A miracle is an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. Throughout Scripture, God has acted on behalf of His people, both the Jews and the Christians, by performing miracles of both a personal and global scale to manifest His power and His presence. Jesus Christ Himself performed miracles of various sorts during His first coming when He preached the gospel to the Jews before He was put to death on the cross for all mankind's sins, only to rise from the dead three days later. There are Christians who will say that a person's salvation through Jesus Christ is in itself a miracle, since God has the power to divinely draw people to Himself through Jesus Christ (John 6:44).
Overview of Miracles in the Left Behind series[]
In the Left Behind series, miracles take place throughout the books, performed both by God and by Satan through his followers. In the prequel books, Israel was miraculously saved from the first Gog and Magog attack upon them by Russia, as was prophesied in the book of Ezekiel chapters 38-39. During the Tribulation, believers experience all kinds of miracles such as protection from assault by the Global Community forces around Petra during the last 3 1/2 years and protection from the effects of some of the Trumpet and Bowl Judgments.
Unfortunately, also during the time, Nicolae Carpathia performed miracles such as raising Leon Fortunato from the dead after the Wrath Of The Lamb earthquake, and even gave power to Leon to call down fire from the sky to destroy whoever opposed him, which included three disloyal subpotentates and Nicolae's former lover Hattie Durham when she finally became a believer. Nicolae also gave Leon power to raise up disciples imbued with the same power to perform miracles that would sway people from believing in God. The series regards this as an instance of the fulfillment of Matthew 24:24 in the Olivet Discourse that spoke of false Christs and false messiahs. A demonic apparition called the Wonder Worker lured nonbelievers out of Petra with a showcase of miracles, including administering the "mark of loyalty" without the use of technology, only to reveal that his real purpose was to destroy them.
Z-Van, while not being a false messiah, was given the power to levitate by Leon Fortunato. This mesmerized the audiences at The Four Horsemen concerts. When a concert in Madrid, Spain was reported on television, no one on television questioned how Z-Van did it, and Judd Thompson Jr. knew it was more than trickery.
While Nicolae has many powers, he does not have omniscience, which is reserved for the true God. In Desecration, Leon Fortunato said to a crowd of Carpathia loyalists at the site of Calvary that Nicolae had granted him to know the hearts of people. Chaim Rosenzweig who was there watching mentioned to Cameron Williams that this is not true because Carpathia-Antichrist-Satan is not omniscient and cannot convey someone's thoughts to Fortunato or grant the power to his False Prophet to know someone's thoughts. The Wonder Worker in The Remnant materialized in front of the helicopter occupied by Albie, Abdullah Smith, and Mac McCullum and intimidated them by saying that he knew their names, but he did not say their names. In The Rise of the False Messiahs, Chang Wong saw Nicolae look directly at him from the courtyard of the Global Community Palace. He decided to test Carpathia by using his mental voice to say, "You are evil in the flesh, the total opposite of the loving God I serve." Nicolae just looked away, and Chang became convinced that Nicolae cannot know his thoughts. Carpathia, however, does seem to have power to implant thoughts in people's minds, such as Enoch Litwala, but Tsion Ben-Judah explains that it was God who actually put those thoughts in Litwala's mind to kill Peter Mathews, and Carpathia had simply deluded himself into thinking that he had that power.
The Rapture and some of the plagues (Seal, Trumpet, and Bowl Judgments) can be considered "miracles" as a loose sense, since they are supernatural signs from God, and the Left Behind series describes the plagues as events whose intention is to get the left behind populace's attention and to invite them to repentance.
Philosophy[]
A Definition of Miracle[]
In the philosophy of religion, one issue is the significance of miracles to validate that a given person is a prophet who conveys a message from God or to illustrate that a person is divine himself. In Leviathan in the chapter "Of Miracles and Their Use", Thomas Hobbes defines a miracle:
- A miracle is a work of God (besides His operation by the way of nature, ordained in the Creation) done for the making manifest to His elect the mission of an extraordinary minister for their salvation.
