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102-02_102

William Young's paper explores the occurrence of miracles in Church history, particularly focusing on healing, exorcism, and nature-miracles from the Patristic period to modern times. He argues that miracles serve as divine acts demonstrating the Kingdom of God and are a foretaste of future blessings, while acknowledging a decrease in their frequency over time. Young emphasizes the importance of miracles in the early Church and critiques the tendency of later writers to devalue their significance.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
9 views20 pages

102-02_102

William Young's paper explores the occurrence of miracles in Church history, particularly focusing on healing, exorcism, and nature-miracles from the Patristic period to modern times. He argues that miracles serve as divine acts demonstrating the Kingdom of God and are a foretaste of future blessings, while acknowledging a decrease in their frequency over time. Young emphasizes the importance of miracles in the early Church and critiques the tendency of later writers to devalue their significance.

Uploaded by

Eson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Miracles in Church

History
WILLIAM YOUNG

Introduction
I should like to begin this paper by defining my terms, and making
clear what basic presuppositions I hold as I approach the subject.
Miracles can rightly be understood widely, to include many and
varied manifestations of the extraordinary, such as dreams and
visions, prophecy, prediction and 'second sight', speaking in tongues
and its interpretation, marvellously timed provision of funds in
response to faith, and so on. I propose, however, to confine my
investigation to a narrower range of miracles of action-healing,
casting out of evil spirits, raising the dead, and other such miraculous
events, including 'nature-miracles', as might be summed up by the
New Testament term 'signs and wonders'.
Church History includes the full sweep of Christian history from
the time of Christ up to and including modern times, but in view of
the scope proposed for other papers at this Conference, 1 and the
nature of the source-material to which I have ready access, I shall
concentrate on the first millenium, from the Patristic period onwards,
and touch only briefly on events before or since.

Presuppositions
A historian has his own criteria for judging whether an account comes
from a reliable source, but where miracles are involved, a prior
value-judgment is also called for. As C.S. Lewis puts it:
the historical evidence cannot be estimated unless we have first
estimated the intrinsic probability of a recorded event. It is in making
that estimate that our sense of fitness comes into play. 2

I therefore have at the outset to face the question: Do I feel it fitting


that miracles should have taken place, not only during, but after
New Testament times?
I grew up in a sceptical age when people tended to explain away
supernatural events as outworn superstition. The general apologetic
stance of Evangelical Christians was that the miracles of Christ were
to be accepted because he was the unique Son of God, and those of
the Apostles because they were ~pecially endowed. Any other
miracles claimed should be treated wtth a hundred percent scepticism
unless indubitably proved. Even as late as 1962 we find this written:
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Miracles in Church History

The New Testament miracles were distinct from any subsequent ones
by virtue of their immediate connection with the full manifestation of
the incarnate Son of God, with a revelation then given in its fulness.
They do not therefore afford grounds in themselves for expecting
miracles to accompany the subsequent dissemination of the revelation
of which they formed an integral part. 3

There is a changed climate of opinion today, mainly for two reasons.


One is the growth of Satanism and obsession with the occult-it is
recognized now by many Christians that supernatural evil cannot be
written off as the figment of a superstitious imagination: it can only be
met and conquered by the greater supernatural power of God. The
other is the flowering of the Charismatic Movement, and the well-
attested evidence that healing and other supernatural gifts have been
renewed in the Church in our day.
My own personal attitude is one of hospitality to the occurrence of
miracles throughout the course of Church history. On the basis of the
New Testament evidence, as I understand it, I would make the
following points:
1. Miracle-working power came to Jesus from God the Father
through the Holy Spirit.
We have helpful pointers to this in Peter's teaching:

Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles.


wonders and signs, which God did among you through him. 4
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power,
and ... he went around doing good and healing all who were under
the power of the devil, because God was with him. 5

Luke the Evangelist prefaces thus the story of the healing of the
paralytic:

The power of the Lord was present for (Jesus) to heal the sick. 11

Jesus himself ascribed his healing ~ower to the Father when he called
it 'the work of him who sent me', and spoke of the power by which
he cast out evil spirits by using a vivid metaphor 'the finger of God' ,8
which is interpreted by Matthew to mean 'the Spirit of God'. 9
These statements attribute Jesus' miracle-working power to God,
or specifically to God the Father through the Holy Spirit. It is true
that Jesus was 'accredited by God' 10 as his Son by the miracles,
though of themselves they did not compel belief. It would, however,
be in accordance with the evidence to say that God worked miracles
through Jesus, not because of his latent Divinity, but because of his
perfect humanity and full and complete communion with his
Heavenly Father. As Westcott put it:
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Churchman

As far as it is revealed to us, His greatest works during His earthly life
are wrought by the help of the Father through the energy of a humanity
enabled to do all things in fellowship with God. 11

We could rightly alter the Baptist's words to apply to Christ's


miracles:

The one whom God has sent does the works of God; to him God gives
the Spirit without limit. 12

On the negative side, Jesus 'could not do any miracles' in Nazareth


because of the people's 'lack of faith', 13 and in general we could
say of the situation there: 'The power of the Lord was not present
to heal.'
If Jesus' miracle-working power came from his Father through the
Holy Spirit, then the claim that his followers can be similarly
empowered is not a challenge to his uniqueness, or his Sonship, or his
Divinity. We must, however, recognize that no one else is sinless, or
has perfect faith, or is in complete communion with God; and while
God's gracious gifts are not limited by our deserving, this qualification
may affect the number and the nature of the miracles that God does
through others.
2. Miracles are Divine acts demonstrating that the Kingdom of God
has come, and that Satan's hold over people is being attacked. Jesus
said:

If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God
has come upon you. 14

and when he sent out his disciples on mission, he instructed them:

As you go. preach this message: 'the kingdom of heaven is near.·


Heal the sick. raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy. drive out
demons. 15

Karl Barth put it this way:

