To whom are miracles undeniable?

Fred Butler ‏@Fred_Butler 16h

@JoshElsom @dawest85 But could they deny it? The Pharisees didn't believe Jesus miracles, but they couldn't deny them.

Fred's argument suffers from a fatal equivocation. To whom were the miracles of Christ undeniable?

i) The Pharisees were religious Jews. They believed in demons. They believed in possession. They believed in exorcism. Indeed, there were Jewish exorcists. 

In his response to their accusation, Jesus exploits their belief and practice to trap them in dilemmas:

18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. 19 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? (Lk 11:18-19). 

So the exorcisms of Christ were undeniable for them, given their religious outlook. 

ii) But it doesn't follow that an exorcism would be undeniably miraculous for atheists. To the contrary, atheists find exorcism eminently deniable. They deny the precondition. They don't believe in demons or demonic possession. 

Atheists have two basic ways of deny miracles:

a) They try to deny the occurrence of a miracle. They say, Which is more likely: that a reported miracle happened, or that reporters are unreliable?

b) Failing that, they have a fallback. They concede the occurrence of the event in question, but deny the miraculous interpretation of the event. They say, Which is more likely: a naturalistic explanation or a supernatural explanation?  

iii) Furthermore, Fred himself doesn't regard exorcism as undeniably miraculous. For instance, Fred automatically discounts Catholic miracles. Hence, I assume that Fred automatically discounts Catholic exorcisms. 

For that matter, I don't know if Fred even credits evangelical exorcisms. For instance, there are Lutherans and Anglicans who perform exorcisms. Does Fred make allowance for that? Or does his cessationism preemptively deny that? 

iv) Indeed, that goes to the circularity of his definition. In my observation, this is how MacArthurites define deniability:

A miracle is deniable if a MacArthurite denies it. 

By definition, charismatic miracles are deniable. By definition, Biblical miracles are undeniable. 

MacArthurites make what they are personally prepared to believe or disbelieve the real standard of comparison. 

v) So what makes a miracle deniable or undeniable is person-variable. It depends on your worldview. What's undeniable for a Christian may be deniable for an atheist. 

At least, Christians ought to have different criteria than atheists for assessing reported miracles. Unfortunately, the objections that MacArthurties raise to charismatic miracles often ape the objections that atheists raise to Biblical miracles.