MIRACLES AND NON-MIRACLES

Hugo McCord

Since a miracle (miraculum) is “a wonder or a wonderful thing” (WEBSTER’S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY), one can say that the whole of God’s creation is a miracle. The psalmist exhorts all people, “Give thanks to the Lord of lords” because “he alone does great wonders” (Psalm 136:3-4).

On the other hand, “seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,” all conforming to the laws of nature, are not miracles (Genesis 8:22). A miracle “in theology,” according to Webster, is “an event or effect ... due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God.”

In Bible times most events certainly were according to the laws of nature, but undeniably there were events “due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God.” Both of these events, natural and supernatural, were in God’s plans until the last person died on whom an apostle had laid his hands (Acts 6:6; 8:18; 19:6). God has told us of at least ten matters in which miracles and non-miracles were contemporaneous: (1) Bread; (2) Faith; (3) Teaching; (4) Tongue-talking; (5) Indwelling of the Holy Spirit; (6) Indwelling of Satan; (7) Hand-laying; (8) Fasting; (9) Application of Oil; and (10) Prayer.

1. Bread. When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), we do not expect a miracle because Adam was told “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Genesis 3:19). But it was a miracle when the Israelites for 40 years, six days a week, found bread (“manna”) outside their tent doors, supplied by a heavenly caterer (Exodus 16:13-35; Joshua 5:11-12).

Similarly, Jesus by a miracle multiplied bread and fish (Matthew 14:14-21; 15:32-38), but since that time one has to say that “while the earth remains” bread arrives on a man’s table, not by a miracle, but by “seedtime and harvest” (Genesis 8:22).

2. Faith. Convincing evidence for believing in the existence of God is found in the physical universe (Acts 14:17; Romans 1:19-20). Convincing evidence for believing in the deity of Jesus is found in the four gospels (John 20:30-31; Romans 10:17).

But in the first century there was also another kind of faith, of which not much was required: “as small as a mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20, NIV). With this second kind of faith one could wither a “fig tree” or say “to this mountain [Mt. Olive?], ‘Be removed and cast into the [Mediterranean?] sea,’ and it shall be so” (Matthew 21:18-22). With miraculous faith one could “command a mulberry [sycamine] tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you (Luke 17:6).

Some Christians at Corinth had this miraculous “faith,” referred to as “faith, so as to remove mountains” (1 Corinthians 12:9; 13:2). However, the only way revealed in the Bible how any supernatural gift was conferred was by the laying on of the apostles’ hands (Acts 8:18; 19:6; Romans 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:6). That being true, miraculous faith is not in existence today.

3. Teaching. As there were two kinds of faith in the first century, so there were two kinds of teaching, miraculous and non-miraculous. Spirit-inspired teaching was done by the apostles (Acts 2:4; 1 John 4:6), and apparently the same “gift” of miraculous teaching (called “prophecy”) the apostles by hand laying gave to Barnabas, Mark, Luke, James, Jude, Philip’s four daughters, “some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers” (Acts 13:1; 21:9; 1 Corinthians 12:10-11; Ephesians 4:11).

Spirit-inspired miraculous teaching lasted until all 27 of the New Testament books, called “the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:13), and “that which is complete” (1 Corinthians 13:10), had been written. Since 96 A.D., when John finished the New Testament, no miraculous teaching has been given, nor ever will be (Galatians 1:8-9; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:3; Jude 3).

Also in the first century uninspired, non-miraculous teaching was done by Apollos, probably by Titus, Epaphras, Archippas, and even today by “faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (Acts 18:24-26; Titus 2:1-8; Colossians 1:7; 4:12-13, 17; 2 Timothy 2:2).

4. Tongue-talking. As there were two kinds of teaching in the first century, so there were two kinds of tongue-talking, miraculous and non-miraculous. People talked in their “own language in which” they “were born,” and also some people spoke in languages foreign to them (Acts 2:8; 1 Corinthians 12:10).

On one occasion God, directly from heaven, gave a group of Gentiles in Caesarea the ability to talk in foreign languages in order to convince a racist apostle that God means to have only “one flock” (John 10:16; Acts 10:44-48). Foreign “languages” were “for a sign” to “unbelievers,” not for mutual edification (1 Corinthians 14:22). While miraculous tongue-talking was practiced at Corinth, those with that gift were forbidden to do so unless someone was present who had the miraculous gift of “interpretations of tongues” (1 Corinthians 12:10-11; 14:28).