The Gospel records of the miracles and acts of Jesus arc not just formal
proofs of His Messiahship. of His Divine mission, authority, and
power. but as such they are objective manifestations of His character
as the conqueror not only of sin but of evil and death, as the destroyer
of the destroyer. as the Saviour in the most inclusive sense. 1n

Peter, as we already saw, claimed that Jesus 'went around ... healing
all who were under the power of the devil. o~ 7 While on the one hand
we have to make a distinction between disease and devil-possession,
there is at the same time a real sense in which they are both the work
of the Devil, and healing and raising the dead as well as exorcism can
be a victory over the power of evil. In Jesus' case they were both
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Miracles in Church History

works of anger against evil, and compassion for its victims. 18 It would
therefore be fitting for miracles of this nature to recur during these
Last Days, particularly in connexion with the preaching of the Gospel
in new places, and especially where occult powers are strong.
3. Miracles are only a foretaste of the Kingdom in its fulness. As we
have already seen, the power to work miracles is a gift of the Holy
Spirit. Paul lists 'gifts of healing' and 'miraculous powers' among
these gifts. 19 Elsewhere, the Holy Spirit is described as 'a deposit,
guaranteeing what is to come', or as Weymouth translates, 'a pledge
and foretaste of future blessing'. 20 The picture is of someone putting
down the first instalment of a payment, at once part of the payment,
and a guarantee that the rest will be paid. We mistake when we treat
the Spirit and his gifts as though we had the right to expect the full
payment now, in this life. As Tom Smail puts it:

Charismatics are constantly tempted to seek a costless triumph


whereby they receive all the kingdoms of the world and their glory in
an easier wa~ than God's way, and so inevitably at another hand than
God's hand.-'

It is consonant with the conception of 'foretaste' that while some


may be healed, not all are healed. It is fitting that we should find
miracles in the course of Church history, but not fitting that they
should be happening all the time. This brings us to our last point:
4. Miraculous deliverance from persecution is the exception, not the
rule. Here the sequence of events in Acts chapters 3 to 5 is very
instructive. It begins with the miraculous healing of a lame man, and
the arrest and threatening of Peter and John. The Apostles then pray:
Enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch
out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders
through the name of your servant Jesus. 22

The prayer was answered-there is reference to the boldness in 4:31


and to the miraculous signs and wonders in 5:12-16. The Apostles
were again arrested, and confined in jail (5:18) but miraculously
released by an angel (5:19). The miracle probably influenced
Gamaliel's advice not to put them to death, but did not prevent their
suffering a severe flogging. They came from the flogging 'rejoicing'
God had not prevented them from suffering, but had been with
them in it.

Miracles in the Early Church-The Age of the


Fathers
In the Acts of the Apostles many miracles of healing and exorcism
are recorded, and two cases of the dead being raised. Two miraculous
deliverances from prison are mentioned. It is clear that these are only
105
Churchman
examples of what happened often-we find general statements on
miracles by Peter and the Apostles in Acts 5:12-16; by Philip in Acts
8:6, 13; and by Paul in Acts 19:11-16. In II Corinthians 12:12 Paul
speaks generally of miracles and wonders performed in Corinth
during his ministry there, and in Galatians 3:5 of the Spirit who had
worked miracles among the Galatians. In Mark 16:17-20 the signs
promised that were to accompany and confirm the Word included
healing and exorcism. The writer to the Hebrews says of the Gospel
message that 'God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various
gifts of the Spirit distributed according to his will' 23 and describes his
readers as those 'who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared
in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted of the goodness of the word of
God and the powers of the coming age'. 24
Church history continues after the Acts of the Apostles-we
should not expect or look for a sharp break at the end of the
Apostolic Age. I cannot accept the view propounded by Conyers
Middleton in 1748 that miracles abruptly ceased at thatfoint, though
his arguments were later taken up by B.B. Warfield. 2 · At the same
time, my missionary experience with second- and third-generation
Christians lends considerable weight to Campbell Moody's suggestion
that many of the Apostles' converts failed to understand the full
implications of the Gospel message, and pass these on to the next
generation. Here is what Moody says:

The great line of cleavage is to be found between the earliest preachers


and their immediate followers, not between the 'enthusiastic' church of
the first generation or two and the church of succeeding ages.""

The general impression we receive during the Patristic period is of


a decrease in the frequency of miracles, but not of their disappearance.
In some writers there is a tendency to devalue their importance.
Justin Martyr, for instance, speaks to Trypho thus about the Gifts of
the Spirit:

For one receives the spirit of understanding. another of counsel.


another of strength. another of foreknowledge. and another of the fear
of God." 7

Origen goes further:

Paul, in the list of spiritual gifts given by God, puts first the gift of
wisdom. and second, as inferior to that, the word of knowledge. and
third. even lower, I think, faith. And as he values reason above
miraculous workings. on this account he puts 'workings of miracles'
and 'gifts of healing' in a lower place than the intellectual gifts. 2X

Origen speaks of a falling-off:


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Miracles in Church History

Signs of the Holy Spirit were manifested at the beginning when Jesus
was teaching, and after his ascension there were many more, though
later thev became less numerous. Nevertheless, even to this dav there
are trace's of him in a few people whose souls have been purified by the
Word and by the actions that follow his teaching. 19

Two centuries later Augustine wrote:

These miracles were not allowed to last until our times lest the soul
ever seek visible things and the human race grow cold because of
familiarity with those things whose novelty enkindled it. 30

This tendency of Patristic writers to devalue miracles makes their


testimony to those which occurred all the more convincing and
credible. Justin addresses the Roman rulers:

You may learn from what goes on under your own eyes. For many
devil-possessed all over the world, and in your own city, many of our
men, the Christians, have exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, who
was crucified under Pontius Pilate. When all other exorcists and sayers
of charms and sellers of drugs failed, they have healed them, and still
do heal, sapping the power of the demons who hold men, and driving
them out. 3

