MIRACLES AND VISIONS | A RISING TIDE THAT LIFTS ALL SHIPS

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Before we begin the body of this week’s blog on the miracles and visions of Post-Biblical times, we feel, perhaps, there is a metaphorical elephant in the room, one that must be addressed. In our secular world and, surprising as it may be, in some circles of the Christian realm, when someone starts talking about, much less, putting pen to paper, regarding a person having experienced a miracle or, for heaven’s sake, having seen a vision, there can arise a perception of this person as ignorant, at best, and, at worst, living in a world of illusion and hysteria. To deny the existence of this skepticism or negative attitude toward those who have observed miracles or visions, would itself be a departure from reality, something Michael and I will never do in this blog.

 

Having put this on the table, we will make our case for why a person can be both rational and reasonable, while fully embracing a belief that Post-Biblical miracles and visions are as real as the ground beneath our feet. Once this is established, we will turn to these supernatural occurrences themselves.

 

Michael begins us so well in advancing our position that these miracles and visions actually occur:

 

“God does not do all that His power allows, not to be seen and heard. When you need something, people show up – God moves things.”

 

In last week’s blog, we studied how Jesus, himself, used the miraculous to prove beyond any doubt that he was the Messiah. In today’s parlance, some generations would utilize the following words to say the same thing: Jesus got his “street creds” through his miracles. In Biblical times, Paul, Nicodemus, the remainder of the Twelve and countless crowds believed because of these. They were a key factor in the minds of his followers, in general.

 

Dallas Willard, an illustrious and compelling modern theologian, described Jesus as “the SMARTEST man who ever lived and who is now supervising the entire course of world history.” (Emphasis added)

 

Why, then, would Jesus, in his brilliance, successfully use miracles while here on Earth, and then abandon them during Post-Biblical times! Clearly, in short, and somewhat colloquially, Jesus has not changed his apologetic pitch one iota. Today, it is well and alive, as he said it would be in John 14:12, when he authorized and affirmed “greater things,” than he had miraculously performed, to those who believe in him, both this very moment and to those who have so believed throughout the past millennium. Echoed by a Holy Spirit-filled Apostle Peter in his sermon at Pentecost, the future was to be replete with visions, dreams and prophesying. (Acts2;17) KJV.

 

In order to thoroughly dispel any misconception that only the naive, or those without knowledge or advanced learning, would “fall for” the existence of miracles and visions, God, as always, did something extremely strategic. He brought into this world a man named C.S. Lewis. As you know, Lewis was no easy mark to convince of anything. In possession of an intellect quite superior to pretty much everyone, he began his spiritual journey as a dedicated atheist. God used this to deduce the following: When THIS person accepts Me as real and Jesus as the Savior, all will know that he did so only after first utilizing his rational and scholarly powers to try every avenue to refute such possibilities. Therefore, he will have a credibility among everyone that only a person of such intelligence could muster.

 

That said, what was C.S. Lewis’ opinion regarding the miraculous? Actually, he wrote a book, “Miracles,” on them. The following quotes well establish his exhaustively examined view, his unflinching belief in them:

 

“The miracles are, in fact, a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written in letters too LARGE for some of us to see.”

(emphasis added)

 

Yes, as he amazingly and astutely says, the story of God is so clearly one of the miraculous – the miracle of the Creation of billions of galaxies, the Trinity’s eternal existence and Jesus’s coming to Earth, dying, rising from the dead and ascending back into Heaven. These are the large brush strokes of the miraculous, of which, walking on water, healing the sick, blind and deaf and raising the dead are the “small letters.” Yet, as Lewis says, ironically, the Big Story letters are so LARGE, that some people can’t see even these, much less believe in the small letters.

 

He goes on about this, exploring why some do doubt them:

 

“…in Christianity, the more we understand what God it is Who is said to be present and the PURPOSE for which He is said to have appeared, the more credible the miracles become.” (emphasis added).

 

Once we see God, omnipresent and omniscient, what is it to perform a miracle? What it is, is easy, expected, prefigured and predicted by Jesus, to occur in this day and age and over the past 2 000 years. It is supremely rational to believe, once one understands this. To not believe is, honestly, to close one’s eyes to the obvious – as Lewis says, with irony, to the letters which are TOO LARGE for some to see.