Miraculous tongue-talking lasted only a few years, only until “that which is perfect,” the completed New Testament in 96 A.D. (1 Corinthians 13:10). Paul looked to the end of miraculous tongue-talking (as well as of “prophecy,” always miraculous), and of miraculous “knowledge,” as he wrote:

But whether there are gifts of prophecy, they will pass away; or languages, they will cease; or knowledge, it will pass away (1 Corinthians 13:8).

Since no other biblical way of conferring the miraculous gifts except by apostolic hand laying is revealed, miraculous tongue-talking has ceased forever.

5. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As there were two kinds of tongue-talking in the first century, so there were two kinds of Holy Spirit indwelling, miraculous and non-miraculous.

Only a miraculous indwelling explains Gabriel’s words announcing the approaching birth of John the immerser: “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15). Similarly, only a miraculous indwelling explains Luke’s statement that “Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied” (Luke 1:67), and that “Elizabeth was full of the Holy Spirit” as she exclaimed, “the baby leaped in my womb for joy!” (Luke 1:42-42, 44).

Likewise, only a miraculous indwelling describes what happened to the apostles: “All were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit was inspiring them” (Acts 2:4). Likewise, only a miraculous indwelling describes what two of the apostles were able to do: “Then they placed their hands on [the new converts at Samaria] and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17).

On the other hand, a non-miraculous indwelling of the Holy Spirit was in God’s plan for all of “those who believed in” Jesus (John 7:39). The inspired writer used the word “believed” as a package word including repentance and baptism, as one learns when believers were told:

Repent, and let every one of you be baptized for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call (Acts 2:38-39, NKJV).

The promised “gift of the Holy Spirit” to all baptized believers carried with it no miraculous powers. Miracles {“wonders and signs”) were done, not by the “about three thousand” who were baptized on Pentecost Day, but they “were done by the apostles” (Acts 2:41, 43; 5:12).

Christians do not know by their feelings that they have received either the remission of sins or the gift of the Holy Spirit. By their feelings they do not even know that there is a Holy Spirit. But God’s Bible says that he does exist, and that he does not dwell in non-Christians, and that his indwelling in Christians is God’s way of saying that former children of the devil are now his adopted children (John 8:44; 14:17; Romans 8:9, 15; Galatians 4:6).

If Christians misbehave, they “grieve” the indwelling Spirit, and he will leave them (Ephesians 4:30; Jude 19). Thus it is up to all Christians to live in such a way that their heavenly Guest will not leave. They must remember that it is their responsibility to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Really, the divine imperative of Ephesians 5:18 is more personal and vivid in the Greek middle voice, “Keep yourselves filled with the Spirit.”

6. Indwelling of Satan. As there were two kinds of indwellings of the Holy Spirit, so there were two ways Satan dwelt in human beings, miraculously and non-miraculously. In the first century God allowed Satan’s messengers (aggeloi, Matthew 25:41), also called “devils” or “demons” or “unclean spirits,” to invade and possess some people miraculously (Matthew 7:22, Mark 5:13, KJV, ASV). Apparently God did this in order to show that Jesus and his apostles had more power than Satan by casting out his devils (Matthew 12:28; Acts 16:18; 19:12). No sin was imputed into the afflicted people, as is evident when we read about a little child suffering from the indwelling of an evil spirit (Mark 9:17-20). Seven of Satan’s demons entered Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2), but it is slander to say that she had been a prostitute and was guilty of “seven deadly sins.” These Satanic invasions into innocent people were miraculous and uninvited, and apparently God prohibited them at the time other miracles ceased.

Some of God’s people, apparently those on whom apostolic hands had been laid, had the ability to perform “miracles” (1 Corinthians 12:10), and exorcism was certainly a miracle (Mark 16:17; Acts 16:18; 19:12). And if “miracles” ceased when the New Testament books were completed (1 Corinthians 13:8-10), exorcism ceased. If God still allows devils to enter human beings miraculously after no one has the gift to cast them out, all mankind is helpless. It must be that miraculous devil possession is no more.