In the course of exorcism, a simple creed was recited. Justin to


Trypho:

In the name of this same Son of God, firstborn of every creature, who
was born of a virgin, and became man subject to suffering, and was
crucified under Pontius Pilate, ... and died, and rose again from the
dead, and ascended into heaven, every demon exorcised is conquered
and subdued. 31

Tertullian looks on exorcism as a proof that Christ is victorious


over the Roman gods, whom he equates with demons:

Mock as you like, but get the demons, if you can, to join in your
mocking-let them deny that Christ is coming to judge! ... Why, all
the authority and power we have over them comes from our naming
the Name of Christ ... At our touch and breathing ... they leave at
our command the bodies they have entered-unwilling. distressed. and
put to an open shame before your eyes. 33

Irenaeus speaks of exorcisms, and more:

Some do, really and truly, cast out demons, so that the very ones who
have been cleansed from evil spirits often believe. and are in the
Church ... What is more, as I said. even the dead have been raised
and remained with us for considerable years . . Nor does the Church
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Churchman

do anything by angelic invocations, nor incantations, nor other


perverse meddling. It directs prayers in a manner clear, pure, and
open, to the Lord who made all things, and calls upon the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ:l.t
When Celsus suggests that any name is as good as another for God,
Origen gives this answer:
The name of Jesus still takes awav mental distractions from men, and
daemons and diseases as well, and implants a wonderful meekness and
tranquillity of character, and a love to mankind and a kindness and a
goodness to those ... who have genuinely accepted the Gospel about
God and Christ and the judgment to come. 35
He writes as an eyewitness of healing and exorcism:
Some there are who show signs of having received through this Faith
something the more incredible. I mean by the cures which they
perform, calling upon nought else, over those who need their healing,
than the God who is over all and the name of Jesus, along with the
account concerning him. 30 For by these means we ourselves have seen
many set free from grievous symptoms ... without manipulations and
magic and the use of drugs, but just by prayer and an invocation of the
simpler kind, and such means as the simpler kind of man might be able
to use. For it is mostly people quite untrained who do this work.~ 7
Origen contrasts Christian healing with the work of pagan healers
and exorcists by pointing to its moral results:
No sorcerer uses his tricks to call spectators to moral reformation; nor
does he educate by the fear of God people who were astounded by
what they saw, nor does he attempt to persuade the onlookers to live as
men who will be judged by God. 38
One of Origen's own converts had the gift of healing to a marked
extent, and used it in the course of his evangelism in Pontus. About
Gregory the 'Wonder Worker' we have this account:
At daybreak the crowd would be at the doors. men, women, and
children, those suffering from demon-possession. or other afflictions or
illnesses of the body. And he in the midst would, in the power of the
spirit, apportion as befitted the need of each of those who had come
together. He would preach. he would join an enquiry, he would advise.
he would teach. he would heal ... It was through both sight and
hearing that the tokens of the Divine power shone forth upon him. For
his discourses would astonish their hearing, and his wonders among the
sick their sight. w
Even Augustine admits that he has seen or heard of some miracles:
When I wrote that book, I myself had recently learned that a blind man
had been restored to sight at Milan near the bodies of the Martyrs in

108
Miracles in Church History
that very city. and I knew about some others. so numerous even in
these times, that we cannot know all of them nor enumerate those
we know. 40

This statement, however, introduces us to what was to become an


obsession in the Church-the attribution of miracle-working powers
to the relics of Apostles and Martyrs, and to places of pilgrimage.
The practice is first hinted at in the story of Polycarp's martyrdom in
the mid second century. While Peter's shadow. Paul's handkerchiefs,
and Elisha's bones prO"vide precedents of sorts, 41 the obsession shows
a serious misunderstanding of the Gospel. It comes perilously near
the border between faith and superstition and magic, and opens a
door for the bogus and the fraud which was ruthlessly exploited in the
Middle Ages.
I have not come across any record during this period of miraculous
deliverance from martyrdom. The amusing story of the rescue of
Dionysius of Alexandria by a wedding-party during the Decian
persecution was a matter of providential timing. but did not involve
the supernatural. What was miraculous was the almost super-human
fortitude that the martyrs showed in the face of torture. Eyewitnesses
write this about Blandina, the slave-girl of Lyons:

Blandina was filled with such power that those who took it in turns to
subject her to every kind of torture from morning to night were
exhausted by their efforts and confessed themselves beaten-they could
think of nothing else to do to her ... But the blessed woman. wrestling
magnificently, grew in strength as she proclaimed the faith, and found
refreshment. rest, and insensibility to her sufferings in uttering the
words: 'I am a Christian; we do nothing to be ashamed of. ' 4 "

As regards other miraculous events, there is the story of the


'thundering legion '-rain sent in answer to Christian prayers-43 but
this may be looked on as an answer to prayer rather than a miracle
proper. I find it difficult to believe the story of the Cross in the sky
which Constantine the Great said he saw before the Battle of Milvian
Bridge in 312 (although Constantine swore to Eusebius that it was
true). It seems very much the afterthought of an old man looking
back on the past, and reading into it what he wanted to find:14
Eusebius says nothing about it in his History. but only in the Life of
Constantine. written after the Emperor's death.

Miracles East of the Roman Empire


The history of the spread of Christianity east of the Roman Empire
provides no general statements like those of the Fathers to guide us.
On the whole, those historians and chroniclers who seem careful and
trustworthy say little about miracles, and therefore when they do
mention miracles, they merit attention.
109
Churchman
The first Bishop of Arbil, in Mesopotamia, is said to have been
converted in 99 A.D. when he saw the Syrian evangelist Addai raise a
man from the dead. Mashiha-Zakha mentions this ~uite casually,
basing his account on a written second century source. 5 He also tells
the story of a healing performed by Shahlufa, a later Bishop of Arbil.
about 270.

