What is supernaturalism?

"Natural" is that system or kosmos in which we are placed, and which follows constant natural laws; and therewith man's agency, placed in that system, and in power over the lower part of it, according to his measure — a sphere whose laws are the subject of man's will, and in which he disposes of their agencies in this lower world. "Supernatural" is a power which in its activity is above and beyond that system. It may use the ordinary powers of nature; miracle does not consist in acting without them; but if it use them, they are not set in activity by the sequence of natural law, but by the will of the supernatural power, and by it directly. I light a fire, and produce steam from water; but here it is not the simple fiat of power that heat should be of itself; I produce it by natural laws on which I am dependent. God may by an east wind blow and drive back the Red Sea, or bring quails; but He causes the wind to blow where He will: this I cannot do. If Satan can do it as permitted, it may be supernatural also, but this is limited. God may order things so that we may fall under the effect of natural causes; but this, though divine ordering, is not a miracle, though equally divine power; it belongs to another sphere, the relationship between man and God. It is not in the sphere of natural causes, acting above or beyond them, to produce effects in that sphere.

Reason tells me what must be, testimony what is, hence reason can never go beyond the scope of its own powers, never really tells me what is, never gives me certainty. It is not its business to tell me what is, but from what is to draw a conclusion, necessarily, consequently, within the limit of its own powers. It cannot say yes or no beyond them. Miracles have nothing to do with the use of means or not, the character of the miracle may. Where will puts the powers of nature in motion when they would not be, or in a way they would not otherwise be, by divine will, there is a miracle, as dividing the Red Sea. Jehovah sent a strong east wind. That was a miracle (assuming the fact on testimony, we speak of its nature). The resurrection of the Lord, again a fact resting on testimony - here was no use of natural means, but experimental knowledge upset by a fact, not denying the general law of death, but reversing it in the fact, but a fact which confirmed the law; but was no law at all.

Miracle is God's intervention as above and independent of law. Man acts by will, but is not independent, or above it - hence his action is not supernatural, is not a miracle, though his will acts independently in it as will; he can use natural means by will, as subject to the laws that govern them, above their own experimental action when there is no will, not by the known divine machinery of nature going on, but set in motion by his will, on which therefore I cannot count as a necessary consequence; I melt iron, set wood on fire - the sequence of that is a natural law, but I set in motion the quality or activity in the given instance; I raise my hand - but there is no natural sequence of hand-raising, only that when will so acts, the consequence will follow - how, we cannot say, further than material means. Bushnell's definition: "a process from itself according to a uniform law," though nearest the mark is, I think, fatally wrong in the word "from" - say "within" only, and it is right then; also "by mere nature could not" is defective, read "by mere nature would not."

What is said, by some, of the suspension or reversal of known laws, in miracles, is a blunder; if it be suspension or reversal really, it must be of a law known or not known, and increase of knowledge cannot change it. That, I judge, is not the point, but exercise of divine will, so that, that takes place which, by the ordinary course of known laws, would not have happened, although the operation of known laws may be, by that will, set in activity. Thus, if a strong east wind dry a passage in the Red Sea for the Israelites, just at that moment natural causes are in operation - produce their natural effect, i.e., their effect according to known laws, only divine will sends the east wind.

There are miracles in which divine will produces immediate effects, independent of known laws - eminently resurrection. The effect of the miracle may vary according to the knowledge or ignorance of men, and men may pretend to miracles falsely, when ignorance is great; and Satan can work them by second causes and appearances, so that a sign or a wonder may come to pass. All this refers to the ways of God, and what He permits; but the fact of a miracle is the divine will being the immediate cause (causans) of what happens, even if natural causae causatae be employed. The devil may be allowed to use causas causatas in a way to deceive, by producing effects by them which, by the course of natural causes in themselves, would not happen.

We return therefore to the simple statement that a miracle is an intervention of God in the affairs of this world, in such a way that the intervention cannot be explained by the ordinary laws of nature. This intervention is for the express purpose of calling the attention to that which God is about to declare.

