Miraculous Gifts

*Miraculous gifts* 

  By Samuel C Omaka

Many religious groups including some members of the Church of Christ believes that God still work miracles today. The denominational world believes the Holy spirit still speaks to them which enables them to *_babble_* effusively in an " *unknown* *tongue* ", they believe that they can still receive the Holy spirit baptism today. While some members of the church of Christ do not believe in speaking of tongue or the baptism of the Holy spirit today, they believe that God still works in a miraculous way today. 

Isaiah said," *_come now and let us_* *_reason together_* ". (Isa.1:18). Paul tasked Timothy to " *_rightly divide the_* *_word of truth_* " (2Tim.2:15).

 *DEFINITION OF MIRACLES* 

The three central terms used in the bible to designate a supernatural as contrasted with the natural are: 1)" *_miracle_* " (dunamis); (2) " *_signs_* " (semeion); and (3) " *_wonder_* " (teras). These three were mentioned together in passages such as Acts.2:22, Heb.2:4, and 2Cor.12:12. Other related terms include " *_work_* " (ergon) and " *_mighty deed_* " (kratos). W.E Vine rightly noted, "miracle (dunamis) *is works of supernatural origin and character, such as could not be produced by natural agents and means".* similarly, Otfried Hofius noted that a "sign" *contradicts the natural course of things* and likewise, "wonder" *refer to events that "contradict the ordered unity of nature".* Thus a miracle in the bible was not just an astonishing event, incredible, extraordinary or unusual such as birth of a baby or a narrow escape of an accident. Miracle was a supernatural act, contrary to the course of nature.

 *THE PURPOSE OF MIRACLES.* 

Another important thing is for one to recognise the purpose of the miraculous. In the New testament, the singular purpose of miracles was for *confirmation* , i.e, inspired speakers spoke the word of God and God validated or endorsed the speaker's words by empowering the speaker to work miracles.

Observe the wording of the following New testament passages regarding miracles and functions ," And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and *_confirming the word*_ through the accompanying signs. "(Mark.16:20)

The Hebrew writer queried,"2:3-4

 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was *_confirmed_* to us by those who heard Him,God also *_bearing witness_* both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

Luke while recording the initial preaching of the gospel to the Samaritans, stated," *And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.* (Acts.8:6).

The apostles prayed to God," *_Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.*_ ”(Acts 4:29-30). Other passages that confirm the fact that the sole function of miracles in the New testament was for the confirmation of the word includes (Jn.14:10-11, 3:2, Acts 13:12). 

 *Other purposes* : to make well?

It's of no doubt that God's compassion was evident when people received miraculous healings in the New testament, but the bible teaches that relief from sufferings was never the purpose of miracles in the bible. The Christian is subject to the same diseases as the rest of the world because of the sin of Adams (Gen.3:19). In the New testament, Christians are admonished to expect to be the recipient of hardship, opposition, temptation and suffering (1Cor.10:13; 2Tim.3:12; 1Pt.4:12-17). If we insist that God's intention for miracles was to relief Christians from pain and diseases, then God have failed as there have been thousands of Christians killed over the years, some who died of sickness over the years and so on. 

 *Can elders heal today* ?

There have been suggestions that James.5:14-15 indicates that elders can heal people today. But James was referring to the supernatural healing of the first century which was mentioned as of the available miraculous healing of that time (1Cor.12:9,30; Mk.6:13). This miraculous gift ceased together with others after the death of the apostles. As we shall see shortly, elders in the first century would have acquired their ability to heal from the apostles. The olive oil was used medicinally in the first century, but in this passage, it was merely a symbol of Christ's power to heal. The miraculous healing was not imparted by the olive oil, but by " *the prayer of faith" (Vs 15).* 

The sickness mentioned is a life threatening one, observe that " *save* " in verse 15 does not refer to spiritual salvation but physical salvation,i.e, " *to be made well".* To argue that elders can still heal today will raise a lot of questions, what of Brethren who died of deadly diseases like cancer? Corona-virus? Etc, why didn't the elders heal him? The answer lies in the fact that such miraculous gift, imparted to the early church which elders were among ceased when the apostles died.

 *MIRACULOUS GIFTS AND METHOD OF RECEPTION* .

The New Testament was very clear as to how the early Christians got thier miraculous gifts. There were only two ways by which one could receive the miraculous gift in the New Testament. The first was by the means of Holy spirit baptism. Baptism of the Holy Spirit came directly from heaven and had no human intervention involved. It occurred twice in the entire bible. It was given to the apostles (Acts.1:5, 2:4). It was also received by the household of Cornelius as a very special case (Acts.10:44-47, 11:15-17).