Shahlufa grew more and more aflame with the ardour of God's love:
it was he who baptised the inhabitants of the village of Teii-Niaha into
the religion of the Blessed Trinity. He did this by a miracle, by means
of which the Saviour was pleased to demonstrate that his servant was
speaking the truth.
One of the headmen of the village, called Nakkiha, was seriously ill
with dysentery. As his illness only went on increasing daily. and no one
in his village was found who was able to cure him, his parents took him
to the city of Arbil ... Shahlufa went to visit him, at a time when all
the relatives who had come with him were assembled. He promised
them that he would heal him completely of the disease, if they did all
he asked of them; and he began to expound the Christian faith. proving
it from the Divine Books ...
He showed them that Jesus. crucified by the Jews in Jerusalem. is
God. Son of God, and that he suffered only of his own free choice. and
in order to deliver us from slavery to demons. All agreed with what he
said, and promised him that if he proved the truth of his words by
healing Nakkiha, they would believe ...
St. Shahlufa began to pray, and healed this incurable disease by the
sign of the cross-for everything is easy for God. A great number of
the inhabitants of the village believed the word of God and received
baptism. 46

The Church in Persia and Mesopotamia suffered long and savage


persecution from the Sassanid Emperor Shapur II. The persecution
lasted from 339 to 379, and a list of 16,000 names of known martyrs was
later compiled. After the first fierce outbreak, some time before 344,
a Jew taunted the Christian scholar Afrahat thus:

Jesus, who is called your Teacher, wrote for you that 'if you have
faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain. Be
removed and be cast into the sea: it shall be done. ' 47 Apparently.
therefore. there is not one wise man in all your people whose prayer is
heard. and who asks of God that your persecutors shall cease from
troubling you. For clearly it is written for you in that passage: 'Nothing
shall be impossible unto you. ' 4H

In reply Afrahat spoke of many Old Testament prophets who had


suffered for their faith. and went on:
Great and excellent is the martyrdom of Jesus. He surpassed in
affliction and confession all who were before or after. And after Jesus.

110
Miracles in Church History

Apostles in turn had been martyrs. And also concerning our brothers
who are in the West, in the days of Diocletian there came great
affliction and persecution to the whole Church of God ...
In our days these things have happened to us on account of our sins,
but also in order that what is written might be fulfilled, even as our
Redeemer said, 'All these things must come to pass. ' 49 The Apostle also
said: 'We also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. ' 511
This is our honour, in which many confess, and are slain. 5 1

The Life of Mar Aba, written before 579 A.D., gives an account of
the life and sufferings of the greatest of the Patriarchs of the East,
who held office from 539 to 552. Only one miraculous event, if we
choose so to interpret it, is recorded-in connexion with his
conversion. He was a land valuation officer, and one day, during the
spring floods, came down to a ferry to cross the Tigris and visit his
home. Yusuf, a Christian in the dress of a mendicant, was already
sitting in the boat. The officer turned him out, and ordered the
ferryman to cross over. A storm arose, and the ferry was beaten back
by the wind. The Life of Mar Aba says this happened three times, but
another account says twice. Finally the officer allowed Yusuf to travel
across with him, and the wind fell completely. Arrived at the other
bank, the officer showed his real greatness by asking Yusuf's
forgiveness. Yusuf replied that a disciple of Jesus was forbidden to
harbour a grudge. The quiet witness of this answer led to further
questions, attendance at church, and finally baptism. 52 I feel
reasonably certain that the conversion of this outstanding man of God
was brought about through the combination of a 'nature-miracle' and
a quiet personal testimony.
Thomas of Marga, in his Book of Governors (about 840), tells the
stories of four outstanding missionaries among the Turks and Chinese
during the patriarchate of Timothy I (780-823). In the case of three of
them, no miracles are recorded, and Thomas says clearly he had
heard of none. The fourth was Elijah, who evangelized Mogan, to
the west of the Caspian Sea. He was a simple ascetic, a man of deep
and practical devotional life and great faith in the power of prayer.
He had his own method of concentration:

Mar Abraham told me that ... every time he repeated aloud the
verse of a Psalm, Elijah would say 'Hallelujah! Glory be to thee,
0 God' in such a way that his mind was compelled to think about the
verse which was coming next ... He cared less about the quantity of
the Psalms which he sang than for the doubling of the riches and the
concentration of the thoughts which were in his mind. It seemed a
waste of time to him that others were saying the Psalter of David twice
in a day and night, while minds were building up. and hiding, and
judging. and condemning, and buying, and selling. 53
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Churchman

Called by Timothy to do pioneer missionary work, Elijah insisted


on being consecrated in his own monastery on the day of Pentecost.
When he arrived at Moqan he went round the streets of the city
calling on the people to turn from the worship of tree-demons to God
the Lord of all. At first people mocked and laughed at him. It was
when a plague with ulcers and tumours broke out that he was able to
get a response. He offered to heal the people if they would promise to
give up their idolatry and turn to God.

And he blessed the oil taken from the phial which he had upon him.
and by prayer. and the sign of the Cross. and the making mention of
the Father. and the Son, and the lloly Ghost. he healed them all. 54

He also cast out evil spirits, and preached the Gospel. They were
convinced and converted, but there was still a barrier:

We have Yazd. whom our grandfathers, and ourselves. have wor-


shipped. and we are afraid of the injuries he might do us. If. however.
your God. in whom you made us place our trust ... is able t_o slay and
destroy Yazd. then ... you can do what you like with us. 50

