Craig Keener, a New Testament scholar who has written a massive 2 volume, 1,100 page work entitled Miracles - The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, has here written a more concise work focused on documenting evidence of miracles in the modern day - which the previous tome had in spades, but Keener notes in the introduction to this book that the mere size of his original work was intimidating to many. This work remedies that problem, being much more modest - about 230 pages, or 300 with appendices and supplements.
I chose to read Keener's work on miracles because I got the impression that he was a thoughtful, intelligent person, who would not be glibly reporting bogus miracle claims. He has a PhD from Duke University in philosophy. His writing is solid, he does his research (this book ends with 40 pages of notes containing scores of sources cited), and given the subject matter - which he himself acknowledges is rife with bogus claims - it's vital to take a careful approach, which I figured I was more likely to find with Keener than others who have written on the topic.
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In the Preface, Keener covers the case of Barbara Cummiskey, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a teenager. From the age of 15-31, her condition gradually worsened, and she spent much time in the hospital. Near the end, her hands had become permanently flexed, so that her fingers nearly touched her wrists, and she was fixed in the fetal position. She was also nearly blind, and needed to be on multiple machines for life support.
On June 7, 1981, two of her friends arrived to her hospital room. Someone had called a local Christian radio station, and asked for prayer for Barbara, and more than 400 people had sent cards to her church intended for her. While her friends were reading the letters to her, she heard the voice of God tell her "My child, get up and walk".
Keener relays that Barbara was able to stand up immediately, and in addition, not only were her hands and feet normal, but she was also able to see again. Keener also obtained the testimonies of three of the doctors that worked with Barbara:
Miracles Today - Preface, pg. xiv-xv
The next day Barbara visited her doctor's office. Dr. Marshall recounts his feelings when, in the hallway of his medical office, he first saw Barbara walking toward him. "I thought I was seeing an apparition! Here was my patient, who was not expected to live another week, totally cured."
Over the next three and a half hours, she saw virtually every doctor in the office. Dr. Marshall reports that none of his colleagues "had ever seen anything like this before." X-rays showed that even her collapsed lung was no longer collapsed. He removed all the tubes that could be removed without surgery. Barbara reports his verdict that day: "I'll be the first to tell you: You're completely healed. I can also tell you that this is medically impossible." Dr. Adolph remarks that "her breathing was normal. The diaphragms were functioning normally." - He soon reconnected her bowel, which was now functional; her only health problem involved some complications from this new operation....
In December 2015, I first interviewed Barbara Cummiskey Snyder. Even though it was now many years after her healing, Barbara still brimmed with excitement as she shared her story. Dr. Adolph also confirmed his report for me personally, providing additional details. Another doctor who had worked with her, Dr. Scott Kolbaba, further confirmed her story for me.
Chapter 1 - What is a Miracle, Anyway?, discusses definitions of a miracle, before settling on "special divine action" (pg. 4). Keener then discusses the fact that if someone does not want to believe, nothing, including miracles, will convince them to, because there is always an explanation - and that this extends even to the general divine action of God evident in creation:
Miracles Today - Chapter 1, pg. 6
What are the odds of a universe accidentally arising with just the right, extraordinarily precise conditions to support life? Exact calculations vary, but the parameters are so exquisitely fine-tuned that their generation by chance seems utterly implausible - often calculated as far less than even one in a trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion. In daily life, none of us would stake our lives on such minuscule odds. From a Christian perspective, it seems a testament to some thinkers' faith commitment in anything-but-God that they would desperately cling to such minute possibilities.
Chapter 2 - Why Do Some People Assume That Miracles Don't Happen: Worldviews, notes that "Although some skeptics are open-minded, others place the bar of evidence so high that they will never have to believe" (pg. 11). Keener discusses the examples of Pharaoh, and the unbelievers during Christ's ministry who reacted hostilely to the miracles that He was doing right in front of their eyes.
