I heard many times that the miracles stopped in the first century. They said the Holy Spirit didn’t give the gifts for two main reasons:
1 – It took the apostles laying on hands to impart the gifts per Acts 19
2 – The miracles were only to confirm the Word/New Testament so once it was written the gifts were no longer needed.
As with many things, this was a conclusion reached before the study was done and then the Bible retrofitted to support the view.
Did it require the apostles to pass on gifts?
No – read Acts 10.
Was the purpose of the gifts to verify the Word? Yes.
Was the purpose of the gifts ONLY to verify the Word? No.
Healing miracles were actually designed, get this, to heal a hurting person. The idea that there was only one reason for the gifts doesn’t hold up.
God can pass on gifts without any human intermediary. This was pointed out but we were taught those were “special” occasions but how do we really know that? That is based on a limited data set (Acts) without us really knowing what else God did at the time…except we do know what else God did from outside the Bible.
The early church fathers recorded miracles and Holy Spirit gifts hundreds of years later. What is more, these weren’t rare instances…over and over they state that these were happening a lot. In fact, Craig Keener (in his book on Miracles, which is invaluable) states that miracles were a primary evidence that let to the majority of conversions based on what the early church fathers said,
“Second and third century Christian apologists depict not only apostolic leaders but also ordinary Christians as miracle workers. Before the 300s exorcisms proved to be a major factor in the spread of Christianity; in the 300s exorcisms and miracles are the most explicit cause of conversions to Christianity mentioned in early Christians sources.”
Keener, Miracles
The last thing I want to do is give you the evidence so you can look it up for yourself and know what was said. This isn’t hard to find and it is a shame no one took the time to look this up before teaching the view I outlined above.
First, rabbinic sources note early Christian miracles. Some of these were opponents to Christianity and yet they didn’t deny it happened but openly acknowledged it.
Second, here are the early church fathers,
Augustine of Hippo
He was a skeptic of the miracles in his day – which makes me trust what he said here even more because he wasn’t eager to accept it as true until he saw it himself,
“A miracle that happened at Milan while I was there, when a blind man had his sight restored…I have been concerned that such accounts should be published because I saw that signs of divine power like those of the older days were frequently occurring in modern times too…many miracles have occurred there (at Hippo) and to my certain knowledge many miracles have occurred there which are not recorded in the published documents and nearly 70 of these documents have been produced at the time of writing – City of God, 22.8
Origen
Against Celsus 1.46 – “And there are still preserved among Christians traces of that Holy Spirit which appeared in the form of a dove. They expel evil spirits, and perform many cures, and foresee certain events, according to the will of the Logos. And although Celsus, or the Jew whom he has introduced, may treat with mockery what I am going to say, I shall say it nevertheless — that many have been converted to Christianity as if against their will, some sort of spirit having suddenly transformed their minds from a hatred of the doctrine to a readiness to die in its defense, and having appeared to them either in a waking vision or a dream of the night.”
Against Celsus 1.67 – “And the name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men, and expel demons, and also take away diseases;”
Cyprian
“And this also is done in the present day, in that the devil is scourged, and burned, and tortured by exorcists, by the human voice, and by divine power;” – Epistle 75, 15
Tertullian
“The clerk of one of them who was liable to be thrown upon the ground by an evil spirit, was set free from his affliction; as was also the relative of another, and the little boy of a third. How many men of rank (to say nothing of common people) have been delivered from devils, and healed of diseases!” – Scapulam, 4
Irenaeus in Against Heresies,
“men were saved both from most wicked spirits, and from all kinds of demons, and from every sort of apostate power” – 2.6.2
Talking to those who didn’t believe in the miracles,
“And so far are they from being able to raise the dead, as the Lord raised them, and the apostles did by means of prayer, and as has been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of some necessity—the entire Church in that particular locality entreating [the boon] with much fasting and prayer, the spirit of the dead man has returned, and he has been bestowed in answer to the prayers of the saints.” – 2.31.2
“Wherefore, also, those who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform [miracles], so as to promote the welfare of other men, according to the gift which each one has received from Him. For some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe [in Christ], and join themselves to the Church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years. And what shall I more say? It is not possible to name the number of the gifts which the Church, [scattered] throughout the whole world, has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ” – 2.32.4-5
More could be mentioned: Athanasius, Basel, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Athansius, etc.
Were they all making it up? Where is the refutation? They are stating these things were common and were like what happened in the first century.
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In response to your request for thoughts on why we hold our position that miracles have ceased, I tend to believe that those of us who have seen things don’t particularly care to broadcast the fact for fear of being put out of the synagogue.
