Have miracles ceased? The word miracle is one which has been used and misused by many in our society today. "It's a miracle!" is a phrase used in nearly any exciting sporting event. The birth of a child is often referred to as a miracle. A man walks away unhurt after a fiery automobile accident- family and friends call his survival a miracle. Someone with terminal cancer, or an inoperable brain tumor suddenly goes into remission and fully recovers- "It's a miracle!" they exclaim. Anything not easily explained is often referred to as a miracle. The word is used so often and in so many different ways that its true meaning has become obscured.

What exactly is a miracle? Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary aptly describes a miracle as "an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs." Alan Highers, editor of The Spiritual Sword described a miracle as "an event that is above natural law." Note his use of the word "above" in conjunction with Webster's definition. Brother Robert R. Taylor Jr. expanded Highers' definition by saying "Bible miracles were above and beyond natural law; they were supernatural; they constituted God's stepping into the picture and performing what natural law would not and could not produce." To this we would add, when a true miracle was performed as recorded in the scriptures, there was neither room to doubt nor dispute the intervention of God in the matter. Consider the following incident that proves this was indeed the case.

In Acts 3:1-10, Peter healed the lame man at the temple gate. This man was over 40 years old (4:22) and had been lame from birth (3:2). The divine record, speaking of the priests and the Sadducees, says ". . . and beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it" (4:14). In a conference to discuss how to deal with Peter and John, they said among themselves, "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" (4:16).

In Matthew 12:9-14, Jesus healed a man who had a withered hand. Mark's account of this incident says the Pharisees "watched Him closely, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him" (Mark 3:2). The fact Jesus healed the man was beyond dispute, and caused the Pharisees to plot against Him how that they might destroy Him.

This brings us to another point that must be considered with reference to the miracles recorded in the scriptures — the type of miracles performed. In Matthew 4:24, the following maladies are listed among those who were healed by Jesus: various diseases and torments, the demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics. In Matthew 11:5, Jesus cited the miracles He performed as proof to John and his disciples. Among those were healing the blind, the deaf, the lame, and raising the dead. Jesus claimed that John's disciples were witnesses to the same (11:4).

This is not what we are witnessing among today's fake healers. In recent weeks I have seen men claim to heal headaches, itchy rashes, fill cavities, and the like, but no one causing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, or the lame to walk. I've seen men on television come back with claims of doing such, even raising the dead, but it was in the deep recesses of an African or South American jungle. No one ever raises the dead in Birmingham or New York City. Why not? I think we all know the reason - THEY CAN'T DO IT!!!

First and foremost, God performed miracles through His servants to confirm the word He commanded them to preach. The verse most commonly cited in defense of this truth is Mark 16:17-20, "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs" (NKJV).

However, examples of this are seen throughout the Old Testament, most notably Exodus 3-4and 1 Kings 18.

Beginning in Exodus 3, God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. Moses was reluctant to go, and offered to God a number of excuses. In Exodus 4:1, Moses said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.'"

The Lord responded by turning Moses' rod into a snake, giving this rationale, "That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee" (4:5). God then gave Moses the second sign of the leprous hand (4:6-7), saying, "And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign" (4:8). Exodus 4:29-31 tells us of Moses and Aaron's confrontation with the people, "Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people and the people believed . . ."

In 1 Kings 18:21, Elijah set himself against the prophets of Baal. He challenged all of Israel to follow the Lord, saying, "‘How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' But the people answered him not a word." The story of the two altars is familiar to all, but we should take special note of the words of Elijah as he prayed to God before the people; "LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again" (1 Ki 18:36-37). After the fire of the LORD fell and consumed Elijah's burnt sacrifice, and the wood, the stones, the dust, and licked up the water that in the trench, the people responded by falling on their faces crying "The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!" (1 Ki 18:40).

In both of these incidents, the miracles were performed to prove the authority of God's messengers, just like we read in Mark 16.

In Exodus 4, 1 Kings 18:36-39, and Mark 16:20, the Bible clearly teaches that the purpose of miracles was to confirm the word of God's messengers. The Hebrew writer wrote, "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?" (Heb 2:3-4). Those first-century preachers did not carry a black leather, red-letter edition of the King James Bible when they went out fulfilling the Great Commission. They needed some means to prove to their audiences that they were indeed sent by God, and the miracles they performed testified to that fact.

As miracles were performed in the first century to produce faith in the hearts of the hearers, so the Bible is given for that purpose today, "And truly many other signs 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 in His name" (John 20:30-31). And again, "For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom 10:17).

One would do well to note the absence of the miraculous in most of the epistles to the churches. In fact, 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 speaks to the limited span of the miraculous manifestation of the Holy Spirit; "Charity never faileth: 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 is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Charismatics try to identify "that which is perfect" as Jesus, and draw an erroneous conclusion that miracles were to continue until the second advent of Christ. However, the language will not allow for such an interpretation. The word so translated is from the Greek teleios, meaning "complete, of full age, mature." It appears 19 times in 17 verses and never refers to Jesus Christ. In addition, the word is neuter in its gender, that is, it refers to neither male nor female, but to an object without gender, in this case the scriptures. James described the New Testament as "the perfect law of liberty" (Jam 1:25).

TC