Credibility of Miraculous Claims

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all make claims of miraculous events. Because all three religions are diametrically opposed to one another, we need to examine the fundamentals of all three, examine their differences, and determine what makes them different, and what makes the claims of one of the three the most likely to be true. Proving G-d’s existence is not something that can be done objectively, but the likelihood of His existence can be. Likewise, we can use similar logic and determine which of the three religions is most likely the truth.

You can divide all the religions this planet has ever known and put them into two categories: those that claim national revelation, and those that claim personal revelation. Obviously, national revelation is more convincing and more believable than personal revelation, or the claims of revelation made by a small group of people.

How many religions in the history of this planet make the claim of revelation based on one or a small group of people? If you study world religions carefully, you’ll find that this category includes every religion except one. What is the one religion to make the claim of national revelation?

It is JUDAISM.

Judaism is the only faith that comes from the line of "you all saw what happened here today, so tell your children, and their children." All the other religions are of the "I (or the few of us) know the good news, now we have to tell everyone else." This is not very convincing, especially when you try to take into account that it groups together with every other religion on the planet. Take a moment to absorb how powerful a fact that is. There are those who would say that this is not a big deal, that anyone could have faked a nation-wide revelation. This is simply not logical. If it were possible to fool an entire national population into believing they had witnessed something they had not in fact witnessed, surely other religions would claim such miracles.

Let us examine this from another angle. If the religion that later came to be called Judaism was based simply on the miracles recorded in the Book of Genesis (the flood which left only a handful of witnesses according to its own account, the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah which was only witnessed by a few people according to that account as well) it would be no different than the other religions of this planet. Judaism simply would not have been founded on a basis of proof any more credible than others.

However, the events in the Book of Exodus successfully set Judaism apart from the rest.

Exodus 12:37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. [38] And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle. (KJV)

We see that there were six hundred thousand Jewish men, not counting women, children, and the Egyptians who joined the people, described in verse 38 as a mixed multitude. Considering that having more than one wife was the norm of the time, and that each family likely had many children, we are easily talking about (in the least) over a million people.

Why is noting this so important? The answer is simple. Imagine you’re sitting in school one day, and the kid sitting next to you tells you that your grandfather, and the grandfathers of all your friends saw great tremendous plagues in Egypt, and saw an entire sea split with walls on both side, the ground becoming dry, and all the people walking through it. The first thing that would come to mind is That’s amazing! I wonder why my grandfather never told me that! Upon asking, your friend tells you his grandfather told him the story. When you go home and ask your parents about it, you find out that your friend’s grandfather is a senile 90 year-old man. It is simply impossible for an entire national population to come up with a collective memory of an event like the exodus unless it had happened.

When the Lord spoke to Moses from amidst the burning bush, the Israelites only found reason to believe his claims once signs had been shown to them that they experienced it personally. Moreover, the events of the exodus, the splitting of the sea, the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, were things the entire population collectively experienced, giving the proof to them firsthand, instead of having to rely on tales told to them by others. While the argument can be made that with the first generation dying in the desert with the demise of all first-hand witnesses the claim goes up in smoke, the entire next generation was given the testimony of those first hand witnesses, and that entire second generation believed because the entire first generation couldn’t have conspired a story that big. The second generation itself was the proof that the witness of the first was reliable.

Exodus 14:30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. [31] And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses. (KJV)

Exodus 14:30-31 shows us that after the splitting of the Red Sea only then did the people believe in the Lord and believe that Moses spoke for Him.

Exodus 19:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD. (KJV)

This passage relates how the Lord instructed Moses on how the Lord would present the Torah so that the entire people would hear it, and that the entire people would know and believe that the Lord spoke to Moses, and they would believe it forever.

Deuteronomy 4:32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the day that G-d created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it? [33] Did ever people hear the voice of G-d speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard, and live? [34] Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? [35] Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is G-d; there is none else beside him. [36] Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. (KJV)

No other entire nation has ever heard the voice of G-d from amidst the fire, meaning that G-d did this to prove to everyone that He is the One, and that the Torah is true.

G-d never did this for the New Testament, and He never did this for the Qu’ran. Furthermore, this passage of the Torah commands something that the New Testament and Qu'ran don't ever bother to ask. Verse 35 says, "Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is G-d; there is none else beside him." The Torah demands knowledge. The New Testament and the Qu'ran demand faith.

Think about it. Claiming that Jesus had appeared, risen from the dead, to the entire nation of Israel would have given Christianity a stable enough foundation to make it even somewhat credible. But the authors knew that such claims would immediately be taken for lies because there would be no corroborating evidence.

In other words, in the New Testament and Qu'ran we have two other documents, which are claimed as being Divine, but, plainly put, lack the Divine signature.

Secular bible critics have tried for years to come up with some rational explanation for the fact that Judaism is the only religion that is backed by such a reliable tale. The fact of the matter is that for all their efforts, the field has yet to come up with a unified opinion on the subject. It just stands as a physical impossibility to fool millions of people that their entire ancestry heard the Lord speak.