Elijah, however, asked for no miracle. 'Where is this Yazd, the son of
a b-?' he asked sharply. They took him to a hilltop and showed him
a mighty oak tree, situated in a valley. He called for an axe, rolled up
his sleeves and girded up his loins, and went down alone to fell the
tree. In an incident remarkably parallel to what Boniface had done in
Germany a century earlier, Elijah severed the main trunk, and then
called the watching people to come and make a bonfire of the wood.
Now the people were ready for baptism. They built a church; their
lives were changed; Elijah baptized many, and ordained priests and
deacons. Later. on a visit to Mesopotamia, he was called to help a
Muslim woman who was in the power of an evil spirit. He laid his
Book of the Gospels on the breast of the afflicted woman, and
commanded the devil to come out and depart to Harran in the west.
The devil shouted in Arabic 'Ho, let us go to Harran!' many times.
getting farther and farther away. The woman was completely cured,
and confessed, 'There is no true belief except among the holy
Christian people·. 56
The East was also infected with the desire for relics, and round about
370 Ephraim the Syrian wrote a hymn about relics of St. Thomas said
to have been brought by a merchant from India. Its refrain runs:

Blessed is the might that dwells in the hallowed bones! 57

There is an amusing story told by Thomas of Marga about the


sojourn of a Bishop of Nineveh in Antioch, on his way back from an
embassy to Constantinople.
112
Miracles in Church History

While they were resting in one of the churches of this city Mar
Ishu'-Yab saw a white marble casket ... and he saw the mighty deeds
that were wrought there by means of it, and he learned that there were
inside it some of the bones, and portions of the bodies of the blessed
Apostles, and being hot with the desire of his love for the casket in
which these were laid, he offered up prayers ... that by his means it
might be brought to this country. Not knowing what to do, he
entrusted the matter to God, asking that, while he used all human
efforts, Christ would protect and defend him in a Divine manner. This
actually happened, for he stole it and brought it with him here with all
the honour due to the holy pearls it contained. 5 x
But I should like to conclude this brief account of the Church of the
East on a more positive note. In June 1977 I had the privilege of
visiting a little Assyrian Christian village in the hills north of
Rezaiyeh, in north-western Iran near the Turkish border. The village
bore the name of Kalisa (Church), and in the centre of it was a plain
rectangular building said to date from 550 A.D. It had a flat roof,
surmounted by three crosses, with a Persian flag flying from it. We
entered the very low door and found ourselves in the nave of a small
church, which had been recently furnished with benches. The
sanctuary was higher up, behind a curtain, and north of it was a
second small chapel. North of the nave was a third, carpeted chapel
which we were told was for private devotions, and beside it, opening
on the outside, a room where the sick were brought for healing. It
was a moving thought that for fourteen hundred years village
Christians had worshipped there, and brought their sick for healing.
Miracles in the West-Bede
For some account of miracles in the West after the fall of the Roman
Empire we can turn to the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) whose
History of the English Church and People covers the period up to 731.
and contains many stories of miracles. In the Preface to his
translation Sherley-Price has a valuable discussion of the miraculous
element. He points out that Bede based his History on both written
sources and verbal statements of people he considered reliable.
When we examine the miracles themselves, we find that some may be
discounted as plagiarisms of Gospel miracles ... Others arc clearly
pious forgeries ... Others may spring from pcrfervid imagination or
from coincidence. Others, again. may be due to causes that would not
be regarded as miraculous today. But even when ruthless pruning has
greatly reduced their number, there remains an indissoluble core that
cannot be explained by any known natural means. and attributable
solely to the supernatural power of God ... God is not bound or
restricted in the means by which he manifests his power or answers the
prayer of faith ... It is an indication of the temper of the age in which
we live that some who profess and call themselves Christians have so
little faith in the reality of God's power and mercy that they regard
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an unmistakable answer to prayer as something unlooked for and


extraordinary. almost indecent. It was otherwise among the Christians
of Bede's day.~ 9

Of the miracles recorded over a dozen could be classified as


'nature-miracles'. Some are quite incredible, but several refer to
wind-changes in answer to prayer-stormy sea calmed because the
wind dropped, and incendiary attempts frustrated when the wind
suddenly veered round.
There is one not very convincing story of exorcism.
The story of the raising of a dead man to life seems a pious fiction,
with an 'improving' account of his recollections of purgatory, hell and
heaven.
The rest-about a dozen and a half-are miracles of healing. Most
of these are associated with sacred places, graveyards or relics. I am
tempted to quote one, because it seems a vivid eyewitness account,
and suggests what Charismatics would call 'resting in the Spirit'. At
the place where good King Oswald had been killed in battle by the
heathen. a sick horse was cured, and its owner rode on to an inn:

On his arrival he found a girl, the niece of the landlord. who had long
suffered from paralysis; and when members of the household told him
about the girl's disease, he began to describe to them the place where
his horse had been cured. So they put the girl into a cart. took her to
the place, and laid her down. Once there, she fell asleep and. on
wakening. she found herself restored to health. She asked for water.
and washed her face; then she tidied her hair. adjusted her linen
headgear, and returned home on foot in perfect health with those who
had brought her. 60

A few of the healings described were carried out personally by


someone with a gift of healing. One such was John of Beverley, an
older contemporary of Bede 's. He cured a dumb boy, a thane's
servant at the point of death. and a nun whose arm had swollen up
after an inexpert 'bleeding'. Here is part of the account of the nun's
healing, give"n to Bede by an eyewitness:

He went in. taking me with him to sec the girl who ... lay helpless and
in great pain, with her arm swollen to such a size that she could not
bend her elbow. The bishop stood and said a prayer over her. and
having given her his blessing, went out. Some while later. as we were
sitting at table. someone came in and asked me to come outside. saying
'Coenbcrg'-for that was the girl's name-'wishes you to come back to
her room at once.· I did so. and when I entered, I found her looking
cheerful. and apparently in sound health. And when I sat down bv her
she said: 'Would you like me to ask for a drink?' 'Certainly,' I replied.
'I shall be delighted if you will.' When a cup had been brought and we
both had drunk. she began to tell me what had happened. 'As soon as
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Miracles in Church History

the bishop had blessed me and gone away, I began to feel better; and
although I have not yet recovered my full strength, the pain has
entirely left my arm where it was most intense. and from all my
body ... although the swelling in my arm seems to remain.· When we
left the convent, the disappearance of the pain in her limbs was
followed by a subsidence of the swelling, and the girL saved from pain
and death, gave thanks to our Lord and Saviour." 1

