Thursday 13 December 2018

4 Reasons to Believe in the Christmas Miracle

Why the supernatural events of this season are both credible and incredible.

“I don’t believe that.”

I’d just read my four-year-old the story of the angel Gabriel meeting with Mary. I tried not to panic.

“Well, do you believe that God made you?”

“Yes, I believe that.”

“And do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?”

“Yes.”

“And that he rose from the dead?”

“Yes.”

After more gentle probing, it turned out it was really just the angel that she didn’t buy. But nonetheless, my daughter isn’t alone in her natural skepticism about the supernatural. When we stop to think about it, Christmas stretches our credulity. It comes complete with an angel appearing, a virgin conceiving, a star guiding, and heavenly hosts singing. How can rational, scientifically literate, 21st-century people like us believe such things, when even a child finds them hard to take?

Here are four reasons to believe in Christmas in all its supernatural glory.

1. Miracles aren’t hard for God.

If you’re familiar with the Bible, you’re familiar with an a fortiori or “how much more” argument that draws secondary conclusions from a greater first point. For instance, Paul reassures the Christians in Rome of God’s care by saying this: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). Paul argues from the greater thing to the lesser. If God gave up Jesus for the sake of believers, surely nothing else will be too hard for him to give!

By similar argumentation, to believe in the God of the Bible who created the universe and not to believe in miracles is rather obtuse. It would be like my daughters believing ...

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