What do you think of the events reported as miracles in churches?

Question

wiccan..because that's what God does, I believe..to show His love! (for everybody)

Answer 1

On a case by case examination my opinion would vary. And opinion is all I can give to answer this. But I do beleive in miracles taking place in church and in homes as a result of sincere prayer and seeking.

Answer 2

There will always be skepticism in this area.The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes began on 11 February 1858, when Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old peasant girl from Lourdes admitted, when questioned by her mother, that she had seen a "lady" in the cave of Massabielle, about a mile from the town, while she was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend.[1] Similar appearances of the "lady" took place on seventeen further occasions that year.

Catholics consider Bernadette Soubirous a saint, and many Catholics believe her visions to have been of the Virgin Mary. The first appearance of the "Lady" reported by Bernadette was on 11 February. The others were on February 14, 18-21, 23-25, 27, 28, March 1-4, 25, April 7, and July 16.

The Catholic Churches postition on this:

On January 18, 1862, Bishop Laurence, the Bishop of Tarbes, gave the solemn declaration: "We are inspired by the Commission comprising wise, holy, learned and experienced priests who questioned the child, studied the facts, examined everything and weighed all the evidence. We have also called on science, and we remain convinced that the Apparitions are supernatural and divine, and that by consequence, what Bernadette saw was the Most Blessed Virgin. Our convictions are based on the testimony of Bernadette, but above all on the things that have happened, things which can be nothing other than divine intervention". [10]

The Catholic Church celebrates a mass in honor of "Our Lady of Lourdes", (optional memorial), in many countries on February 11th of each year — the anniversary of the first apparition. There had long been a tradition of interpreting the Song of Songs as an allegory of God's love for the Church, so up until the liturgical reforms following Vatican II, a passage from this O.T. book was used during the mass for its reference to the "beloved" appearing in a cleft of a rock[20] and its parallel with what Catholics have described as the "Mother of the Church"[21] being seen in the cleft of a rock in Lourdes.

Because the apparitions are private revelation and not public revelation, Roman Catholics are not required to believe them, nor does it add any additional material to the truths of the Catholic Church as expressed in public revelation. In Roman Catholic belief, God chooses whom He wants cured, and whom He does not, and by what means. Bernadette said, "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith."

Answer 3

Coincidences.

Answer 4

I believe each event has to be examined separately, whereso ever it happens.

Strange things happen in this reality.  Some of those strange things have happened in churches.

Answer 5

I do not believe that God still uses active miracles today as he did in New Testament (and Old Testament) times. It is actually told in scriptures that spiritual gifts would go away when "that which is perfect" has come, which if you study has to be referring to the complete and revealed word of God. Also, a careful study of scriptures show that only those endowed by God with spiritual gifts (the apostles) or those that the apostles passed on the gifts to could have spiritual gifts. You will never see one who recieved the spiritual gifts from an apostle pass it on to someone else.

It is also helpful to understand the reason behind miracles in the new testament. Without a completed word of God, new testament christians could not compare what teachers were teaching them with scripture. Therefore, miracles were used for credibility for the teachers. Once the word of God was received, miracles were no longer needed, since students could go to the scriptures.

I believe in the providence of God and that he does answer prayers. I believe he does it, though, still in the realm of science. The miracles recorded in the New Testament are outside of the realm of science and natural phenomenon. I believe that to be the true definition of a miracle. Some say that birth is a miracle. I don't believe this to be true, its just how God set it up and it falls in the realm of natural phenomenon.

Hope this helps and doesn't stir up too much controversy.

Answer 6

I've been a christian for 30 years now. I've been to many churches through the years as I've moved throughout the US. I also have witnessed many real miracles, maybe 20 or so. Many of those were people diagnosed with terminal cancers where the doctors gave up on them and told them they have days or weeks to live. The churches laid their hands and prayed for these people and the pastors anointed their heads with oil as the bible instructs them to do. These people were instantly healed and went back to their doctors to get tested. The doctors couldn't believe the cancer was mysteriously completely gone. These good citizens who I know well are all still living and the cancers never returned. I also have a good friend who died of cancer in the hospital and was dead for many hours, and many christians came and prayed for him and he came back to life, and the nurses ran screaming out of the room because they were so afraid of what they saw. I'm a professional engineer.

Answer 7

I think that there is plenty of examples of true miracles, to many to be called all fakes.  The Catholic church takes years to investigate them and sets a high standard to pass the tests.  I'll let them say who is the source of the miracles,  I'm not qualified to past that judgment.

Answer 8

They say that faith can move mountains, and various cultures and religions involve meditation, concentration, and focus to achieve results. Call it prayer, devine intervention or magic - it does work.

