I never said Apostleship is all about miracles but miracles approved an apostle.
And:
Heb 2:
3how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
This is the sequence:
1. Salvation announced by the Lord,
2. confirmed by those who heard Him- one mark of an apostle was that they were appointed by Jesus and were taught of Jesus.
3. During the confirmation by the apostles, God testified to it by signs and gifts- this is the purpose for signs and gifts
4. After those that heard our Lord, we have the canon. Through the canon, we today are able to hear from those that heard from the Lord (apostles)- God does not testify to the canon through signs and gifts anymore.
This is faulty reasoning. We also read that apostles and the Lord partook of the cup at the Lord supper.
I could use the same reasoning and argue that the purpose of cups is for the Lord and apostles to drink out of them, and that therefore anyone who drinks from a cup is an apostle or if that if one is not an apostle he may not drink of a cup.
Hebrews 2:3:4 does not say this was limited to the apostles, btw, or that only those who heard the Lord would ever do miracles. You should not try to read into the verses things that they do not say, ideas that other scriptures disprove.
Moses did miracles. Some men who did not follow with the apostles did miracles. Stephen and Philip did miracles. The gift of the working of miracles was among the types of gifts that former pagan Christians might have, among the gifts given as the Spirit wills in I Corinthians 12. And the apostles did miracles, too. But it is clearly unbiblical to argue that the sole purpose of miracles was to confirm the apostles.
Jesus told us the purpose...or at least a purpose... of healing the man lowered through the roof, 'that ye might know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.'
If you were to say that 'the purpose'... as in the sole purpose of Jesus' healings and miracles were for God to bear witness of Him as the Son, that would be false. You can show from scripture that miracles were for the Father to bear witness to the Son. But there are plenty of other scriptures that show other purposes for miracles and healings.
There are other purposes for healing and miracles we should consider based on scripture, in addition to bearing witness to Christ, the apostles, and the message.
- So that the person can be healed or the need met through the miracle.
- So that men might glorify God.
- A means of edification of the body of Christ.
- So that Christ might be expressed through His body.
- God's will for His purposes, which we may not always understand at the moment.
What you present is faulty logic, but it is common from cessationists, even those who have masters degrees on the subject... quote a verse showing a purpose of miracles and write as if there were only one purpose for miracles. Cessationists usually do not quote the scriptures that contradict their point of view when they do this. It's odd to me that so many of them have this blind spot, and one wonders why these others scriptures do not come to mind when they make their arguments.