Dr Paul Allen

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.  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 i...

 

Throughout Scripture, signs and wonders represent God’s power unleashed first against Egypt during Israel’s deliverance and later through Jesus Christ to inaugurate salvation history.1 These phenomena carry consistent theological weight across both testaments, functioning as more than mere spectacle. A sign fundamentally directs people toward God2, while a wonder—derived from a Greek word related to “terror”—denotes something extraordinary that provokes amazement in observers.2 Where signs appeal to understanding, wonders engage the imagination.2 Though signs seek to generate belief, they don’t compel it.2 In the Old Testament, God’s saving actions in delivering Israel from Egypt became the focal point for divine self-revelation.1 The plagues against Egypt revealed God’s identity to the Egyptians themselves, establishing God’s reputation among the nations, not merely before Israel.1 These historical events carried implications extending far beyond their moment, shaping Israel’s ongoing...

 

In  Jack Deere 's intriguing book,  Surprised by the Power of the Spirit , he suggests the following hypothetical situation and result: "If you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a  Bible  and tell him to study what the Scriptures have to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist." 1   Elsewhere, he writes, Everyone who picked up the Bible, started reading, and concluded that God was still doing signs and wonders and that the gifts of the Holy Spirit had not passed away. The doctrine of cessationism did not originate from a careful study of the Scriptures. The doctrine of cessationism originated in experience.  2 Deere may have a point, but a person reading the Bible and studying miracles and healing may also have several questions about these things. Why do the epistles have little discussion about them? Why does Paul leave people sick ( Phil 2:26-27 ;  1 Tim 5:23 ;  2 Tim 4:20 ...