But non-miraculous devil possession is still very real. As a roaring lion he stalks about, “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). But, thank God, he cannot enter any human being unless that person allows it! “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The demon-possessed child (Mark 9:17-20) and Mary Magdalene with seven devils (Luke 8:2) had no way to prevent being possessed miraculously by Satan, but non-miraculously he has never had the power to possess any one except by the decision of that person himself. Miraculous devil possession is forever gone, but non-miraculous devil possession is a present day reality.

7. Hand-layiug. As in the first century there were kinds of indwelling of the Spirit, also there were two kinds of hand-laying.

The laying on of the apostles’ hands apparently conferred miraculous power to seven disciples, and certainly to two of them: Stephen and Philip (Acts 6:6, 8; 8:5-7). And certainly the laying on of the hands of two apostles on new converts at Samaria caused them to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17). This endowment of the Holy Spirit by hand-laying, some time after the Samaritans had received the non-miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit at their baptism, has to be miraculous (Acts 2:38; 8:17).

Likewise, twelve disciples at Ephesus received miraculous power by the laying on of Paul’s hands (Acts 19:6-7). The ability of the apostles to confer miraculous powers by hand-laying apparently means that an apostle had laid his hands on Ananias, giving him miraculous power, for he was able to lay his hands on blinded Saul to restore his eyesight (Acts 9:17-18). But hand-laying by present-day preachers never opens blind eyes.

At Lystra, on Paul’s second missionary journey, in 51 A.D., Paul wanted the young man Timothy to go with him (Acts 16:1-3). Probably at the last church service before their departure, Paul conferred a miraculous “gift” on Timothy “through” or “by” (dia) hand-laying, which ceremony was accompanied “with” (meta) hand-laying by the “presbytery” (presbuterion), the eldership (1 Timothy 4:14). Since biblically only an apostle could confer a miraculous gift, what the elders at Lystra did was simply an outward assurance to Timothy that they loved and appreciated him and would be praying for his work with Paul.

8. Fasting. As in the first century there were two kinds of hand-laying, so there were two kinds of fasting, miraculous and non-miraculous.

Fasting is “to abstain as a religious exercise from food and drink” (Thayer on nesteuo). Jesus condemned display “show off” fasting (Matthew 6:16-18), but said that after he left, then his disciples would fast (Matthew 9:15; John 3:29).

After Jesus had left, “the apostles’ doctrine” (Acts 2:42) in the New Testament does not set any special time for fasting. Since Christians are to fast (Matthew 9:15), each one sets his own schedule. An aged Christian, when I was young, told me that when a Christian feels that he is slipping spiritually, and is not as close to Jesus as he ought to be, then he should miss a meal entirely and spend the time in fervent prayer.

The aged Christian’s advice parallels a statement in some manuscripts of 1 Corinthians 7:5 about husbands and wives refraining periodically from sexual relations:

Do not deprive each other, except for a time by mutual consent, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; then come together again, lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

The apostles’ doctrine, however, does show that prayer “with fasting” accompanied the appointment of elders (Acts 14:23), and the same thing was true when a church was sending preachers away for missionary work (Acts 13:1-3).

The examples of private fasting (1 Corinthians 7:5) and of congregational fasting (Acts 13:1-3; 14:23) were non-miraculous. However, in some manuscripts the miracle of casting out evil spirits required fasting (Matthew 17:21; Mark 9:29, KJV). But since a miraculous indwelling of Satan was of the first century only, so miraculous fasting in regard to exorcism likewise is only history.

9. Application of Oil. As in the first century there were two kinds of fasting, so there were two kinds of oil application, miraculous and non-miraculous.

In Bible times, to apply oil to one’s head was as refreshing as washing the face (Matthew 6:17). To anoint a visitor’s head with oil was a thoughtful act of hospitality (Luke 6:46). In addition, oil was used as a “household remedy” (B-G-D, p. 35). In the case of the good Samaritan, it was also a roadside remedy, as he poured “oil and wine” on the wounds of a wounded man (Luke 10:34). This kind of oil application clearly was non-miraculous.

