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Language changes over time and the process of change, at least for some words, seems to begin with exaggeration.  For example, a child might say he “loves” his new sneakers or “hates” his father for telling him he can’t stay over at a friend’s house.  As time passes, some words begin to lose their original meanings and take on new ones.  The word miracle is such a word.

Today, we loosely use the word miracle to refer to things and events that aren’t miraculous at all.  For example, we might say that it will be a miracle if we get to work on time, pass an upcoming exam or get accepted by the college of our choice.  The healthcare establishment endlessly pats itself on the back by trumpeting the “miracles of modern medicine.” 

None of these things involves actual miracles.  Good planning and normal traffic get us to work on time.  Hard work enables us to pass exams and get into college.  And medical breakthroughs come through the right combination of intelligence, diligence, luck and accidental discovery.  Abuse of the word miracle has nearly obliterated the original meaning of the word.

The word miracle actually refers to a supernatural event, one that transcends the normal laws of physics.  When a true miracle occurs, the laws of nature are temporarily suspended.  That is the sense in which we use the word in these articles.

  1. God established and enforces the laws of nature as pleases him.
  2. In times past, when it suited his purposes, God temporarily suspended the laws of nature to allow for miracles (supernatural events).
  3. Miracles are events that cannot normally occur in the natural world.
  4. Miracles violate the normal laws of nature that God established and maintains.
  5. Jesus, who is God, performed miracles while he dwelled on earth to prove his divinity to a doubting world.
  6. In times past, God also enabled selected men other than Jesus to perform miracles for authentication and other purposes.
  7. God does not suspend the laws of nature or authorize men to perform miracles in our time.
  8. Men who claim to perform genuine miracles in our day are frauds or illusionists.
  9. Many people today deny the existence of the supernatural and the possibility of miracles in the past.
  10. Those who deny the existence of the supernatural often assert that many of the truth claims of the Bible are physically impossible and consequently untrue.
  11. The absence of miracles in our time does not prove that miracles have never occurred or that biblical accounts of miracles are fictional.
  12. There have been numerous reports of miraculous appearances of the Virgin Mary in modern times.
  13. Protestants are generally skeptical of reported appearances of Mary in modern times.
  14. The Roman Catholic Church has declared some but not all of reported miraculous appearances of Mary in modern times to be genuine.