Seven Convincing Miracles

Below are quotes from a book by Erwin Lutzer, Seven Convincing Miracles published by Moody Press. Pastor Lutzer is the senior pastor of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago. He deals with the issueof miracles and whether or not they are necessary. This information may be helpful to you in dealing with some of the issues of miracles you may be confronted with from time to time in your ministry.

I really appreciate the following two quotes:

1. Miracles are insufficient to persuade the unconverted … even the signs and wonders recorded in Scripture were insufficient to persuade the unconverted to believe in Christ. The more miracles He performed, the more opposition toward Him grew. On the day of Pentecost, Peter said that Christ was “accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22); yet most in the crowd were not brought to faith until they heard the gospel through Peter’s lips. [Page 81]

2. Signs and wonders
Interestingly, no church in the New Testament is chided for not doing more signs and wonders. But Paul rebuked churches for an unclear gospel (Galatians), an overemphasis on gifts along with a worldly spirit (Corinthians), and the dangers of accepting a gnostic view of Christ (Colossians). Christ’s rebukes to the seven churches addressed in the book of Revelation were ei¬ther doctrinal, moral, or both. Never once did He hint that they needed more signs and wonders.

Miracles are of lesser importance than a clear gospel witness and the quest for holiness All this is not to say that authentic signs and won¬ders cannot occur today, or even that they do not occur today. There is no hard scriptural evidence that the gift of miracles has been rescinded. What we do know is that such miracles are of lesser importance than a clear gospel witness and the quest for holiness.Yes, we can believe God today for miracles, but we cannot demand them; and we should not be led to expect them on a regular basis. And we most assuredly cannot ascribe to the modern notion that they are needed to do effective evangelism in a culture already saturated with bogus miracles of every sort. [Page 82]