Miracles Today - Chapter 2, pg. 12
In the Bible, divine signs get the attention of those who are open, but bring to the surface the hostility of those who are not (note again Acts 14:3-4). The biblical standard for a sign's " success" is not that it convinces everyone. It is that it gets their attention - and often in the process it exposes the attitude of their heart (see John 3:19-21, 15:22-24).
Chapter 3 - Why Do Some People Assume That Miracles Don't Happen: David Hume, Keener takes time to address David Hume (1711-1776 AD), who always seems to come up in these discussions, because he wrote an essay against miracles in 1748 AD. I cannot express how ridiculous I find any philosophical or scientific objections to miracles. The God of the universe is acting in a special way. The idea that someone would grant that God can make the entire universe, but not grant miraculous intervention by God, to me is nonsense.
Chapter 4 - Are There Many Witnesses of Miracles?, notes that in a 2006 Pew Forum survey of people from 10 countries on 4 continents, 39% of non-Charismatic Christians claimed to have witnessed divine healing. Keener also cites a study in which half of United States physicians surveyed claimed to have seen miracles personally. He also discusses types of witnesses, and notes, among other things, "When eyewitnesses are otherwise credible people with something to lose, we normally value their testimony over the skepticism of nonwitnesses" (pg. 27).
Chapter 5 - Do Only Christians Report Christian Healings?, covers the fact that in many countries, a significant amount of conversions to Christianity are on the basis of having seen miraculous healing:
Miracles Today - Chapter 5, pg. 31
In fact, reports of Christian healing are not even limited to Christians. Millions of non-Christians around the world have changed centuries of many of their ancestral beliefs, often despite considerable social pressure, and become committed followers of Jesus as a result of extraordinary healings. If all these healings were simply ordinary, run-of-the-mill recoveries of the sort that they witnessed in their pre-Christian experience (religious or otherwise), why would they risk social ostracism and leave familiar traditions for a faith completely new to them?
Chapter 6 - Is Healing Just a New Thing?, covers some historical cases of Christian healing, discusses that some early Protestants were suspicious of healing because of Roman Catholic abuses with regard to relics, and also how miracle claims transcend denominational lines.
Chapter 7 - Baby Pics, recounts cases of babies being healed. Keener documents the case of Malia Wiederhold, whose child was healed from a cardiac tumor after prayer. The testimony of Dr. David McCants, who examined Malia's medical records, is given. The story of Jeff Durbin, a well-known Reformed pastor, is also recounted, whose adopted child had been identified to have spina bifida via many prenatal ultrasounds, but was born completely normal. I tracked down a video of Jeff Durbin recounting the whole event, which is worth the watch, for those interested.
Chapter 9 - Medically Attested Catholic Cures, lists several Catholic claims of miraculous healing. Keener notes an important consideration for all of the accounts documented in this book:
Miracles Today - Chapter 9, pg. 55
As a Protestant myself, I do not share all the theology connected with these healings (or, for that matter, all the theology connected with many of the other healings recounted in this book). But I do believe in a God who hears the desperate cries of his children, whether these cries are directly or implicitly addressed to him.
Chapter 12 - More Medically Attested Twentieth-Century Cures, includes a section that references 10 cases examined by Dr. Richard Casdorph, and judged by him to be instances of miraculous healing after prayer. Keener also notes that "Dr. Casdorph consulted at least nine other named doctors and medical researchers to verify the diagnoses noted in his book", Miracles.
