Miracles Today

S. Keener Craig

Description

Do miracles still happen today? This book demonstrates that miraculous works of God, which have been part of the experience of the church around the world since Christianity began, continue into the present. Leading New Testament scholar Craig Keener addresses common questions about miracles and provides compelling reasons to believe in them today, including many accounts that offer evidence of verifiable miracles.This book gives an accessible and concise overview of one of Keener's most significant research topics. His earlier two-volume work on miracles stands as the definitive word on the topic, but its size and scope are daunting to many readers. This new book summarizes Keener's basic argument but contains substantial new material, including new accounts of the miraculous. It is suitable as a textbook but also accessible to church leaders and laypeople.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian theology

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 19 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493431380
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Endorsements
“Taking his readers on a global journey, Keener marshals evidence from biblical accounts of miraculous life restorations, responds to skeptics who reject miracles, and presents many Christian and non-Christian accounts of miracles as divine decisive acts that changed their lives. It is one thing to read about how miracles happen and change other peoples’ lives; it’s another to actually hear Keener describe how his life and thought as a New Testament expert was shaped and moved by a miracle. Miracles Today is a unique, intriguing, incisive, and invaluable book that makes Keener’s research accessible to a wide readership. I have read, learned from, and used many of Keener’s books in my courses for years and will do the same with Miracles Today .”
— Aliou Cissé Niang , associate professor of New Testament, Union Theological Seminary
“Once again, Keener treats readers to an exciting overview of recent miracle accounts, this time arranged by category. Cases involving brain death? Those who were blind? Cerebral palsy? Video accounts? Testing and other evidence from the physicians themselves? Skeptical objections? This volume is an absolutely fascinating read—a veritable one-stop study that is sure to relate to a very wide audience and needs to be on your shelf. Very highly recommended!”
— Gary R. Habermas , Distinguished Research Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy, Liberty University
“ Miracles Today is an in-depth examination of God’s supernatural intervention in human life. Dr. Keener’s superlative scholarship is evident. As a physician, I found Keener’s descriptions of physical healing credible and compelling. I was particularly fascinated by some of the medical facts and physician comments. Keener also discusses the theology of miracles and artfully disarms philosophical arguments against the miraculous. His own personal testimony of conversion and healing is powerful. This is a must-read for those longing to know more about modern-day miracles.”
— Joseph Bergeron , MD, author of The Crucifixion of Jesus: A Medical Doctor Examines the Death and Resurrection of Christ
“Keener is among a handful of today’s top Christian intellectuals. But he is also a tenderhearted, humble Jesus-lover who is fully immersed in supernatural Christianity. His new book reads like a warm and very personal conversation between Keener and the reader. It is brimming with new, authentic, credible, shocking accounts of the triune God’s activity all over the world. My own faith was deeply strengthened by reading it. Miracles Today is suited for believers and unbelievers and could be the spark that lights a fire of more supernatural activity in a world that needs to see and experience it. This book is nothing short of stunning!”
— J. P. Moreland , Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; author of A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles
“Keener has done it again. In the midst of a global pandemic, in a time in which many people, including me, have suffered so much loss and so many deaths of loved ones, he encourages us to continue to trust God for miracles today and to believe that God is at work in our world. Keener documents miracles and tackles hard questions, such as what happens when healings don’t happen and when healing is temporary. This book is timely and calls the reader to see ‘healings as kingdom samples’ and ‘foretastes of the future.’”
— Lisa Bowens , associate professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary
“ Miracles Today defends the claim that God still acts in miraculous ways in the contemporary world, offering dozens of credible testimonies for many different types of special actions of God. Keener sees miracles as signs that are fragmentary foretastes of God’s final victorious kingdom; he honestly faces the fact that until that kingdom arrives, all of us face death as mortal beings. Even in this ambiguous world, these miraculous signs offer inspiration and hope, pointing to a world where suffering and death will be no more.”
