The Bible talks about many wondrous things, from Moses parting the Red Sea to Jesus healing a man’s blindness, events that may seem magical. But instead of calling them magical, we call them miracles. We may well ask: is there a clear difference between magic and miracles? If so, why does the difference matter? What traits set these two categories apart?
As we will explore, magic and miracles are not the same when we consider their sources.
Why Do We Need to Know the Difference between Magic and Miracles?
There are several reasons we should know what separates magic from miracles.
The most obvious reason is that while Christians have different opinions about how much supernatural forces affect us every day, Christians have historically always believed some forces do exist. To be a Christian is to believe in a supernatural dimension, and that this dimension includes some unpleasant forces. Cessationists believe the Holy Spirit does not give us spiritual gifts today, but even many cessationists believe that demons are present in the world and can manipulate people. Whatever we believe about miracles occurring today, we should consider what power lies behind magic.
The second reason is that Christians who do not know what qualifies as magic rituals versus harmless stage entertainment versus miracles tend to look foolish. To give a personal example, a colleague told me a story about a Christian-themed roleplaying game he discovered that was produced during the Satanic Panic in the 1980s. During this period, many American evangelical Christians worried that games like Dungeons and Dragons, where players created characters who “cast spells,” were equal to saying spells in black magic ceremonies. This particular roleplaying game solved the concerns by having characters say Bible verses instead of spells. As my colleague pointed out, this solution does not improve things. A gamer saying, “I play spell five” does not invoke deities, a fundamental part of witchcraft. Treating Bible verses like spells to wield in a game is treating Scripture lightly, a flippant attitude the Bible warns against (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11). Christians who don’t do their research before talking about magic or miracles get into trouble without knowing it.
Given that it matters that we know the difference, let’s take a look at what magic and miracles are.
What is the Definition of Magic?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines magic as the “use of ritual activities or observances which are intended to influence the course of events or to manipulate the natural world, usually involving the use of an occult or secret body of knowledge; sorcery, witchcraft.”
This definition separates illusions that entertainers perform to audiences (card tricks, impossible escape acts, etc.) from rituals that practitioners use to achieve results. Performers usually avoid explaining how their magic tricks work but want audiences to be “in on the joke” and know their tricks do not use genuine supernatural powers. They master physical tricks (like hiding cards up sleeves) and applied psychology (like misdirecting audiences to focus on one hand when the card is hidden in the other hand) to entertain people.
Magic rituals are centered on attempts to affect people or the practitioner’s mind. For example, witch doctors may perform rituals to strike someone with a disease for slighting them. Rituals based on secret knowledge often occur in organizations that promise the rituals will allow people to experience a higher state. The higher state is often assumed to be a mystical experience, experiencing a spiritual being in a way that may be so transcendent it cannot be explained. Since mystical experiences are so powerful, the rituals are often supposed to be kept secret, hidden from those not ready for them. Hence why people use the word occult, a word that means “hidden,” as a general term for the rituals or groups that teach the rituals. Many scholars use the word “esoteric” instead.
What practitioners think they are getting from ritual magic varies. Aleister Crowley, founder of Thelema, goes back and forth in his letters about whether rituals contact demons or unlock the subconscious to generate illusions. Arthur Edward Waite, founder of secret society the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, emphasized rituals that he apparently believed would connect people directly to God.
Not only do people have mixed motives for performing magic rituals: the rituals themselves are mixes of various ideas. Esoteric philosophies like Hermeticism and Rosicrucianism have been mixed and matched with pagan or Christian ideas into various rituals for centuries. These ideas have been marketed as Christian mysticism, as revived paganism, as Satan worship, and everything in between.
In contrast to the messy history that all magic rituals carry, miracles are described in the Bible as having a reasonably clear origin.
What Is the Definition of Miracles?
As Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology explains, miracles are not just things that seem wonderful, but “those not explainable solely by natural processes but which require the direct causal agency of a supernatural being, usually God.”
The definition above says “usually” because the Bible contains stories in which people who apparently performed miracles are accused of using power gained from demons to pretend they are miracle workers. For example, after Jesus exorcises a demon from a man, Pharisees nearby claim that he is using power from Satan to exorcise demons (Matthew 12:24).
