Is John MacArthur correct on Acts 14: 8-10?

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English: Saint paul arrested
English: Saint paul arrested (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is how a John MacArthur handles the application from Acts 14:8-18. 

  • MacArthur says Holy Spirit power is needed by all Christians but not healing power
  • Because healing with signs and wonders was limited to the Apostles until the Bible came.
  • But we still need Holy Spirit power as agents of evangelism and sanctification.
  • Okay, I serve with God's strength (1 Peter 4:11) by preaching the scripture, but God regenerates, saves and fills them with the Holy Spirit and they and God work out their salvation / sanctification.....but my role is not the power role....I preach...the Holy Spirit does the power role, I am an energized agent...just as the Apostle Paul was. 
  • Is this what happens when your theology interprets scripture instead of the plain reading of scripture?


Although today’s believers do not possess miraculous healing power as Paul did, the principle is instructive—God’s power is absolutely necessary if His work is to be accomplished (Eph. 6:10; 1 Pet. 4:11). The power “to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20) comes to all believers at salvation. The power of the Holy Spirit is released in believers’ lives as they walk moment by moment in obedience to the truth. That enables them to be used as agents through whom no physical healing occurs, but rather the transformation of the soul in salvation and sanctification.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1994). Acts (p. 326). Chicago: Moody Press.

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