 

Does Lewis address mankind and what Jesus wrote of our powers in John 14:12? He does. Jesus, as previously noted, says we will do and see the miraculous. Lewis believed this and wrote about it in “Miracles.”

 

“Miracles…anticipate powers which ALL men will have…Christ is…a pioneer. He is the first of his kind; he will not be the last.” (emphasis added)

 

Michael says that we are “under God’s LIGHT. It’s basic and needs to be kept in our hearts.” Doesn’t this capture miracles and visions for us? Then we see God for Who He is. There is a great quote from Jean Wiland:

 

“Never forget in the dark what God has shown you in the LIGHT.” (emphasis added)

 

Scripture says,

 

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a LIGHT for my path.” (emphasis added)

(Psalm 119:105) NIV

 

As Michael says, during dark and difficult moments, we are to hold closely in our heart, that miracle or vision viewed personally or vicariously in God’s light. This will empower us to have the faith to know that a present darkness is not beyond the reach of a miracle-working, vision-revealing God.

 

In modern times and before,  so many people have been brought to greater faith by the many reports of sightings of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. One of these occurred in the year 1531. A man named Juan Diego had visions in which she appeared to him on more than one occasion. During one of these apparitions, she instructed him to gather live roses from a snowy hillside in December. Later, these roses fell from a cloth, and her image appeared on this fabric. Many thousands of souls have believed as a result of this miracle and vision – Our Lady of Guadalupe.

 

Other sightings are also remarkable. At Fatima, Portugal, three children under the age of ten, hardly people with a religious agenda, saw the Virgin Mary on multiple occasions. Their parents and city officials did not believe them but they refused to recant. Thousands of people began coming to the site of these apparitions, where, September 13, 1917, they were told by her that, “In October, I will perform a miracle so that all will believe.” As promised, on October 13, 1917, in the presence of 70,000 souls, they saw what is known as the “Miracle of the Sun.” Spinning in the sky, the dancing sun was a sight so spectacular and widely viewed by believers and nonbelievers, alike, that many came to faith in God, while others’ faith was immeasurably increased. This reaction continues today.

 

We could write many more words with regard to Marian apparitions, like Lourdes. Time simply does not permit.

 

In modern times, credible near-death experiences have been the subject of meticulous examination which has convinced even the most skeptical who have seen their evidence. Significant numbers of these have, as in the visions of MARY, involved the testimony of children. Why children?

 

“And Jesus saith unto them, ‘yea; have you never read, ‘Out if the mouths of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise?”

( Matthew 21:16) KJV

 

Innocents, without a theological axe to grind, have credibility that an adult or theologian does not automatically possess. They are presumed trustworthy – They authenticate and render plausible the miraculous and visionary.

 

St. Augustine, an intellect in possession of a holiness and integrity affirmed by all, miraculously healed. Mother Teresa, of the same credible stature, healed through the touching with her relic, a man suffering from brain abscesses. Some will be inherently critical of the veracity of this. Why, when Scripture records the following?

 

“God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him, were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

(Acts 19:11-12) NIV

 

Didn’t Jesus, in our oft-cited John 14:12, predict such miracles as those already mentioned in this blog? After all, the bedrock of Christianity is the miraculous – Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Of this, Paul writes,

 

“And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…you are still in your sins.”

(1 Corinthians 15:14,17) NIV

 

If only time permitted, Michael and I would write about how miracles and visions manifest themselves in angels during Post-Biblical times. The author of Hebrews predicted this when writing,

 

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby, some have entertained angels unawares.”

(Hebrews 13:2) KJV

 

The supernatural is all around us, as it was in the Biblical era. Michael says, that the purpose of this is that, “Miracles open the heart of humanity.” How true this is. In so doing, they exponentially increase our faith. Michael and I love the following thought, voiced by President John F. Kennedy. Though spoken regarding a different topic, they are so applicable to the subject of what the miraculous does:

 

“A rising tide that lifts all boats.”

 

So they are! They are stirring and inspirational as they reflect God at work in the world and in our hearts.