Hobbes' definition serves to rule out other potential mysterious acts whose performance was not conducted by agents who were acting on behalf of the true religion. The definition also acknowledges that there would be many who would witness a genuine miracle yet not be properly impressed to the point of arriving to belief in the prophet or religion pronounced by that profit. Hobbes' definition does not resonate well with the Left Behind series because the series does not promote predestination. Hobbes does say that "the end of miracles was to beget belief, not universally in all men, elect and reprobate, but in the elect only". For example, Jesus told the rich man in Hades (while Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom) that his five brothers would not be convinced by the resurrection of the dead if they would not listen to Moses and the other prophets (Luke 16:19-31). Hobbes also explains that Jesus was not able to many perform miracles in His hometown (Mark 6:5) where most of its denizens lacked faith because the end of the miracles Jesus could potentially perform there "was not to convert incredulous men to Christ" as Jesus could not use His power for the conversion of men that His Father had rejected. In the Christian and Islamic traditions, nature also has signs of God's agency and testify to His presence (e.g. Romans 1:20, Qur'an 2:26), but such signs are not sufficient of making clear the message of God since a prophet needs to convey the message and written scripture is needed to preserve it. The "extraordinary minister" typically refers to a prophet. In the Left Behind series, Eli and Moishe would fit during the Tribulation since they prophesied that the calamities of the Seal and Trumpet Judgments would befall the Earth as told in Revelation 11.
The Problem of Sorcery[]
Without a miraculous and extraordinary sign, one would little reason to find the assertions of the supposed prophet to be credible. Since the religious scriptures of the Abrahamic tradition show parties opposed to God using miracles on their behalf, this poses the immediate problem that such supernatural signs do not necessarily validate a supposed prophet's message as originating from God. Such instances of extraordinary signs produced by agents who do not align themselves with the will of God is sometimes regarded as "sorcery" to be contrasted with a genuine miracle. One problem of miracles is to determine whether a given wondrous phenomenon commissioned by an agent is a miracle or sorcery without consideration of the message or agenda of the agent. For example, the sorcerers of the Pharaoh were able to turn their staffs into snakes. Moreover, in Acts 8, the sorcerer Simon had a great following and was known as the "the Great Power of God" before he believed and became baptized. The Left Behind series does not make the technical distinction between a genuine "miracle" and "sorcery" since none of the main characters actually deny that the signs performed by the Antichrist and his agents are "miracles" , but the term "miracle" rather conflates them.
Celsus, a classical antiquity Greek philosopher, wrote an anti-Christian polemic titled The True Word, which only survived in fragments quoted in Origen's apologetic rebuttal Contra Celsum. Celsus charged Jesus of being a sorcerer and refers to the Olivet Discourse's passages warning about wicked men and sorcerers would come and perform miracles of a similar kind (Contra Celsum, Book 2, Chapter 49). Celsus said that Jesus' words did not deny that these works are not divine but also implicitly convicted Himself of the same acts. It would therefore be a "miserable inference" to conclude that from these similar works that one is from God and the other sorcerers. Origen replied by asserting that true miracles are qualitatively different from the works of sorcerers as Moses' snake was able to consume the sorcerer's snakes and that Jesus really did not say that others would come performing similar works to Himself. Also, the fruit of Jesus, unlike that of the sorcerers, is the salvation of souls, but from the perspective of witnesses that may not be known during the commission of the sorcery but may be apparent after some eschatological denouement (such as the Sheep and goats judgement in the Left Behind series and when the miracle worker slayed those who ventured outside of Petra in The Remnant) when the deceived realized that they were deceived. Origen's rebuttal quotes 2 Thessalonians 2:11 where the author states that God would send them a strong delusion that the reprobate would believe a lie, but this only confounds the epistemological issues of distinguishing a genuine miracle from sorcery since it does not provide a litmus test to tell them apart. Rather it asserts that God has exacerbated the lack of virtue of the reprobate (such as their refusal to love the truth, verse 10) by compelling them to believe in a delusion. Celsus also hypothesized that Jesus may have learned sorcery during the sojourn in Egypt (CC, Bk 1, Chap 28/68).
The Left Behind series vividly illustrates this problem. For example, a miracle worker on the behalf of Carpathia resurrected a girl named Talitha in The Rise of False Messiahs. It is difficult to imagine how one who witnessed that event (which was broadcast on television) not be impressed and conclude that the miracle worker who performed an extraordinary and beneficial act beyond the means of current medical science not have supernatural power. However, there were a few people, such as Dr. Patrick Rose, who were skeptical of Carpathia's resurrection, but the series does not regard Carpathia's resurrection as an act of legerdemain or something achievable with medical science, but an actual resurrection by Satan's power. Carpathia really did die and was really resurrected.
