I was asked this question… “Do you have anything written on miracles?”
Yes, I do… Here is what I have written:
From the book “TRUTH AND REASONING”
MIRACULOUS SPIRITUAL GIFTS
There is a movement afoot in the religious world today that is attracting a great amount of attention. It is called the “Charismatic Movement.” Many view this movement as evidence of renewed interest in spiritual things. They believe that it is leading to deeper devotion, higher love, and is doing more to promote unity among believers than anything else.
What does the term “charismatic” mean? This is from the Greek word, “Charisma”, which is found 17 times in the New Testament, and means “gift”. It is the currently popular term to describe that which used to be called “Pentecostal.” It emphasizes the miraculous spiritual gifts of the New Testament times. So that we might know what “gifts” we are talking about, let’s look at I Corinthians 12:8-10, “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit,- To another faith by the same Spirit,- to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.” It seems that the primary emphasis today is on the gifts of speaking in tongues and miraculous healing, with a somewhat lesser emphasis upon the other miraculous gifts.
From relatively modest beginnings among established religions around 1900, the modern Pentecostal (Charismatic) Movement has grown tremendously and permeated the religious world in general. Today we find charismatic groups among the Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, and many others. But is it right?
What about the emphasis on miraculous spiritual gifts? Do they exist today, and do people really have them? Can people really speak in languages that they had never previously learned or studied? Can people really lay their hands upon the sick and bring about their recovery? Do people really receive miraculous knowledge from God? Can people really drink deadly poison and be unharmed? Can people really perform miracles today possessed of these miraculous spiritual gifts?
These are questions that demand answers, and it is those answers at which I want to arrive. Remember this, what is needed is not my opinion or claims, nor the opinions or claims of those who say they are charismatic. What is needed is the truth.
When we talk about miraculous gifts, what are we talking about? What is a miracle?
According to Webster’s, a miracle is “an event or effect in the physical world deviating from the known laws of nature, or transcending our knowledge of these laws.”
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words defines miracle as “power, inherent ability, use of works of a supernatural origin and character, such as could not be produced by natural agents or means.”
The International Standard Bible says of miracles, “an extraordinary work of God… transcending the ordinary powers of nature… such occurrences, as being incompatible with the established laws of nature… shows some power outside nature, some supernatural power, has intervened.”
When we talk about miracles, we are not talking about such things as the birth of a baby. While that is wonderful, it is not miraculous. We are talking about things that “transcend nature.” We are talking about things of a “supernatural origin and character.” We are talking about things that “could not be produced by natural agents or means.” We are also talking about things that are of such a stupendous nature that they cannot be denied.
Let’s let the Bible show us what I mean. In Acts 4:13-16 we find, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, Saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.”
That is what we mean when we talk about miraculous spiritual gifts. We are talking about gifts that are evidenced to all through “notable miracles” that cannot be denied.
What was the purpose of the miraculous spiritual gifts of the first century?
If we know what purpose they fulfilled, we can go a long way toward knowing whether or not they are still operating and fulfilling that purpose. The miraculous spiritual gifts were given to convey a message, reveal God’s will, and to confirm that revelation.
When Jesus was going away, He told the apostles that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth and to call to their remembrance all things whatsoever He had commanded them (John 14:26, 16:13). This He did, and Acts 2:1-4 shows the apostles being baptized with the Holy Spirit. And what did it do? We see in the rest of Acts 2 the apostles revealing the will of God. They even were given the ability to speak in tongues in order to get the message across to people of those tongues who were present. Speaking in tongues was given to reveal the truth to men. So, one of the purposes of miraculous spiritual gifts was to reveal God’s will.
In Mark 16:19-20, we see another purpose: “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. “Hebrews 2:3-4 should also be considered: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will. So the overall purpose of the gifts was to reveal God’s will and then confirm that revelation.
Has these purposes been fulfilled?
Yes, they have. What about the revealing of God’s will? Has it been revealed? According to 2 Peter 1:3, we have been given “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” According to James 1:25, we have been given “the perfect law of liberty, ” (“perfect” meaning “complete” or “total”). According to Jude 3 we are to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (once for all time). According to 2 Timothy 3:17, the scriptures “thoroughly furnish us unto all good works.” So, we have all things pertaining to life and godliness, the perfect law of liberty, the faith once for all time delivered to the saints, and it all thoroughly furnishes us with all good works. Yes, the revelation of God’s will is complete.
Has it been confirmed?