By A.D 62, Paul affirmed that there was only one baptism left for Christians (Eph.4:5). Every serious bible scholar agrees that the baptism of Eph.4:5 is the water baptism mentioned in the great commission (Matt.28:19-20; Mark.16:16). This means that by AD 62, the baptism of the Holy Spirit had ceased.

Apart from Holy Spirit baptism, miraculous gifts could only be conveyed by the apostles of Christ. Philip, an evangelist of the gospel performed many outstanding miracles in Samaria but could not pass that gift to others. The apostle Peter and John was sent to Samaria where Philip had been preaching to furnish the church with certain divine gifts (cf.Acts.8:5-6, 14-17).

Simon the sorcerer, in relation to the foregoing occurrence " *saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Spirit was given* " (Acts.8:18), offered to purchase this privilege to himself, but he was told he had niether part nor lot in the matter of impartation of spiritual gifts.

In Ephesus, Paul laid hands on twelve converts and they began to speak in tongues (Acts.19:6).

When Paul's apostleship was questioned  in the Corinthian church, Paul reminded them that the spiritual gifts which they possessed were " *signs of an apostle"* which has been wrought among them (2Cor.12:12), the spiritual gifts then, were the " *seal* " (divine documentation of Paul's apostleship). 1Corinthians.9:2. The argument of Paul above is an indirect evidence that such miraculous spiritual gifts were received only from an apostle.

The case of Timothy (2Tim.1:6, 1Tim.4:14).

Some have argued the exclusivity of the role of the apostles in thier peculiar ability to impart the miraculous gifts, pointing to the admonition Paul gave to Timothy,"Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the  laying on of the hands of the eldership.(1Tim.4:14). Paul clearly taught that the " *gift of God* " which Timothy possessed was given " through the laying on of my hands" (2Tim. 1:6), how does one explain that fact that Paul also said that Timothy's gift came through the presbytery (eldership) as well? The grammatical style of the text provides the answer. In 2Tim.1:6, where Paul claimed sole credit for the impartation of of the gift to Timothy, he used the Greek preposition dia with the genitive, which means " *through* " or " *by means of* ". In 1Tim.4:14, where Paul included the eldership in the action of impartation, he employed a different Greek preposition_meta, which means " *in the midst of* ", that is, the attendant circumstance of something that takes place. Simply, Paul the apostle, imparted the gift of God to Timothy in the presence of the elders who lended their simultaneous support and accompanying commendation.

 *DURATION OF MIRACLES* .

If you have diligently followed in this discussion, you will realize from the scripture that the purpose of New Testament miracle was for the purpose of confirmation. It then follows that after all that God would desire to reveal to man has been revealed, which was contained in the NT, miraculous confirmation ceased. Everything we need in this life to function effectively in pleasing God and survive spiritually had been revealed (2Pt.1:3). To argue that we have need for the miraculous today is to undermine the all-sufficiency of God's word  (cf.1Cor.1:22, 2Tim.3:16-17). Paul, while addressing the Corinthian church said that miraculous element will cease when that which is " *perfect* " has come, the word perfect was to contrast " *quantities* , i.e, those things which were incomplete and partial (miraculous gifts) with that which would be total and complete (the revealed word of God). After the complete word is revealed, those still looking for miracles are likened to an adult who still seek childish things (1Cor.13:8-13). We have the complete revealed word with us now ( Jas.1:25; 2Tim.3:15-16, 2Pt.1:3, Rev.22:18-19). 

CONCLUSION

From all we have studied in the scripture, there are some certain conclusions that must be made. 1) Holy spirit baptism was unique to the apostles and the first gentile converts. By AD 62, Holy spirit baptism had already ceased (Eph.4:5).

2) The apostles has the exclusive privilege of imparting spiritual miraculous gifts, and by the end of the first century, when the last apostle died and when those who received the laying on of the hands of the apostles died, God terminated the miraculous element in Christianity.

3) We can state categorically that there are no miraculous healing today, no tongue speaking etc, what people claim to be miracle or tongue speaking today does not fit into bible miracles. They are unverifiable, ambiguous, counterfeit. They are simply vague, unseen, non-quantifiable aches and pains like headache, stomach ache and arthritis. In the New testament, people who were born blind were healed, people who died were raised up from the dead, the lame from birth received their healing. First century miracles were not limited only to certain ailments and psychosomatic illness that could be cured through natural means or by mental adjustments on the part of the infirm. Such miracles in the New Testament simply do *NOT EXIST* today!

The purpose of miracles in the New testament has been concluded which was to confirm the word of God. The word of God had been confirmed and completed, miracles then, ceased.

            By Samuel C Omaka.