So place this into the 21st century, Matt. I have researched the miracles claimed by the Dutch version of Oral Roberts – and they were bogus.
In the early 70’s a Catholic MD wrote a book, “A Doctor in Search of Miracles.” His motivation? When i have to send patients home because there is nothing left what I, as a specialist can do. I will gladly send them to ANYBODY that promises a cure.
And was sorely disappointed because those he researched were all cheaters.
So if miracle workers still exist, please tell me who and where so I can send my brother to be healed from Alzheimers. Or my friend who was diagnosed with cancer.
Look harder.
Point me in the right direction, please. Francis Chan claimed miracles, but there are no independent witnesses.
So, any direction would be appreciated.
Try Craig Keener’s 2 volume book on miracles or his less expensive new book that just came out. Also talk with missionaries. I just spoke with a very well known preacher in Churches of Christ this week who has seen healing miracles. I heard another very prominent CofC preacher this week also talk about seeing immediate healing following a prayer for healing. Ask David Young about it at North Boulevard. Reach out to disciple making movement leaders overseas as well like Shodankeh Johnson. He says he has seen all kinds of miracles. It is more common than you might think in other countries. I think it will be more common in the US in the next 5-10 years.
I must be communicating with the wrong missionaries then, Matt. Which country?
700 CLUB list of videos;
Moreover,
Rudy, I must add a rider here!!
If a Miracle worker claims to be able to heal all and every miracle- he is boasting in his ignorance about God’s word !!
In Bible
God left some people unhealed for their life time!!
God Left some people with suggestions on medicines than a Miracle worker laying hands on them ( Even though those miracle workers were available right there with those ailing candidates)
But God does still heal and God continued to heal in 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th/ 5th century as per every credible Church Father we go to for all our other Doctrines and Church History!!
Moreover Where is a Bible verse that claims Healing/ Miracles will cease ?
The only verse any one will go to is 1 corinthians 13 : 8-9 But BAD NEWS!!
That list does not have Healing and Miracles mentioned !!
None of the Church Fathers talk about Men running around as Public Miracle workers (Like- the 20th/21st century list of men) The only one name we see had a public ministry was Bishop Gregory ; But even he never boasted in healing all/ or showing/ propagating himslef as a Special guy with special ministry!!
So even as we see some abuse/ and self aggrandizement by some recent “healing business” none of them is a basis to believe that HEALING HAS CEASED!!
You were just reading a Evangelist form “Brethren Assemblies” and I was engaged in pioneering Church planting ministry in What you might call a (3rd world country)
I hope you understand the implication of that last sentence and the words in quote!
Hi Rudy,
Fakes don’t disprove those God is using.
And it is not God’s specific will to heal everybody all the time. The Bible doesn’t teach that. Jesus didn’t even heal everybody. He said I do what the Father would have me to do.
There would be many more miracles though if the church wasn’t so neutered by the cessationists. And if the church actually prayed more for people to be healed.
Has God never used you in one of the spiritual gifts in 1st Cor. 12? He has me and some of my friends. One thing we have in common is we used to evangelize on the streets and that seemed to be when those gifts are given.
Nobody can promise anything with certainty, God heals when he pleases, no human has “the power to heal”, it is God’s will working through man. Now with that said, Rudy if you are truly looking to recieve a miracle https://cfmmap.org/ if you attend any of these Churches long enough you will see miracles and most likley find the healing you seek. If you’re just being a skeptic for the sake of skepticism any excuse not to believe will stop you from trying. So in the spirit of science and the scientific method, why not apprach with your hypothesis, but actually to receive personal results that are repeatable. Seek God and Find Him. Matthew 7:8
Hi, could you provide some examples of the rabbinic authors you mentioned that acknowledged the disciples miracles? I’d love to look into some of those. Thanks!
Matt, let me repeat my request. I truly am serious! Where do miracles still take place, the sick are healed – so my brother can be healed from Alzheimer’s, and my friend from cancer…
The records of the authors you quoted are about as convincing as those we hear about today: Someone knows someone somewhere who heard about someone somewhere else who has a cousin… You get my drift…
I would love to be proven wrong in my skepticism…
There are all kinds of reports of healing miracles around the world. I was talking to a man who did mission work in China just a few weeks ago and he said he had met people who had been raised from the dead. The same in Africa with a minister I know there. These are very credible people. Have you tried looking these things up? Have you talked to missionaries? I think at some point I pointed you to some books – The Father Glorified, Miraculous movements as a start – have you read those yet?
Rudy,
there’s millions of miracles happening. They don’t happen at churches where they deny the word of God though. Mark 1615 through 21 says them that believe shall do these things.
