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Do Miracles Happen Today?

 

 

The knee-jerk answer to that question by most Christians is “Well, of course.”  But in order to be Christians who do not lean on their own understanding, and do not lean on knee-jerk answers, we have to do more.  The fear of the Lord calls his people to test everything by the Word of the Lord, because the Word has the final say on what we teach, and how we are corrected and reproved. 

Therefore, we need to ask some questions about what a miracle is and what purposes it has.  Some in our church have been doing this in a significant way due to a sermon I preached a while ago.  In that sermon, I challenged the standard definition of a miracle and asserted that a miracle is something more specific and is accomplishing something more purposeful. 

This article will be longer than normal, because I want to put forth a detailed case of what I believe is a biblical argument for the cessation of miracles since the time of the apostles.  There are reasons why this is important that will come forth below.

When people speak about miracles, it normally flows from a very loose definition of what a miracle is.  I believe the basic definition that people use for a miracles, whether consciously or not, is that a miracle is a surprising and unexplainable work done by God.  Now, think about that definition.  Almost every Christian I know has experienced things that are surprising and unexplainable.  When that happens, what will they call it?  If “miracle” is the normally-used definition for something like that, why wouldn’t they use it?   If there is no other terminology to use, or biblical teaching to understand it by, then people are going to call it a miracle.  I get that.  God does do unexplainable things all the time and we praise him for it.  I don’t see the need to nit-pick the casual use of this term.  

But in this article, we are nit-picking.  We are turning to God’s Word and looking for precision.  And the first thing we need to hammer out is a biblical definition of a miracle.   This would be a good place to say that I am not asking what God can do.  Why? Because it is the wrong question.  And the best way to understand why it is the wrong question is by answering what God cannot do.  God has revealed to us that there are things he cannot do.    God has told us that he can’t lie (Titus 1:2), he can’t break a promise (Heb.6:17-18), he can’t be tempted (Jam. 1:11), he can’t change (Mal. 3:6; Heb 13:8), and more.  God has put himself in a box, and he wants every answer about his ways to come from the box He put himself in.  That box is His Word speaking about his nature and purposes.  So the question of miracles is not about what God can do, it is a question of how God wants us to understand miracles and His purpose for miracles from his Word. Defining God-wrought miracles is going to put God in a box, and this is good if the box is his rightly-divided Scripture. 

The other thing to say about our task of understanding miracles is the nature of interpreting Scripture.  Not every matter of doctrine is found in the same way.  The Westminster Confession wisely states the nature of doctrinal truths derived from Scripture in this way:

 The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture:

So, for instance, the Trinity is a critical and fundamental doctrine that comes from the Word of God.  Yet, there is no Scripture that says, “God is one substance existing in three co-equal persons.”  But “by good and necessary consequence,” the Scripture teaches in many places and in many ways the three-in-one nature of God.  The same type of thing is going to be true concerning miracles.  There is no verse that says “Miracles shalt cease with the death of the last apostle John.”  But that does not mean good and necessary consequence won’t deduce this from Scripture. 

The Nature of Miracles

The best place to begin putting together a definition is to look at the words that Scripture uses when speaking about miracles.  There are four words from the Old Testament that correspond to four words from the New Testament.

Old Testament

  • Pele’ (wonder)
  • ‘Ote (sign)
  • Geburah (strength or might)
  • Mophet (wonder or sign) Used frequently with ‘Ote

New Testament

  • Teras (wonder) Does not occur alone but is always accompanied by semeion
  • Semeion (sign)
  • Dynamis (power or miracle)
  • Ergon (work) Describes the distinctive works of Christ

From these words we can see what makes a miracle and start to formulate part of our definition. 

