MIRACLES NO MORE

Hugo McCord

In a Sunday morning Bible class I was emphasizing that, since the last person died on whom an apostle had laid hands, there have been no miracles (Acts 8:18). A visitor, a neatly dressed young man, came to me after class, and was shocked. He told me that he had thought of the words, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), as proof that Jesus still performs miracles today, and that his pastor’s wife is an example of a miracle cure by prayer from cancer. I asked for his address, and I am mailing a copy of this article to him.

Jesus healed many sick people, but the main reason why he performed miracles (as calming a storm, walking on water, finding a coin in a fish’s mouth, casting out demons, raising the dead, multiplying loaves and fish, etc.) was not to be a “divine healer,” but “that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name” (John 20:31). His miracles proved that “no one can do these signs which you are doing, unless God is with him” (John 3:2; 5:36; 10:25, 37-38).

But today Jesus is not opening blind eyes nor turning water into wine. He still could perform those miracles, even from heaven, for he himself is unchangeable (truly “the same yesterday and today and forever”), but he does not need to prove a second time that he is the Son of God, for he did that convincingly while he was on the earth.

It was just as easy for Jesus to raise a corpse to life and to open blind eyes as to cure paralysis or a cancer. “Divine healers” would be universally accepted and would make millions happy if they would visit schools of the blind and if they would empty cemeteries. Please ask the “divine healers” why they are so selective in the types of cures that they claim?

The reason why Jesus gave “power” (Luke 24:49) to his apostles to perform miracles (as, talking in foreign languages, healing a man “lame from birth,” temporarily blinding Elymas, Acts 2:4; 3:2; 13:11) was to back up their preaching as being true. The sacred New Testament books had not been written. People would demand evidence that their sermons were true. Their miracles “in the name of Jesus” (Acts 3:6) were proof positive that they were not fakers.

When Peter went to the home of Dorcas in Joppa, raised her from her couch of death, and “presented her alive, ... many believed on the Lord” (Acts 9:36-43). The miracles were real and verified their preaching. The apostles needed that miraculous support to corroborate the words of their mouths, but now the New Testament has been accredited, and no further backup is needed or will ever occur.

They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the message by the signs that were following (Mark 16:20).

Five miracles Jesus empowered the apostles to perform: (1) casting out demons, (2) speaking with new tongues, (3) taking up snakes, (4) drinking poison, and (5) laying hands on the sick for healing (Mark 16:17-18). Why do present day “divine healers” avoid the first four of those miracles?

Heaven’s plan of salvation “was spoken first by the Lord” (and backed up by his miracles), and “has been verified to us by them who heard him” (his apostles),

God bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and various miracles and distributions of the Holy Spirit, according to his will (Hebrews 2:3-4).

Only the apostles were given the power to pass on miraculous power to others (Acts 8:18; 19:5; Romans 1:11; 2 Timothy 1:6). It follows therefore that when the last person died on whom an apostle laid hands all miracles have ceased (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 13:8-10). “Faith, hope, and love now remain, these three; and love is the greatest of these” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Notwithstanding the Bible evidence that God did not plan for miracles to continue, good people, to whom Jesus is precious, are quick to say that if a person today has enough faith Jesus will perform a miracle. But Jesus did not ask a man ill for 38 years if he had faith to be healed. Even after the man was completely healed, he still “did not know who” it was who healed him (John 5:1-13).

A grown man born blind received sight from Jesus, but later Jesus had to tell him who was (John 9:1-39). This ex-blind man had no faith in Jesus. Will “divine healers” today work with people who have no faith?

When the Lord stopped a funeral procession and raised a lad from the dead, neither the lad had faith nor any of the mourners (Luke 7:11-16).

Mary and Martha expressed no faith that Jesus would raise their brother Lazarus from the tomb, but Jesus did it anyway (John 11:1-44). Jesus did not ask the sisters if they or Lazarus had faith that Lazarus would arise. Jesus prayed out loud in the Bethany cemetery. Would a “divine healer” pray out loud in a cemetery today?

Jesus’ prayer was an example of miraculous praying, and that is the only kind that Jesus was talking about when he said, “All things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). He was talking about withering a fig tree and moving mountains into the sea (vs. 20-21).

It is sad when sincere people apply Jesus’ words to their prayers today. Recently an Oregon couple, deeply committed to Jesus, fervently prayed over and over again for a sick child, and were taught not to call on doctors. The child died.

No one had taught those honest people of two kinds of prayers: (1) miraculous for the first century only, and (2) non-miraculous for all centuries. We do not expect a miracle when we pray for our daily bread (Matthew 6:10), nor when we ask for “travel mercies” on taking a trip (1 Thessalonians 3:11).

However, even while the apostles were still living with divine power to support their preaching, when their preaching was not being confirmed, sometimes their prayers were denied. Paul himself, though he was the Lord’s “chosen vessel” (Acts 9:15), had to go on a preaching tour in Galatia tormented by “a bodily ailment” (Galatians 4:13). After he had prayed three times for relief, the Lord told him that he needed the “thorn in his flesh” so that he would “not be arrogant” (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Also, Paul’s beloved “fellow worker,” the servant of his “need,” Epaphroditus, was at one time “sick and near death” (Philippians 2:25-30). It is certain that Paul prayed for all his fellow workers “night and day” (cf. 2 Timothy 1:3), but it was not God’s will to make Epaphroditus healthy. Paul had to give up on a cure, and sent Epaphroditus home from Rome to Philippi, over 400 miles, so the home folks could see that the sick man was still alive (Philippians 2:25-30).