This chapter also includes some testimony of doctors associated with the ministry of the faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman (1907-1976 AD):
Miracles Today - Chapter 12, pg. 73
- Dr. Cecil Titus, on staff at a Cleveland hospital, claimed that he witnessed, at close range, a ten-year-old's clubfoot instantly straighten during prayer
- Dr. James Blackann witnessed spastic conditions and large cysts vanish in front of him and people crippled with arthritis set free
- Dr. Viola Frvmann witnessed children being healed of paralysis and blindness
- Dr. Robert Hoyt in 1969 witnessed the sudden and miraculous healing of an eye
Chapter 13 - Some Medically Attested Twenty-First-Century Cures, records the testimony of American cardiologist Dr. Chauncey Crandall:
Miracles Today - Chapter 13, pg. 76
A forehead tumor for which Dr. Crandall prayed vanished within a day. He offers eyewitness accounts of a disabled woman, man, and child each instantly cured during prayer; of a child's deafness instantly cured during prayer; and of the full recovery of a dying woman whose organs had been shutting down. Another woman's large, inoperable tumor disappeared spontaneously after prayer, and CT-scan results attested the quick healing of a man's inoperable large lung tumor after prayer.
Keener also recounts several other contemporary testimonies from doctors of what they consider to be miraculous cases of healing, including:
Miracles Today - Chapter 13, pg. 77-78
- Dr. Mirtha Venero Boza provides an eyewitness report of a severe burn that healed during prayer
- Dr. Tonye Briggs attests as an eyewitness to the dramatic closing of a massive wound overnight after prayer
- Feeling consistently urged by the Spirit, Dr. Dave Walker prayed for Tessa, a comatose toddler who had swallowed insecticide. Although he felt awkward in his prayer, within ten minutes "Tessa opened her eyes, sat up and said she was thirsty," "completely healed in an instant" and with "no after-effects whatsoever."
Chapter 16 - Do Blind People Still Receive Sight? Witnesses, covers miraculous healing from total or partial blindness. For instance, Keener notes the healing of one man who had physical damage to his eyes due to an acid injury 50 years beforehand:
Miracles Today - Chapter 16, pg. 96
Such accounts are not limited to Africa or Asia. The following chapter recounts medically documented cases from Europe and North America. Also, my friend Randy Clark, who has his doctorate of ministry from United Theological Seminary and has taught there in the doctor of ministry track in Christian healing, recounts hearing from a pastor in Goiania, Brazil, after he took a ministry team there. Despite instructions to pray as quickly as possible for individuals because so many people were seeking prayer, one woman on Randy's team kept praying for four hours for a man blinded fifty years earlier by acid in his eyes. "His eyes were white from about an eighth of an inch thickness of scar tissue that covered the entire pupil and cornea." But while six people were healed of blindness that night, this man was not, and the next day the team returned to the US. Several days later, however, Randy received an excited call from the local pastor. On the third morning after the prayer, the man suddenly awoke "with brand-new eyes and clear vision." The doctors at the hospital kept asking him how this had happened, and the pastor said this was "the greatest miracle in the history of our city."
Keener also notes cases of cataracts disappearing immediately after prayer:
Miracles Today - Chapter 16, pg. 97-98
I mentioned earlier that in some cases witnesses report cataracts vanishing, something that does not occur naturally without medical intervention. One of these accounts is from my friend Tom Parrish, a Methodist district superintendent. He was visiting a Pentecostal friend, Yohana Masinga, who was ministering in a rural area of Tanzania at the time. Others brought forward a man with a cane whose eyes were white. Masinga paused for a few extra moments to pray for this man and then went on praying for others, until a sudden commotion erupted. The man who had been blind started shouting in his language and running around. As he passed by Tom, he stopped momentarily; Tom, being white, stood out. Tom did not understand the local language, but he did not have to wait for his friends to translate what the man was shouting about. The man's eyes were no longer white, but looked completely normal.
Likewise, a Filipino seminarian, Chester Allan Tesoro, visited a church on the island of Mindanao that was pastored by a friend, where many miracles were being reported. Tesoro told me that he had noticed an older woman whose eyes were completely white; after the service, he suddenly heard her shouting, "I can see! I can see!" Initially she could see only light, but then she began to see color. Tesoro was able to get close enough to recognize that her eyes were no longer white but brown.
