Rev. David Holwick * Evening study
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
June 4, 2006
Acts 2:22
THE PROBLEM OF MIRACLES AND SCIENCE
I. Can science explain everything?
A. Ancient people believed in fairies and miracles.
1) It is reasonable to believe in miracles and NOT fairies?
2) Some scientists say belief in supernatural will fade.
B. Dr. William Lane Craig:
1) You can believe in God without having answers to every
question.
2) Many things cannot be "proved," but the weight of evidence
can be persuasive.
3) If there is a God who created natural laws, then miracles
should be possible.
II. Miracles vs. science.
A. Miracles are events that are not producible by natural causes
operating in that time and place.
1) (adequate definition?)
2) Miracles lie outside of science, rather than contradicting
science.
3) Miracles are not necessarily violations of laws of nature
(ie, Hume).
a) Miracles are God's intervention in nature.
b) Scientists: miracles are extraordinary events, and
require extraordinary evidence.
c) Believers: miracles should not be excluded from the
pool of possible explanations.
B. The miracles of Jesus.
1) The New Testament presents Jesus as a miracle-worker.
2) Only those who reject miracles from a philosophical
viewpoint would question this.
a) Miracles are found in all the gospels.
b) The resurrection of Jesus is supported by multiple
details in multiple accounts.
C. Miracles of Muhammad and others.
1) Hume: miracles in other religions cancel out Christian ones.
2) The Koran does not record any miracles, other than the
creation of the Koran itself.
3) Archeology has upheld New Testament accounts, but not the
Book of Mormon.
III. Five reasons to put your faith in a God of miracles:
A. God makes sense of the universe's origin.
B. God makes sense of the universe's complexity.
C. God makes sense of objective moral values.
1) Without God, there can be no absolute moral truth.
D. God makes sense of the resurrection of Jesus.
1) The burial of Jesus is reported in very old NT material.
2) The empty tomb stories lack legendary embellishments.
a) Note emphasis on women as first witnesses.
3) Various groups and individuals saw the resurrected Jesus.
4) The original disciples were not disposed to believe in the
resurrection, but did so, and died for that belief.
E. God can be immediately experienced.
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This evening series was adapted from Lee Strobel's book "The Case For Faith."
