Do miracles still happen and how do they compare with those of the Acts of the Apostles?

When studying the subject of miracles they must be approached with objective reason and when questioning the existence of miracles we must first fully understand what the word ‘miracle’ means.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary a miracle is described as an extraordinary and welcome event attributed to a divine agency, a remarkable and very welcome occurrence or as an outstanding achievement. The word miracle originates from the Latin word miraculum meaning ‘object of wonder.’ A miracle is a supernatural event that consists of divine intervention into the natural order as a demonstration of God’s power and mercy, all of these properties are seen in the Acts of the Apostles as God does intervene in human events and they can be seen as responses and as a reward for faith.

The Acts of the Apostles contains many miracles however all of these miracles are not the healing of those with demons but the spread of Christianity through the early church in both Paul and Peter’s missionary journeys. St. Paul can be seen by some as a fake apostle because he was not one of the chosen twelve and therefore had not experienced a close relationship with Jesus, this is turn may have threatened the apostles at first. However St Paul managed to become one of the apostles greatest assets as he went on to teach to not only Jews but to pagans also. “Because this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before pagans and pagan kings and before the people of Israel.” Acts 9:15. This allowed the Christian church to grow as more believers were joining thus the Christian church’s faith began to grow.

Two of the best known definitions of a miracle are that of St. Thomas Aquinas who believed in miracles and that John Stuart Mill who did not.

St. Thomas's definition of a miracle is this:

A miracle is something beyond the order of created nature. Therefore since God alone is not a created being, He also is the only One who can work miracles by His own power. In this the word nature can be used in three senses, it may mean “all that exists”, “all created things”, or “all material things”.

John Stuart Mill's definition of a miracle is:

A phenomenon not preceded by any antecedent phenomenal conditions sufficient again to reproduce it.

This definition implies that there is nothing but the material world in existence. It takes no account of the human will, still less of the will of God. 

The purpose of miracles in the new testament itself comes in two parts – the first part is that they were used for confirmation as they confirmed who Jesus was and that Jesus and his apostles message was that of God’s, the second part is that they were carried out in order to cause belief in the listeners in Jesus.

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In the New Testament we see confirmation that Jesus is in fact who he is said to be when we see the miracle in Acts 3:6 where Peter and John are going to the temple and cure the lame man who is sitting as the beautiful gate, Peter says to the lame man ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ, walk! This incident brings us face to face with the question of miracles in apostolic times and shows us that Jesus had the power to perform miracles ...

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