Hi!<\/p>\n
I am a member of the church. One thing I never understood is this: There are movies, such as Breakthrough, a true story about a boy falling through ice, then being pronounced dead, and then his mother prays over him and suddenly he starts breathing again, and then he is perfectly fine with no brain damage or anything. Why do these types of miracles happen in other churches which don\u2019t seem to follow the pattern of worship, and the miracle may bring tons of new people to their church, but you never hear of these types of miracles happening to people in the church? Why is that?<\/p>\n
There have been several true stories about people being saved when they shouldn\u2019t have lived and it is in churches that aren\u2019t following the pattern.<\/p>\n
Thank you<\/p>\n\t
A miracle is not an awe-inspiring event or an unusual event that you have a hard time explaining. A miracle is an event that goes against the laws of nature. For example, the sun standing still for 24-hours could not physically happen but it did (Joshua 10:12-14). When people were healed by Jesus, they were instantaneously made whole. There was no recovery period.<\/p>\n
Someone drowning in ice water and then recovering is rare, but not unheard of. For instance, I found one account<\/a> of a boy who drowned in ice water for an estimated period of 30 minutes who was revived after one and a half hours of CPR and had a full recovery. The boy in the Breakthrough story recovered quickly, but he still spent three weeks in the hospital and then went through physical therapy for several weeks. It was a marvelous recovery but not a miracle. The family believes it happened in answer to the mother’s prayer, but it cannot be proven. And what do we do with the other cases of recovery where there were no prayers?<\/p>\n Events like these are highly emotional. It isn’t surprising that some try to capitalize on the interest to gain notice. But for us, as people devoted to following God, we must look to what God has said about such matters. God will answer the prayers of those who follow His will (I John 5:14-15). But God sometimes will extend blessing on others (Matthew 5:45), and we are commanded to act in the same way: doing good to all people, but especially to God’s people (Galatians 6:10). However, the miraculous gifts stopped along time ago, just as God said they would (I Corinthians 13:8-10). Fraudulent claims of miracles continue, but God said He allows them to see who truly loves the truth (II Thessalonians 2: 9-12). The “miracles” are not true miracles, but people will believe what they want to believe and not all wish to believe the truth. See The Age of Miracles<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hi! I am a member of the church. One thing I never understood is this: There are movies, such as Breakthrough, a true story about a boy falling through ice, then being pronounced dead, and then his mother prays over him and suddenly he starts breathing again, and then he is perfectly fine with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[363],"class_list":["post-6891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-miracles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67295,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-providence-of-god-and-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":0},"title":"The Providence of God and Miracles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Osamagbe Lesley Egharevba via Unmasking Sophistry, Vol. 4, No. 2, April-June 2024 It is a common teaching among the Pentecostals that miracles exist today. We often hear various claims among different churches about certain miracles that were performed. Sadly, even among some members of the churches of Christ, there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/coming-out-of-pentecostalism\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":1},"title":"Coming Out of Pentecostalism (Article)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill Davis One of the greatest challenges for any Pentecostal to overcome is to accept the fact that God no longer works miracles today as he did in times past. Three years ago I wrote a series of three articles in\u00a0Seek the Old Paths\u00a0on\u00a0Why I Left the Pentecostal Church\u00a0(June,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-limiting-god-by-saying-miracles-dont-happen-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":2},"title":"Are we limiting God by saying miracles don’t happen today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a friend who believes, like many people, that spiritual gifts still exist. He says to believe that they don't is limiting the Holy Spirit. I told him that I see that as the opposite being true. To say that some have the gift of healing today and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-have-miracles-from-god-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":3},"title":"Do we have miracles from God today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Today, do we have miracles from God? Does God heal His believers if He so chooses, if it is His will or do we have what some call \"through the natural order of things people are healed?\" I realize we have no public healing today, but is the miraculous\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-miracles-happen-every-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":4},"title":"Do miracles happen every day?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently, in a discussion, someone said that miracles happen every day; and that if you anoint someone and pray over them, then they can be healed. Also, they say that proof of miracles today is the fruits of the Spirit. They \"defy the nature of man,\" so they are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89856,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/external-evidence-of-jesus-miracles\/","url_meta":{"origin":6891,"position":5},"title":"External Evidence of Jesus’ Miracles","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Do secular and Jewish writings mention or explain the miracles and powers of Jesus? Secular and Jewish sources from antiquity do not mention or explain Jesus' miracles in a manner that supports them. 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