What About the Supernatural?
Throughout most of my Christian experience, a key that kept me committed was the fact that supernatural activity seemed to confirm that God existed and that the Bible was true. I had Christian friends who appeared to demonstrate that they were supernaturally gifted with an ability to speak languages they had never learnt (1 Cor. 12). I had witnessed people as they appeared to be controlled by spirits, both good and bad (Mat. 17:14-18). I knew people who claimed to have been healed by God of various health problems (Mark 5:29). I’d even read of cases of people having been cured of AIDS (Charisma magazine May 1996, p.12). This made it clear to me that the God of the Bible was alive and well.
I had heard supposed explanations of some of these phenomena from non-believers, but the explanations I’d heard didnt impress me. For example one book I read claimed that scientific research had proven that modern tongues (1 Cor. 12) was gobbledegook rather than language. But I had heard of experiences where someone is speaking in tongues and a foreigner who happened to present, was able to understand what was being spoken (Derek Prince's tape Gifts of the Spirit). A non-christian friend explained away tongues by theorising that people subconsciously learn foreign languages from foreigners. That explanation seemed far less likely than what my church said about tongues.
But I came to see a new angle on the supernatural when I tried to persuade a friend that he should remain a Christian. Todd had told me that he wasn’t convinced that much in the way of real supernatural activity really went on. I was certain that he was wrong, but I was trying to sound reasonable and mentioned that "of course other religions had supernatural activity too." That comment probably affected my religious outlook a lot more than Todd’s. This is because I then realised that supernatural activity only indicated that my God existed, it didnt prove that my God was the correct one.
When researching cults, I found that the Bible didnt offer much to boost my confidence on this one. Deuteronomy 13:1-3 for example, indicates that other Gods do also offer supernatural activity, but it says that you’re supposed to follow the Biblical God anyway. So if the supernatural didnt prove that my God was the correct one, what did? Creationism aside, I never found an answer that was both simple and really convincing. Sure there are things that distinguish Christianity from other religions, but that seems of little consequence to me because there are also other religions which each have something that distinguishes them from all others.