The Healing Of Amputees, Nature Miracles, And Such Today

Sean McDowell recently interviewed Craig Keener about miracles, especially modern ones. Keener published a two-volume work on the subject a decade ago, which I've discussed at length, and he has a shorter and updated book on the topic coming out later this month. Here's a portion of the interview that discusses the healing of amputees and other modern miracles that people often consider to be of a higher nature (walking on water, etc.). For more about the healing of amputees, see here. Keener also discusses examples of miracles of the Biblical era that we don't see today. It's also worth noting that there are other ways in which the Biblical era is distinguishable from and superior to the postbiblical era in the context of miracles, and I get into some of those issues in my material on Keener's book. See this post in particular. Much of what happens with postbiblical miracles is connected to and dependent on the Biblical era, such as prophecy fulfillment and other miracles that affirm the Bible and the authority figures and events of the Biblical era in some way.

How To Argue For Miracles And Demonic Activity In Particular

Here's something I recently wrote in private correspondence about miracles. I was addressing a large number and variety of issues and providing links to articles that say more, so I didn't go into a lot of depth in the correspondence itself. I wasn't attempting to cover every category of miracle or every related issue.

Did Hippolytus pray to Daniel's companions?

Roman Catholics and other advocates of praying to the dead often appeal to a passage in Hippolytus as evidence of the supposed earliness of the practice. For example, Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott wrote:

"The invocation of the saints is first attested by St. Hippolytus of Rome, who turns to the three companions of Daniel with the prayer: 'Think of me, I beseech you, so that I may achieve with you the same fate of martyrdom.' (In Dan. II, 30)." (Fundamentals Of Catholic Dogma [Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1974], 319)

There are a lot of problems with that use of Hippolytus, and I've discussed some of those problems before. What I want to do in this post is address a line of evidence I don't recall having seen anybody else mention.