A miracle is an indisputable, powerful (dynamis), and naturally impossible phenomena (teras) whose divine character captures the attention of people in order to point to something beyond itself (semeion)

This definition needs one more addition, but first let’s look at what we have.  The miracles of Scripture are “indisputable.”  Even nonbelievers could not deny or rationalize what had happened.  All they could do was assert a demonic source instead of a divine source (Matt. 12:22-24).  They were also powerful and naturally impossible as shown by the instant and complete nature of what was done.  There was nothing progressive about them.  Healings were instant and complete.  Bread was created.  Dead bodies were raised.  Water stood up as a wall.  “Mysterious” and “inexplicable” are not good words for these things because we encounter things we can’t explain all the time.  This is especially true for the human body, which is fearfully and wonderfully made with incredible capabilities.  Bodies often heal in ways that medical science can’t describe or explain; bodies of both believers and unbelievers.  Miracles, on the other hand, are impossibilities.  The body does not grow back missing ears or go from being a lifelong paraplegic to leaping and dancing.  You cannot walk on water or float an axe-head upon it.  These kinds of events were indisputable, powerful, impossible, and point people to something else.    

The Purpose of Miracles

As stated above, one addition is needed, and it is the most important aspect of what a miracle is.  It is a sign that is pointing to something specific.  The question is this; “What is a miracle pointing to?”  That answer will fill out the last crucial part of our definition.  To answer this, we must again turn to Scripture. 

Mark 16:19–20  So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

What were the signs of miraculous works pointing to?  They were confirming the word spoken by the apostles.  While it is questionable that Mark actually wrote this as an ending of his gospel, we can at least say that the authorizing nature of miraculous signs was understood very early as the purpose of miracles. 

John 10:24–25  The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.

This is a clear word from Christ about the purpose of his miraculous works.  They are a testimony verifying the message that Christ was bringing.  Jesus says the same thing in John 5:36.  This is the purpose of miracles. 

John 20:30–31  Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

The whole gospel of John is written around 7 signs that Jesus performed.  The climactic word summarizing the whole book tells us the purpose of the miracles.  The purpose of the signs is to authenticate the person and message of Jesus so that you believe in Him.  Miracles are God’s authenticating tools.  

Acts 2:22  “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—

The first thing that Peter said in this very first sermon on Pentecost was a word about the confirming and authenticating purpose of miracles.  Jesus’ message about himself was confirmed by God through the use of “miracles and wonders and signs.” 

Acts 6:7–8  The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. 8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

Acts 8:6, 13  The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing…. 13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

Here we see the first two men outside of the 12 apostles who are able to use signs.  Yet, both men were connected to the apostles, having been appointed by them in Acts 6. Notice also what is the driving purpose behind the use of the signs; the Word of God is being confirmed and advanced (note the italicized portions.)  So signs are still having a confirming and authenticating function. 

Acts 14:3  Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.

This is another very important verse about the purpose of miracles.  Why did God allow miracles to be done by Paul and Barnabas?  It was a divine stamp of authentication upon these two men.  God had something to say about these men and their message, and he was “testifying” by means of miracles.  That is the purpose of miracles. 

Hebrews 2:2–4  For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, 3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

Once again, we have a clear and unequivocal statement about the purpose of signs and wonders.  Miracles are God’s testimony of confirmation upon men who are bringing divine revelation.  And the men are specified.  “Those who heard” and “them” are the apostles. 

We have already seen verses (Mark 16:20; Acts; Acts 14:3; Heb. 2:4) that display the very strong, almost exclusive, connection between the apostles as Christ’s official representatives and the use of authenticating miracles.  On top of those, note the following verses which make this connection as well. 

Acts 2:43  Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

Acts 5:12  At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico.

Romans 15:18–19  For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

2 Corinthians 12:12  The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

This is important.  Since the apostles were the primary means of bringing new revelation, and if miracles are for the purpose of confirming the messengers of God, then we should see it tied mainly to apostles in the New Testament, which we do. 

The Old Testament also speaks to the authenticating nature of miracles.  Look at the following passages. 

Exodus 3:12  And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

Every time Moses brought an objection about being God’s spokesman, God responded with a miraculous sign that would confirm Moses as God’s spokesman.  God’s confirmation of Moses as his spokesman would continue through all the various uprising against Moses. 

1 Kings 18:36  At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word.

How did God let it be known that Elijah was His prophet?  It was by the climatic and awesome miracle of fire from heaven that burned up the soggy sacrifice on Mt. Carmel.  His successor, Elisha, was also confirmed as a prophet with the same authority by the 20 miracles recorded in Scripture. 

