One of the joys of being in Sydney has been the variety of Gospel opportunities. One of my favourites has been a series of breakfasts for lawyers at the appropriately named Silks restaurant. There were organised by City Bible Forum….the link for these is here. The talk includes a Q and 
A….please remember the context – this was done in an informal setting as people were eating breakfast in a public space. It’s not as polished as the pedants might like! Also apologies for the quality of the recording…it was just done on a phone. I havn’t listened to it….but I apologise in advance for any mistakes made!
This link is for the first of the three…The evidence for miracles.
2018-05-03 Evidence for miracles, David Robertson.mp3
Those of you who have read Magnificent Obsession will recognise that most of this is taken from the chapter in the that book that deals with miracles.
For those of you who keep hassling me about evidence….you can take these three talks (I will put them up over the next two Sundays) as my answer. Or at least the beginnings of my answer.
Magnificent Obsession – the video
Magnificent Obsession – Why Jesus is Great
Quality of sound very good, so no need to apologise. Did I hear you say that you don’t believe miracles happen today? Surely if something happens as an answer to prayer that is God intervening in a miraculous way. You acknowledge that your healing was an answer to prayer, so was mine. I call that a miracle. Glory to God. The question on most people’s lips is why some and not others?
Is it a miracle that someone heals when they are in a hospital? I imagine – being situated in a hospital – that they were attended by doctors and under clinical care at the time?
John,
this is why David’s commonsensical approach to nomenclature is refreshing. When someone says ‘Wonders will never cease’ (if people still do) they generally don’t expect to be quizzed about whether or not the ‘wonder’ they are referring to meets Hume’s criterion for being a genuine miracle. When, however, we are talking about Biblical miracles, we ought to be using the word with some rigour.
Some semantic latitude is required: is it less of a miracle that Jonah was swallowed by a whale now that we know that humpback whales sometimes swallow seals whole that are attacking the same baitball? Is it less of a miracle that the whale vomited up Jonah on dry land now that we have seen orcas flop right onto the beach to catch sea lions? The prophetic significance of the event is far more important than the name we give it.
By my reckoning it was Hume’s reasoning or something very like it that caused some scientists to oppose the notion of life, time and matter having origins. That — to parody the theme song of the popular television series — all finished with the Big Bang.
Yours,
John/.