The Christian Universalist Association affirms the following in our statement of faith:
| We believe in miracles and mysterious spiritual phenomena, such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which transcend materialistic views of reality. |
Throughout history, things have happened in this world which remain unexplained -- things that defy our expectations, challenge our assumptions, and inspire us to look beyond what we know. Many of these strange occurrences have been, and continue to be, associated with religious faith. Not all purported miracles are authentic, but some certainly are. The Christian Universalist Association encourages a sense of reverence, awe, and open-mindedness concerning phenomena that appear to transcend the known laws of physical reality.
We also understand that the miraculous can be found in things that do not necessarily defy scientific knowledge, but which nevertheless are special and amazing: A person with a terminal illness who beats the odds and recovers. A chance meeting between two people that profoundly changes their lives, or even shapes the future of society as a whole. The precise combination of conditions that had to be just right for life to appear and flourish on earth. Such things may be guided by the hand of a Higher Power.
We respect the validity of the scientific method and rational investigation of the material world. However, we do not believe materialistic views of reality go far enough in understanding all the forces that are at work in the universe. God's universe is an unimaginably vast, complex, and multidimensional place, and some events that occur in physical reality may be influenced by unseen, spiritual aspects of the universe (Job 38:4-7,18-20,33, Isa. 45:7, Rom. 11:33-36).
Modern philosophies and ideologies that limit their horizons solely to the realm of material science are impoverishing themselves, in our opinion, by shutting out other important truths that go beyond what any scientific instruments or purely materialistic theories could ever measure or understand. One of the reasons why miracles sometimes happen is because God wants to open people's eyes and minds to the realms of reality that transcend their present understanding and worldly limitations (John 14:11). We do not know all that there is to know about how the universe works. There is such a thing as mystery, and it is an essential element of religious faith (1 Cor. 13:12).
One of the best examples of such mysterious spiritual phenomena is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, after he was executed on a cross and buried in a tomb (Mat. 28:5-10, John 20:18-20, 1 Cor. 15:3-8). Christianity spread primarily because of the witness of the apostles and other early disciples of Jesus that he was in fact seen alive and filled with supernatural power after his physical body was killed. This miracle -- the central proclamation of the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ -- was a hopeful illustration of God's power to overcome evil with good (1 Cor. 15:14-28, 1 Tim. 3:16).
Someday, science may be able to shed some light on certain miraculous events that take place, but this will only be through the expansion of scientific knowledge into the study of truly non-material phenomena -- without prejudging these things as automatically fake or reducible to materialistic knowledge. Post-Newtonian concepts such as quantum mechanics, chaos theory, and string theory are beginning to change the dominant 20th century paradigm of determinism and "scientific materialism," opening doors to the study of higher dimensions and consciousness. It is unclear how much science will ever be able to understand such things, but even to the extent that it can, some things that are real in God's universe will nevertheless remain shrouded in mystery and a matter of faith for human beings on earth, by divine design.