Flint McGlaughlin, director of enterprise research at Cambridge's Transforming Business project, shared with me his experience of praying in northern India for a blind man with clouded eyes. Robin Shields, who was also present, separately confirmed Flint's report of what happened next, as well as sharing photographs with me. As the man received sight, he shouted joyfully and ran in circles; the photographs communicate his joy far better than my description could. Later, however, he began to weep as he saw children, and Robin asked why. "Because I've always heard the children's voices," he responded, "but I had never seen their faces!" The healing led to both this man and many others becoming followers of Jesus.
Iris Ministries cofounder Heidi Baker notes the first time when she "saw totally blind eyes, white from cataracts, change color and become normal and healthy." In a 2012 interview with John Lathrop for the Pneuma Review, Baker also spoke of a blind girl named Albertina in the village of Mieze. Albertina was about twenty months old, and her eyes were completely white. In front of both local villagers and foreign visitors, "Albertina's eyes turned from white to gray and finally to beautiful dark brown. We sobbed as we watched her actually see her mother for the first time." Don Kantel, who worked with Holland and Heidi Baker's ministry and wrote his dissertation about it, told me, "I've seen blind eyes opened." He recounts an example of this in an essay he wrote on development aid. "I was two feet from a blind man and watched his milky pupils change to a solid color - he could suddenly see clearly."
Chapter 17 - Do Blind People Still Receive Sight? Doctors, covers more instances of miraculous healing of partial or total blindness. Keener begins with a skeptic being healed of blindness in Denmark:
Miracles Today - Chapter 17, pg. 101-102
Danish journalist Henri Nissen reports how TV-2 in Denmark secretly recruited Roger Pedersen, a nonchurchgoer who had chronically impaired vision, to test a visiting Nigerian-born evangelist's ability to heal. Many people in the meeting appeared to be experiencing healing, but producer Thomas Breinholt and his team reasoned that perhaps the evangelist had planted actors merely to pretend healing. The evangelist didn't notice or pray for Pedersen, their own plant, who was sitting in the back. But when Pedersen responded to the call to accept Christ, he found himself healed. When Pedersen went up to thank the evangelist, the latter advised him to thank Jesus instead. The station did not get the story they expected, but they certainly got a story! Nissen reproduces in the book Pedersen's eye charts confirming his healing.
Keener also recounts the miraculous healing of a young girl who was blind from birth:
Miracles Today - Chapter 17, pg. 104
Medical doctor Nonyem Numbere recounts stories from her husband Geoffrey's ministry, including numerous miracles that took place. In one case in May 1975, Geoffrey prayed for a five- or six-year-old girl who had been born blind. Her eyes looked like empty sockets with skin draped over them. She and a blind boy were both healed, leading to the conversion of much of the Nigerian village of Dere.
Chapter 18 - Do Disabled People Still Walk? Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, beings with the account of a young girl being healed after a serious accident, immediately following prayer, and hearing an audible voice:
Miracles Today - Chapter 18, pg. 106-107
On December 24, 1993, fourteen-year-old Patricia Zemba was injured while horseback riding near Phoenix, Arizona. Soon after this, Dr. Marilyn Wells testifies, Patricia developed the most serious case of reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) that Dr. Wells had ever witnessed. Although Patricia's parents prayed for her recovery for weeks, a doctor suggested that they would need to institutionalize her. Doctors planned to implant a morphine pump, as they would for terminally ill patients; but the night before her scheduled surgery, on March 11, 1994, the family's prayers were answered in a stunning way.
As Patricia was praying, the pain began to leave her body. A voice said, "Get up." Not surprisingly, she was afraid to believe or try to move, so she said, "God, if that's really you, please give me more confirmation." Then the voice came even more authoritatively: "Get up." The thought seemed impossible to her; she had not walked or even sat up for over three months. But she tried to obey, and when her feet touched the hospital floor, she had no pain. For a moment, she stood transfixed in place. Could this really be happening? Then she walked down the hall. The night-shift nurse, knowing that Patricia was unable to walk, rushed over to her, warning that she should not be out of bed. But Patricia was now convinced that God had performed a miracle, and at 4:00 a.m. she started calling family and doctors: "God has healed me!"
