Miracles happen every day. Remember Senator, Gabby Giffords she was shot in the head a few years ago and was placed in a coma and the doctors were not sure whether she would even wake up and if she did she would not make as much of a recovery as she did. That was a God thing. Called a miracle. You say miracles don't exist, she is living proof they do. Laying on hands happen daily. Speaking in tongues is another way we communicate with God in a more personal way.
A miracle is when someone is dead, biologically dead, beyond resuscitation and is then immediately brought back to life, that's a miracle. If laying on hands is still existing, then why are we not laying our hands at the hospital and having EVERYBODY healed, because the bible says the one that's laying on hands is the one responsible for the person being healed, not the person that is sick. When you lay hands on someone and they don't get better you blame them for not having faith, but as I said the person laying on hands is the one that has to have the faith, so if it doesn't work, it's the one laying on of hands fault, not the recipient. Speaking in tongues was the ability to talk to someone in their own language, for instance, if I spoke French and you didn't but all of a sudden you could, then that would be speaking in tongues.
A Fall from Grace →
Have Miracles Ceased?
Miracles do not
continue today. First, look at the quality of miracles that people
claim to perform today. Where are the ones who can walk on the water? Where are the ones who can still the storms? Where are the ones who can raise the dead? Where are the ones who can make the deaf hear? Where are the ones who can make the blind see? Where are the ones who can heal a withered arm? These are all the quality of miracles that occur within the Bible. You will never find a single person who can perform this quality of miracle. Instead, you find people trying to perform more ambiguous type miracles–things that are not obviously miracles. You find people shaking around on the ground. You find people speaking in “tongues” which are not tongues at all according to the Bible definition of tongues (read
Acts 2:1-11 and pay attention to what tongues are in this passage). You find people being healed of diseases that they can’t see or define. The quality of miracles that you have today is simply not the same as what Jesus and the apostles did.
Second, though, and perhaps more importantly, the Bible says that miracles have ceased. While
1 Corinthians 13 is mostly looked at as the great chapter of love in the Bible, that is not what is under consideration by the apostle in the broader context of the book. Paul is discussing the use of miraculous gifts in chapters 12-14 of 1 Corinthians. In chapter 13 he is drawing a distinction between miracles and the way of love. Notice what he says in the middle of the chapter regarding what is going to remain and what is going to cease (verse 8). “Charity (love) never faileth: but whether there be prophesies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.” The miraculous is going to cease but love is not. That is the contrast that Paul is drawing.
Now at the end of the chapter he adds two more things to the concept of love that shall not cease. These three things together are faith, hope, and love. These three will abide, but the miraculous will cease. Some people say that miracles have not ceased now, but will cease when Jesus comes. This is what they say “that which is perfect” means in verse 10. However, “that which is perfect” cannot mean Jesus because when Jesus comes hope will be done away with. Paul writes in
Romans 8:24 “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” When Jesus comes again, we will see Him and no longer have hope in Him. If “that which is perfect” is Jesus, then not only must miracles cease at that time, but hope as well. But Paul says in verse 13 that hope abides. So “that which is perfect” must be something other than Jesus. In fact, “that which is perfect” has already come. “That which is perfect” is the completely revealed word of God. James calls it the “perfect law of liberty” in
James 1:25. Additionally, we read that
Ephesians 4:7-13 also talks about when miracles will end. The gifts that were given (apostles, prophets, etc) were given UNTIL we all come to the “unity of the faith.” This means that when the “Unity of the Faith” came, there was no longer a need for the miraculous gifts. The unity of the faith is no less than God’s
complete revealed word.
To phrase the argument succinctly:
1. Miraculous gifts will cease, but faith, hope, and love will abide (
1 Cor. 13:8,13).
2. Miraculous gifts will cease when that which is perfect comes (
1 Cor. 13:10).
3. Faith, hope, and love will continue when that which is perfect comes (
1 Cor. 10:13).
4. Hope can’t continue when Jesus comes because hope that is seen is not hope and Jesus will be seen (
Romans 8:24).
5. So, that which is perfect can’t be Jesus’ coming because then hope would not abide.
6. Therefore, that which is perfect must come after the time Paul writes and before Jesus comes again.
7. Therefore, miracles must cease sometime after Paul writes and before Jesus comes again.
8. This was going to happen when the “unity of the faith” came (
Eph. 4:13).
9. The “unity of the faith” came after John wrote the book of Revelation (
Rev. 22:18,19).
10. Miraculous gifts ended after John wrote the book of Revelation.
Finally, we must take into account the purpose of miracles. We read in
Mark 16:20, “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” The purpose of miracles was to confirm the word of God. They did not have a Bible like you and I have. They had people who were preaching. They needed something to show that what they were preaching and saying was the truth. God gave witness to them through miracles that what they were saying was the truth. This is the purpose of miracles.
