As I lay in the MRI being scanned because the doctors found a tumor in the left side of my head, I remembered how I was raised to believe if you have enough “faith” in God he would heal you. Considering I do not accept God is performing miracles today, I asked myself what my hope is in.
I was raised under the false assumption that if you have enough “faith” in God, he would miraculously heal you. When I was a young boy, my father benevolently took advantage of my inexperience. At a rest stop, the water in the men’s room sink was controlled by foot pedals. I, not seeing the pedals, relied on my father’s magic words “hocus pocus” to turn the water on. I was impressed and more than willing to help the next person who did not know the magic words. As I repeated them for a man, nothing happened. I was stunned, embarrassed, and looking for an “exit” when he found the pedals under the sink. This is a great analogy of what it is like being raised to think miracles are at your command. When no miracle materializes, you are looking for an “exit.”
Of the many exits I’ve heard, the cruelest is to blame the person in need of the miracle for not having enough belief (i.e. faith) to move God to perform. I heard a man purport a woman was denied her miracle because unbelievers in the room drained the sick woman’s faith in God.
To me the most indecorous is to imply to the person’s loved ones the miracle of healing took place in heaven after the person’s death. First they are told God will honor a certain level of belief with a miracle on earth, and then they are told God was not satisfied with their level of belief.
A Biblical definition of a miracle is:
“…a divine intervention into, or an interruption of, the regular course of the world that produces a purposeful but unusual event that would not (or could not) have occurred otherwise” [1]
I have adopted the position called “Cessationism.” People who hold this position believe miracles happened in a specific time and for a specific purpose, not that they never happened. As a Cessationist, I do not expect or pray for miracles, or accept what people categorize as miracles, because I believe the purpose and time for miracles has ceased.[2]
Of the thousands of years of
(1) The Mosaic period: from the exodus through the taking of the Promised Land (with a few occurrences in the period of the judges). Moses needed miracles to deliver
(2) The prophetic period: from the late kingdom of
(3) The apostolic period: from the first-century ministries of Christ and the apostles. Jesus and the apostles showed miracles to confirm establishment of the new covenant and its deliverance from sin (Heb. 2:3–4)[3]
Each time a spokesman (prophet) for God came to
When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Expected One or should he look for another, Jesus performed a list of miracles to send back to John (Luke 7:18-23). Jesus performed these miracles for the purpose of showing John and the people of
In Mark 2:5-12 a crippled man is brought to Jesus by his friends and instead of healing the man, Jesus told him his sins were forgiven. This was rebutted by the scribes in the crowd who asked, “Why does this man speak blasphemies, who can forgive sins but God? Jesus then asked them, “What is easier to say, your sins are forgiven; or to say, Arise, and take up your bed, and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (he said to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go thy way into your house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all….”
The purpose of miracles was to show Jesus the Christ[6] had the authority to forgive sins. I heard someone ask, “If we [Christians] are to perform the miracles Christ did, what do we need Christ for?” In a simple way, this statement nails the whole point of miracles in the New Testament. If it were not for the miracles, Jesus would be just another man, and if Christians were profusely performing miracles today, we all could claim to be the “Expected One.” Those who believe biblical miracles are to be imitated actually dilute the past purpose of miracles which is to point uniquely to Jesus as the incarnation of God and His ability to provide life eternal. Christ walking on the water was not to be imitated, but the miracle of it was to point to his divinity.
God knows and cares I am sick and can heal me. If my brain tumor turns out to be malignant I will not be praying for or expecting a miracle. My hope will be in the historical record of the biblical miracles; miracles whose past purposes were to point to Jesus’ authority to provide forgiveness of sins and provide life eternal. If Christ did not perform the miracles he sent back to John in Luke 7 I have no hope.
[1] “Miracles and Modern Thought” Norman L. Geisler (Zondervan/Probe 1982) emphasis mine page 13
[2] It does not follow that I have to believe in an un-miraculous future when Christ comes back. That is another specific time.
[3] “Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics” page 468
[4] Exodus 3, 4. Notice the signs of the serpent and leprous hand were to confirm to
[5] Acts2:22 John 3:2 John 9:16 2 Cor.12:12 Signs and wonders followed the twelve apostles to confirm what they spoke was the words of God. This is the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture.
[6] Paul refers to Jesus the Christ repeatedly in his writings. Christ in the Greek means “Anointed One.” I think it is so important to remember Jesus the man was God incarnate. This is the doctrine of the Trinity.
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