Ask Dr. Youssef: “How can I believe the miracles recorded in the gospels actually happened?”

QUESTION:

“How can I believe the miracles recorded in the gospels actually happened?”

ANSWER:

In my former denomination, I was often ridiculed for my orthodox faith. A bishop once asked me, “How can you have earned a Ph.D. from a highly respectable university—yet you still believe in the authenticity of the gospels’ account?”

I explained my views in favor of the historical virgin birth, the Lord’s miracles, and His resurrection. I mentioned that the apostle Paul cited tangible evidence of the resurrection, reminding the Christians at Corinth that the risen Lord had “appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6). These eyewitness accounts were well-known in the early church—yet liberal scholars, 2,000 years later, choose to dismiss those accounts on the assumption that miracles cannot happen.

I pointed out that most of the non-archaeological evidence for the destruction of Pompeii is a single eyewitness account by a teenager, Pliny the Younger. How can we accept Pliny’s account as historically accurate while choosing to dismiss the word of 500 eyewitnesses?

One of the great tragedies of American evangelical history is that when asked, “What is your evidence?” we offered nothing but sheer belief, unsupported by evidence. The writers of the New Testament offered rational arguments and evidence for the resurrection and the Gospel message. Likewise, we should not neglect to weigh the evidence and love God with our minds.