Skilled in the word of Righteousness (Hebrews 5:13) Part 18
SKILLED IN THE WORD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (Hebrews 5:13)
Part 18
Written by Yeow Chin Kiong
Critics of the Bible very seldom find fault with the details in it which have to do with people, places and events. Skeptics accept most of the historical, biographical and geographical record contained in scripture (generally because such information can be verified from non-Biblical sources). What they do dispute are the reports and descriptions of the supernatural in people, places and events found in the Bible. This anti-supernaturallist bias is a great hinderance to an acceptance of the reliability and trustworthiness of the entire Bible as God’s word (John 17:17; Psalm 119:160) because supernatural works - “miracles, signs and wonders” - are recorded in scripture and have an important role in proving scripture’s reliability and trustworthiness.
Anti-supernaturalism is a way of thinking that purposefully disregards all thought about the non-material realm which cannot be discerned through the human senses. As the term implies, anti-supernaturalists reject the existence of anything and everything that is not natural and of this universe of our material existence. Thus, they reject the possibility of ghosts, spirits and souls but also of God, life after death and miracles!
We have seen that the reliability and trustwortiness of the entire Bible rests on its truth-telling about earthly things which we can verify through human knowledge (John 3:12). These things necessarily include the fulfilment of earlier prophecy (for instance, concerning the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus) and the working of miracles, signs and wonders (for example, of Jesus, His apostles and early disciples). It is unfair to accept as true all the eyewitness accounts of the life and words of Jesus (as most skeptics do) EXCEPT accounts and testimony concerning His fulfilment of previous prophecy and His working of miracles, signs and wonders.
The basic flaw in anti-supernaturalist thinking is the denial of the original bringing into existence of things,- including life in its multitude of varied forms,- from literally nothing! This act of orIginal CREATION is intuitive to man the creature, the nearest alternative being EVOLUTION of everything, including all forms of life, from an original NOTHING! If the creation of all existence eby an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-benevolent Being is necessarily inferred, no other miracle, sign or wonder is beyond belief, especially when there are eyewitnesses’ testimony of such works!
Even the Bible describes miracles to be EXTRAordinary. It is recorded that it was said of Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). After His resurrection, it was proclaimed that, “Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know …” (Acts 2:22). Indeed, Jesus’ central message of salvation was described as, “… first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will …” (Hebrews 2:3-4).
Miracles were infrequently performed and were uniquely purposed for confirming that the WORDS of those who WORKED such miracles were Divinely-inspired. Of Jesus’ apostles it was written that, “… they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs …” (Mark 16:20). When Paul and Barnabas were in Iconium, it is recorded that “… they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” (Acts 14:3). Clearly, then, the earliest preaching and teaching of Jesus and His disciples had to be accompanied by miracles they worked as they preached and taught. Their miracle-working ability confirmed that their verbal communication was from the God whose words they were proclaimimg.
Until the completeness of God’s revelation arrived at about the end of the 1st century AD, miracles were a necessary supplement to the verbally-delivered word of God, confirming the message as being indeed from Him to mankind. Only after the completion of the written record of God’s revelation were miracles ceased (1 Corinthians 13:8-13). Hence, the testimony of the earliest disciples of the supernatural works of Jesus and His disciples, preserved in the four gospels and Acts cannot be separated from the rest of scripture when evaluating the reliability and trustworthiness of scripture because such supernatural works are a necessary means of confirming the message they preached.