Philosophy of Miracles

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 15, 1885

Philosophy of Miracles.

THERE has been so much false philosophy written concerning the subject of miracles that it is difficult for those conversant with the speculations of writers upon this subject, to divest their minds sufficiently of pre-formed biases to examine candidly the simple and natural principles upon which is based the evidence and necessity of miraculous interposition.

The following statement is true beyond controversy: Man cannot, in the present constitution of his mind, believe that religion has a divine origin, unless it be accompanied with miracles. The necessary inference of the mind is that if an infinite being acts, his acts will be superhuman in their character; because the effect, reason dictates, will be characterized by the nature of its cause. Man has the same reason to expect that God will perform acts above human power and knowledge that he has to suppose the inferior orders of animals will, in their actions, sink below the power and wisdom which characterizes human nature. For, as it is natural for man to perform acts superior to the power and knowledge of the animals beneath him, so reason affirms that it is natural for God to develop his power by means, and in ways, above the skill and ability of mortals. Hence, if God manifest himself at all—unless, in accommodation to the capacities of men, he should constrain his manifestations within the compass of human ability—every act of God’s immediate power would, to human capacity, be a miracle. But if God were to constrain all his acts within the limits of human means and agencies, it would be impossible for man to discriminate between the acts of the Godhead and the acts of the manhood. And man, if he considered acts of a divine origin which were plainly within the compass of human ability, would violate his own reason.

Suppose, for illustration, that God desired to reveal a religion to men, and wished them to recognize his character and his benevolence in giving that revelation. Suppose, further, that God should give such a revelation, and that every appearance and every act connected with its introduction was characterized by nothing superior to human power; could any rational mind on earth believe that such a system of religion came from God? Impossible! A man could as easily be made to believe that his own child, who possessed his own lineaments, and his own nature, belonged to some other world, and some other order of the creation. It would not be possible for God to convince men that a religion was from Heaven unless it was accompanied with the marks of divine power.

Suppose again that some individual were to appear either in the heathen or Christian world—he claimed to be a teacher sent from God, yet aspired to the performance of no miracles. He assumed to do nothing superior to the wisdom and ability of other men. Such an individual, although he might succeed in gaining proselytes to some particular view of a religion already believed, yet he could never make men believe that he had a special commission from God to establish a new religion, for the simple reason that he had no grounds, more than his fellows, to support his claims as an agent of the Almighty. But if he could convince a single individual that he had wrought a miracle, or that he had power to do so, that moment his claims would be established, in that mind, as a commissioned agent from Heaven. So certainly, and so intuitively, do the minds of men revere and expect miracles as the credentials of the divine presence.

This demand of the mind for miracles, as testimony of the divine presence and power, is intuitive with all men; and those very individuals who have doubted the existence or necessity of miracles, should they examine their own convictions on this subject, would see that by an absolute necessity, if they desired to give the world a system of religion, whether truth or imposture, in order to make men receive it as of divine authority, they must work miracles to attest its truth, or make men believe that they did so. Men can produce doubt of a revelation in no way until they have destroyed the evidence of its miracles; nor can faith be produced in the divine origin of a religion until the evidence of miracles is supplied.

The conviction that miracles are the true attestation of immediate divine agency is so constitutional (allow the expression) with the reason, that so soon as men persuade themselves they are the special agents of God, in propagating some particular truth in the world, they adopt likewise the belief that they have ability to work miracles. There have been many sincere enthusiasts, who believed that they were special agents of Heaven, and in such cases the conviction of their own miraculous powers arises as a necessary concomitant of the other opinion. Among such, in modern times, may be instanced Immanuel Swedenborg, and Irvine, the Scotch preacher. Imposters also, perceiving that miracles were necessary in order that the human mind should receive a religion as divine, have invariably claimed miraculous powers. Such instances recur constantly, from the days of Elymas down to the Mormon, Joseph Smith.

All the multitude of false religions that have been believed since the world began, have been introduced by the power of this principle. Miracles, believed, lie at the foundation of all religions which men have ever received as of divine origin. No matter how degrading or repulsive to reason in other respects, the fact of its establishment and propagation grows out of the belief of men that miraculous agency lies at the bottom. This belief will give currency to any system, however absurd, and without it no system can be established in the minds of men, however high and holy may be its origin and its design.

Such, then, is the constitution which the Maker has given to the mind. Whether the conviction be an intuition or an induction of the reason, God is the primary cause of its existence; and its existence puts it out of the power of man to receive a revelation from God himself, unless accompanied with miraculous manifestations. If, therefore, God ever gave a revelation to man, it was necessarily accompanied with miracles, and with miracles of such a nature as would clearly distinguish the divine character and the divine authority of the dispensation.

The whole fullness and force of these deductions apply to the case of the Israelites. The laws of their minds not only demanded miracles as an attestation of divine interposition, but at that time the belief existed in their minds that miracles were constantly performed. Although they remembered the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet they likewise, as subsequent facts clearly attested, believed that the idols of Egypt possessed the attributes of divinity. The belief in a plurality of gods was then common to all nations. And although, by succeeding providences and instructions, this error was corrected, and perhaps entirely removed from the minds of the Jews, yet, before the miracles in Egypt, while the God of Abraham was, perhaps in most cases, acknowledged as their God, the idols of Egypt were acknowledged as the gods of the Egyptians, and probably worshiped as the divinities who had power to dispense good and evil to all the inhabitants of that land. And in common with all Egypt, they no doubt believed that the acts of jugglery, in which the magicians or priests of Egypt had made astonishing proficiency, were actual miracles, exhibiting the power of their idols and the authority of the priests to act in their name.

In view, therefore, of existing circumstances, two things were necessary on the part of God in order to give any revelation to the Israelites. First, that he should manifest himself by miracles; and secondly, that those miracles should be of such a character as evidently to distinguish them from the jugglery of the magicians, and to convince all observers, of the existence and omnipotence of the true God in contradistinction from the objects of idolatrous worship. Unless these two things were done, it would have been impossible for the Israelites to recognize Jehovah as the only living and true God.

It follows, then, that by the miracles which God wrought by the hand of Moses, he pursued the only way that was possible to give a revelation in which his presence and power would be recognized. The only point of inquiry remaining is, Were the miracles of such a character, and performed in such a manner, as to remove false views from the minds of the Israelites, and introduce right views concerning the true God, and the non-existence of factitious objects of worship?—Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation.

(To be concluded.)