Comparing Patricia's X-rays before and after her healing, Dr. Wells could not find any remaining traces of the source of her condition. Dr. Wells was unaware of any other sudden, spontaneous remissions of RSD in history. When she was interviewed five years later, Patricia reported no recurrence of the symptoms.
In this chapter, Keener also records the case of Ema McKinley, who, after an accident in 1993, was severely disabled for 18 years. She was suddenly and miraculously healed after prayer, and a personal encounter with who she believed to be Jesus, after her wheelchair tipped over on Christmas Eve of 2011, leaving her helpless. Ema's story is well-documented:
Miracles Today - Chapter 18, pg. 108-109
Ema was not done with playful surprises. Soon after Christmas, on January 4, 2012, she surprised Dr. David Bell. Transfixed with astonishment, he gasped, "Please tell me Ema has a twin." As Ema recounted her experience, he hung on every word, celebrating with her. A few weeks later she visited her RSD specialist, Keith Bengston. He had already heard the news but still expressed astonishment at how wonderful she looked. He was particularly amazed to learn that the restoration had been instantaneous.
When, on Valentine's Day, a nurse explained to Dr. Amindra Arora, Ema's gastroenterologist, that Ema was in an examination room, he protested. "She couldn't be in there. She doesn't fit through the door!" As he entered the room, he stood motionless, his eyes wide and his mouth open. He stared from her face to her feet and back. "Wha-what happened? What did you do?" he cried. "You know that crooked spine and the hand that wouldn't open? And the crooked foot?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know! What did you do?" He was amazed and grateful to hear the story. And the surprises went on, including surprises for Ema. In 2012, local news in Rochester, Minnesota, covered her well-documented story.
Ema's book includes photographs of her severe condition before her healing, including her frozen left hand and the infected leg, covered with RSD sores, that was nearly amputated. It also includes photos she captured when she surprised her stunned doctors and nurses by walking up to them, healed. A medical report from several months after the healing notes her "extraordinary recovery on Christmas Eve" in connection with an experience she attributes to seeing and feeling God.
Chapter 21 - Do Disabled People Still Walk? Vignettes, covers a number of instances of disabled people being healed. In the midst of this is the account of Harvard-trained surgeon Dr. Matthew Suh, who was healed at a church service from a torn rotator cuff, immediately after prayer.
Chapter 22 - Are Leapers Still Cleansed? Visible Healings, covers cases of healings where actual physical change is observed during the healing. Dr. (PhD, not MD) David Emmett testifies seeing a woman's goitre heal right in front of him at a service in Zaire. Keener also records the testimony of Wonsuk and Julie Ma, both of whom have PhDs, of seeing a woman's severe goitre, which was killing her, being healed immediately upon prayer.
In this chapter, Keener also records the healing of a young boy's benign tumor:
Miracles Today - Chapter 22, pg. 129-130
From birth, Sean had a benign tumor under his right eye. When he was four years old, his mother, Joan Andrews, brought him to a healing service led by Issam Nemeh, MD, at St. Bernadette Catholic Church in Westlake, Ohio. The tumor was unpleasant in appearance, but because removing it surgically risked even more damage to his face, Cleveland doctors had warned against it. Dr. Nemeh prayed over the tumor and moved on, but when, five minutes later, Joan glanced at her son, she shrieked with astonishment. "Oh my God!" she cried. "It's gone! It's gone!" The tumor had disappeared.
Keener also records an account of a young child healing from severe scalding water burns:
Miracles Today - Chapter 22, pg. 130
I could give various accounts of instant or near-instant healings of severe burns, including an eyewitness testimony shared with me by a medical doctor in Cuba. Here, however, I focus on a case where the eyewitness is a close and trusted friend of mine. Dr. Danny McCain is a religion professor at the University of Jos. I stayed with him and his family for three summers in Nigeria. When I was studying healing, I asked Danny whether he had witnessed any significant instances of miraculous healings in Nigeria.