Perhaps the strongest evidence that missionary work was some-


times, though not always, accompanied by miracles, lies in a letter
dated 601 from Pope Gregory the Great to Augustine of Canterbury,
which Bede copied into his History, especially as the Pope himself
tends to devalue the miraculous:

My very dear brother, I hear that Almighty God has done great
things through you ... Let your joy be tempered with awe at God's
heavenly gifts, and thank him that the souls of the English are being
drawn to inward grace through outward miracles. At the same time.
beware lest the frail mind becomes proud because of these wonderful
events ... For God's chosen do not all work miracles."~

Some Later Instances of Miracles


Here are a few instances of miracles (or the lack of them) m the
Middle Ages, and since the Reformation.
Healing and raising the dead. Mediaeval Western Christendom
abandoned the practice of anointing the sick with oil for their
recovery," 3 and instead used the 'sacrament' of Extreme Unction for
the dying. Healing was attributed to saints, or to relics and places of
pilgrimage associated with them. As Francis MacNutt puts it:
Traditionally, Catholics have always believed in miracles. But these
cures took place not for the sick primarily. but as signs of a further
truth. For instance, if healing came about through the prayers or the
touch of a particular individuaL it was a sign that he (or she) was
extraordinarily holy. If a number of cures took place, they might be a
sign that the person was a candidate for canonisation as a saint. 04

This led to a great deal of hagiography, in which various miracles.


credible or improbable, were attributed to saints. A Catholic friend
enters this caveat:
My own opinion is that these stories arc not plain fact (though they
could have been. of course) but instructional: holy men raise the dead.
he was a holy man, ergo he raised the dead-and details arc added to
give the story some body. 65

The gift of healing was attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, and


many other mediaeval saints. Outside the Catholic Church, spiritual
healing was practised among the Waldensians and the followers of
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Huss. In the sixteenth century, healings were attributed to Luther


and other Reformers, in the seventeenth to English Baptists and
Quakers. in the eighteenth to John Wesley, and to many others
since. 66
I have heard of two instances of the dead being raised. St. Francis
Xavier is said to have done this at Cape Comorin in India about 1545,
but as early as 1584 a Jesuit in Goa reported that his enquiry 'revealed
no certainty on the subject' and that 'no one could be found who had
seen the miracle'. 67 John Welch, the son-in-law of John Knox, is said
to have through his prayers raised to life a young nobleman who had
been dead more than forty-eight hours. This took place in France
about 1610. and the nobleman later settled in Ireland and became a
man of some substance. 68
Exorcism. In the Middle Ages exorcism was incorporated into
Infant Baptism. The priest breathed three times on the child, and said:
·Depart from him, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Spirit.' 69
Witchcraft and occult influence were greatly feared, and those accused
of witchcraft were frequently burned, a famous example being Joan of
Arc. Protestants continued these burnings into the eighteenth
century. The 'Enlightenment' led to the abandoning of the practice-
belief in the occult was treated as an outworn superstition.
Other signs and wonders. In this connexion, one thinks of William
of Rubruck, a sincere and persistent missionary, who wrote an
account of his embassy to the Great Khan in 1253-55. He clearly
expected no miracle, and records with regret that there was no
mighty work which might have impressed the Turks and Tatars
among whom he travelled. We think, again, of Savonarola's heart-
searchings in 1498 when a trial by ordeal of fire was proposed by his
Franciscan opponent-would it be tempting God to look for a
miracle? (A heavy downpour prevented the trial from being carried
out.) Different was Alexander Peden, the Covenanter, who, when
the troopers sought him out, would pray: 'Cast the lap of thy cloak.
Lord. over puir auld Sandy', and many a time was shrouded in mist.
He listed twenty-four providential escapes, but when his time came to
suffer. he was arrested and imprisoned for four and a half years. 70

Miracles Worldwide-Modern Times


One might have expected a fresh manifestation of signs and wonders
in connexion with pioneer missionary work in the nineteenth century,
but though there were undoubtedly instances of prayers for healing
being answered, to the discomfiture of witch doctors and the like, on
the whole the renewal of the miraculous came later. In China.
Christians like Pator Hsi 71 (converted 1879, died 1896), and John
Soong 7 ~ ( 1901-1944). exercised remarkable gifts of healing-Soong
carried his ministry of healing to other lands, including Indonesia.
Since their days the flowering of the miraculous in many of the
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Miracles in Church History

younger churches has largely been contemporary with the spread of


the Charismatic Movement in the West.
Healing. Mention should be made of the pioneering work done in
Scotland in the '40s and '50s by Cameron Peddie. Peddie believed
that every ordained minister had potentially the gift of healing, but he
emphasized the importance of 'watching with God' for at least an
hour every day. 73
I have read of miraculous healings taking place in such diverse places
as Korea, Kampuchea, Hong Kong, Soviet Russia, Nigeria, South
Africa, and South America. The story of the revival in Indonesia. 74 a
land where the occult is rampant, is full of well-attested cases of
healing. I was myself present in 1961 in Sialkot. Pakistan, when a
fellow-missionary, Malcolm Duncan, was restored to health from the
point of death, and given five more years of fruitful service.
Raising the dead. Stories of this are rarer. 'Present-day missionaries.'
writes a Catholic, 'have told me of instances, but the point was God's
goodness to the person raised, not the sanctity of the "middle man" .· 7 ~
Demos Shakarian speaks of a man 'certified as dead by a doctor in
South Africa, raised to life when a group from the Fellowship prayed,
today triumphantly carrying his death certificate in his breast
pocket'. 76 At Afenmai, in Nigeria, there were many cases of healing
in 1966--67, including at least six instances of the dead being raised. In
that time of revival healing was expected in faith, and when in one
case a girl prayed for was not healed, the African Christians were
sorely puzzled. 77
Kurt Koch reports on the work of a 25-year old Indonesian
evangelist named Anna. He tells of her zeal for the destruction of
idols, her gift of prophecy, and healings of blind, deaf and lame. He
goes on:
On other occasions, she has even prayed for those who have died.
although only if the Lord commanded her to do so ... Once she was
led to a two-year-old child who had died. After she had prayed for him,
he was raised up. 7x

