3. His prediction and accomplishment of his resurrection
9. Therefore, Jesus is God
10. Whatever Jesus teaches is true
11. Jesus taught that the Bible is the Word of God
12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God – and anything opposed to it is false

Chapter 8 covers the two points about miracles @ items 4 and 5.

The authors point out that so far the Cosmological, Teleological, a Moral Law arguments prove the existence of a theistic God.  Therefore no other religious worldviews, those that deny a theist God, are correct about God.  That is based on the Law of Noncontradiction.  Mutually exclusive religions cannot all be true.

While other religions can offer good guidance and state accurate truths, they are still built on a false foundation without a theistic God.

How we know beyond a reasonable doubt that a theistic God exists with certain characteristics.⁵⁰

The Cosmological Argument proves that God is

1. Self-Existent, timeless, nonspatial, immaterial (outside of time, space, and matter).  in other words, without limits. infinite.
2. Unimaginably powerful, having created the universe out of nothing.
3. Personal, by choosing to convert nothingness into the time-space-material universe.

The Teleological Argument proves that God is

1. Supremely intelligent, able to design incredibly complex life in an incredibly precise universe.
2. Purposeful, having designed many life forms which live in the specific and ordered environment they exist in.

The Moral Law Argument proves that God is

• Absolutely morally pure.  Consisting of infinite justice and infinite love.

 

God Communicates Using Miracles

Is it possible for God to intervene in the natural world by performing miracles?

In fact, miracles are not only possible; miracles are actual, because the greatest miracle of all – the creation of the universe out of nothing – has already occurred.  So with regard to the Bible, if Genesis 1:1 is true – “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” – then every other miracle in the Bible is easy to believe.⁵¹

The two major arguments against miracles came from Benedict Spinoza and David Hume.

According to Spinoza⁵³

1. Miracles are a violation of natural laws.
2. Natural laws are immutable.
3. It is impossible to violate immutable laws.
4. Therefore, miracles are impossible.

The problem with Spinoza’s argument is that it begs the question.  How does he know that natural laws are immutable?

The creation of the universe itself shows us that natural laws are not immutable.  The universe was created by a power beyond nature, a supernatural power.

Natural laws are not immutable because they are descriptions Continue reading Book Discussion Day 9: I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek →