Were Miracles Actually Performed In Bible Times? Are They Now?
Posted: Tuesday, September 18, 2007
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
To avoid any misunderstandings, we need to know exactly what is meant by the word miracle. Some dictionaries define the word as something which appears to be supernatural or that transcends natural laws. But that extends the term too far. Everyone knows that things occur regularly that appears to have strained natural laws. But a true miracle is one that does indeed transcend our natural laws. Something that overrides our laws of nature. For instance, when someone is very sick and the doctors tell you there is nothing more they can do, but the person lives and overcomes the problem, many will say that is simply a miracle. Not so. It only shows that the doctors were wrong and something they did not know allowed the person to overcome the illness.
Miracles were used extensively by God in the beginning. It was necessary since there is nothing natural about creating something from nothing regardless of what the atheistic philosophers try to tell us. The first and second chapters of the book of Genesis tells us of the creation of the universe and man, all performed by the spoken word of God. We know that, from the beginning and for the next 2,513 years (or until 1491 B.C), God gave his laws and instructions to mankind through visions, dreams and sometimes directly speaking to the heads of households. All of this would classify as miraculous. It is not clearly shown in scripture as to how many people he spoke or how often. But it seems clear, at least to this author, that He gave His laws and instruction to the beginning clans and it was left up to them to pass it down to their progeny, verbally. Then in special instances, he spoke in order to direct man in the way He wanted things to go. When men became so thoroughly wicked, he spoke to Noah and ordered him to build an ark.
After the flood, he again spoke to Noah and his family but apparently did not continue to instruct them on a day to day basis. The reason I feel the responsibility was passed from father to son rather than God continuing to speak, is the fact that mankind became very wicked every time they were left on their own. The flood occurred approximately 2347 B.C. and yet, by the time God called Abram (Abraham) about 400 years later, man had grown far from God again. Abraham was chosen by God to furnish the lineage to Jesus Christ because he was a faithful man and seemingly one among very few who were. God apparently spoke fairly often from the time from calling Abraham through the lives of Isaac and Jacob until the time of Joseph being sold into slavery. He providentially guided Joseph into his position in Egypt but apparently withheld much of His miraculous power until the call of Moses via the burning bush. Thereafter, He worked closely with Moses and the Israelite nation until they settled into the land of Canaan. He miraculously provided them with food (Exodus 16:12-21), water (Nehemiah 9:15), and did not let their clothing and shoes deteriorate for their 40 years wandering.
This type of constant miraculous care became much more rare when they were settled in the land of Canaan. Most miracles were performed through a God appointed leader, judge, king or prophet from this time until both Israel and Judah had been overrun and taken into captivity. The nation of Israel had been ended, never again to be God's chosen people. There are no biblical records dating from about 400 B.C. until about 50-60 A.D. There is no reason to believe that God performed any miracles through anyone during this period until approximately 5 B.C. when an angel appeared to Zacharias whose wife, Elisabeth, was a cousin of Mary. We then have miracles directly from God until Jesus was full grown, at which time most were performed by Him. He, with a few exceptions, was the only one empowered to perform these. He did grant limited abilities to the seventy disciples sent before Him (Luke 10:1-12).
Jesus purpose for coming and dying was solely to establish His church (His spiritual kingdomHis called out). His first words concerning this, except in parables and Old Testament prophecies, are found in Matthew 16:13-19. This church was to be founded upon the bedrock of truth spoken by Peter in verse 16, that Jesus was the Son of the living God. And He promised to give the keys of this kingdom to them, the apostles, that whatsoever they should bind on earth would be bound in heaven. And whatsoever they should loose on earth would be loosed in heaven. They did not understand what He was saying nor would they, until they were enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
In John 14:16, 14:26, 15:26 and 16:7, Jesus promised to send the apostles a comforter after he left them who would guide them into all truth and would bring to their remembrance all things that He had taught them. Then, at His last appearance before them, recorded in the 1 st chapter of Acts, Jesus asked them to wait in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father which they had heard of Him and promised they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. Then the reader should read the entire chapter 2 of Acts to see that the Holy Spirit did indeed come upon them with power and enabled them (the 12) to speak in languages they had never studied or were able to speak before this. All of the various dialects that were gathered there, were able to hear the preaching done by them, in their own language. His kingdom (church) was established that day with about three thousand souls being added to them.
The preceding paragraph was given to show you where, when and how, the twelve apostles (and later Paul was added) received their miraculous power. They were able to perform virtually any miracle hereafter, including that of raising the dead. They also had the power to lay their hands on the new converts and bestow a spiritual gift to them as Peter had promised in the last sentence of verse 38. Those people to whom they imparted a gift, however, were not empowered to pass a gift to others. This remained only with the Apostles. So miraculous gifts were given to the new converts to Christianity at this time. There was reason for this. There were no written teachings of Christ at that time. There were none who had the inspiration from God to write truths until now. So these new converts were given the understanding of the doctrine of Christ and they were able to at least help to spread the gospel.
You will recall in the second paragraph of this article, I made the statement that there were indeed miracles that occurred from time to time throughout the bible but that there were none being performed now. So let us proceed to establish if those statements are true and why. If you analyze the very last paragraph above, you will see that there would be no one who could lay hands on another to impart a spiritual (miraculous) gift after the apostles were all dead. And that once all of those who had received those gifts died, there would be no more miracles. But there are a lot of things involved here. Seeing that God had used miracles frequently throughout history, why stop now?