Gulshan, daughter of a wealthy Pakistani Muslim family. suffered


from paralysis, and was taken by her father to Mecca for healing. but
in vain. In the early 1970s she had a vision of Christ. and experienced
direct healing without a human intermediary. Later she was led to
make contact with Christians, and was baptized, taking the name of
Gulshan Ester. A year or so later she was called urgently to the side
of her sister Anis, but when she arrived at the family home. it was to
find that Anis had died in childbirth, and that the remains had been
washed and laid out on a bed. The account goes on:
I prayed. 'Lord, you put some life in her so that I can talk to her for a
while about Jesus.' Then at length I heard a voice. 'She is not dead.
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She is alive. I have added to her life.' ... Suddenly my sister moved
her arm. opened her eyes, sat bolt upright and looked around her in
wonder. 79

Shortly afterwards, Anis believed in Christ, and her sister baptized


her. Later on she died.
Smith Wigglesworth, the Pentecostalist plumber with the gift of
healing, tells the story of a woman who was raised to life, some time
in the 1920s:

I said to my friend, 'We will pray with her and anoint her.· After we
had anointed her, her chin dropped. My friend said, 'She is dead.' I
looked into her face and said, 'In the name of Jesus I rebuke this
death.· From the crown of her head to the sole of her feet her whole
body began to tremble. 'In the name of Jesus, I command you to walk,'
I said. I repeated, 'In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus. walk!'
and she walked. 80

Exorcism. Exorcism is commonly practised in the younger churches,


though I know from experience that there can be an obsession with
the demonic, and a failure to discriminate between devil-oppression
and mental or even physical sickness. A girl I knew who had severe
manic-depressive symptoms, found a service of exorcism less helpful
than electric shock treatment in a mental hospital. Dr. John
Bavington writes:

While not wishing to deny the possibility of spirit possession. from


my experience in Pakistan I can hardly think of a single case of alleged
possession which could not, at the same time, be recognised as
epilepsy. hysteria. schizophrenia or, more rarely, some other diagnostic
category. 81

At the same time, in a land where there is a strong belief in the occult,
especially in the wearing of charms and visits to the tombs of holy men,
demonic influence cannot be ruled out. A lad, challenged by a
Pakistani exorcist as to his identity, replied in the plural: 'We are the
spirits of the good people who dwell at the holy man's tomb.' I knew
personally an Australian Anglican missionary, the Revd. Sid Iggulden,
who was greatly used in the 1970s in a ministry of deliverance among
Muslims. But 'the ability to distinguish between spirits' 82 is essential.
Signs and wonders. A few years ago a visitor to China told how
during the Cultural Revolution Christians holding a service on a
hillside were made invisible to their persecutors. 83 One has to set this
story against the one Doreen Irvine recounts of how she and other
witches used occult influences t'o make themselves invisible to
Christians searching for them. 84
The Indonesian Revival saw many instances of the miraculous-
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Miracles in Church History

provision of food for 50 people, turning of water into wine for


Communion, and so on. 85
Finally, though it involves speaking, I should like to share the story
which was told to me by a Pakistani pastor in the 1960s. He was having
a meal in a restaurant, and discussing the Atonement with a fellow-
Christian. At a nearby table two Chinese visitors were having a meal
with their Pakistani Muslim host. In broken English they asked the
pastor-' How you know our language?' and testified that while he had
been speaking aboutJ esus in Punj abi, they had been hearing in Chinese!
Conclusion
Our knowledge of the incidence of miracles in the course of Church
History is very partial, and a study like this is bound to be selective
rather than comprehensive. It is not easy to draw firm conclusions,
but I would venture the following:
1. Miracles, signs and wonders became less frequent after the
Apostolic Age, but were never wholly withdrawn from the experience
of the Church. In spite of misunderstandings of the full import of the
Gospel, and distortions of its truth, God again and again acted
miraculously in grace in response to expectant faith.
2. In our day and generation there has been a remarkable renewal
of miracles. It is arguable that this has accompanied a greater
expectancy of faith, and a clearer understanding of the part signs and
wonders play in the Gospel of the Kingdom.
3. Miracles have often, though not invariably, been manifested in
missionary situations, as acts and signs of the power and compassion
of the living God. In areas like Indonesia where there has been
revival, miracles have multiplied.
My son John spent more than two years in a Hindu tribal village in
Pakistan, as a student of social anthropology. He himself saw
miracles of healing taking place in answer to the prayers of tribal
Christians, and gives this estimate of their significance:
In 1981 Christianity was only one of the many alternative paths to
salvation seen to be available to the tribal Hindus of Sind. and Jesus
was only one of many spiritual leaders who had their followings. How.
then. was Jesus to be shown to be different? ...
To be shown Jesus, the people of Sind had to be shown that Jesus
was and is real. This could only be done effectively by Christians relying
on Him totally, and not just on Christian scripture. Christian doctrine,
Western power, or Mission money. It was only when some Christians
in Sind risked their own faith by asking Jesus to reveal Himself through
miraculous works that those they wished to reach came to know Him.
And. having seen His Power and put their trust in Him. they began to
ask about Christianity, and about the Bible, and of the way of love. Kh
WILLIAM YOUNG is a retired Parish Minister of the Church of Scotland who had
also served as a missionary in Pakistan.

