Peter Hoover

“A miracle happened!” Christian believers readily declare, always eager to attribute to God what they cannot explain. But—was it miraculous? Or merely hard to explain with limited facts available?

Do real miracles ever happen? Can one prove that Jesus—or anyone else—ever called for a miracle and it happened as planned? Who saw it happen? How well can the claim be substantiated?

May one believe on Jesus Christ, follow him, and belong to his church, even if one doubts the reports of miraculous events as described in the four Gospels? Cannot one trust in Him—like Leo Tolstoy did—while maintaining personal doubts regarding the Gospels’ reliability?

Personally, I could not!

Either I believe in Jesus’ miraculous power or else I do not believe in Him at all. The foundation of my faith, the direction of my life, and my purpose for everything I say, write and do, stands on what I believe about Him.

I believe in the miracle of Jesus’ virgin birth—a flesh-and-blood human, yet also LORD. A manifestation of the Spirit of the LORD of Hosts.

I believe in Jesus’ miraculous resurrection from the dead—the foundation of my faith and hope for everlasting life.

I believe in Jesus’ miraculous coming again and fully expect it to happen as planned.

My Christian faith rests on this understanding. Yes, at one point I chose to believe, but from what I have seen, heard, experienced and felt ever since, I could no longer choose to doubt. Instead, Christ with what He has done and continues to do overwhelms me day after day with His glory, the dazzling brightness of his presence within me—leaving not even a shred of doubt regarding His miraculous power.

What Constitutes a Miracle?

As a teenager, in Toronto, Canada, driving fast on the exceptionally busy and packed Macdonald-Cartier Freeway I suddenly saw a pile-up happening right before me. In a split second I felt a strong arm yanking my steering wheel to the right (I was alone in the car). Zooming sideways through a river of fast moving traffic, crossing three lanes to the right, to where I found myself, breathless yet safe and sound, on the shoulder.

Was that a miracle?

You may need to decide.

As a Christian I have been close to death, repeatedly, testified through medical records and many eye-witnesses, yet through the laying on of hands and the prayers of the saints I have been miraculously healed. Drastically, on several occasions.

In El Salvador, attacked by food poisoning that caused me to faint and collapse while speaking publicly, I was healed in a moment when a group of brothers laid hands on me and prayed. One of the brothers—unknowingly—had put his hand on the sharpest pain. As he prayed the pain and the problem vanished.

Later, in Pennsylvania, I contracted blood poisoning. My body, from my waist to the tips of my toes on my left foot had turned flaming red and hot. I had turned seriously sick. The brothers anointed me with oil and prayed. Beginning at once and continuing during the following hours, the blood poisoning disappeared. Completely. The following morning I attended a prayer meeting. The brothers were startled to see me come. One of them lifted my pant leg to see if what I said was true. Everyone saw it, shook their heads, and praised God. A miracle had happened.

In Minnesota a person appeared and a threatening situation followed. Some suspected and reported a gun. In the middle of the night, while praying, the LORD revealed to me where the hidden weapon was concealed. I hurried downstairs, and although I could not see it, I reached up and my hand closed on the gun, hidden on top of a beam.

On a lonely road in Texas, eleven o’clock in the night, my wife and I suddenly realised our car’s motor had problems. The motor stopped—thankfully right on an overpass—so I could steer the car and we rolled down the curve to where we could stop in safety. On the vast empty Texas plains we saw no buildings or lights. We prayed and within a few minutes a station wagon, coming our way on the small rural road, stopped. We saw the vehicle full of people, a lady with a baby, two teenagers, and a whole series of children of various sizes. The man cranked down his window and asked if we needed help.

I explained our predicament. The man and his wife exchanged glances in amazement. “We rarely drive this road. Tonight, as we left our church prayer meeting, I suddenly felt inspired to go on a drive. As late as it was, everyone found it strange, but I felt a strong urge to do it. Well, you are our answer!”

This couple helped us to find a place to stay, how to get our car to a garage, and—awestruck—we praised the LORD together.

Miracles, or mere coincidences? You decide.

I could tell many more stories of how the LORD has answered prayers, revealing, transforming and put totally illogical things together during nearly 70 years. How could I doubt in the veracity of miracles happening?

I no longer have that option, but far more than unique personal events, I keep seeing miracles on a much larger scale all around me.

Ongoing Miracles

Miracles do not only occur rarely in unique situations involving only a few. Neither does my faith depend on the exceptional. Instead, it rests on no end of awe-inspiring indisputable evidence, starting within my human body and it continues throughout all living, moving, tangible, visible realities around me. No matter where I look, smell, touch, taste or hear, I meet the LORD—the evidence of what He is and does.

No random chance. No “Big Bang” but the LORD Himself orchestrating what He wishes, the way He likes it, the time and manner He chooses.

Any natural rule, any logical sequence or limit to what He can do?

Of course not! So why should anyone attempt to restrict Him to what agnostic science predicts or decrees?

Reproduction, conception, growth, healing, mental capacity, thought, sight, perception, communication between souls and with the Creator of all things only point to a few examples of boundless ongoing miracles in which all humans live all the time.