Another of Paul’s fellow workers, Trophimus of Ephesus, became ill while away from home, in Miletus (Acts 20:4; 21:29; 2 Timothy 4:20). As Paul’s unvarying custom was to pray for his fellow workers, it is certain that Trophimus was a name in his daily petitions. God always hears the prayers of righteous people (1 Peter 3:12). but he who knows what is best sometimes says no to prayer requests. Paul had to accept the Lord’s will about Trophimus’ continued illness, and so he left Miletus, leaving Trophimus “sick” (2 Timothy 4:20). And sometimes we all have to endure illnesses but never giving up on talking to the Father about them (Luke 18:1).

Paul visited with the father of Publius, “suffering with fever and dysentery,” prayed and laid his hands on him, and restored him to health (Acts 28:8). Likewise, Paul’s miraculous power healed other people on the island of Malta, and cured his own fatal snake bite (Acts 28:3-9), but for some reason his prayers “night and day” for Timothy, his “true child in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:3 did not heal his “stomach” and “frequent illnesses” (1 Timothy 5:23).

Why the difference between prayers for Publius and prayers for Timothy? Apparently the miraculous cure for Publius was to confirm Paul’s preaching, as also his escape from sudden death by a snake bite (Acts 28:3), but in Timothy’s case, who already believed Paul’s preaching, no reconfirmation was needed. However, for some good reason known only by God, he thought Timothy needed to be a semi-invalid.

Today there are no miraculous healings or miraculous recoveries from snake bites to confirm the word of God, for that word was completely attested in the first century. But there are cases of God’s answering non-miraculous prayers. It is shocking, and really unthinkable, that in some cases, a righteous person can change God’s mind! Hezekiah, 39 years old (2 Chronicles 29:1), was told by the Lord’s prophet, “Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live” (Isaiah 38:1). There was no miraculous prayer offered to God for this good man, but Hezekiah did just the kind of praying that righteous people today pray. In Hezekiah’s case, the Lord changed his mind, and added 15 years to his life (Isaiah 38:5).

In the Baptist Hospital in Oklahoma City, James O. Baird, then president of Oklahoma Christian College, underwent open heart surgery. His heart stopped beating. Electrical stimuli started it to beat again, and then again it stopped. Electricity was applied 41 times, barely keeping him alive. James’ wife, family, and friends were in the hospital chapel praying constantly.

After a while a Christian heart specialist, Dr. Jack Stephenson, came by to check on James’ condition. He looked at James’ chart and noticed something other surgeons had not seen, and reported “he needs potassium.” When potassium had been administered, rapid improvement was seen, and he recovered. On the campus at Oklahoma Christian College students began saying a miracle had occurred. In a chapel talk at OCC James gave God the credit, but stressed there had been no miracle, but that God had worked through natural means to save his life.

Two kinds of prayers (miraculous only in the first century, non-miraculous in all centuries) are before our eyes in the book of James. In the first century, some Christians had miraculous healing power (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:9, “gifts of healing by the one Spirit”) by the laying on of an apostle’s hands (cf. Acts 8:18; Romans 1:11). Associated with the miracles of that time was an anointing with oil (cf. Mark 6:13).

Consequently, miraculously endowed elders could anoint a sick person with oil and “pray over him,” with the result that the “prayer of faith” cured “the one who” was “sick” (James 5:13-15).

But good people today do not realize that such miraculous praying and healing ceased after the first century, and even today some anoint with oil and pray with the afflicted.

One dedicated elder, who always carried a vial of oil for anointing, rubbed oil on 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 the oil and the prayer should have made the surgery unnecessary.

Two elders of a small, loving congregation, concerned about a house-bound wheel-chair aged lady afflicted with arthritis, took the congregation after a Sunday night worship service to the lady’s house. They put oil on her, and began praying 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 they did not understand what James was teaching.

But along with the miraculous and effective praying of endowed elders of the first century, James also tells us about non-miraculous and effective praying in all centuries by any and all Christians “or one another,” with the inspired assurance that the “prayer of the righteous [whether an elder or not] has powerful results” if prayed “in faith” (James 1:6-8; 5:16). Thus James had turned from teaching about miraculous prayer with oil by endowed elders only to non-miraculous prayer in faith by any Christian, man or woman.

James then illustrates non-miraculous praying, effective in all centuries, by the story of Elijah. The fact that Elijah did have miraculous power, even to raise the dead (1 Kings 17:14-16), is not what James tells us about Elijah. James wanted all Christians to know that Elijah’s prayer for a long drought and then for fruitful rain was from a man “whose nature was like ours” (James 5:17), that is, in the story of the drought and rain no miracle was involved.

After the long drought (three years and a half) for which he had fervently 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 servants, ‘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 east--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, a man of like nature with us, knew that, and James knew that, and he has exhorted us all to continue steadfastly in non-miraculous prayer. If what James said means anything to us today, it is that non-miraculous praying should be in every Christian’s daily schedule.

We remember (1) that every prayer of every righteous person is heard (1 Peter 3:12), and (2) that the listening Father always answers with what is best (Matthew 7:7-11). 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 1:12-14).