That You May Believe

REFLECTIONS ON SCIENCE AND THE MIRACLES OF JESUS by Dr. John M. Oakes, David Eastman

---

In Acts 2, there are three words used to define supernatural works: �Miracles� is the Greek word dunamis, defined as �power, ability, physical or moral, as residing in a person or thing.� �Wonder� is the rendering of the Greek noun teras, literally, �something strange.� The emphasis is on events that cause the beholder to marvel. �Signs� is the Greek word semeion. The word means sign or signal. It implies a thing which can be used for identification. The emphasis is that miracles and wonders are signs of divine authority. There are unbelievers who deny miracles ever happen. Even among liberal �believers,� the miracles of Jesus are doubted or explained away. But none of those who spent time around Jesus, even among his enemies, ever denied his miracles. Instead, they sought to discredit him in various ways, attributing his miraculous power to Satan or demons. The records we have in the New Testament accurately document what Jesus accomplished in the realm of the miraculous. You will marvel as you meditate on his miracles, watch him create the universe, heal the human body, bend the laws of physics, manipulate creation, read the thoughts of others and resurrect the dead. Think beyond the doubt and absurd fantasies of unbelieving scholars, and understand what he accomplished. Apply these ruminations to your own life, and come to believe, in a fuller and more mature way, what he is capable of achieving in and through you. �The work of God is to believe,� so strap in, observe, marvel, and be prepared to believe as never before!