Modern Miracle Stories Shared by Prominent Theologians

Augustine of Hippo, writing in City of God, attested to the continuation of miracles in the Christian church, particularly those of healing. He noted that if he were to record only the healing miracles performed in the districts of Calama and Hippo through the martyr Stephen, they would fill many volumes ^[2]. Augustine also discussed the miracle of Jesus feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, emphasizing that the wonder of the act is understood by considering the one who performed it ^[6]. He further observed that the evangelists, while sometimes differing in their narrative approaches, consistently record such miraculous events ^{[4, 5]}.

Tertullian, in Against Celsus, addressed the pagan philosopher Celsus's attempts to discredit Christian miracles. Celsus, unable to deny the miracles attributed to Jesus, slandered them as works of sorcery ^[8]. Tertullian also noted Celsus's willingness to believe stories of Asclepius healing and foretelling the future, while simultaneously questioning the eyewitness accounts of Jesus's miracles ^[3]. Tertullian argued that the Jews disavowed certain scriptures, like the Book of Enoch, because they spoke of Christ, and similarly rejected Christ's miracles ^[1].

Gregory Thaumaturgus, in his Oration on the Palms, described the miracles recorded in the Gospels as a continuous chain, leading and refreshing the Church ^[7]. The Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary on John 11:45 highlights that Jesus's miracles, such as raising the dead, consistently produced two responses: belief among many who witnessed them, and opposition from others who reported them to authorities like the Pharisees ^[10]. This pattern of belief and disbelief in response to miraculous events is a recurring theme in the Gospel narratives ^[10]. Augustine also stressed that true miracles, performed by God, proclaim His majesty and not the pride of those who might demand worship for themselves ^[9].

Sources

Introduction “1 Enoch (Book of Enoch), Introduction, section 2: inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Tertullian adds, “But as Enoch has spoken in the same scripture of the Lord, and ‘every scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired,’ let us reject nothing which belongs to us. It may now seem to have been disavowed by the Jews like all other scripture which speaks of Christ—a fact which should cause us no surprise, as they were not to receive him, even when personally addressed by himself.” These views Tertullian confirms by appealing to the testimony of the Apostle Jude.[4] The Book of Enoch was the”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 8.--OF MIRACLES WHICH WERE WROUGHT THAT THE WORLD MIGHT BELIEVE IN CHRIST, AND WHICH HAVE NOT CEASED SINCE THE WORLD BELIEVED. (part 12): to relate all those miracles, which the necessity of finishing the work I have undertaken forces me to omit. For were I to be silent of all others, and to record exclusively the miracles of healing which were wrought in the district of Calama and of Hippo by means of this martyr--I mean the most glorious Stephen--they would fill many volumes; and yet all even of these could not be collected, bu”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 4: Tertullian IV, Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen — CHAP. XXIV.: And again, when it is said of AEsculapius that a great multitude both of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge that they have frequently seen, and still see, no mere phantom, but AEsculapius himself, healing and doing good, and foretelling the future; Celsus requires us to believe this, and finds no fault with the believers in Jesus, when we express our belief in such stories, but when we give our assent to the disciples, and eye-wit-nesses of the miracles of Jesus, who clearly manifest the honesty of their convictions (bec”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — CHAP. XLV.--OF THE ORDER AND THE METHOD IN WHICH ALL THE FOUR EVANGELISTS COME TO THE NARRATION OF THE MIRACLE OF THE FIVE LOAVES. (part 3): those incidents which form the course along which these others have come to introduce the notice of this miracle into their narratives. Nevertheless, while different methods of narration, as it appears, are prosecuted, and while the first three evangelists have thus left unnoticed certain matters which the fourth has recorded, we see how those three, on the one hand, who have been keeping nearly the same ”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — THAT MIRACLE. (part 1): 104. Matthew proceeds with his narrative in the following terms: "And when Jesus had departed from thence, He came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and He healed them; insomuch that the multitudes wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God ”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — ON THE WORDS OF THE GOSPEL, JOHN VI. 9, WHERE THE MIRACLE OF THE FIVE LOAVES AND THE TWO FISHES IS RELATED. (part 1): I. It was a great miracle that was wrought, dearly beloved, for five thousand men to be filled with five loaves and two fishes, and the remnants of the fragments to fill twelve baskets. A great miracle: but we shall not wonder much at what was done, if we give heed to Him That did it. He multiplied the five loaves in the hands of them that brake them, who multiplieth the seeds that grow in the earth, so as that a few grains are”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 6: Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius, Julius Africanus, Methodius, Arnobius — ORATION ON THE PALMS.(1) (part 1): I. Blessed be God; let us proceed, brethren, from wonders to the miracles of the Lord, and as it were, from strength to strength.(2) For just as in a golden chain the links are so intimately joined and connected together, as that the one holds the other, and is fitted on to it, and so carries on the chain--even so the miracles that have been handed down by the holy Gospels, one after the other, lead on the Church of God, which delights in festivity, and refresh it, not with th”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “ANF Vol 4: Tertullian IV, Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen — CHAP. XLVIII. (part 1): Celsus, moreover, unable to resist the miracles which Jesus is recorded to have performed, has already on several occasions spoken of them slanderously as works of sorcery; and we also on several occasions have, to the best of our ability, replied to his statements. And now he represents us as saying that "we deemed Jesus to be the Son of God, because he healed the lame and the blind." And he adds: "Moreover, as you assert, he raised the dead." That He healed the lame and the blind, and that therefore we hold”
Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 16.--WHETHER THOSE ANGELS WHO DEMAND THAT WE PAY THEM DIVINE HONOR, OR THOSE WHO TEACH US TO RENDER HOLY SERVICE, NOT TO THEMSELVES, BUT TO GOD, ARE TO BE TRUSTED ABOUT THE WAY TO LIFE ETERNAL. (part 2): proclaim His majesty and not their own pride, wrought miracles of surpassing grandeur, certainty, and distinctness, in order that the weak among the godly might not be drawn away to false religion by those who require us to sacrifice to them and endeavor to convince us by stupendous appeals to our senses, who is so utterly unreas”
John (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on John 11:45: many . . . which . . . had seen . . . believed . . . But some . . . went . . . to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done--the two classes which continually reappear in the Gospel history; nor is there ever any great work of God which does not produce both. "It is remarkable that on each of the three occasions on which our Lord raised the dead, a large number of persons was assembled. In two instances, the resurrection of the widow's son and of Lazarus, these were all witnesses of the miracle; in the third (of Jairus' daughter) they were necessa”

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