First of all, God never used, or allowed anyone else to use, miraculous powers for fun or just to please themselves and more especially for money. There were reasons for the need of miracles. In the beginning of course, miracles were absolutely essential to create the universe and everything in it. It was also necessary that God watch over His creation and creatures to get things under way. He had set things in motion that, had man been obedient, life would have been wonderful. But God knew in advance that man would sin even though He had the choice of doing so or not. So the plan was made, before the creation, that Jesus would be sent to this earth as a man to install a plan whereby men could be reconciled to God. The entire bible is the unfolding of this plan. And miracles were necessary from time to time to bring all things about as God had planned from the beginning. The miracles performed against the Pharaoh of Egypt were planned to show, not only the Egyptians, but the entire world, that He was indeed God of the universe. Most of the earlier miracles were those which enabled Abraham's progeny to lead to the birth of Jesus.
Now, the miracles performed by Jesus and the apostles were to establish the fact that Jesus was truly the Son of God, and to confirm the words spoken by the apostles as the word of God. But the question remains, why are there none now? The Christian age is unique, in that it is the age that God planned for from before the creation. All preceding ages were in preparation for this one. God's purpose for man was that he would live holy and without blame before Him in love (Read Ephesians 1:4). He could have forced that upon man but he wanted him to do it of his own volition, so he was granted full free moral agency. He wants us to believe in Him and His Son, have the profound respect for them that is certainly deserved. And He wants it done through faith. He furnished the miracles to establish His word and when it was fully done and available to all, there became no further need for miracles. It is a truth that if some overpowering miracle were performed, many would believe that do not. But that was not His pleasure. He wants us to accept and believe Him, based on the evidence that we have. Which is overwhelming.
Read 1 Corinthians 13:8-13. Notice that Paul is speaking of the miraculous gifts that he and others had been given. And in verse 10, he mentions that when that which is perfect is come, referring to the perfect law of liberty in Jesus Christ, all these gifts will cease. Today, there are but few who profess to be able to perform miracles but those who do are horribly mistaken or are purposely frauds. Some religions claim to have priests, apostles, etc. who can perform miracles, but when pressed, they cannot show any such thing. Jesus and the apostles were endowed with these powers to confirm the words of Jesus. The Holy Bible was developed over the period of many hundreds of years and it contains everything the Christian needs as pertaining to life and godliness. It is the only source of information we can depend upon and: " All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Footnote: All scripture references are from the King James Version.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Hi Joel, great source of information. Very well laid out. True no one today can lay hands on another and give a gift, it is clear that during the days of the apostles, they were able to do so, However, Romans makes it clear that the Holy Spirit is actually the gift giver, so one does not need hands laid on them to receive a gift. It is given to them by the Holy Spirit to do his work. I am sorry, but I still cannot see how God would not perform miracles today, especially in such places where people are just hearing about Christ. The day of Pentacost was indeed a special day, the gift of speaking a known language they had never studied themselves was a miracle and the church began. Something that big has not happened since, But it does still happen. There are countless testimony's by well respect men and women of God of this happening. But in reference to the Paul refereing to the written word of God is being that which is perfect, this cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be Gospel. It is merely an interpretation much like the way I see it. And again. I have seen these gifts used with my own eyes, and have had the gift of knowledge at different times and instances, and it was not fraudulant nor was it used for personal gain or money. I agree there are frauds and phonies out there, but that does not mean God does not perform miracles today. If it has not been your experience to witness it or be a part of it, it does not mean it is not genuine.This may throw another wrench into things, but I believe that the "tongues" on the day of pentacost is a different subject and different issue than the gift of tongues as a spiritual prayer language that Paul is talking about in Corinthians and touches on in Romans and even in Ephesians. The tongues in pentacost were cleary a known tongue to the hearer, where as in Corinthians that tongue Paul cleary says is spiritual and unknown to the speaker or the hearer, unless it is interpreted.This still doesn't answer the question as to why James would tell the believers who are sick to call upon the elders to anoint their heads with oil and pray the prayer of faith for healing. I suppose the answer according to your perspective would be that of this was before AD 70. But again that raises the question of why would God lead these men to write so much about gifts and take so much time to explain them and the proper usage of them if they were going to stop very shortyly. A mere 70 years after his resurrection? I don't believe for a minute that God has a special place in his heart for the people who would lived before AD 70 and that these instructions are not for Christians after AD 70, it doesn't make sense to me. I do think this is definetly an area where we see things differently. I have prayed for 20 years about this, and in my study and from personal experience I can't see it the way you do, God has not convicted my heart or put a check in my spirit that I have it wrong. I am not saying you are wrong and I am right, I am just saying we see it differently. But as I said before, I think we compliment eachother nicely in many areas and can be an effective teaching team.I just conclude that it is not an essential and foundational to the teachings of the Bible and therefore, it is a secondary issue. For if it was an essential there would not be such great division over it among fundamentally conservative believers.For the record, I believe the essential doctrines of Biblical Christianity are as follows:The Triune GodheadJesus is the Son of God and God in the fleshSalvation is by grace through faith aloneMan in depraved and in need of redemptionThe Virgin birth, death and resurrection of Jesus ChristDon't get me wrong, there is alot that falls under each of these catogories. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us and he reveals different things at different times to accomplish that purpose.Lots of love,Teresa
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