The story about Jesus being accused of being demon-possessed shows that while magic and miracles may look similar, even Jesus’ critics understood that all genuine miracles come from one source. Miracles come from God, his power enabling humans to do unusual things.
The Bible describes a variety of miracles that fulfill different purposes. Some miracles affect landscapes or weather, such as Moses parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14) or turning bitter water into drinkable water (Exodus 15:22-26). Other miracles affect people, such as Peter healing a man who cannot walk (Acts 3:1-10) or Paul raising Eutyches from the dead after Eutyches dozes off and falls out of a window (Acts 20:9-12).
While the Bible often refers to people (Moses and other Old Testament prophets, apostles like Peter or Paul) performing miracles, the miracle is never based on the power individuals have in themselves. These people performed miracles using the power they received from God. Jesus is the one exception to this rule because he was God the Son. He may have limited how much he showed his power on earth, but he was still God, not a regular human being that God used as a conduit for miracles.
Scholars who study church history have varying ideas about how often God uses people to perform miracles. All scholars agree that the Holy Spirit enabled the early church to perform miracles, but cessationists argue that the Holy Spirit stopped providing the power for Christians to perform miracles after the early church was established. Continuationists believe Christians can still perform miracles, but may not believe God consistently enables miracles to happen all the time. For example, J.P. Moreland argues in A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles that church records suggest miracles were common in the early church, essentially disappeared during the medieval and enlightenment periods, and have become more common today. These discussions revolve around a simple point: God is the one in control of when miracles happen, and may decide in his wisdom to only use them for certain periods or situations.
What is the Key Difference Between Magic and Miracles?
On a basic level, magic and miracles may look the same.
Both magic and miracles are processes in which humans become conduits for something with otherworldly powers. People performing rituals want to experience a higher being face or face or use its power to achieve certain ends. In Christianity, people performing miracles are understood to be followers of God whom he uses to accomplish something unusual.
However, the discussion above shows some key traits that separate magical events from miraculous ones.
First, magic rituals can be directed to various beings, from pagan idols to demons. Many theologians would argue that in the end, all magic rituals turn into attempts to connect with one figure: Satan. First Corinthians 10:19-20 warns that pagan offerings to idols are essentially offerings to demons. Second Corinthians 11:14 warns Christians not to listen to any beings, not even beings claiming to be angels. These verses and similar ones suggest that demons can appear disguised as other beings, so magic rituals invoking spirits other than God (even angels like Gabriel or Michael) are essentially Satan worship. While magic rituals are directed toward various beings and ultimately draw on Satanic power, genuine miracles come from God alone.
Second, magic rituals are formulas to get desired results, presuming the rituals will get the same or similar results each time. People may pray for miracles or be directed to perform miracles. But even when Christians pray for God to perform a miracle, they seek God’s help, recognizing he does not have to do anything. God is sovereign, and while he is good and does good things, his ways are not ours. No one controls God’s will or his responses to situations. Someone with a spiritual gift (for example, healing), may have been given an unusual capacity to be a repeat conduit for God’s power. But even in that context, the person is always bringing things to God, letting him be in control.
These crucial differences between magic and miracles not only help us understand why magic rituals are dangerous, but also why the Bible consistently forbids believers from taking part in magic. These differences also imply there are certain attitudes we must watch out for.
Why Should We Remember the Difference between Magic and Miracles?
If magic and miracles can look the same but have vastly different implications, we not only need to watch out for magic and run away from it. We also need to watch out for treating miracles like magic.
We can pray for God to do miraculous things. We are encouraged to exercise faith and pray for God to work wonders through us (Matthew 17:20). But we only ever submit requests to God, not demands. Depending on our church background, we may meet people who talk about miracles as something we can get if we pray just the right prayer. No special formula guarantees we will get a miracle. The moment we forget that God alone controls when miracles happen, we are behaving more like witch doctors than Christians.
Fortunately, we follow a loving God who will forgive us if we misunderstand what miracles are for, and will gracefully guide us into wisdom and truth (Proverbs 3:5-6).
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