When Jesus exorcised demon a blind and mute demon possessed man in Matthew 12, the Pharisees accused him of being in league with Beelzebub, presumably because only Beelzebub has authority over the demons and could only recall them. At least for this miracle, Jesus was able to provide a reason that his powers did not derive from Satan's sorcery because driving out such demons would not advance the aims of Satan. He famously said that a house divided against itself will not stand, and presumably Satan would not be interested in undermining his own cause and dominion.
Even those who perform miracles may be incorrectly called deities. When a lame man in Lystra who was healed due to his faith in the presence of Paul the Apostle, the townspeople thought that the gods had came in human form (Acts 14:8-20). They called Barnabas "Zeus" and Paul "Hermes" because he was the chief speaker. In Bounty Hunters, the angel Anak appeared in the Young Tribulation Force's camp when Cyrus's Mountain Militia came to coerce them into returning Cyrus Spivey's daughter and son to the group, as they had converted from their father's heterodox views on the Bible to Christianity. During Anak's appearance, two of Cyrus' followers fell before Anak's feet, and Anak told them not to worship him (and Anak later knelt with them and whispered to them as they became believers). During Orcus' Miracle Fair in Tel Aviv in The Rise of False Messiahs, after Orcus reattached the severed right arm of a swordsman, he wanted the audience to acknowledge the deity of potentate Nicolae Carpathia. He said to the audience, "Do not praise me, for I am only the one sent by god. I am simply his servant. Turn your affection to the one who has the power of life and death and who lives to serve you."
The Apostle Paul exclaims his indifference to miracles and other supernatural agents proclaiming another gospel: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!" (Galatians 1:8). This emphasizes the content of the message and its consistency with prior revelation, as opposed to the signs themselves. Paul the Apostle also says that Satan can masquerade as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). In Deuteronomy 13, the Israelites were commanded to ignore prophets and visionaries, even if they are able to furnish signs. One is not to listen to the false prophet and visionary if they said let us follow and worship other gods. Those who have such a message shall be put to death.
The Issue of Personal Testimony and Historical Evidence Supporting Miraculous Events[]
Another issue concerning miracles is the validity of historical testimony that allegedly substantiates an instance of a miracle. David Hume's essay "Of Miracles" in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding gives a popular treatment of this issue. Hume argues that it is more conceivable to suppose that those reporting the miracle were deceived, ignorant of the operation of natural phenomena or human ingenuity, or lying. To give credence to a miracle, the evidence for the occurrence of the miracle has to be of sufficient quality that denying the miracle would be even more incredible than simply supposing that an actual miracle occurred. It cannot be vulnerable to plausible objections such that its witnesses are credulous and ignorant of science or that it occurred in a remote part of the world. In Wildfire!, Z-Van, for instance, ridiculed the resurrection of Christ, saying that it occurred in some cave in Israel with no witnesses, while proclaiming the resurrection of Carpathia, which has better evidence since it was recorded with technology and had millions of witnesses.
Individuals may have different experiences of a miracle and therefore have access to qualitatively different evidence. For example, a person witnessing a miracle has some personal, direct experience of it, while someone who heard an account only has indirect evidence. For someone personally witnessing a miracle, it would be harder to deny that the experience did emanate from an actual miracle while someone who only heard accounts can easily object and say that those who reported it were lying or were deceived. It is more difficult to doubt one's own faculties of sense perception that one relies upon to negotiate around one's environment than to refuse to assent to someone's claim of having witnessed a miracle. One witnessing a miracle cannot volitionally choose to experience the spectacle, just as one does not choose to taste sweetness when one has some masticated candy on her mouth. But one can choose to manufacture testimony of an event for whatever reason. Hume however does not declare that miracles did not occur in the past or that they are impossible. In the Left Behind universe during the Tribulation, the quality and scope of the miracles and signs would seem to render Humean skepticism moot.
External link[]
Thomas Hobbes on miracles -- Chapter XXXVII of Leviathan: "Of Miracles and Their Use"