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NOTES

Annual Conference of the Scottish Evangelical Theology Society: Symposium on


Miracles I April 1987.
2 C.S. Lewis, Miracles, A Preliminary Study, Fontana 1960, p.70.
3 M.H. Cressey. art. 'Miracles' in New Bible Dictionary. LC.F. 1962. p.831.
4 Acts 2:22. italics mine. Bible quotations are normally from N. LV.
5 Acts 10:38, italics mine.
6 Luke 5:17, italics mine.
7 John 11:4.
8 Luke II :20.
9 Matt. 12:28.
10 Acts 2:22.
II Quoted in C. Brown. Miracles and the Modem Mind, Eerdmans/Patemoster 1984.
p.ll.
12 John 3:34. words in italics altered from speaks the words.
13 Mark 6:&-7.
14 Matt. 12:28.
15 Matt. 10:7-8.
16 Quoted in Brown. op. cit .. p.242.
17 Acts 10:38.
18 See the variant readings in Mark 1:41.
19 I Cor. 12:9, 10.
20 II Cor. I :22.
21 T. SmaiL in Theological Renewal. No.8. p.4.
22 Acts 4:29-30.
23 Heb. 2:4.
24 Heb. 6:4-5.
25 Ably summarized in Brown. op. cit .. pp.64-72.
26 Campbell N. Moody. The Mind of the Early Converts, Hodder & Stoughton 1920.
p.37 and passim.
27 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 39. (Ante-Nicene Christian Library). Justin
is paraphrasing Isaiah II :2.
28 Origen, Contra Celsum. 3:46. (Chadwick, Cambridge University Press 1953.).
29 Ibid .. 7:8.
30 Qucted in Brown. op. cir.. p.8.
31 Justin Martyr. II Apology. 6. (Foster. After the Apostles. S.C.M. 1951.).
32 Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. 85. (Foster, op. cit.).
33 Tertullian. Apology. 22. 23. (Ante-Nicene Christian Library).
34 Irenaeus. Against Heresies, 2:32. (Foster. op. cil. ).
35 Origen. Contra Celsum. 1:67. (Chadwick).
36 I.e. a simple Creed.
37 Origen. op. cit.. 3:24 and 7:4. (Foster. op. cit.).
38 Ibid. I :68.
39 Gregory of Nyssa. Life of Gregory Thaumatourgos. (Foster, op. cil. ).
-W Quoted in Brown. op. cit .. p.8.
41 Acts 5:15 and 19:12; II Kings 13:20-21.
42 Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. 5: I. (Williamson. Penguin Classics. 1965.).
43 Ibid. 5:5.
44 Eusebius. Life of Constantine. 1:28-29. (Stevenson. A New Eusebius, S.P.C.K.
1957. But compare Panegyrici Latini 6:21.3-6. and Stevenson's footnote on p.198).
45 Mashiha-Zakha. Chronicle of Arbil, pp.2-3. (Young, Handbook of Source-
Materials. C.LS. Madras, 1969.).
46 Ibid. pp.31-33.
47 Matt. 17:20.
48 Matt. 21:22.

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Miracles in Church History

49 Matt. 24:6.
50 Heb. 12:1.
51 Afrahat (Aphraates). Demonstration. 21. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.).
52 For full details see W.G. Young, Patriarch. Shah and Caliph. Christian Study
Centre. Rawalpindi 1973. pp.60-62.
53 E.A. Wallis Budge, The Book of Governors, The Historia Monastica of Thomas.
Bishop of Marga. Kegan. Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. 1883. V, 9. pp.502-503.
54 Ibid. V, 11, p.510.
55/bid. V,ll,p.Sit.
56 Ibid. V. II, p.517.
57 Ephraim Syrus. Nisibene Hymns 42. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.).
58 Budge, op. cit., II. 5, pp.127-128.
59 Leo Sherley-Price, Bede. A History of the English Church and People. Penguin
Classics 1955. pp.30-3 I.
60 Bede III. 9-ibid. pp.153-154.
61 Bede V. ?r-ibid. p.269.
62 Bede I, 31-ibid. pp.87-88.
63 James 5: 14-16.
64 Francis MacNutt, Healing, Ave Maria Press. Indiana 1974, p.42.
65 Letter from Fr. Mark Dilworth, Keeper. Scottish Catholic Archives.
66 See the representative list given in J.G.G. Norman. art. 'Spiritual Healing· in
The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Zondervan 1974. p.927.
67 Quoted in letter from Fr. Dilworth.
68 John Howie of Lochgoin, Scots Worthies. Scottish Collection. pp.123-4.
69 Peter Toon. art. 'Exorcism· in The New International Dictionary of the Christian
Church, p.365.
70 Alexander Smellie, Men of the Covenant, 7th Edition 1909. Banner of Truth Trust
1960. pp.461-464.
71 Mrs. Howard Taylor. Pastor Hsi, Overseas Missionary Fellowship. 1949 edn.
72 Leslie Lyall, John Soong, Overseas Missionary Fellowship. 1954.
73 Cameron Peddie. The Forgotten Talent. Arthur James. 1985.
74 Kurt Koch. Revival in Indonesia. Evangelisation Publishers. W. Germany. about
1970, pp.l22-4, 13~9. 158-9. and passim.
75 Letter from Fr. Mark Dilworth.
76 Demos Shakarian/John and Elizabeth Sherrill. The Happiest People on Earth.
Hodder and Stoughton 1975. p.l83.
77 Testimony of the Revd. Alex Muir of Canisbay. who was in Nigeria at the time.
78 Koch. op. cit .. p.138.
79 Gulshan Esterffhelma Sangster. The Torn Veil. Marshalls 1984. pp. 102-3.
80 S.E. Frodsham, Smith Wigglesworth. Apostle of Truth, Assemblies of God
Publishing House, 1949. p.37.
81 Art. 'Mental Health' in Heralds of Health. Christian Medical Fellowship 1985.
p.199.
82 I Cor. 12: to.
83 Brother Keith. Taped Report on visit to China.
84 Doreen Irvine. From Witchcraft to Christ. Concordia 1<)73. pp.99-IOO.
85 Koch. op. cit. pp.207, 209-11. 213-16.
86 Statement by John N. Young. Edinburgh.

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