22 神蹟——神显示祂的同在和能力Miracles - God shows Hispresence and power
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to
Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
22 神蹟——神显示祂的同在和能力
Miracles
- God shows His presence and power
耶和华应允以利亚的话，孩子的灵魂仍入他的身体，他就活了。（王上17:22）
圣经不是用单单一个词来表达神迹，它是由三个词——奇事，异能，和记号——所表达的思想混合而成的观念。
奇事是最基本的观念（神迹一词的英文miracle，是由拉丁文miraculum来的；此拉丁文是用来指挑起人诧异的一些事）。神迹是一件叫看见的人会感受到神同在和能力的事。显眼的天命和巧合，可畏的事情——诸如生产，并不亚于创造能力所成就的新工作——都可以叫做神迹，因为它们都带进这种神同在的感受。按这个解释领会的话，今日还有神迹。
异能强调神迹所产生的印象，并指出神的同在，这同在是籍圣经历史中神超然的作为表明出来的，而祂超然的作为是籍着那从无由创造世界的大能行出来的。如此说来，死人复活得生命之事——耶稣行过三次，且还不将祂自己的复活计划在内（路7:11-17；8:49-56；约11:38-44），以利亚、以利沙、彼得、保罗也各行过一次（王上17:17-24；王下4:18-37；徒9:36-41；20:9-12）——这都是创造能力的运作，不能逞用巧合或自然地运行来解释。复印书重复记载了许多病得医治的故事，也是同样的道理，这些事迹亦展现了超然的再造与复原。
记号之用来指神迹（此字通常用在约翰福音里，其中记录了七个主要的神迹），是说神迹由其表象征之意；换句话说，它们带有信息。圣经上的神迹几乎都聚集在出埃及记、以利亚和以利沙的年代，以及基督和祂使徒的年代。首先，这些神迹证实了神迹的人是神的代表及使者（参出4:1-9；王上17:24；约10:38；14:11；林后12:12；来2:3-4）；其次，它们也揭示了神在救恩与审判中的能力。这是神迹的意义。
相信神迹存在是基督教信仰整体的一部分。有些神学家既扬弃了所有的神迹，就不得不否认耶稣的道成肉身和复活——这两个圣经上最大的神迹，这样他们就不算得为基督徒了，他们的主张也就无效了。神迹之所以被以往的科学家扬弃，不是根据科学，而是根据他们从事科学工作时，所笃信的信条：宇宙有绝对的一律性。但相信创造世界的神仍旧能介入其中运行创造，绝非不合理。基督徒应当认定：相信圣经上的神迹并非不合理，相信若神今日原因仍能施行神迹也并非不合理，怀疑这些事才是真正的不合理！
MIRACLES
GOD SHOWS HIS PRESENCE AND
POWER
The
LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 1
KINGS 17:22
Scripture
has no single word for miracle. The concept is a blend of the thoughts
expressed by three terms: wonder, mighty work, and sign.
Wonder
is the primary notion. (Miracle, from the Latin miraculum, means something that
evokes wonder.) A miracle is an observed event that triggers awareness of God’s
presence and power. Striking providences and coincidences, and awesome events
such as childbirth, no less than works of new creative power, are properly
called miracles since they communicate this awareness. In this sense, at least,
there are miracles today.
Mighty
work (work of power) focuses on the impression that miracles make, and points
to the presence in Bible history of supernatural acts of God involving the
power that created the world from nothing. Thus, the raising of the dead to
life, which Jesus did three times, not counting his own resurrection (Luke
7:11-17; 8:49-56; John 11:38-44), and Elijah, Elisha, Peter, and Paul did once
each (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:18-37; Acts 9:36-41; 20:9-12), is a work of
this creative power; it cannot be explained in terms of coincidence or of
nature taking its course. The same is true of organic healings, of which the
Gospels recount many; they too exhibit supernatural re-creating and restoring.
Sign
as a label for miracles (the label regularly used in John’s Gospel, where seven
key miracles are recorded) means that they signify something; in other words,
they carry a message. The miracles in Scripture are nearly all clustered in the
time of the Exodus, of Elijah and Elisha, and of Christ and his apostles. First
of all, they authenticate the miracle workers themselves as God’s
representatives and messengers (cf. Exod. 4:1-9; 1 Kings 17:24; John 10:38;
14:11; 2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:3-4); and they also show forth something of God’s
power in salvation and judgment. Such is their significance.
Belief
in the miraculous is integral to Christianity. Theologians who discard all
miracles, thus obliging themselves to deny Jesus’ incarnation and resurrection,
the two supreme miracles of Scripture, should not claim to be Christians: the
claim is not valid. The rejection of miracles by yesterday’s scientists sprang
not from science but from the dogma of a universe of absolute uniformity that
scientists brought to their scientific work. There is nothing irrational about
believing that God who made the world can still intrude creatively into it.
Christians should recognize that it is not faith in the biblical miracles, and
in God’s ability to work miracles today should he so wish, but doubt about
these things, that is unreasonable.