My pastors say the age of miracles are over?
This will spill your coffee! Do you know where your pastor or minister was trained?
Most ministers who were trained in liberal Bible colleges and seminaries had this same theory drilled into them. When I say this, I include myself, for I was trained in such a seminary. We need to know how such theories came into being and to realise that they are not based on Scripture.
These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17)
The dispensationalist, having eliminated a miracle-working God from his Christianity, is placed in a painful position when confronted with a miracle of healing. No matter that the one receiving healing glorifies God; no matter that friends and relatives may be brought to Christ through the miracle; no matter that the healing is fully consistent with the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
Hebrews 13:8 plainly states, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” As Rufus Moseley used to say, “This means that what Jesus was, He is; what He said, He says; and what He did, He does.” Jesus still saves today, still heals today, still baptises in the Holy Spirit today, and still performs miracles in answer to prayers of faith today.
The belief that the age of miracles is past is commonly called dispensationalism. Dispensationalism claims that God has tried various expedients with man, each one having been completely abandoned before the next one was attempted so that divine workings in one age or dispensation do not apply to the next.
The belief that the age of miracles is past is commonly called dispensationalism. Dispensationalism claims that God has tried various expedients with man, each one having been completely abandoned before the next one was attempted so that divine workings in one age or dispensation do not apply to the next.
This faulty teaching has played literal havoc with the faith of millions of Christians, deluding them into believing that the supernatural power of God which wrought miracles in New Testament days is not available today.
Dispensationalism gained popular support not because the Scriptures back it up but because it seemed to offer a ready excuse for why the church today is not a miracle-working church. It is far easier to claim that the age of miracles is past than to admit that the miraculous power of God is still available, but the church lacks the necessary devotion and faith to bring them into manifestation.
Some dispensationalists claim the miracle gifts and powers were withdrawn at the close of the apostolic age (around 100 A.D.), when the last apostle and the last one upon whom an apostle laid his hands had died. The miracle gifts were but a temporary blessing bestowed by God to help get the struggling young church on its feet. Once the church was established, God snatched the power away.
Others claim it was the completion of the New Testament (around 350 A.D.), which signalled the end of miracles. Once the New Testament was complete, God’s revelation was finished, so the Holy Spirit gave up performing miracles and today confines His activity to the written word. This theory has led some rather zealous devotees of this position to hold their New Testaments aloft and boast, “I can buy all the Holy Spirit there is for fifty cents.”
Still others claim the miracles were needed only so long as the early Christians were superstitious and immature and needed “divine signs” to help them believe, but that the mature and enlightened church of today has no need of such signs and wonders. This last argument is so obviously contradicted by the anemic state of current Christianity that no thoughtful person can take it seriously.
Dispensationalism gained popular support not because the Scriptures back it up but because it seemed to offer a ready excuse for why the church today is not a miracle-working church. It is far easier to claim that the age of miracles is past than to admit that the miraculous power of God is still available, but the church lacks the necessary devotion and faith to bring them into manifestation.
Some dispensationalists claim the miracle gifts and powers were withdrawn at the close of the apostolic age (around 100 A.D.), when the last apostle and the last one upon whom an apostle laid his hands had died. The miracle gifts were but a temporary blessing bestowed by God to help get the struggling young church on its feet. Once the church was established, God snatched the power away.
Others claim it was the completion of the New Testament (around 350 A.D.), which signalled the end of miracles. Once the New Testament was complete, God’s revelation was finished, so the Holy Spirit gave up performing miracles and today confines His activity to the written word. This theory has led some rather zealous devotees of this position to hold their New Testaments aloft and boast, “I can buy all the Holy Spirit there is for fifty cents.”
Still others claim the miracles were needed only so long as the early Christians were superstitious and immature and needed “divine signs” to help them believe, but that the mature and enlightened church of today has no need of such signs and wonders. This last argument is so obviously contradicted by the anemic state of current Christianity that no thoughtful person can take it seriously.