Now if your Bible removed that like the modern reformed Baptist movement that is spreading like crazy with her ESV you need to get another Bible. You need to get a Textus receptus Bible like the king James,Young’s literal translation or one of the ones that have not been corrupted and are being translated from Vaticanus.
Early church fathers quoted those verses that many of these modern English translations rejected or put an*in there to cause you to doubt that God said that. I’m talking about the anteNicean fathers which are before Vaticanus was ever written. SinAtticus was a forgery so that one doesn’t even count.
We had a woman come to church once who was already given 16 different antibiotics and she still was not healed. The doctor told her he could give her one more antibiotic but it might kill her As it already put so many holes in her stomach.
She was unsaved. we asked her to come to the front and about a dozen of us had her go in the middle and we all laid a hand on her then we prayed in tongues over her for a little while and then we prayed in Jesus name that God would heal her. Here’s her testimony she got healed and she gave her life to Christ.
Cessation ass like John MacArthur and people who have neutered the Holy Spirit with their words are in big trouble on judgment day because they see no healings in their church. They claim they’re all fake so why would the Holy Spirit ever do anything in their church? Some people in the Bible were healed because of their faith but most were healed because it was the father’s will.
Rudy, I have seen miracles happening right before my eyes. There is a God in heaven who works miracles and healing through his servants to this day. I feel sorry for your skepticism because you haven’t been a witness. I’m from Kenya, and there is a servant of God through whom God has healed a doctor from stage four cancer. The doctor was healed completely. Miracles such as being healed of diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV aids is a normal phenomena in church. The healed patients usually later bring hospital reports as evidence of being healed by Jesus Christ and give testimony. Have faith and welcome to church. I speak as a living testament. I was healed of haemorroids, ulcers, skin infection and spiritual wives. Remember God is still the same yesterday, today and forever more. May His grace heal your brother and friend. Don’t wait until its too late just have a little more faith as you prepare to come.
“I was healed of haemorroids, ulcers, skin infection and spiritual wives.”
I was with you through the skin infections. Spiritual wives? Is that a typographical error? If not, please help me understand what kind of an ailment that is, where it needed healing.
My skepticism is based on observation and research.
Francis Chan claimed to have witnessed miracles, which turned out to be not so much as an eyewitness but was more a case of having heard from people he trusted.
A Dutch research team did a lot of follow-up, and came in with an interesting set of conclusions.
In 1975 William Nolen, an Internist, wrote a book, “A Doctor in Search of Miracles.” It makes for interesting reading. He started his search because he was discouraged by the fact that so many people had to be told, “We are so sorry, but the world of medicine can do nothing more for you.”
For some time, I had regular conversations with a man who was deaf in both ears. He was an office worker of the Duch version of Osborne, the famed miracle worker in the 50’s and 60’s.
In one of our conversations I asked him why Maasbach did not heal him from his deafness. His response? “I do not have enough faith…”
So, my skepticism is not ungrounded…
Here are a few who talk about it: Lucian in the second century, Juvenal also in the second century both talk about it. Hanina ben Dosa was said to have healed people. That would be a start.
Hi,
Cyprian’s quote is out of context. He is saying that Demons loose all their power over a person once they are baptized. Following is the fuller context.
15. But if any one is moved by this, that some of those who are baptized in sickness are still tempted by unclean spirits, let him know that the obstinate wickedness of the devil prevails even up to the saving water, but that in baptism it loses all the poison of his wickedness. An instance of this we see in the king Pharaoh, who, having struggled long, and delayed in his perfidy, could resist and prevail until he came to the water; but when he had come there, he was both conquered and destroyed. And that that sea was a sacrament of baptism, the blessed Apostle Paul declares, saying, Brethren, I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and he added, saying, Now all these things were our examples. And this also is done in the present day, in that the devil is scourged, and burned, and tortured by exorcists, by the human voice, and by divine power; and although he often says. that he is going out, and will leave the men of God, yet in that which he says he deceives, and puts in practice what was before done by Pharaoh with the same obstinate and fraudulent deceit. When, however, they come to the water of salvation and to the sanctification of baptism, we ought to know and to trust that there the devil is beaten down, and the man, dedicated to God, is set free by the divine mercy. For as scorpions and serpents, which prevail on the dry ground, when cast into water, cannot prevail nor retain their venom; so also the wicked spirits, which are called scorpions and serpents, and yet are trodden under foot by us, by the power given by the Lord, cannot remain any longer in the body of a man in whom, baptized and sanctified, the Holy Spirit is beginning to dwell.
Thank you for taking the time to look that up. Can you point out what makes you say that? He says there are exorcists in his day – in the present day. I am not sure what I am missing.
