And yet you see the weakness of external evidence-and outward miracles; they were not sufficient to make true believers, or to make the Israelites believe that Jesus was their promised Messiah.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
For some people, miracles serve as evidence of God's existence.
The real evidence is not practically speaking in scholarship but in how Jesus and the Christianity based on him manifest themselves in the lives of practising Christians. Their lives are the proofs of their beliefs.
It is almost impossible to exaggerate the proneness of the human mind to take miracles as evidence, and to seek for miracles as evidence.
There was nothing then but the revelation of the spirit-of God that could make any of the Israelites understand and believe that he was their proper Messiah.
No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish.
Miracles happen to those who believe in them.
Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.
It was of the greatest moment, and consequence, that they should believe in him when he came, for they could receive no benefit from him without believing him to be their Messiah.
In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.