Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Reynolds and Sjodahl on the Nature of Miracles

  

The Biblical miracles have been the subject of controversy among students of theology. Nature study, in the opinion of many, has seemed to justify the conclusion that the so-called laws of nature are absolutely unchangeable, and that a miracle in defiance of any such law is an impossibility.

 

The obvious reply to this view is that no one knows all the laws of nature, and that a miracle may be as much in accordance with some law of nature as the most common occurrence. In other words, healing by faith, or by the power of the priesthood, may be as scientifically possible as cure by any of the remedies known to materia medica. Leibnitz, for one, is an exponent of this view.

 

The laws of nature are unchangeable. That is to say, as far as we know, a given cause always has the same effect. If it were not so, rational beings would have no incentive to effort, since effects could not be calculated from cause. You might sow, but there would be no reason to expect a harvest. You might build, but would your building stand the next day? Possibly. Possibly not, if there is no link between cause and effect. The world would then be chaos.

 

But, if God sees fit, in any particular case, to deviate from the uniformity which we call natural law, he certainly has the power to do so, whether with or without any human instrumentality, and then we have a miracle. "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places." (Ps. 135:6) "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." (Ps. 115:3) That is the only rational explanation of the miracles, ever offered. (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1976], 1:88)