The Use of Miracles

by Rev. David R. Simons

The Lord came on earth to establish an internal, spiritual church. By His every word and deed He sought to elevate men from externals to internals, from the things of this world to the things of heaven. His parables were stories which taught internal things, as He Himself showed by giving the spiritual sense of some. By His miracles, which were parables in act, He not only demonstrated special and unusual powers but taught internal things about Himself and His kingdom - the "heaven" that is within. "And ... the people were astonished at His doctrine." (Matthew 7: 28) "And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today." (Luke 5: 26) "And many of the people believed on Him, and said, When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" (John 7:31)

Miracles are unusual and surprising acts which attracted men's attention, filled them with wonder, and prepared them for miracles of a higher kind - the spiritual miracles of regeneration and salvation. The Lord turned water into wine in the outside world to open men's minds to His teachings, so that the water of external experience might be transformed into the wine of spiritual insight, intelligence and wisdom, seeing that "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." The Lord multiplied loaves and fishes in the outside world to prepare the way for the multiplication of spiritual ideals and Christian truth. And the Lord healed sickness and disease - the disorders of the body - to reveal the essential purpose of His coming, which was to heal spiritual infirmities and redeem man's spiritual life. "And great multitudes came unto Him, having with them those that were lame, blind and dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and He healed them: insomuch that the multitude wondered ... and they glorified the God of Israel." (Matthew 15: 30, 31)

By miracles the Lord did in the outside world of the body what He came to do in the inside world of the human mind and spirit. For this reason we are taught that all His deeds

"signified the various states of those with whom the church was to be set up anew by [Him]. Thus, when the blind received sight, it signified that they who had been in ignorance of truth should receive intelligence. When the deaf received hearing, it signified that they who had previously heard nothing about the Lord and the Word should hearken and obey. When the dead were raised up, it signified that they who would otherwise spiritually perish would become living, and so on.... Moreover, all the miracles related in the Word contain in them such things as belong to the Lord, to heaven, and to the church. This [is what] makes them spiritual and Divine." (SS 17: 3)

That miracles were performed primarily to teach internal things is clear from the emphasis in the Gospels on miracles of healing. The Lord could have healed the physical diseases of all men, but because His goal was an internal one, that is, to teach something spiritual, this was not necessary. By curing various diseases He revealed His mercy toward all mankind and His power to free us from falsity and evil. For the teaching is that

"all diseases [recorded in the Word] signify spiritual diseases, which are evils destroying the life of the will of good, and falsities destroying the life of the understanding of truth; in a word, destroying the spiritual life which is of faith and charity. Moreover, natural diseases correspond to such things, for every disease in the human race is from this source, because from sin. . . . As diseases represented the hurtful and evil things of spiritual life, therefore by the diseases which the Lord healed is signified liberation from various kinds of evil and falsity which infested the church and the human race, and which would have led to spiritual death. . . . Therefore the Lord's miracles consisted chiefly in the healing of diseases. This is what is meant by the Lord's words to the disciples sent by John: 'Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them.’" (AC 8364: 2, 3)

Yet although everything the Lord said and did was calculated to lead men away from natural toward spiritual things, although the diseases and disorder He came on earth to heal were internal evil and falsity, and although His whole mission was to establish a kingdom "not of this world," in the hearts and minds of men, still the church all too soon turned to external things for its faith and life. The external letter of the Word - the letter that "killeth" - was emphasized, which produced a literalism that was destructive of spiritual thought and life. The church itself became a kingdom of this world, a political power among the nations; and by claiming miraculous cures it sought to enslave the simple in heart and keep them bound in superstition and ignorance. So in our day the very thing - the miraculous power of the Lord to heal and save - on which Christianity was founded has been discredited. Reason and science-oriented thinking have relegated miracles to the realm of myth and legend. Their credibility has been destroyed for all but a tenacious few whose faith is basically sentimental and for the most part blind. Surely, the spiritual "sun" of love to the Lord has been darkened, the "moon" of genuine faith no longer gives her light, and the "stars" - the true knowledges of the Word - have fallen from heaven.

If Christianity is to be restored, if faith and confidence in the verity of the New Testament are to be reawakened, if a true knowledge and love of the Lord as Divine Man who has unlimited powers are to be re-established, then it is imperative that a new understanding of the Word and miracles be found. For the mind of modern man is not content with New Testament evidence. He wants to dig rationally into the mysteries of faith. He needs to see things in the light of reason and from a thought that is consistent with the science he knows. What is the purpose of miracles?, he asks. Are they manifestations of laws with which science is not familiar? Why, if they took place in former times, do they not take place today? Answers to questions such as these would themselves have to border on the miraculous!

The heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem claim to hold the key to a new Christianity. They are the Lord Himself explaining the spiritual sense of the former Scriptures and opening the way for the human mind to enter "intellectually" - with reason and with scientific-type thinking, now focused on spiritual things - into the mysteries of the Word and of miracles. (TCR 508)

These new truths teach that the reason

"miracles were done in the time of the apostles was that the church might be established. This was because it was entirely unknown anywhere that the Lord had come into the world, who would save souls; and because it would never have been received by anyone without miracles.... But now, when [the teachings of Christianity have] been received, [miracles] are no longer done. [For] the inrooting of truth and good with the gentiles is from external things; but with Christians, who are in the knowledge of internal things, it is otherwise." (SD min. 4724)

In other words, as men became progressively more rational, the Lord approached them on the plane of reason rather than on the plane of sensual experience. Yet it should be noted that the sensual evidence of the former Scriptures still stands for all who wish to believe. As the Lord said to Thomas, the doubting disciple: "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20: 29)

The key to an understanding of miracles revealed in the Writings is the law of influx. As the spiritual soul of every man creates for itself a body in which it can dwell, so life forces from the Lord inflow, by the consistent law of influx, to form and sustain all things in the created universe. By the law of influx what is spiritual flows in and orders what is natural to carry out its designs and purposes. The form of substance, the form and growth-patterns of plants, animals and men are all directed from within by forces of life flowing in, unseen and undetected, from the spiritual world. Seen from within the realities of nature are, because of the law of influx; perpetual miracles. Nevertheless, because they are constant and familiar, they are not generally thought of in these terms. Concerning this the Writings teach the following:

"At this day manifest miracles have ceased; and miracles have succeeded which are unknown to man, and do not appear, except to those to whom the Lord reveals them. For all contingencies [in the world of nature] are miracles; but invisible, and continual [ones]." (SD 2434)

We are taught further:

"All the things which appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by an influx from the spiritual into the natural world, and, considered in themselves, are miracles, although, on account of their familiar aspect and their annual recurrence, they do not appear as such. . . . The miracles recorded in the Word likewise took place by an influx out of the spiritual world into the natural world, and they were produced by an introduction of such things as are in the spiritual world into corresponding things in the natural world ... as that the heavenly bread and fishes were thus introduced into the baskets of the apostles, which they distributed to so many thousands of men; again, wine out of heaven was instilled into the water in the pots at the wedding feast when the Lord was present. . . . They were not produced, according to the insane notions of some of the learned, in violation of the laws of nature, but were wrought in accordance with the laws of influx." (Additions to TCR 1: 2)

"Miracles, therefore, are the effects of the Divine omnipotence, and take place according to the influx of the spiritual into the natural world, with this difference only, that such things as actually exist in the spiritual world are actually introduced into such things in the natural as correspond. . . . The cause of such things being done and being possible is due to the Divine omnipotence, which is meant by the `finger of God' by which the Lord produced His miracles." (Ibid.)

Although the first Christian Church was established by miracles, we are taught that miracles no longer take place because

"when miracles alone lead a man to acknowledge the Lord . . . he acts from the natural man and not from the spiritual. For a miracle imparts faith through an external way and not through an internal way . . . and the Lord enters into man through no other than an internal way, which is through the Word, and doctrine and preachings from the Word. And as miracles close this way, at this day no miracles are wrought." (DP 131)

The Writings strongly condemn claims of miraculous powers.

"What else are such miracles . . . than snares and deceptions? What else do they teach than that those who claim to work them should be worshiped as gods, and that men should recede from the worship of the Lord? . . . What have these miracles taught concerning Christ? What concerning heaven and life eternal? Not a syllable." (Inv. 52e)

In revealing the nature of the after-death spiritual world, with all its unique laws, the Heavenly Doctrine gives us the power to look at miracles in a new perspective, that is, as the Lord acting on earth as He acts at all times in the angelic heavens! For miracles are "memorable relations" -remarkable experiences - by which the love, mercy and power of the Lord are fully revealed.

External miracles - outside of the familiar everyday occurrences of nature which are ordered from the spiritual world by laws of influx - no longer take place. Still, there is a kind of internal miracle that is possible, that has taken place, and that is to become the basis for the formation of a New Christian Heaven. This is the giving of a miraculous revelation of spiritual truth from the Lord which in no way interferes with rationality or freedom. Concerning this, Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord, says:

"In order that the true Christian religion might be manifested, it was absolutely necessary that someone should be introduced into the spiritual world and derive from the mouth of the Lord genuine truths out of the Word. . . . The fact that I converse in the spiritual world with angels and spirits, that I have described the states of heaven and hell, and the life after death; and further, the fact that there has been disclosed to me the spiritual sense of the Word; besides many other things, is worth more than all miracles. . . . These are evidences that this has been granted for the sake of establishing a new Christian Church, which is to be the crown of all the churches, and which will endure forever. Being in the spiritual world, seeing the wonderful things of heaven and the miserable things of hell, and being there in the very light of the Lord in which angels are, surpasses all miracles. Evidences that I am there may be seen in abundance in my books." (Inv. 38, 39.)

At His first coming many people believed in the Lord, and said: "When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" In His second coming sincere Christians - rational, open-minded men - may well evaluate their expectations. How would the Lord establish a New Church? What could be more characteristic of His love and wisdom than to reveal the spiritual sense of His Word? Of what use would a thousand external miracles be compared to the sure knowledge of the spiritual world and of the internal nature of the Lord Himself? When "Christ cometh" the second time, could He possibly reveal more than this?

-New Church Life 1974;84:30-35

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