Miracles Are Done Away

What is a miracle?

Mormon 8:26 prophesies that the day will come when men shall say that miracles are done away. That day is here.

I recently had an experience in which a friend of mine shared a story about a child with terminal cancer. The child received a priesthood blessing and was healed. The doctors were baffled and it was proclaimed that it was a miracle. However, one of the readers wasn’t impressed. She had researched this kind of healing phenomenon and found a study showing that this kind of spontaneous healing can sometimes occur and has a scientific explanation. This was therefore, not a miracle, she said.

I have two problems with this.

One: Many people believe that things can be explained either by science or religion, not both. This is garbage. God is not a genie or a magician. He uses scientific means to accomplish His will. That does not decrease the wonderfulness of the act, only makes it more understandable. Some people prefer to think of God as some mysterious Being who cannot be understood in any fashion. It is easier for them to imagine an omnipotent, omniscient Being if they can in no way relate to it. While I understand this preference (only slightly), it really seems quite silly to me. God is no less so because He utilizes the laws of science to bring to pass whatever He deems good. He is logical, consistent and rational.

Two: Just because something can be explained it is no longer considered a miracle? I must disagree.

If you were to take a man from the 1800s, bring him here and show him a computer, it would knock him off his socks. You look at it and see that it is made of wires and plastics and electricity, but he would see it as nothing short of a miracle. Is a miracle simply made of things you cannot explain or understand?

A couple years ago I saw a book which explained away the stories in the Bible by showing, using science, how the plagues and miracles were wrought. For example, there is apparently a bush in Egypt which can spontaneously combust and remain on fire for several hours. This, as was explained in the text, is the rational explanation for what Moses experienced; nothing more, except maybe some mild psychosis on Moses’ part with all that hearing of voices. Honestly, it made me laugh. So what if there are bushes that naturally burn in Egypt? God can use whatever He wants! He’s God, remember?

Bringing it back to the scripture in Mormon chapter 8, people no longer see miracles today, not because they have stopped happening, but because we are finally starting to figure some things out. Our technology has advanced to the point where we can sometimes nick the surface of understanding how God does what He does. For many people, this takes away the magic of it all, and I suppose that’s because that’s what their faith relies on: magic tricks. Harsh, but true nonetheless. If God is only God because you can’t understand Him, you don’t understand the purpose of religion. Jesus invites everyone to “come unto” Him and to strive to be like Him. Knowing that we are never given any commandment which would be impossible to follow, it stands to reason that He intends us to learn to understand Him, else how could we ever learn to be like Him?

God lives. Miracles still exist. Whether or not you choose to see it that way is entirely up to you.