On the other hand, at times the apostles, as they went out preaching two by two, cast out devils and “anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them” (Mark 6:13). But oil (it usually was olive) is not a medicine and has no ability to heal sick people. If the application of oil itself healed the sick people, they did not need the apostles’ assistance in using a “household remedy.” It must be that the oil applied by the apostles was purely ceremonial, and as powerless for healing the sick as was the mud pie Jesus placed on a blind man’s eyes to restore his sight (John 9:6-7). Clearly the apostles’ use of oil was part of a miracle.

Since we read of no one able to confer the Holy Spirit by hand-laying except the apostles (Acts 8:18), it must be that the miraculous gift of “healing” (1 Corinthians 12:9) had been bestowed on some elders who applied oil to the sick and they were raised up well (James 5:14-15).

But today no apostle is available to confer healing by the application of oil. It is sad that good people today have not learned that the miraculous healing by way of an oil application passed away when the last person died on whom an apostle had laid his hands.

A dedicated elder in Dallas, who always carries a vial of oil for anointing, applied oil to a sick child in a hospital room and prayed over her just before she was taken to the operating room for surgery. That elder did not realize that, according to James, the oil and the prayer would have healed the child, and no surgery would have been needed.

Two elders of a small, loving congregation in Indiana, concerned about a house-bound lady in a wheel-chair, afflicted with arthritis, took the entire congregation after a Sunday night service to the lady’s house. They applied oil and prayed as they walked round and round her wheel-chair. Nothing developed but tiredness for everybody, and the session ended before midnight. Those elders did not realize that the miraculous healing promised by James ended when the last person died on whom an apostle had laid his hands.

10. Prayer. As there were two kinds of oil application in the first century, so there were two kinds of prayer, miraculous and non-miraculous.

It is clear that James 5:14-15 refers only to miraculous prayer for the first century, and that those two verses parallel other examples of miraculous prayer in the first century, as in casting out of devils (Matthew 17:21, KJV), as in healing a case of “fever and dysentery” (Acts 28:8), and as in raising a dead person to life again (Acts 9:40).

But James made it clear in verses 16-18 that he was talking about non-miraculous prayer by Elijah. The fact that Elijah did have miraculous power, even to raising the dead (1 Kings 17:14-16), is not what James tells about Elijah. James wanted all Christians to know that Elijah’s prayer for a long drought and then for a fruitful rain was from a man “whose nature was like ours” (James 5:17), that is, in the history of the drought and subsequent rain, no miracle was involved.

After the long drought (three years and a half) for which he had prayed, then he reversed his prayer, and on the top of Mt. Carmel “he bowed himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42). After his prayer, Elijah “said to his servant, ‘Go up now, look toward the sea’“ (v. 43). After awhile “the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (v. 45).

Was that a miracle? It would have been had the rain come from the dry, arid skies of the Arabian desert (J. W. McGarvey). Rain never comes to Palestine from the east. By nature rain clouds come to Palestine, yes, to Mt. Carmel, from over the Mediterranean Sea. Elijah knew where rains came from naturally, and James knew that, and so James was speaking of non-miraculous prayer when he wrote that “the prayer of the righteous [not some elders only] has powerful results (James 5:16).

The misapplication by sincere people of James 5:14-15 (with oil and prayer) in the 20th century does not cancel the fact that in the first century there was effective, miraculous praying, as healing a case of “fever and dysentery” (Acts 28:8), as in casting out devils (Matthew 17:21, KJV), and even to raising the dead (Acts 9:40).

After one learns that miraculous prayer is no more, thrilling is the assurance that God in all centuries answers prayers “according to his will” through his natural laws (Matthew 7:7-11; 1 John 5:14). Jesus encouraged persistence in prayer because sometimes repeated praying changes the mind of God, as he illustrated by a widow’s appeals to a judge who finally gave her relief (Luke 18:1-5).

Apparently, Paul, in praying, “May our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you” expected nothing supernatural in his journey from Corinth to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:11). Similarly, several times in England, when Lois and Hugo were leaving to return to America, leaders in public prayers asked God to extend “travel mercies.”

We are taught that (1) every prayer of a righteous person is heard (1 Peter 3:12), and that (2) the listening Father always answers with what is best for that person (Matthew 7:7-11; 1 John 5:14). Sometimes his answer is “yes” (as in Acts 12:5-17); sometimes, “no” (as in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9); and sometimes “wait awhile” (as in Romans 15:30-33, and five years later, Philippians 2:12-14).