Danny reported that he is suspicious of the sorts of healing claims in Nigeria that involve subjective matters such as improvements in aches (not that any of us enjoy aches). Yet he shared with me a dramatic healing that he witnessed growing up in the United States.
When Danny was eleven or twelve years old, his younger brother Randy, then a toddler, toddled into the family bathroom. The bathtub there, which remains today, was lower than a toilet seat. The family understood that the old-fashioned water heater discharged dangerously hot water, but they mixed it with cold water to adjust it until the water was warm.
Unfortunately, the water at the moment was only hot, and Randy was too young to understand these matters. Perhaps trying to reach something in the bathtub, Randy flipped over into the tub and began screaming. No location in the house was more than ten or fifteen seconds from the bathroom, and their mother, hearing Randy scream, dashed into the bathroom and snatched him from the hot water in the tub.
Randy was so badly scalded that pieces of his skin came off with his shirt. The hospital staff said they could do little to help him, and he cried through the night. In the morning, visitors from the McCains' church came to pray with them. Randy's skin exhibited serious burns, yet during the intense prayers, while Danny was sitting about three feet away from Randy and their mother's rocking chair, Danny noticed that his little brother had stopped crying and was now playing on the floor. Danny stared at Randy in amazement: Randy's skin now looked pink and new, especially in the area that had been burned worst. Their mother examined Randy, and no evidence remained that his skin had ever been burned - not even a blister. Danny emphasizes that the experience was impressed so indelibly in his memory that he would testify to it under oath in court.
The above story impressed me for more than a few reasons. Firstly, the one giving the testimony is educated. Secondly, he is skeptical of miracle claims. Thirdly, a burn being healed immediately is not possibly psychosomatic.
Another impressive account from this chapter is the healing of a man scheduled to have his arm amputated:
Miracles Today - Chapter 22, pg. 131
Tonye Briggs, now a physician in Texas, shared with me a healing that a colleague of his in medical school experienced when an evangelist was praying for the sick. Martin Okokowre's ulcerated arm was scheduled to be amputated the next day, but to even Okokowre's astonishment, it was healed.
Briggs noted that the wound had been quite deep and more than four inches wide; because it continually oozed fluids, the bandage had to be changed every night. Overnight, after prayer, the wound closed up and nothing but a small black spot remained on the site. The entire campus recognized the healing and was shaken, and Briggs witnessed the event himself. A number of healing miracles were happening in conjunction with prayer at the time, touching many of his colleagues.
Chapter 30 - Friends Who Used to Be Dead or Met Those Who Had Been, contains the only account from this section that I found to be compelling - the healing of professor Deborah Watson's infant sister after a serious fall:
Miracles Today - Chapter 30, pg. 170
Debbie grew up in the northeastern United States, where her father was a Baptist minister. After sharing her account with me, she connected me with her father, who supplied many more details. When Deborah's younger sister Gloria was an infant, forty-five years earlier, Gloria fell from a high location faceup onto the hard floor of a washroom. She was motionless, and as her father, James, tried to lift her up to rush her to the nearby doctor's office, it felt as if the back of her skull was crunching in his hand. It continued to feel that way as he carried her unmoving form into the doctor's office and explained to the doctor about her skull.
After about five minutes, however, the doctor seemed puzzled and asked where James had felt the skull crushed. James felt the back of her head again, and now it felt solid. Deborah explains that Gloria "was better right away," without subsequent repercussions.
In this section, Keener notes weather miracles, food multiplication, and even cases of walking on water. I did not find any of the accounts compelling enough to note in particular.
Chapter 35 - Why Don't We See More Miracles in the West?, discusses the fact that God's gifts and provision often include gradual improvement, and the use of natural means - such as modern medicine and doctors, which we are blessed to have in the West:
Miracles Today - Chapter 35, pg. 201
Everett's point in recounting this story to me was that God heals, but he also expects us to use common sense. "God provided me a job and health insurance so I can go to the doctor," he explained. " That's no less God's blessing than direct healing is."