Psalm 74:9 We do not see our signs; There is no longer any prophet, Nor is there any among us who knows how long.

This last verse shows the connection of being God’s spokesman and doing miracles.  The psalmist was lamenting that when there are no prophets, there are no miracles.   This is the kind of verse we expect when miracles have a definite purpose of confirming official spokesmen of God. 

 

The Times of Miracles

At this point, there is a simple test we can conduct to see if I am on the right track concerning the nature and purpose of miracles.  If the purpose of miracles is to authenticate a man as God’s spokesman for authoritative revelation, then in the Bible we should see miracles happening around prophets and apostles and those who are tightly connected with prophets and apostles. 

Is this the case?  Yes, it is.  It is a widely recognized biblical reality that for the two to three thousand years of biblical history, there are only three periods when miracles were happening, each lasting less than 100 years.  These three periods were absolutely crucial moments in redemptive history, marked by a continuous flow of revelation through divinely called men.  These three periods were:

The Exodus and the establishment of the nation of Israel : Moses

The Preservation of Israel during the Divided Kingdom: Elijah and Elisha

The Institution of the Church: Jesus and the Apostles

During these times, and for the most part only these times, miracles poured forth in connection with these men.  Outside of these times, and even outside of these particular men during these times, miracles are exceedingly rare.  This highlights the purpose of miracles.  They are authenticating certain men, bringing a certain message, at a certain time. 

Therefore, our definition of a miracle is : an indisputable, powerful (dynamis), and naturally impossible phenomena (teras) whose divine character captures the attention of people in order to point to (semeion) the authentication of His messengers as bearing a true revelation from God. 

Why does cementing the purpose of miracles matter?  Because if miracles are happening all the time to random people for random reasons, then the Scripture loses one of its key authenticating features.  If the writers of Scripture do not have this confirming sign, if miracles are happening regularly, then all the above verses that speak of God testifying to his called men with miracles does not carry any weight. 

The Miraculous Giftings

While I am not going to give a detailed treatment about the sign gifts of the New Testament, everything said above about miracles applies to the sign gifts as well.  The special sign gifts includes the Apostolic gift, the prophetic gift, the gift of tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the gift of healing, the working of miracles, a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, and the distinguishing of spirits.   Each of these had the miraculous interwoven into it.  The gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues meant you could speak or interpret an actual human dialect that you had never learned.  The gift of healing and working of miracles is self-evidently miraculous.  A word of knowledge and wisdom was a special revelation from God. 

All of these miraculous gifts were serving a purpose of confirming the apostolic message.  Once that foundation was laid by the prophets and apostles, once the canon of Scripture was completed, there simply was no longer a purpose for these sign gifts to remain.  What they were pointing to had come and was established with self-authenticating power.  The disappearance of these signs slowly begins to happen even before the canon was closed.  The early books of the New Testament are filled with examples of healings and miracles, but the chronologically later epistles show that Paul could not heal Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:27), Trophimus (2 Tim.4:20), or Timothy (1 Tim 5:23), and they do not mention the other sign gifts as well.

Early Church history bears this out as well.  Noted theologian B.B. Warfield said, “There is little or no evidence at all for miracle-working during the first fifty years of the postapostolic church.” (Counterfeit Miracles, Banner of Truth, 1972: p.10)  The Early church father Chrysostom also recognized that the gift of prophecy had ceased by his time. (Homilies in First Corinthians, Homilies 29, 36)

