The Miracles Answer Book

5 min read

Miracles are obviously important to the person on the receiving end of God’s supernatural healing or provision. I don’t think anyone who has experienced one would argue with that!
But miracles are important in a much broader way; they matter because they grab people’s attention and, in many cases, they serve to change people’s minds about God and his offer of forgiveness and leadership in their lives.

The Miracles Answer Book by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg is a compilation of sixty answers (big surprise, I know) about how miracles function today. It covers everything from healing to visions and dreams. While I already knew much of the information, I also learned a thing or two from these pages.

Summary

Is God still in the miracle business today?
This is the question Lee Strobel asked himself. A former atheist turned Christian, Lee launched a two-year investigation into the supernatural. The results will amaze you and strengthen your faith as you discover surprising truths. Using the popular question-and-answer format, Lee will lead you on a voyage of discovery and discernment as he takes on tough questions such as:
Can you explain the difference between a divine miracle and an ordinary coincidence?
Aren’t there a lot of fake miracles?
Haven’t studies proven that prayer doesn’t make any difference?
Why is it important to know God acted in history? It’s so you’ll know He is able to continue to work today—in our world and in your life. The Miracles Answer Book will provide you with a more profound sense of the lengths that God will go to strengthen the faith of His people.

from Amazon

A table of contents presents each question, so if you, for example, talk to someone with concerns about miracles, you could open right up to that passage. Each chapter gets to the point, and can stand alone; they also flow into each other if read chronologically.

What Are Miracles?

Strobel spends the first few chapters explaining fundamentals. He defines a miracle as “an event brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature for the purpose of showing that God has acted in history.” From here, discussions of miracles become much clearer.

Another claim he tackles is that miracles are rare in our day. He enlisted a major research company to investigate this idea and came upon surprising results. 51% of American adults reported having some miraculous experience in their life—and while many of these were only coincidences, it’s a surprising number. God often works much more than we give Him credit for.

As he states later in the book, this doubt in miracles may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If Christians don’t believe God does miracles, they don’t pray for miracles, and none occur. One string of chapters explores the power of prayer and how it directly causes most miracles.

Dreams of Jesus

I’ve grown up skeptical of alleged visions or dreams from God. And like miracle claims, many are, at best, undigested pizza. But does God really speak through dreams today? The author says yes.

Dozens of people in the Middle East report coming to Christianity because of a dream. These aren’t soon-forgotten dreams about purple dogs falling from the sky, but extremely vivid experiences that are impossible to shake off. They often include information or biblical scenes that the person has never heard before, and always send them to Scripture.

One story tells of a man who dreamed of a blue book. For some time, he was obsessed with finding this mysterious tome and eventually found it in a bookstore. The blue book turned out to be a Bible—the man read it five times and became a devout Christian.

Before reading The Miracles Answer Book, I was unaware that such stories existed. God undeniably works through dreams and visions today, just as he did with Cornelius, and we can take joy in how he uses this medium to bring the Gospel places where Christians cannot yet go.

A Spectacular Miracle

Strobel spends some chapters answering the question, “What is God’s most spectacular miracle?” In his view, it’s the beginning of the universe. But I disagree with his view of how that beginning came about.

Strobel is a believer in the Big Bang. He says God fine-tuned this explosion to create the universe as we know it. It is true that the Big Bang requires an intelligent designer to work, but the Bible—not to mention the evidence—supports a literal six-day creation week.

Regardless, some of his points in this area still stand. The perfectly crafted universe is overwhelming evidence for God, and its existence is a great miracle.

Overall

The Miracles Answer Book was an enlightening read. Short, practical, and direct, it explores an area of Christianity sometimes overlooked today. It provided me with valuable information I will doubtless reference in the future; it inspired me to have faith and pray for miracles.

I recommend this book to any Christian. With sixty answers, you’re bound to learn something, and the included stories will encourage you that God is just as powerful today as in the stories of the Bible.

Thanks for reading!