Miracles became so commonplace in the late twentieth century that the antisupernaturalistic world view that was predominant for most of that century eventually gave way to a less dogmatic consensus on this question among many scholars.
A large proportion of these phenomena took place either in third world countries or among adherents of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Those who attribute the miracles of these movements to demonic activity also acknowledge that they are miracles.
One of the classic accounts of a twentieth-century miracle appears in the opening pages of Walter J. Hollenweger's book, The Pentecostals:
Rabbi Jacob Rabinowitz belonged to an old rabbinic family. For seventeen generations his ancestors had been rabbis. . . . In the summer of 1960 a friend invited him to a service of the Assemblies of God . . . in Pasadena, Texas. He accepted the invitation reluctantly. . . . After a short address, the evangelist invited anyone present who had a personal problem to kneel on the red carpet in front of the altar step to receive the blessing of the congregation.Jacob Rabinowitz longed to be able to lay down the burden of his demanding double life. He knelt down with others in front of the altar. . . . Several men left their seats, came up to Rabinowitz and laid their hands on his head and shoulders. . . . Then they all began to pray together, some in English, others in tongues.
Suddenly Rabinowitz stood up and asked with tears in his eyes, "Which one of you is Jewish?" No one answered. "Which one of you knows me? You'll forgive me: I don't recognize you." Still no answer.
Now the whole church became silent. "It came from right here, behind me," the rabbi pointed out. "Just exactly where you're standing," he said to one of the men. "Are you Jewish?"
"Me?" The man smiled. "My name's John Gruver. I'm Irish." "That's the voice," said Rabinowitz, "but tell me where you learned to speak Hebrew so well."
"I don't know a word of it," replied Gruver. "That's where you're wrong," retorted Rabinowitz, "because you were speaking Hebrew just now. And how did you know my name and the name of my father? You said in perfect Hebrew, 'I have dreamed a dream that you will go into the big populated places and there you will preach. The ones who have not heard will understand you because you, Jacob, son of Rabbi Ezekiel, come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'"1
1 Walter J. Hollenweger, The Pentecostals (Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972), pp. 3-4.
