The answers is unequivocally yes, author, filmmaker – and former atheist – Lee Strobel says.
His new film “The Case for Miracles,” after his book by the same name, probes the topic in theatres this Christmas season.
“We see miracles in the Bible, lots of them in the New Testament, but is God still supernaturally intervening in the lives of people today? In the film, we look at cases that aren't just things you hear on the internet or hear in the hallways of a church, but these are well-documented cases,” Strobel said on Washington Watch Friday.
The actual number of miracles recorded in the Bible depends on large part on one’s definition of miracle.
Some apologetics sources claim there are as many as 250 miracles in the Bible, 37 of them performed by Jesus.
How does that translate to the times in which we live?
There are many cases documented in peer-reviewed medical journals that Strobel believes can be classified as miracles.
“One of my favorite ones, and this was documented by multiple medical researchers and published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, is a woman who was blind for a dozen years with an incurable condition, juvenile macular degeneration,” he told show host Jody Hice.
The woman had attended a school for the blind, where she’d learned Braille, before ultimately marrying a Baptist pastor.
“One night, they were getting ready to go to bed, and he comes over. He puts his hand on her shoulder, and he begins to pray. He says, ‘Lord, I know you can heal my wife. I know you can do it, and Lord, I pray you do it tonight.’”
At that instant, the woman opened her eyes and saw her husband for the first time, Strobel said.
“She said, ‘After years of darkness, all of a sudden, I could see perfectly.’ Again, it’s multiple medical researchers documenting this and publishing it in a medical journal,” Strobel said, adding that the woman’s eyesight remained for the rest of her life, more than 50 years.
“This is solid stuff. The only rational explanation to that is that God did intervene supernaturally in that case,” Strobel said.
It’s reasonable to conclude a miracle has occurred if four things are present, he said.
One, is there solid medical documentation?
Two, are there multiple eyewitnesses who have no motive to deceive?
Three, is there no natural explanation that can account for the occurrence?
Fourth, does it take place within the context of prayer?
Strobel also shared the case of Barbara Snyder, a Chicago-area woman who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a teenager.
Her condition worsened over 15 years. Then, on June 7, 1981, according to Snyder: while two friends were reading letters sent by people who had prayed for her, she heard a loud authoritative voice say, “My child, get up and walk.”
Immediately, she says she pulled out her oxygen tube, jumped out of bed, and stood — her previously curled feet were now flat, her hands unfolded, her vision returned, and her breathing and other bodily functions normalized.
When the ‘medically impossible’ occurs
Snyder’s doctor described her healing as “medically impossible,” Strobel said. “She was 100% instantaneously healed of the effects of multiple sclerosis.”
Stroble published “The Case For Miracles,” the book, in 2018.
He felt like the Christmas season would be a great time for the film.
“People are more spiritually open and sensitive during the Christmas season. That’s just a fact. So many young people, their language is cinema,” Strobel explained.
“So, let’s speak their language and create a film that moves them emotionally but also feeds them intellectually. So, that’s what we hopefully have done.”
