{"id":42353,"date":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/miracles-or-resurrection-dont-violate-natures-law\/"},"modified":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T00:00:00","slug":"miracles-or-resurrection-dont-violate-natures-law","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/miracles-or-resurrection-dont-violate-natures-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Miracles or the Resurrection Don’t Violate Nature’s Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some people argue that miracles (like Christ's resurrection) are impossible because nature is a closed system and miracles would therefore violate the laws of nature. But John Lennox, mathematician and Professor at Oxford University, says that Christians don't claim that Jesus rose by some natural process that violated the laws of nature. Instead, Jesus rose because God injected enormous power and energy from outside<\/em> the system.<\/p>\n\n

Here's an illustration: Suppose I put $ 1,000 tonight in a drawer in my office. Then I put another $1,000 in tomorrow night. One plus one equals two. That's $ 2,000. On the third day, I open the drawer and I find $500. Obviously, when you only find $500 in the drawer, the laws of arithmetic have not been broken. $1,000 plus $1,000 still equals $2,000. What those laws tell you is that someone (in this case, probably a thief) has put his hand into the drawer and removed the money from the drawer. The laws of mathematics or the laws of nature or science can't stop him from doing that.<\/p>\n\n

Lennox concludes: In the same way, the Resurrection of Christ (and every other miracle) doesn't negate the laws of nature. The Resurrection (or another miracle) shows that Someone has reached into the drawer of history and removed something—the sting of death. So unless you have evidence that the system is totally closed, you cannot argue against the possibility of miracles.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3424,3450,3839,4099,4472,4671,4830,4900,4992,5297],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42353","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-apologetics","tax_ctp_tags-atheism","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-greatness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-miracles","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-secularism","tax_ctp_tags-skepticism","tax_ctp_tags-works-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\nMiracles or the Resurrection Don't Violate Nature's Law - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/miracles-or-resurrection-dont-violate-natures-law\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Miracles or the Resurrection Don't Violate Nature's Law - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some people argue that miracles (like Christ's resurrection) are impossible because nature is a closed system and miracles would therefore violate the laws of nature. 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