What started your heart beating and what keeps it going as long as it does?

Who has ever proven the theory of evolution?

What keeps the earth’s gravity pulling together in spite of centrifugal force?

What keeps all planets on course, the sun and stars burning, comets coming and going, all galaxies whirling in a precise orderly yet completely illogical way?

Try AI and laugh at its answers!

What about Jesus’ Miracles?

Are the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ miracles credible? Can they be substantiated by any reliable source? Could the Christian faith stand without the miracle accounts recorded in the Gospels?

The earliest physical copy of the Gospels is the Gospel of John—the Rylands Papyrus P52—written within 25 to 40 years after John died. But the first reference to both Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels already appeared much earlier, well within the Apostle John’s life. It comes from the writings of Papius of Hierapolis who lived in what is now Turkey.

Not only hundreds, but thousands upon thousands of early Christians believed the Gospels’ accounts.

Why? Because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John claimed they were speaking the truth?

Absolutely not!

No one could have ever come up with such elaborate details, involving so many thousands upon thousands of people, events involving the government, the public, and vast amounts of both friends and foe, yet dupe everyone successfully into believing a lie within its first generation. Let alone die as martyrs for it, not only once or twice, but all throughout the known world.

For false reports or urban myths to become well established, takes far more than one generation. Especially if the reports involve the entire population.

The Gospel accounts repeatedly report that Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, fed multitudes with no resources, raised the dead and ultimately rose from the dead—all within the context of large crowds of onlookers, some opposing Him, others praising the LORD for what took place.

Regarding Jesus’ resurrection the Gospel reports women first bearing the news of what happened. In a Jewish context, that information seems highly unusual.

Jesus’ disciples had a hard time believing in Him at first, and repeatedly misunderstood or even argued about what He said. Later, in the four Gospels, some of the stories do not exactly match—but that does not make them less credible. To the contrary, they point to the fact that they all wrote what they remembered best. Forgeries come with polished details, all smoothly aligned.

To cause the blind to see, the crippled to walk, lepers to be healed and devils cast out does not happen in private. Neither can one claim it has happened within one generation’s time unless it actually happened.

After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead the Jews had a hard time proving the event had not happened. The missing body from the tomb remains a problem for them to this day.

After Jesus rose from the dead He was hungry, ate, drank and showed His wounds, yet He could appear and disappear as He wished.

All of this information, and more, does not seem readily plausible, yet all of His disciples—except Judas—testified to the facts as they saw them and a vibrant church quickly spread throughout the known world.

There is ample evidence that large amounts—thousands upon thousands of people—not only witnessed the miracles of Jesus but also attested to them, privately, publicly, legally if needed and wrote about them at the cost of their lives. If the miracles were forgeries or later additions to the Gospel accounts it would have taken many years, many generations, for such a myth to become firmly established. Neither do liars nor crooks gladly die for their own fables.

The Faith Factor

The teachings of Jesus only make sense to me if I believe in His virgin birth and resurrection from the dead. Belief is the key to faith and without it “no one can see the Kingdom of God.”¹

Seeing the Kingdom—everything physical, everything spiritual, everything except sin—transforms lives. The lights come on. The purpose of life becomes clear and like Jesus puts it, those who “can see the Kingdom” are “born again.”²

Believing in Jesus, believing in his miraculous power, not only divides faith from unbelief, it also separates the hope of everlasting life from the fear of destruction. It swings open the door “to seeing the Kingdom of God” in all of its glory and peace.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”³

Belief is the key and belief, in the end, is a choice.

Your choice. My choice. Everyone’s choice. Yet, is it a blind choice? Only a chance one might get it right if one chooses to believe instead of doubt?

Not necessarily—although the LORD plays fairly. He never forces anyone to believe. He has chosen, instead, to make ample space for all humans to choose whether to believe or not. He stays quiet enough, in the background, to allow all humans to choose to believe in Him to be saved.

Only on rare occasions does the LORD push for faith—as in the storm on the lake where He walked on the water and called the wind to cease, or when He knocked Paul from his horse. Ordinarily, once many reasons for faith already abound, He stays in the background and allows humans to choose to believe.

Choosing, for instance, to believe in Jesus’ transcendence over matter and all physical laws. Choosing to believe that Jesus took part in creation itself,⁴ and that He sustains it, rules it, and—in the blink of an eye—will transform the earth and everything on it, restoring all things to how the LORD had in mind.⁵

Why do I choose to believe in these Scriptures?

Because I believe Jesus Christ is nothing other than the physical manifestation of the Spirit of the LORD—and He has come to live within me. Through faith.

Can anyone prove the premise on which my faith stands?

The Spirit of the LORD joyfully, mightily, proves it within me, time after time after time—and so He has always done it with countless other believers through nearly two thousand years and around the world.

Faith, experience, and unlimited power comes as a gift through the anointing of the Spirit of the LORD. The Gift of a living faith that only comes to the earnest, to those humble enough to ask for it—and, thankfully, the Spirit helps us to find it, if we ask for it.

Jesus’ miracles, just like walking on the water, includes the miracle of faith. The faith that Peter needed to call on Him when he began to sink.

Do you believe in miracles?

I do.