If there was ever a time when the church and the world stood in greater peril and need, if there was ever a time when the onslaughts of Satan were as great or when evil was running as rampant, history has failed to record it. We need every spiritual gift and power contained in God’s arsenal in order to wage successful spiritual warfare today.
In seeking support for their arguments, dispensationalists often make reference to two passages of Scripture. One is 1 Corinthians 13:8–10: “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” The coming of “the perfect” is assumed to be the completion of the New Testament. After that, goodbye spiritual gifts!
True, Paul said that the imperfect will pass away. But when? Paul knew nothing of a coming end of the apostolic age, nor of a completed New Testament. In fact, there is nothing in his writings to indicate that he ever assumed there would be a written New Testament.
In seeking support for their arguments, dispensationalists often make reference to two passages of Scripture. One is 1 Corinthians 13:8–10: “As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease…when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.” The coming of “the perfect” is assumed to be the completion of the New Testament. After that, goodbye spiritual gifts!
True, Paul said that the imperfect will pass away. But when? Paul knew nothing of a coming end of the apostolic age, nor of a completed New Testament. In fact, there is nothing in his writings to indicate that he ever assumed there would be a written New Testament.
The context makes it clear that the coming of the perfect was to be the return of Christ and the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, when he (and we) would see Christ “face to face” and would “understand even as we are understood” (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The other Scripture is 2 Timothy 4:20: “Trophimus I left ill at Miletus”, which is offered as scriptural proof that miracles had ceased at that time, since Paul was unable to heal Trophimus.
The other Scripture is 2 Timothy 4:20: “Trophimus I left ill at Miletus”, which is offered as scriptural proof that miracles had ceased at that time, since Paul was unable to heal Trophimus.
But the fact that everyone prayed for does not receive healing is no more an indication that the miraculous power of God has been withdrawn than the fact that everyone hearing the message of salvation does not accept Christ is an indication that God has withdrawn His power to save. Just as there are many reasons why people do not respond to the gospel message, so there are many reasons why people do not respond miraculously when a prayer for healing is offered.
The truth is, multitudes have been saved through preaching and multitudes have been healed of disease, filled with the Holy Spirit, and are today experiencing the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit, even as Jesus promised.
These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:17)
The dispensationalist, having eliminated a miracle-working God from his Christianity, is placed in a painful position when confronted with a miracle of healing. No matter that the one receiving healing glorifies God; no matter that friends and relatives may be brought to Christ through the miracle; no matter that the healing is fully consistent with the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.
The dispensationalist often resorts to the radical explanation of the miracle: “The devil did it.” And in declaring a miracle of God to be a work of Satan, he performs an act of great spiritual danger, for his denunciation borders on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the one unforgivable sin.
In Matthew 12, when Jesus healed a blind and dumb demoniac, the Pharisees said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (verse 24), thus attributing a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit to Satan. Listen to our Lord’s solemn reply:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31–32)
One final comment on dispensationalism: Rufus Moseley once wisely observed, “If those who insist the age of miracles has ended had lived in Jesus’ day, the age of miracles might never have begun.”
In Matthew 12, when Jesus healed a blind and dumb demoniac, the Pharisees said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (verse 24), thus attributing a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit to Satan. Listen to our Lord’s solemn reply:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31–32)
One final comment on dispensationalism: Rufus Moseley once wisely observed, “If those who insist the age of miracles has ended had lived in Jesus’ day, the age of miracles might never have begun.”
In other words, the sceptic who rejects the miracles today would have rejected them in Jesus’ day. Miracles are no more believable simply because they happened hundreds of years ago. Unbelief is still the greatest hindrance to the manifestation of God’s power. It thwarted even the ministry of Jesus when, in his own hometown, they refused to believe and “took offence at him.”
And he could do no mighty work there…and he marveled because of their unbelief.(Mark 6:5–6)
And he could do no mighty work there…and he marveled because of their unbelief.(Mark 6:5–6)