Extraordinary Providence and the power of Prayer

So, when something amazing happens, what are we to say about it?  If it is not a miracle, what is it? It is extraordinary providence.  What is providence?  It is God’s invisible involvement in the life of every person and every atom, during every second of created history.  You can’t see it or feel it, but God has told us that he is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3) and He “works all things after the counsel of his will.” (Eph. 1:11)  However, there is a distinction that can be made.  Normal providence is when God works through all he has established in normal ways.  God is directing everything through the normal means of laws of nature, governments, economics, relationships, and all the other normal pathways of life.  But sometimes we do see extraordinary providence.  This is when the unexpected check comes in the mail right when the bill is due.  It is when you stay home from work for some random reason and your workplace office burns to the ground.  It is when a brain tumor suddenly disappears without medicine.  It is when a wicked person receives justice in strange and fearful ways. All of these events are God’s work done in surprising and inexplicable ways.  They do not match the biblical definition of a miracle, but they are just as amazing and wonderful as a miracle.  God providentially moving a fish to eat a coin, and then having Peter catch that fish just in time to pay the temple tax is as amazing as God creating a coin out of nothing.  And many times, these extraordinary providences come in answer to prayer.  God has brought us into a real relationship where he really does hear and work in response to prayer.  He has ordained prayer, and sometimes we see him do works of extraordinary providence through it.  Whole books of the Bible revolve around God’s answer to prayer and extraordinary providence.  Such books are Ruth, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah.  For all of these amazing things, we should attribute them directly to God and praise Him accordingly.  We should not think that unless we can call something a miracle it doesn’t have the same weight of divine love and care.  No!  God is always at work, and sometimes he makes his love and care for us known in spectacular ways. 

 

Are Miracles completely ruled out?

The final issue I want address is the matter of absoluteness.  Can we say absolutely that God will never do a miracle today?  First, I would say that we do not have a single biblical reason to expect miracles today.  What I do expect is for people to confuse and misidentify events of extraordinary providence (which occur regularly) with miracles.  Miracles have a clear purpose, and that purpose no longer applies to us.  Also, outside of those distinct periods when God was authenticating certain men, miracles are exceedingly rare, with many hundreds of years without any such event. 

If, at this point, you say, “Ah! So there were some unexpected miracles over thousands of years.”  Yes, but this is no biblical warrant to expect or even look for miracles.  Exceedingly rare and exceptional events are not what you use to shape how you look at God’s dealings.  It is simply an exception allowed in the wisdom of God.  For an extreme example, God once spoke through the false prophet Balaam (Num. 31:16), and another time through the witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28:6-12).  Both of these people are condemned by Scripture.  Are we to therefore be on the watch for God speaking through other witches?  By no means.  Such exceptions are unusual, rare, and have no bearing upon what the Christian looks for God to do. 

Even more importantly, even if God did do something miraculous, we have a biblical principle to give it no special attention.  Consider these verses:

2 Corinthians 12:1–2  Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven.

Paul was miraculously taken to heaven, but even by this time in his ministry he considered it “not profitable” to tell to the churches.  This is the same view we can have on so-called miracle stories that we hear about today.  Miracles are not profitable for directing or informing the people of God.  Miracles served their purpose, and now we give our attention to the power of the Word of God. 

In Jesus’ account of Abraham and the rich man, Abraham told the rich man, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)

This is showing us that when people have the full written word of God for that time, miracles do not have a purpose.  If people will not receive the self-authenticating and powerful Word of God, they will not receive a miracle, which makes miracles unnecessary.  The preeminence of Scripture is highlighted here.  Therefore, even if a real miracle happened, they are simply not a concern to people who have the full revelation of God. 

1 Corinthians 1:22–23 (NASB95) — 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,

When people want signs, Paul does not give them signs, but the message of the gospel.  When the gospel message is fully in place, signs are not needed.  Therefore, if a sign was to occur, is it no concern to the people who already have the complete revelation of God. 

Therefore, not only are we given no biblical instruction about seeking or expecting miracles today, and not only are we shown the unprofitability to even pay attention to so-called miracles today, we are given ample testimony of how miracles were restricted to specific times in redemptive history and a specific purpose for establishing the Scripture.  

Just like God gave Israel a test of sign-working, false prophets (Deut. 13:1-5), you can consider this another test to see if you will exalt experience over God’s Word.  This is an epidemic in most churches.  If someone has an experience, then Scripture is either ignored or forced to fit with the experience.  It must be the other way around.  Scripture alone has the final authority, and it judges every experience.  If science oppose Scripture, we trust God’s Word.  If psychology promotes methods that reject the biblical doctrines of sin and gospel regeneration, we trust God’s Word. If archeology declares a discovery that discredits the Biblical account, we trust God’s Word.  And if someone claims to have seen or heard something miraculous, we submit it to Scripture and not the other way around. 

 

 

 

 

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