04.12. Conclusion

Conclusion As we can see, God performs miracles to substantiate and validate His Word. While God performed miracles throughout history, there are three major events that really stand out. The first is the world-wide flood at the time of Noah. God warned Noah about the upcoming judgement of the world. Noah believed God and obeyed by building the ark. The second major time is the Exodus from Egypt and the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Since this is when God revealed the history of the universe and the lineage from Adam to the Israelite people, He performed great miracles to validate His Word. The miracles also validated Moses and Joshua as people that heard God and that proclaimed His Word. God proclaimed his will and regulations. He also stated the consequences of obedience and disobedience. God would abundantly bless them if they worshipped Him and treated other people with love and respect. If they disobeyed, there would be severe consequences including being sent into exile and serving others. A good summary is found in Deu 27:1-26 and Deu 28:1-68. The third major time is that of Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of the early church. The establishment of the “New Covenant” (Jer 31:31, Luk 22:22, 1Co 11:25, 2Co 3:6, Heb 8:8; Heb 8:13, Heb 9:15, Heb 12:24) required miracles to validate the replacement of the Sinai covenant. Jesus and the His followers performed many miracles to establish that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah, that he died and rose again.

We see that God proclaims His Word and verifies it with miracles. We can also see that He does not continuously repeat His requirements and perform miracles to substantiate it again. We do see that He has sent prophets to call His people back to Him and these at times did perform miracles to validate the Word of God that they were proclaiming to the people. Written records by those contemporary with the events provide the most accurate account of the past, especially when substantiated by the archaeological evidence. The record of the miracles and archaeology substantiate the Biblical account of History and God’s Word, character, love and requirements. All this gives us the confidence to believe that the Scriptures are the true Word of God and the assurance of salvation.