A Dialogue by S. W. VAN TRUMP

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 16, 1913

A Dialogue

By S. W. VAN TRUMP

S. W. VAN TRUMP

On the west coast of South America a colporteur presented to a priest a copy of Señales de los Tiempos, the Spanish Signs of the Times. The following conversation resulted:—

Priest: Aha! You are evidently a Protestant. What do you think of Martin Luther?

Colporteur: Luther was a valiant defender of the truth.

P: Will you kindly tell me how many miracles Luther performed?

C: If you will first tell me how many John the Baptist performed.

P: You must answer my question first.

C: Then I shall gladly answer both yours and my own. St. John says of the Baptist, “John performed no miracles.” And I as freely admit that Luther never claimed more in this respect than is written of our Lord’s forerunner.

The Purpose of Miracles

It is safe to accept Heaven’s message upon its own merits and without the attestation of any apparent miracle. Truth can stand alone. But not so the miracles, as such. Truth can not be tested by miracles, but miracles must be tested by truth. The testing agent is truth. The embodiment of truth is the divine word: “Thy word is truth.” To test truth by miracles is reversing the divine order, and will lead to deception and a failure to find the truth sought for.

Miracles appeal to our senses, and our senses are fallible. So if our religion is based upon apparent miracles, its lower foundation is only the unstable testimony of our own minds in place of the infallible testimony of God’s Word.

Besides, we know that what are termed miracles proceed from an evil as well as a good source, as in the case of the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses. There being two sources, then, for miracles and only one source for truth, it is manifest that in truth we shall find the confirmation of the true and the condemnation of the false in all that may be classed as miracles.

There is a kind of divine reciprocity between truth and true miracles in that they witness to and confirm each other. Foreseeing that men would be subjected to the deceptions of Satan’s miracles, ages ago God gave the test whereby we may know the character of every miracle and every teaching that would be spread in the world. The divine test, the heavenly touchstone, is, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8: 20.