What is a miracle? Here are 7 characteristics

The greatest miracle that ever occurred happened in the very first verse of the Bible — Genesis one. God created the heavens and the earth. If God could speak the universe into existence, create the universe Ex-Nihilo — out of nothing, could He part the Red Sea? Can He raise a man from the dead? Of course! That’s child’s play for Him! If God exists, and he does, then miracles are possible. There have been countless accounts of them.

What is a miracle?

Richard Purtill, a philosophy professor at Western Washington University, defines a miracle this way:

“A miracle is an event brought about by the power of God that is, a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature for the purpose of showing that God has acted in history.”^[1]

A miracle is:

1. Supernatural

Miracles are supernatural events. Not events brought about by human power. True miracles are brought about by God.

2. Immediate

When Jesus healed people, the results were always immediate. He didn’t say to the paralytic, “You’ll be well in a few days.” No. He said, “Pick up your mat and walk.” He called Lazarus to come out of his grave and he did…immediately. To the woman who touched His robe, He said, “Your faith has healed you,” and she was healed immediately. When Peter cut off the ear of Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus healed his ear immediately. Each of Jesus’ healings was immediate.

3. Rare and unpredictable

A miracle by definition is an exception. Because of this, we can’t expect, predict, or demand one. We can’t predict the activity of God. Miracles are only due to His will.

4. Can’t be tested by scientific means

Miracles can’t be investigated by the usual scientific methods since we can’t control the variable and perform experiments. Science measures and evaluates the natural world. Not the supernatural world.

5. Promotes good and glorifies God

A miracle will always promote good and never promote evil, because God is good. Miracles are never for show. They have the distinct purpose of glorifying God and pointing man to Him.

6. More than astonishing

A magician can perform an astonishing act that can be reduced to natural means — sleight-of-hand. But a miracle is a rare, supernatural event that demonstrates divine power.

7. Not a contradiction

God cannot do the impossible or illogical. But there are some events that are physically impossible for humans, but not physically or logically contradictory for God. For example, it’s physically impossible for a man to walk on water. But there’s nothing self-refuting about this idea for God, and He can do it.^[2]

In light of the above information, it is necessary to re-evaluate events that occur that may be God’s provision, but not a miracle. For example, my husband was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) one year ago. He went through chemotherapy and had many hurdles to cross before he could receive the bone-marrow transplant necessary to save his life. We, and thousands along with us, prayed before each hurdle to be a success for him. Each one turned out to work in his favor. He had his bone-marrow transplant last November and is now cancer free and thriving. Was his healing a miracle? No, because it was not immediate. He was healed over a period of months. However, with all of the hurdles he had to cross, and all the tests, and procedures, that could have gone wrong, but went perfectly, we know without a doubt that his healing was certainly God’s provision.

We give glory and thanks to God every day for healing him.

What is the purpose of a miracle?

The purpose of a miracle is to point to and confirm a message from God, or a messenger of God, like the prophets. The story of Elijah at Mt. Carmel is an example. You can read about that in 1 Kings 18.^[3]

Are all miracles from God?

We know that the supernatural world is not all good. There are angels and demons. If Satan exists, and he does, he is a supernatural being with the ability to use miraculous powers to deceive us.

Counterfeit miracles

How can we tell the difference between a miracle from God and a counterfeit miracle from Satan?

Miracles from God

1. Causes one to think more highly of God.

2. Tell the truth.

3. Promote moral behavior.

4. God gets the glory here.

A counterfeit miracle from Satan

1. Glorifies the person performing the miracle.

2. Often associated with error or immoral behavior.

3. May not be immediate, instantaneous, or permanent.

Do miracles still happen?

Craig Keener is just one of many authors who recount miracle stories. Keener wrote a two-volume set (Miracles, The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts) on miracles that is 1,000 pages long with hundreds of accounts of miracles that have happened all over the world in our time.

If we believe that miracles can’t happen, maybe what we’re really saying is that miracles never happened to those who said they did, and that those people were just gullible. That is a patronizing and wrong view. Miracles are out of the ordinary and attention-getting in any era of history. God’s goal is to get our attention.

When Jesus rose from the dead 2,000 years ago, that was an epic event. It was so shocking that no one would have believed it unless there were witnesses. But guess what? There were over 500 eyewitnesses who saw Jesus after His resurrection in addition to His own disciples. The point of the resurrection was to prove that Jesus was who He said He was. Many who were skeptics believed after He rose from the dead.

Why do miracles happen to some people and not others?

We don’t understand why God heals some people and not others. Sometimes God intervenes in a way that amazes us. Sometimes it’s a healing or a provision where someone gets a check in the mail for the exact amount required at just the right time.

When my husband was sick, I never assumed that God would heal him. I didn’t know what God was going to do. But I knew what He was capable of, and I knew what I wanted Him to do. God healed my husband by providing the necessary means. It was God’s provision.

God’s provision can be just as obvious to us as a miracle is an obvious interruption to our laws of nature. When we see it, it points to God just as clearly as a miracle. It gives God the glory and causes us to see God for whom He is — just, loving, merciful, and abounding in grace. When it doesn’t happen, we need to trust that God knows what He is doing.

I will conclude with a quote from Tim Keller:

“We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order. But Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that He has the power, but also a wonderful foretaste of what He is going to do with that power. Jesus’ miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts that the world we all want is coming.”

[1] Lee Strobel, The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural, (Grand Rapids, Mi., Zondervan, 2018) 27.
[2] Josh McDowell and Sean McDowell, Evidence That Demands A Verdict: Life Changing Truth for a Skeptical World, (Nashville, Tenn., Thomas Nelson, 2017), 666-669
[3] Ibid. 669.