Most of my African friends, including my wife, contend that life in Africa is a miracle. "In the West," they emphasize, "you have medical technology, and this is God's gift." God doesn't do miracles for our entertainment; he usually works through natural means that he already created when they are available. Yes, there are many miracles in Africa. But in many places in Africa, death in childbirth is still ten times as frequent as it is in Western hospitals.
God usually performs dramatic signs either when people desperately need them or when he is getting people's attention for the good news of Christ's love in a special way.
Chapter 38 - When Miracles Don't Happen, discusses that many of those featured in this book, who had accounts of miracle healing, also gave instances in which, despite much fervent prayer, God did not heal the person they were praying for. Keener himself shares personal testimonies of those he knows, who were not healed. It also contains a note on unanswered prayer:
Miracles Today - Chapter 38, pg. 219
When Jesus says that we will have whatever we ask for in his name (John 14:13-14; John 16:23-27), "in his name" qualifies the asking: acting in his name means acting as his agent, led by him (compare John 14:11-12, John 14:15-18; John 15:7: 1 John 5:14). There is an element of hyperbole, then, when Jesus succinctly promises, "Ask, and you shall receive" (Matthew 7:7-11, Luke 11:11-13). Although the contextual objects of the kingdom (Matthew 7:13-14) and the Spirit (Luke 11:13) are certain, sometimes God's greater plan differs from the details that we envision. Paul requested three times for Jesus to remove his "thorn" (2 Corinthians 12:7-8, evoking Numbers 33:55), which I believe at least included persecution (2 Corinthians 12:10). Yet Jesus's greater purpose in Paul's life meant that he kept the thorn so that he could also keep the blessings that went with it (2 Corinthians 12:9; compare 2 Corinthians 12:1, 7; also Psalm 119:67, 71, 75).
Chapter 39 - What Does the Bible Say about Non-healing?, contains what I thought was a good note on the prophet Elisha:
Miracles Today - Chapter 39, pg. 224-225
We learn in passing that the prophet Elisha died of a sickness (2 Kings 13:14), even though his bones remained so full of God's power that a corpse thrown on top of his bones came back to life (2 Kings 13:21). Obviously, Elisha's sickness is not a negative comment about God's power in his life.
Chapter 40 - Closing Personal Thoughts, includes a good summary of Keener's overall view on miracles in this age, especially in light of the fact that they ultimately temporary:
Miracles Today - Chapter 40, pg. 230
Lee Strobel also interviewed me for chapters 4-6 of his book The Case for Miracles. And Lee, like me, ended his book by addressing the subject of when miracles don't happen in this life. Miracles are signs, reminders that God has not forgotten his promise. They are temporary, but they point us to a hope that is eternal. Jesus will come to reign, and then he will wipe away every tear from our eyes. The public resolution to the question of suffering remains future, but God has given us enough sparks of the future in the present to give confidence to anyone willing to trust him.
I consider myself very skeptical of miracle claims. I find myself cynical towards such claims, because I know how many people lie - not always intentionally, but also to themselves - or don't understand the naturalistic cause of the recovery in question. I also have never personally experienced anything that I know for sure was miraculous, in the sense discussed in this book.
In the above review, I have highlighted the cases which I found to be compelling. Filtering these even further, and adding them up reveals that I found a total of 13 of the accounts to be quite compelling, and if they are true, miraculous. These accounts involved the testimony of a total of 12 named people who had medical doctorate degrees (MDs):
Keener notes throughout the book that there are hundreds of millions of reports of miracles in the world, and that this book, as well as his longer two-volume treatment of the topic, is but a sampling. That said, this book does document some remarkable cases. In light of the above cases in particular, I find the evidence for miracles to be strong. And, it seems silly to assume that these are the best-documented cases in the history of the world, or that every single eyewitness testimony to the millions of other cases is mistaken or lying.
I think this book is an excellent, concise treatment of the topic of miracles in modern times.