Miracles
The God of miracles changeth not—and the only thing that has ever stopped His wonders is the unbelief of men.
There is a quiet assumption woven into much of modern thought: that miracles belonged to an earlier, more credulous age—that seas once parted and the dead once rose, but that the heavens have since fallen silent. Scripture answers this assumption directly, and the answer is not what the skeptic expects. The miracles did not stop because God grew old, or distant, or changed His nature. If miracles have ceased among any people, it is because the people changed, never because God did.
To understand miracles rightly, we must begin where the scriptures begin: with the unchanging character of the God who works them.
An Unchangeable God of Miracles
The prophet Moroni, writing near the end of the Nephite record, confronted those of a future day who would say that miracles had ceased. His rebuke is among the most piercing passages in all of scripture, because it ties the reality of miracles directly to the very identity of God.
“For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing? And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles. But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles.”
Moroni does not merely argue that God can still work miracles—he argues that a God who could not is no God at all. The logic is relentless. If God is unchangeable, then the God who divided the Red Sea, healed the leper, and raised Lazarus is the same God who reigns today. And if He has somehow stopped working miracles, then He has changed—and a changed God ceases to be God.
“And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.”
Here is the immovable foundation: he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God. The constancy of God is not an abstract attribute—it is the guarantee that the power which once shook the earth has not been withdrawn. If miracles seem absent, the cause must lie somewhere other than in heaven.
Why Miracles Seem to Cease
If God does not change, then the explanation for the apparent disappearance of miracles must lie in the changing hearts of men. Moroni’s father, Mormon, taught precisely this. He poses the very question the doubter asks, and then answers it with devastating clarity.
“And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth—if the day of miracles is ceased, and the working of miracles by the hands of God; and angels do not appear unto the children of men… if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain. For no man can be saved, according to the words of Christ, save they shall have faith in his name… And it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.”
Mormon’s diagnosis is not that God retired from working wonders, but that men withdrew the faith through which those wonders flow. Miracles are not random displays of divine showmanship—they are wrought by faith, and where faith fails, the channel through which miracles come is closed. The fault is never with the source; it is always with the receiver.
The brother of Jared’s record, written by the same Moroni, states the principle in its starkest form:
“For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.”
Miracles Follow Faith
The pattern is consistent across every dispensation: faith comes first, and the miracle follows. God “showed not himself until after their faith.” Moroni continues, cataloguing the great works of God and grounding every one of them in the faith of the one who received it.
“Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth. Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites… Behold, it was by faith that they of old were called after the holy order of God. Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.”
This is no peculiarly Nephite doctrine. The risen Lord declared the same law to His apostles before His ascension, promising that the signs which accompanied His own ministry would accompany those who believed.
“And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues… they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
The signs follow them that believe—belief is the antecedent, the miracle its consequence. And the measure of faith required is famously small. When the disciples failed to cast out a stubborn spirit and asked why, the Lord answered not by raising the standard impossibly high, but by revealing how little true faith it takes.
“If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
The Purpose of Miracles: To Confirm, Not to Compel
If miracles flow only after faith, then they were never meant to manufacture faith in the unwilling. Their purpose is to confirm and to bless those who already believe—not to overpower the agency of those who refuse to. This is why the Savior consistently declined to perform wonders on demand for those who sought a spectacle rather than salvation.
“Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it…”
The scribes and Pharisees did not lack evidence—they had watched Him heal and cast out devils. They lacked faith, and they sought a sign not to believe but to test. To such, no sign is given, because a miracle granted to coerce belief would violate the very agency God refuses to override. Faith that must be compelled is not faith at all.
Miracles, then, are gifts to the faithful, not weapons against the faithless. They confirm what the believing heart has already embraced; they bless and strengthen and heal; but they never seize the will of one determined to disbelieve. God will not break the agency He gave even to grant a wonder.
Greater Works Promised to Believers
Far from teaching that miracles would dwindle and die after His departure, the Lord promised His followers something almost staggering in its scope. On the night before His crucifixion, He turned to His disciples and made a promise that reaches across every age, including our own.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
The promise is not to a single generation of apostles, but to he that believeth on me. The works of Christ were never meant to end at the empty tomb; they were meant to multiply through every believing soul who would receive them. The condition, once again, is belief—and the ceiling is set not at imitation, but at greater works.
The Same God, the Same Power, Today
Gather the witnesses and the conclusion becomes inescapable. The God of Abraham, who promised a son to a barren woman and kept His word; the God of Moses, who opened the sea; the God of Elijah, who answered with fire; the God of the apostles, who sent His Spirit at Pentecost; and the God of the Restoration, who opened the heavens to a praying boy—this is one God, unchanging across every dispensation. In him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing.
The miracles of scripture were not the relics of a vanished age. They were the natural fruit of faith exercised in an unchanging God. That God still lives. His power has not waned, His arm is not shortened, and His promise to those who believe has not been revoked. The heavens are not closed by divine decree.
If miracles seem rare in any generation, scripture leaves us only one honest conclusion—and it is not that God has changed. He changeth not; if so He would cease to be God. The day of miracles has never ceased. The only thing that has ever stopped them is unbelief.
And unbelief is the one obstacle that lies entirely within our power to remove.