The Case for Miracles marks the latest installment in Lee Strobel’s series of “The Case for…” books. Strobel, a former atheist and award winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, is probably best known for his 1998 book, The Case for Christ, and with over twenty books under his belt, he has established himself as a well-respected voice in the world of Christian apologetics.

What makes Strobel’s “cases” so compelling is the fact that, as a journalist with a legal background and the former perspective of an atheist, he tries to employ an objective approach to all his work by taking on the role almost akin to that of a private investigator.

As has come to be expected by those familiar with Strobel’s work, The Case for Miracles takes the form of a series of interviews that function as the various chapters of the book. He takes the bold step of first interviewing Dr. Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society and editor-in-chief of the magazine, Skeptic. Interestingly, Shermer comes from an antipodal position of being a former Christian turned agnostic. Shermer’s skepticism was cemented with unanswered prayer regarding his college sweetheart who was paralyzed in a car accident. As is often the case with so many who have tuned their back on God, it begins with the perceived radio silence of a God they used to think existed.

Lee Strobel

Shermer makes what appears to be some cogent arguments against the existence of miracles. He cites anecdotal evidence as questionable and inconclusive and goes on to reference The Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP). Through the Harvard Medical School, STEP was a ten-year, $2.4 million clinical trial of the effects of prayer involving 1,802 cardiac bypass patients at six hospitals (p. 51).  The results showed that “there was no difference in the rate of complications for patients who were prayed for and those who were not.” (p. 51). Translate that as ‘prayer changes nothing’, or in Shermer’s words, “That’s not good for your side, Lee.” (p. 52). Shermer goes on to acknowledge the work of Scottish philosopher, David Hume, as influential on his view towards miracles or anything supernatural, saying, “Oh yeah. I think his treatise against miracles is pretty much a knockdown argument. Everything else is a footnote.” (p. 54).

While the first three chapters are dedicated to expounding Michael Shermer’s criterion for miracles being unlikely to impossible, the rest of the book focuses on the evidence that favors miracles. Strobel begins with interviewing Dr. Craig Keener.

At the Craig S. Keener author page at PneumaReview.com you will find numerous articles, reviews, lectures, and videos about biblical studies, including excerpts from Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts.

Craig Keener, a prolific New Testament scholar and author, has among many works, penned a two-volume epic study of miracles. He is quick to refute Hume’s “knockdown” argument against the validity of miracles. “Hume defines miracle as a violation of natural law, and he defines natural law as being principles that cannot be violated. So, he’s ruling out the possibility of miracles at the outset. He’s assuming that which he’s already stated he will prove—which is circular reasoning. In fact, it’s an anti-supernatural bias, not a cogent philosophical argument.”  Keener goes on to cite a number of modern-day miracles that he has investigated. One of the most impressive and moving miracles documents the case of a woman who, due to multiple sclerosis, had deteriorated to the point of death and was in hospice care confined to a bed and unable to care for herself. After a radio station of Moody Bible Institute put out a prayer request for the woman and some 450 Christians shared they were praying for the woman, she heard a voice from behind her say, “My child get up and walk” (p. 103). What resulted was a full and complete recovery that, thirty years later, still confounds the medical community. There are years of medical records to substantiate the illness and recovery, and the attestation of board certified surgeons with thousands of operations under their belts.

This is a brief, but important article. Lee Grady, one of the most mature and experienced Charismatic leaders of the present generation, urges us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and proceed with boldness to do whatever the Lord leads us to do.

The article is both historical and prophetic. It cites the unexpected revival back 50 years ago among Catholic university students which led to the world-wide Catholic Charismatic Renewal (It unfortunately petered out in the USA in the 1990s.) Grady’s point is that such a revival can happen again, and it depends mostly on our willingness to accept the baptism and empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

In the healing workshops I give I lead the attendees in an exercise to renew their Holy Spirit baptism. In groups of three or four, one person sits as the others lay hands on him or her and pray for a renewal or a new endowment of the gifts of the Spirit. Do this.

Reviewed by William De Arteaga

Read the full article: www.charismamag.com/blogs/fire-in-my-bones/31993-the-holy-spirit-wants-to-fill-you-again

Lee Grady is well known in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. For a number of years he served as the editor of Charisma magazine, a publication devoted to the Spirit-filled life. He has also authored a number of books; some of his more recent titles have focused on the subject of women and ministry. This, his most recent book, focuses on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Grady has written other books about the Holy Spirit as well, specifically, What Happened to the Fire?(1994) and The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale (2010). The author has established himself as a no nonsense writer who is not afraid to tackle the difficult issues in the church, perhaps especially problems that exist in the charismatic church.

In this current volume Grady shares some of his own personal journey with the Holy Spirit. He also covers doctrinal and practical issues concerning the person and work of the Holy Spirit. At the end of each chapter there is a section called “Let’s Talk About It” which contains statements and questions to help the reader process the material in the chapter. Each chapter closes with “A Dangerous Prayer” that can be prayed to invite the Lord to make real in the reader’s experience what they have read about in the chapter.

Some of the doctrinal topics discussed in the book concern the identity of the Holy Spirit and His ministries. For example, chapter two is titled “The Holy Spirit is Not an ‘It.’” In this chapter, Grady explains that the Holy Spirit is not just a power, He is a person, specifically, a divine person. Chapter four, “The Holy Spirit is a Multitasker” lists a number of ministries that the Holy Spirit fulfills in the life of the believer, He regenerates, empowers, guides, unites, intercedes, comforts, and refines. Chapter seven, “How To Minister in the Spirit’s Power” gives a brief description of each of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12.

