From the Editor Mar/Apr 2020
Do you believe in miracles? It’s a simple question, but the answer has far-reaching implications.
Two people groups we’d expect to believe in miracles are Jews and Christians. For starters, Judaism would not exist without the miracle of Isaac’s birth to 90-year-old Sarah and 100-year-old Abraham, and Christianity would not exist without the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Unbelievers usually view the Bible as myth and reduce the miraculous works of an infinite, all-powerful God to something they can explain with finite human knowledge and logic.
For example, Jeffrey Small claimed in his 2011 article “The Bible: History or Myth” on huffpost.com, “In an age of science and technology, too much of the Bible is simply unbelievable to today’s mind. . . . One of many examples: according to Genesis, the universe is just over 6000 years old. According to physics, the Big Bang occurred 13.7 billion years ago.”
“Many of the stories,” he added, “are also scientifically impossible, like the tale of Joshua stopping the sun moving across the sky [Josh. 10:13]. . . . For many of the miracle stories, natural explanations exist.”
Small has a big résumé. Huffpost.com calls him an “author, speaker, entrepreneur, theologian.” He has won awards for his books and holds impressive degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Oxford. He is obviously a very smart man. But smarts often have little to do with faith.
God tells us, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called” (1 Cor. 1:21, 26).
Those of us who believe in the God of the Bible, who performs astounding miracles effortlessly, will enjoy this issue of Israel My Glory. It’s about Elisha the prophet, God’s miracle man in the days of the divided kingdom in the land of Israel. In the excellent overview we’ve come to expect of him, David M. Levy tells us Elisha performed twice as many recorded miracles as Elijah. He even raised someone from the dead—something unbelievers would undoubtedly call “scientifically impossible.”
But we know “with God all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26). So at this time of year, when we celebrate the “impossible” resurrection of the Lord from the dead, let’s praise God for His wonder-working power and for the miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox
Editor-in-Chief
