Realist and anti-realist views on miracles

• Dunameis- powerful deeds, derives from the same route word for 'dynamite', miracles are powerful
• Terata- wonders
• Semeia- Signs, to call them signs indicates that the gospel writers saw miracles as signs of the arrival of God's kingdom
• Miracles are supposed to give a message

  • some do not believe the miracle and still take on the message
• Miracles can convert people to faith
• Miracles can be sensationalist
• For a realist, the most important miracle is the resurrection
• Without the resurrection, all preaching and trust in God is useless
• The resurrection is the foundation of the Christian Faith
• Providence- guidance or care, God is conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny
• General revelation- scripture, religious experience and miracles
• Many Christians accept Hume's definition of a miracle however, unlike him, they'd believe that they can occur
• Wiles rejected a realist understanding of miracles due to the problem of evil