We already saw Hebrews 2:3 which told us, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by those who heard him.” Indeed, John 20:30-31 tells us of the confirming nature of the miracles and signs. It says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,- and that believing ye might have life through his name.” So, yes, the word of God has been confirmed. With these facts in mind, even if the Bible said nothing else about the duration of the miraculous spiritual gifts, we would know that with the fulfilment of their purpose comes their cessation. If that is not true, then the apostles were not guided into all the truth, the faith was not once for all time delivered and new revelations would have to be added to the Bible.
How did people get these miraculous spiritual gifts? There were only two ways.
One was by being baptized with the Holy Spirit. This occurred in Acts 2:1- 4 with the apostles, and it also occurred in Acts 10 with Cornelius and his household. Let’s go to Acts 10:44-47: “While Peter spoke these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? “
In the next chapter, when Peter was retelling what had happened with Cornelius and his household, notice verse 15: “And as I began to speak the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. “Who was the “us” that Peter spoke of, and when was the beginning? It was the apostles upon whom the Holy Ghost fell, and it occurred on the day of Pentecost (Acts chapter 2). Peter had to go all the way back to Pentecost to find a similar occurrence. Those are the only two cases of Holy Spirit baptism in the New Testament, (At Pentecost and with Cornelius’s household) and it does not happen today. If it did, there would be two baptisms – baptism in water and baptism in the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:5 says that there is one baptism. So people are not receiving miraculous spiritual gifts today through the baptism of the Holy Spirit or in any other way.
But we said that there were two ways- what was the other? It was through the laying on of the hands of the apostles. Look at Acts 8. This is the account, among other things, of Philip, not an apostle, going to Samaria to preach. We will read verses 12-18: “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus). Then laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money. “What had Simon seen? He saw people exercising miraculous spiritual gifts that they received through the laying on of the hands of the apostles.
Acts 19 tells us of a group of people rendering their obedience to the gospel of Christ and being baptized in the name of Jesus. After that, verse 6 says, “And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spoke with tongues, and prophesied. How did they get these gifts? Through the laying on of hands of the apostle Paul.
My friends and readers, there are no apostles today! There are people going around claiming to be apostles, but not one of them meets the qualifications for apostleship set forth in Acts 1:21-22, and no one is performing the “signs of an apostle ” that Paul spoke of in 2 Corinthians 12:12. Therefore, no one is receiving miraculous spiritual gifts today through the laying on of the hands of the apostles. The methods of impartation have ceased, and so have the gifts for today.
If this is not true, then there must be two baptisms today, contrary to what Ephesians 4:5 tell us, and there must be apostles on earth today doing the signs of an apostle – “signs and wonders and mighty deeds” – which no one can deny.
In addition to all of this Is there any place in the scriptures that teaches specifically that miraculous spiritual gifts would cease?
The answer to that question is also yes. It is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
The general topic of discussion in 1 Corinthians 12-14 is miraculous spiritual gifts and their use. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 Paul is talking about a “more excellent way” – a more excellent way than miraculous spiritual gifts. The way he is talking about is love. But notice verses 8-10, “Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part But when that which is perfect comes then that which is in part shall be done away.
The miraculous gift of prophecy was going to fail – they were to be abolished or wiped out. Why? Because at that particular time and in those days, they knew in part and prophesied (or revealed God’s Will) in part. But after that which was perfect had come, (contrasted with that which was in part-their knowledge of God’s Will), then that which was in part, and those things associated with it, would be done away. The perfect has come, at which time the miraculous spiritual gifts, part of the partial or temporary things, ceased. The perfect is the total revelation of God’s Will. It is referred to as “the perfect law of liberty.” James 1:25 & 2:12
If this is not true, then we still see through a glass darkly. We do not have all things pertaining to life and godliness, (2 Peter 1:3) and we are not thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Tim.3:16-17). My friends, no matter how you take it, the age of miraculous spiritual gifts has ceased. No one possesses those gifts today.
What, then, does all this mean?
At the time in the first century they did not have the complete New Testament, which means that Paul and the apostles were preaching by inspiration in the various letters were being written down. The words of Jesus were being recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Eventually, all the teachings were finished and put together into what we have today…the New Testament and the complete Bible, so there is no need for anything else, miracles no longer need to happen because we can all read from God’s inspired word.
It means that we must be satisfied with that which God has given for us today.
It means that we must recognize and accept the limitations that God placed on those gifts.
What of all those people who believe they possess these gifts?
It means that they must adjust their beliefs to conform to the Word of God.
It means that the gospel, once for all time has revealed and confirmed, is the power of God unto salvation.
Today we have the perfect will of God, its called the Holy Bible.
Have you obeyed the truth?