A miracle is an act of super-human power, whether wrought by God in goodness, or by the malevolence of Satan, either mediately or immediately. It is effected apart from what are called the “laws of nature.” A law of nature is simply that the same cause, operating in the same circumstances, produces the same result; but in a miracle, there is the intervention of a new cause, and consequently with a new result.

There is a common idea that prevails, even among Christians, that miracles mean the setting aside of the natural laws of God. They mean nothing of the sort. The natural laws of God — the laws that He has been pleased to stamp upon creation — are not altered by a miracle. They go on all the same. Men are brought into the world; men die. There is not an alteration of that. That goes on. What a miracle is, is not the reversal of what are called these natural laws, but the introduction of the power of God to withdraw from the operation of them in a particular case. The laws remain precisely the same as before. The laws are not altered, but an individual is withdrawn from the operation of those laws. That is another thing altogether, and this is the true and only true application of the thought. This alone is the truth as to a miracle. So in this present case there was no question at all about setting aside the ordinary operation of death. God acted according to His own sovereign will, but the same sovereign will that orders the creation and deals with each soul in it was pleased to withdraw a particular person for His own glory. This does not interfere, I repeat, with the ordinary course of nature, except in that one particular case or those cases where God has been pleased to do it. And in this instance Jehovah heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, and Elijah takes him and gives him to his mother, who at once owns the God of Israel.

It is sometimes objected that miracles are opposed to natural laws. It would be more correct to say that they have nothing to do with them. Whether performed by God Himself, or by others by His permission, they are sovereign interpositions outside and apart from natural laws altogether. "Laws" suppose a Law-giver. Is it seemly on our part to limit Him, and to affirm what He is able, or ought to do?

This brings us to what seems to be the essential character of every miracle — an occurrence contrary to the ordinary course of events, which can only be explained by reference to God's direct intervention. The manner of this intervention may not always be seen. Sometimes it is an intervention of knowledge, as perhaps in the miraculous draft of fishes. We need not suppose that our Lord created the fishes for this draft, but rather that He knew where they were, or by some influence gathered them thus together.

We must, however, be on our guard against seeking for naturalistic explanations of miracles. Their very essence requires that God intervene, and where this is admitted, the measure or manner of His intervention is comparatively of small moment.

That God can intervene in the affairs of this world and act in a manner independent of or contrary to His ordinary providential methods, is the truth; but there is a marked economy in miracles. We find the history of the people in the Old Testament going on in a quiet, natural way, we may say, uninfluenced by miraculous features, save as these were necessary for a specific purpose.

I see no difficulty in God's answering prayer connected with general laws, if we allow God to be free to act in His own world, as free as I am. Do I change general physical laws, when I go on request to visit some sick person? My will - how, I know not - acts on and by those physical laws; gravity is in my feet, or in the earth, force in my muscle, electricity in the nerves which set it in motion, yet I, in my poor way, have answered a prayer. Now I fully recognise more power in God, because He can, I need not say, not only change His laws, but, without doing so, give force to agents in them - produce gastric juice more powerfully, or more electricity into the system at His will, without introducing a single new element, or law which governs it. Laws remain the same; His will interferes to produce agency by them. He may work a miracle - raise the dead - which is by no law - has done so. But I do not speak of miracles, which take place when He changes a law, as when He makes the hatchet swim, but of when He works by law - of particular effects of His will. This may be miraculous as when a strong east wind acted on the sea, and another took away locusts, or brought quails, but He may give special activity, or quantity to agents which act by laws regularly. I am sure, at any rate, He hears and answers prayer. The very action of mind on man's frame is so wonderful, that such results may be produced, and God's own mind, as to external circumstances, that I see no difficulty at all. Laws which bind nature I admit; laws which bind God I do not. Besides many or most prayers refer to spiritual things.