Hey, Church! 

Sometimes worship songs require a little forethought to make them meaningful on Sunday mornings. I imagine I speak for a small minority of our congregation here, but there are times when a doctrinally questionable lyric can stop the momentum of our worship if we have not carefully considered its meaning in advance. That’s what I hope to help you process today with regard to a song we plan to sing this Sunday called “Another One.” 

I suspect all will find the verses perfectly agreeable: 

You do everything on purpose;
I can feel your Spirit stirring;
I’ve been praying, you’ve been working, 
Working it all for good.

So fan the flame and keep it burning;
You’re refining in the furnace.
All the waiting will be worth it
‘Cause you’re working it all for good.

Depending on your denominational background, the chorus may raise an eyebrow: 

Miracle after miracle; 
Open door after open door,
Here it comes, so get ready for another one
‘Cause another one is on the way

Do we believe in miracles? Have the miraculous gifts continued to be operational in the life of Christ’s Church? Or did they cease with the closing of the canon (Scripture)? 

The bridge may be no less troubling to some: 

And if He told the sun when to rise and it did, He will again
And if He told the storm to be still and it did, He will again
And if He told the sea where to split and it did, He will again
And if He told the walls when to fall and they did, He will again
And if He told the chains when to break and they did, He will again
And if He told the bones come alive and they did, He will again
And if He told the stone roll away and it did, He will again
And if He told the grave let him go and it did, He will again. 
And again and again and again and again
And again and again and again (so get ready!)
‘Cause another one is on the way

In my own effort to offer this song as a genuine declaration of faith before the Lord, I have had a check in my spirit to ask two questions: 1) Do the words, “another one is on the way” represent a false “prosperity gospel”? 2) In what sense may it be true (or false!) that God “will again,” for instance, tell “the stone [to] roll away”?

Let me first address the question of miracles, beginning with a fairly lengthy quote.

“Somehow or other an extraordinary idea has arisen that the disbelievers in miracles consider them coldly and fairly, while believers in miracles accept them only in connection with some dogma. The fact is quite the other way. The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them. The open, obvious, democratic thing is to believe an old apple-woman when she bears testimony to a miracle, just as you believe an old apple-woman when she bears testimony to a murder…

If it comes to human testimony there is a choking cataract of human testimony in favor of the supernatural. If you reject it, you can only mean one of two things. You reject the peasant’s story about the ghost either because the man is a peasant or because the story is a ghost story. That is, you either deny the main principle of democracy, or you affirm the main principle of materialism–the abstract impossibility of miracle. You have a perfect right to do so; but in that case you are the dogmatist. It is we Christians who accept all actual evidence–it is you rationalists who refuse actual evidence being constrained to do so by your creed.”  (G.K. Chesterton, from Orthodoxy)

Whether you believe in miracles has mostly to do with the presuppositions you bring to the evidence. Sometimes we look through a lens we inherited from our upbringing; other times, our biases are obtained through education. In either case, we must have the integrity to consider the testimonies of fellow believers, even when they challenge our long-held beliefs about how God intervenes in the courses of nature. The alternative is to be what Chesterton calls a “dogmatist,” who coldly dismisses our siblings and parents in Christ as superstitious, uneducated heretics, regardless of their so-called “evidence.” 

Even if this point was conceded, the dogmatist must still answer the question, “What, then, are we to make of these stories about seemingly supernatural events?” Were they hallucinations? A perfectly natural happening that has been convoluted by fanciful imagination into a “ghost story”? Are they all lies? 

The burden of proof lies with one who will look at the preponderance of evidence suggesting that God does still break into the natural realm–and quite often!–and still say with resolve to those who witnessed such miracles, “You misunderstand.” 

I asked our prayer ministry coordinator, Beth Hendrikse, to share just a few of the most top-of-mind miraculous answers to prayer we have seen firsthand here at Rio in recent weeks. This is what she fired back moments later, with apologies and assurances that it likely represents less than 1% of the whole: 

• A man came forward to receive prayer for knee pain. He was instantly healed.
• A woman with long-term sciatic pain received prayer and was fully healed. The pain was “just gone.” 
• Another woman with neck and back pain, healed. 
• A man looking for a temporary job that would allow him to stay in the country was given a permanent job, above and beyond his request.
• A court case dismissed.
• A man with a serious heart issue, shortness of breath, within one hour of prayer received a call that got him in touch with the chief surgeon at Memorial, set an appointment, and soon after received a life-saving surgery. 
• A woman with a dry mouth, no saliva, started salivating normally again. 
• A woman gave her heart to Jesus during the sermon. 
• Many others have prayed to receive Christ. 
• Children, some wayward, making professions of faith. 

Speaking for myself, I cannot imagine why a God who spoke all things into being, confirmed the legitimacy of His Messiah by signs and wonders, likewise affirmed the work of His apostles by miracles, promised that we will do even greater things through the ministry of His Church, and commands us to pray for things like healing, power, and provision, would now forbid us from declaring confidence that He will bring about “another one” (i.e. miracle). 

To the question of whether or not this song represents a prosperity gospel, I suppose we cannot know for sure what the author intended. What I do know is that the Psalms are replete with similar declarations of confidence in God’s future (as-yet unrealized) work. Call me naive, but given the choice between two errors, I would rather be accused of expecting too much from God than never expecting Him to do anything at all. (Which reminds me of the observation made by the leadership at Holy Trinity Brompton in London: “It used to be that we never prayed for anyone to be healed, and no one was healed. Then we started praying for healing, and God healed some!”)

Lastly, in what sense do we expect our God who once rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb will “do it again”? If we read this text as a theological treatise on the efficacy of Jesus’ work (that is, did Jesus’ death and resurrection finish the Father’s salvation project, or must He come to “do it again”?), then we would rightly reject it as false. But such an interpretation, which divorces the message from its medium (poetry), would be wildly dishonest. 

On this note, I want to say how it grieves me that there are some armchair theologians who take to the internet to confront strawmen armies like these. You don’t need to look far to find hit pieces against the churches who produce the songs we sing in church. “Cancel Elevation Worship,” they will tell you. “Just look at what their songs are teaching: Jesus’ work is finished, so the suggestion that we should desire for Him to ‘do it again’ is anathema!” 

Such arguments are foolish. Their sentiments belong to a despicable genre of quasi-Christian thought that has widely become known as “failure porn,” or “heresy hunting.” If they claim to expose abuses within the Church in the name of Christ, then they have only “a form of godliness without its power,” denying the very nature of the One on whose behalf they presume to speak. 

Let us show greater charity and assume the best of these songwriters who are nothing less than a tremendous gift to Christ’s Church. Was it not the Apostle Paul who said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live”? Likewise, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” And again, “[He] who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.” Or, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive… So is it with the resurrection of the dead… Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

In other words, just as Jesus died and was raised to life (by rolling away a stone), so also “the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us” who lay hold of Him by faith. The stone is a metaphor that points to the truth: we who have died with Him will be raised with Him. 

And if He told the sun when to rise and it did, He will again

He told the sun to rise today. By His providence, He will do it again tomorrow. 

And if He told the storm to be still and it did, He will again

He commanded a literal storm, “Be still!” He will do the same in whatever “storm” you are facing when you call on Him. 

And if He told the sea where to split and it did, He will again

How hopelessly impossible it must have felt to be an Israelite, trapped between Pharoah’s chariots and the sea that could not be crossed. He will part the sea for you too because deliverance of His people is in His nature. 

And if He told the walls when to fall and they did, He will again

Do you have a loved one who just needs God to break down their walls? He has done it many times before. Pray and believe that He will do it again. 

And if He told the chains when to break and they did, He will again

Stuck in an impossible addiction? Your enemy tells you you’re stuck forever. Jesus says, “Oh yeah? Watch this!” 

And if He told the bones come alive and they did, He will again

The most unfeeling, calloused soul can be restored to faithful vitality. God, let it be so! For the sake of your Name, wake your slumbering Church!

 And if He told the grave let him go and it did, He will again. 

The gods of Egypt are characterized by death. Our God’s character is such that He delights in bringing life out of death. What grave are you mourning over? Is it your marriage? A wayward child? Have you been weeping over something you ought to be praying God’s resurrection power over instead? 

He will do these things again and again. Not because any of us are promised prosperity in this life, but because it’s who God is. Whether in this life or through physical death, we will see His deliverance. And it is right that we should invoke His Name and call on Him to “do it again.”