— C. Stephen Evans , University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Baylor University
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2021 by Craig S. Keener
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3138-0
All Scripture translations are the author’s own except where specified otherwise.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The author’s profits from this book will be divided among SIM medical missions, Compassion International, and Iris Mozambique (Gen. 14:22–24).
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
Dedicated to medical professionals, counseling professionals, and all who pray for divine healing—for all who seek to relieve the suffering in our broken world
Contents
Cover
Endorsements i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Preface: Get Up and Walk xi
Introduction: Miracles Books, Old and New xvii
Part 1: Perspectives on Miracles 1
1. What Is a Miracle, Anyway? 3
2. Why Do Some People Assume That Miracles Don’t Happen? Worldviews 10
3. Why Do Some People Assume That Miracles Don’t Happen? David Hume 16
Part 2: Witnesses of Miracles 23
4. Are There Many Witnesses of Miracles? 25
5. Do Only Christians Report Christian Healings? 31
6. Is Healing Just a New Thing? 35
7. Baby Pics 40
Part 3: Videos and Doctors’ Reports 49
8. Do Healings Ever Get Captured on Video? 51
9. Medically Attested Catholic Cures 55
10. A Few Vignettes of Brain Recovery 60
11. Back from Virtual Brain Death 63
12. More Medically Attested Twentieth-Century Cures 69
13. Some Medically Attested Twenty-First-Century Cures 74
14. Cancer Cures 80
15. Doctors Cured of Cancer 88
Part 4: “The Blind Receive Their Sight, the Lame Walk, the Lepers Are Cleansed, the Deaf Hear” (Matt. 11:5//Luke 7:22) 91
16. Do Blind People Still Receive Sight? Witnesses 93
17. Do Blind People Still Receive Sight? Doctors 99
18. Do Disabled People Still Walk? Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy 106
19. Do Disabled People Still Walk? Marlene’s Cerebral Palsy 110
20. Do Disabled People Still Walk? Bryan’s Spinal Injury 114
21. Do Disabled People Still Walk? Vignettes 118
22. Are Lepers Still Cleansed? Visible Healings 126
23. Do Deaf People Still Hear? 132
Part 5: “The Dead Are Raised” (Matt. 11:5//Luke 7:22) 137
24. Are the Dead Still Raised? History 139
25. Are the Dead Still Raised? Africa 142
26. Are the Dead Still Raised? Asia 146
27. Raised in the West? Cases in the News 151
28. Raised in the West? Cases That Don’t Make the News 155
29. Doctors Who Witness Raisings 159
30. Friends Who Used to Be Dead or Met Those Who Had Been 165
31. Raised in Our Family 171
Part 6: Nature Miracles 175
32. Do Nature Miracles Still Happen? 177
33. Do You Know Any Witnesses to Nature Miracles? 185
Part 7 : Kingdom Mysteries 191
34. A Firsthand Witness? 193
35. Why Don’t We See More Miracles in the West? 199
36. Spiritual Factors and Miracles 204
37. When Healing Is Temporary 212
38. When Miracles Don’t Happen 217
39. What Does the Bible Say about Non-healing? 222
40. Closing Personal Thoughts 229
Appendix A: Did Prayer Make Things Worse? 231
Appendix B: Some of Hume’s Other Arguments 234
Appendix C: False Signs 237
Notes 239
Back Cover 285
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding for the study leave grant for spring 2020, during which I wrote this book (most of it on the campus of Trinity International University, until COVID-19 sent me home); also to Asbury Theological Seminary and my doctoral students, who were willing to spare me during that leave. The COVID pandemic canceled some other research travel for interviews and collection of documents, but this book can provide at most a sample account in any case.
I cannot name all the individuals who encouraged me to write this book, or all the venues that influenced me to do so, but they include Jane Campbell of Chosen Books; Jim Kinney of Baker Academic; an editor for IVP Academic; and a meeting of the Society of Vineyard Scholars several years ago, particularly because of the topic I was assigned to speak about there. I am also grateful to my copyeditor, Corrie Schwab, proofreaders Ryan Davis and Kristie Berglund, and my project editor, Tim West. While editors do get paid for editing, it is commitment rather than paychecks that make them do a good job.
I am also very grateful to those who provided information or referred me to their own sources for interviews, including Jack Deere, Ken Fish, Micael Grenholm, Dean Merrill, Lee Schnabel, and Elijah Stephens.
I am immensely grateful to the physicians who evaluated or gave feedback on some of the healing case studies for me, some extensively and in great detail. These physicians include Joe Bergeron (physical medicine and rehabilitation), Thomas Coburn (family medicine), Scott Kolbaba (internal medicine), Ruth Farrales Lindberg (family medicine), D