On the practical side, Grady offers much valuable instruction regarding living life in the Holy Spirit. One of the things he says near the very beginning of the book is that “you cannot expect a life-changing encounter with God unless you open your Bible and seek Him in its pages” (page 5). He says that other things are also essential to a powerful life in the Spirit, these things include: prayer, praise, and fellowship.

Grady also talks about challenges to the Spirit-filled life. With regard to the Baptism in the Holy Spirit he cites six things that can hinder a person from receiving this experience. He mentions: doubt or intellectual pride, religious tradition, fear of the supernatural, unconfessed sin, emotional wounds, and an unyielded spirit. In addition to listing the problems he tells the reader what must be done in order to get past the obstacles.

Close exegesis of Galatians, with due attention to past scholarship on the subject, is among the most daunting tasks in the study of the New Testament. And yet a proper understanding of Galatians is centrally important for grasping Paul’s view of the gospel. To make a fresh contribution to the crowded field of Galatians requires a great deal of patience, a command of a wide band of scholarship, and perhaps a bit of creativity.

Chee-Chiew Lee’s study on the relation of the Spirit to justification in Galatians is a worthy contribution to the field. Lee challenges the view that Paul equated Abraham’s blessing with the Spirit in Gal 3:14. The two are related, but not equal (chap. 2). Their more precise relationship, Lee reasons, might be gleaned from a survey of the remaining sections of the Old Testament and from later Jewish writings. According to Lee, writings (roughly) contemporary with Paul allowed that the Abrahamic blessing accorded certain benefits to the proselyte, but that the blessing of the Spirit was always withheld – reserved for the native Jew. Paul’s insistence on the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Gentiles therefore radicalizes the place of Gentiles within the community of saints. Lee argues that, while few in Paul’s day read Scripture that way, Paul’s view is afforded by passages like Isa 56:3-7 and Zech 2:15 [LXX 2:11], in which those nations that have “joined themselves” to God are referred to as “the people of Yahweh” (p. 189). If other Second Temple Jews missed the Isaian and Zecharian connection between the Spirit and the turning of the nations toward Israel’s God, Paul did not miss it. (This line of reasoning is consistent with a recent trend in Pauline studies, which is to allow careful exegesis of the Old Testament to serve as a palette [of sorts] for understanding Paul’s exegetical mind.)

According to Lee, “the blessing of Abraham is identified with justification, and the Spirit functions as the evidence of receiving the blessing and the means of perpetuating the blessing” (p. 210). Such a view, of course, brings to mind certain ongoing debates about Pauline pneumatology. It will be interesting to see if Lee’s arguments about the shape of Paul’s pneumatology within Galatians come to play a role in those debates.

Reviewed by John Poirier

Publisher’s page: http://wipfandstock.com/the-blessing-of-abraham-the-spirit-and-justification-in-galatians.html

Preview The Blessing of Abraham, the Spirit, and Justification in Galatians: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Blessing_of_Abraham_the_Spirit_and_J.html?id=IxJNAwAAQBAJ

The name J. Lee Grady should be familiar to those who have been part of the Pentecostal or charismatic Movements for any length of time. For a number of years now he has served as editor of Charisma, which is perhaps the most well-known magazine given to the subject of Spirit-filled life and ministry. Grady is also the author of a number of books. His most recent offering, The Holy Spirit is Not For Sale, should be of particular interest to those who are part of churches that emphasize the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. In this volume the author calls for radical change; he calls for the church to deal with the sins in her midst. He demonstrates that there have been some serious moves away from scriptural standards among those who believe in the present-day gifts of the Holy Spirit, areas of particular concern are morality, finances, and ministry practice. This book is a clear call for reformation, a return to biblical foundations.

Grady is a firm believer in the anointing and gifts of the Holy Spirit and thus he urges the church not to settle for “strange fire,” for cheap imitations of the real anointing of the Holy Spirit, or for ministers who are seriously errant in life, ministry practice, or teaching. In short, the author calls for the church to “stop the funny business.” He urges the church to have real fire: the fire of supernatural anointing, the fire of boldness, the fire of purity, the fire of integrity, the fire of humility, the fire of truth, the fire of justice, the fire of spiritual liberty, the fire of prayer, and the fire of genuine love. In the course of his writing Grady draws from the Bible, church history, and the experience of the church overseas.

What may be disturbing to some readers is that in certain cases Grady names names as he addresses various types of abuse. While this may make some people uneasy what is truly disturbing are some of the things that are actually taking place in the church. For example, in chapter 6 he refers to a minister who had a list of requirements in order to be booked for a conference. The list included: a five-figure honorarium, a $10,000 gas deposit for a private plane, a hairstylist for the speaker, a suite in a five star hotel, a luxury car to drive him from the airport to the hotel (make and model of the car were specified), and room temperature Perrier water (pages 115-116). Another example concerns a large charismatic church in Georgia in which pastors participated in sexual immorality and were encouraged by the senior pastor to participate in wife-swapping (pages 83-84). While cases like these are not typical of the majority of charismatic churches or ministers they involve prominent people. Their prominence can cause some people, who lack discernment, to believe that because these ministers “have the anointing” that what they do must be okay. The examples that Grady cites are known cases: is the abuse and corruption more prevalent than we want to admit? As the author writes about various forms of failure and abuse he takes no pleasure in them, it is clear that he is pained by them.