I watched your video on miracles(fairy tales). Difficult to watch. Just affirming miracles in your religion(which you were indoctrinated into). And dismissing all other miracles of any other myths.
Check out Bruno Groening. He achieved world fame in the 1940’s, and has almost completely dropped out of public awareness. He was a Catholic from Germany, and has a small and growing following today.
No one claims miracles stopped in the first century. This whole topic will continue to be noise so long as continuationists do not put an effort in to represent cessationism accurately. Arguring that “miracles happened here or there” is arguing aginst a strawman since no cessationist denies the occurance of miracles, even today.
No one?
Well, you are incorrect.
There are many in churches of Christ who teach h miracles ceased. It is a common view.
http://www.shelbyvilleroad.org/informer/2015/2/22/miracles-have-ceased
Which states,
“Miracles were for the purpose of confirming the word (Mark 16:20). Once God’s word was confirmed, the miracles ceased. It did not need to be continually confirmed.”
https://www.oceansidechurchofchrist.net/Articles/2008/2008-10-12_Miracles_Have_Ceased.html
“Miracles came to an end at the beginning of the second century. They served their purposes and were taken away”
And many agree. I have heard it personally, once believed it myself and read it over and over again.
Someone needs to tell these cessationists that no one believes what they believe.
So, define miracle. And feel free to share some events which you accept to be miracles.
I do not believe in modern miracles. Mostly because those usually are more hype than reality.
Having said that, I would gladly accept the reality of such…
Here you go!
https://mattdabbs.com/2023/10/18/define-a-miracle/
A miracle is something that God does that goes outside the laws of nature. It isn’t just the body doing what it is designed to do. If I pray for your flu to be healed and you feel better in a week, that isn’t a miracle. If I pray for your flu to be healed and you are in bad shape and it instantly vanishes when I say, “amen” that is a miracle.
We had our prayer minister to to Uganda for mission work a few months ago. The team ran into a boy who needed to be in school but he couldn’t because his mother was blind. He had to work and provide for her. They asked to meet her…long story short…he took them to his mother, she got in the van with them, and they prayed for her blindness to be cured. And right there in the van her vision was restored and she was shocked!
Now, you tell me are those who experienced this who we worship with regularly telling us a lie? Are they somehow mistaken…that this woman was was clearly blind could then see? Is this a miracle? Or there some option I am missing here?
When someone prays for the blind to see and they go from blindness to seeing, that is a miracle. And those things happen all over the world on a regular basis.
Oh…and according to the guy above you aren’t supposed to believe miracles have stopped because no one believes that! 🙂
The devil has been meddling with church doctrine from day one. Look at Paul’s problem with the circumcision party. He has taught much of the church that water baptism does nothing and is not necessary which should be a big clue how necessary it is. It is no wonder he has found men who will spread a false doctrine about the gifts of the Spirit. Every Christian who believes and is baptized receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Some receive the additional baptism of the Spirit also. All Christians should operate in at least one gift of the Spirit. The problem is getting past all the bad teaching we have heard and getting to a place of faith.
I have not personally seen someone’s miracle. But I have faith. I was brought up in church where I never heard about miracles, except what was in the Bible.
I eventually started sinning, more and more. Eventually I started going to service where everyone prayed for healing…whatever the need. I never saw the results, but I believed. Then I went to catholic healing service w carasmatic people. When priest laid hands on me the fire went up my spine and I threw my head back onto the chair and raised my arms shouting alleluia over and over.
The next day I skipped down our sidewalk. I knrw my back pain was not permanent. It took a while for it to ho away completely, however. Years later, I found out zi have CKD and need a transplant. I ran to the church and knelt before the Lord asking gor healing. I reached put to several prayer request sights, too. And my family also, those who believe, prayed for me. Well, I’ve been steady gir 6 years, so far, do good. I also joined the catholic church so I can take communion as our Lord commanded. That’s a miracle in itself, bc I was brought up on protestant teaching, and exposed to several evangelical church teaching which is a little different. I thought I would never choose to be catholic. Well, I’ve changed my mind after much reading and research. So, that is my story. I also hear about miracles from certain priests on catholic radio. More churches need to lay on hands and pray for healing much more than they do. Then the world will see the grace and mercy and power of our God. Amen
Consider this. Not even the Jews before Christ except the prophets spoke in tongues or worked miracles. However what was seen in the 1’st century was foretold by Jude.
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy”
Peter himself acknowledges this in Acts 2. Now if you read Josephus and other histories and look at Christs prophesies it’s clear that said “last days” were the days around the destruction of Jerusalem. It’s clear from Jude that these gifts were limited to a certain time frame.
Sorry Joel, not Jude. Typo