As you say - if you believe it  - let it be so.

Answer 9

Our bodies have the power to heal itself. The mind is a most powerful thing and when a person can believe he or she can experience unexplainable healing.

I am former Pentecostal and saw many things, so I spent the last 40 years investigating miracles. This was way beofre I go into paranormal investigating.

What I have found is no matter the faith of a person if someone believes their bodies can do extraordinary things and heal itself to the point of baffling doctors. I also found that although some will say this does not exist outside the church, I found that faith healing is actually very common outside the church.

I have witnessed Wiccan and pagan healers have just as many good positive results as in any church I ever investigated.

Okay this is where people tell me I am going to h**l. I studied the bible and studied the miracles of the bible and although many strange things occur in and out of churches. I have yet to document or see anything close to the bible definition of a miracle. According to the bible a miracle is God breaking his laws of nature to bring about something. for instance Lazarus was dead in the grave for 4 days but Jesus brought hm back to life. I have heard of these things happenning today but no one, not one person has ever documented such and upon close investigation the miracle does not hold up to bible definition.

Usually questions like this are in the R&S section and I have answered many similar questions and usually am told I am evil going to h**l bible miracles do happen today, but never, not one true clear cut proof of a bonified miracle difined by the bible. No arms gow back. No legs grow back.

Only unexplained healing which does not meet bible definition of a miracle. I heal very quickly. Most people who claim to have had a miracle do not heal as quick as I do, so to me this is proof of the power of belief but belief comes from many sources.

The problem I have is people saying that you can only experiences these things in a Christian church, which I have seen many faith healing outside churches. Just my opinion based on my experiences and study and investigating over 40 years.

BB

Edit well when you make up a definition of a miracle then it cannot be called a bible miracle.  Keep reading you will find Jesus did cause arms and legs grow back Remember modern day people are treated by doctors and it can be said that it was the medical treatments that worked along with their faith. Just because doctors are stumped does not mean it is a bibl miracle.

I keep stressing bible miracles because if atheist, and pagans like myself experiences these same things then it can be attributed to our minds and our bodies abilities to heal itself. If Jesus did only what modern faith healers can do then he has no claim to divinity. If the miracles are not like in the bible then is it not safe to assume it is our natural ability? We do have abilities we do not admit to unless we are religious and then these abilities are not seen in just one religion or faith, but all that stress belief. The power of prayer is the power of belief. Prayer helps us to believe.  Even in my religion we testify about the power of prayer.

Don't get me wrong it is real and that is why it is important for us to nurture our beliefs we just don't have the miracles like the bible discusses. If you are saying jesus did not raise that little boy from the dead then you are doing something that not even I am willing to do. Jesus often talked that way about the dead if you remember the disciples told jesus if Lazarus was asleep there is no hurry and Jesus had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead.

The difference in bible miracles and modern miracles is when the men of the bible performed a miracle there was no doubt no question it was that evident and pagans according to the bible could not duplicate these. Today that is not the case.  Faith healings cannot be determind 100 percent as something that did not happen naturaly and other religions have just as convincing things happen so in order for it to be a bible type miracle it would have to be such that we pagans would not experience the same and such that there would be no doubt.

Another difference is the unbelivers did not deny that a bonifide miracle accured, they did not want to acdept Jesus as the masiah so they said he did those things by the power of Satan. However today there is no evidence of miracles as the bible defines them happenning. It is also seen outside the church. so yes something wonderful and supernatural is happenning but I would not call these healings miracles. Even being pagain I would not insult Jesus workings that way. I say insult because nothing today even compares to what Jesus and his desciples did. I respect Jesus and his miracles.

EDIT 2:

thedude35504  is 100 per cent dead on correct.

Answer 10

well the fact that the church will let me in sometimes seems to be a miracle......so I'm open to the fact that miracles do occur.

Answer 11

People believe what they want to believe and they see what they want to see.

Coincidences

Answer 12

maybe  they are really miracles

Answer 13

As you may or not be aware the Catholic church investigates miracles. (link below). This is usually done in connection with declaring a person a saint.

Other claims are investigated on local levels and some get to the Vatican. There have been cases of say Bishops declaring a miracle and the Vatican refusing to investigate it or coming to a different conclusion.

I think many things are from God (mine is not the Catholic version) including antibiotics and everything else as that mankind was given intellect and reason to discover, create, and apply many things.  Of course that is belief not science, science uses terms like "Spontaneous Remission" when they have no explanation for a disease or illness being cured not admitting that prayer might have helped (well Larry Dossey does).

Also, my belief on matters of faith are constantly in flux so don't ask again ;)

Psi