The Ohio Independent Baptist, September 1972

miraculous ministry by withholding all miracles for cen– turies beforehand - Even from John the Baptist, the fore– runner himself (John 11 :41). Why did Chri t perform miracles during His public mini try? Was it to prove that God existed? Was it pri– marily to help people who were sick, crippled, or in special physical need? No, the purpose was to identify Himself as Isr ael 's true Messiah and to confirm the new revelation He was bringing to the nation (John 20: 30-31; Acts 2: 22). Thus, the healing of the paralytic man was not for the prima ry purpose of helping him, or to prove that God exists, but " that ye may know that the Son of Man h ath authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9: 6 ; cf. D eut. 18 :22). When John the Baptist momentarily questioned His Messianic identity, Jesus pointed to the people He had just healed as a fulfillment of the Messianic promise of Isaiah 3 5: 5-6 (cf. Matt. 11: 4). Israel was thus histori– cally conditioned to expect signs as the prope r credentials of their Messiah and His apostles ( John 4: 48, I Cor. 1:22, II Cor. 12:12, Rom. 15:19, Heb. 2:3, 4). The g reat tragedy, of course, was that Israel willfully rejected the signs God did give to them (Matt. 12: 38, I Cor. 14 :21-22). If supernatural signs were thus intended to serve as con– firmations of God's special messenger s and their message, it seems obvious that such signs would no longer be needed after these messengers had brought their message. In fact, a sign without a message is worse than useless, as Paul and Barnabas discovered to their horror at Lystra (Acts 14: 8-18) . Thus, the superstructure of the true Church is built upon a foundation which consists exclusive– ly of Christ and His apostles (Eph. 2: 20, I Cor. 3: I 0-11 , Rev. 21: 14). Since the foundation of a building only needs to be laid once, we may be sure that God h as not given any new r evelation to His people since the apostles died. The fact that only His apostles belonged in the founda tion is seen clearly in our Lord s high priestly prayer, when He prayed for those who would believe on Him "through their word," namely, the word of the apostles to whom "all the truth" would be given by the Holy Spirit (John 17:20; 16:13). To invent a message as from God when God has not spoken is .dangerous indeed , for God is infinitely jealous of the boundary lines of His revela tion to men (cf. D eut. 4:2, 12:32, 18:20; Prov. 30:5-6; Jer. 23:30-32; Gal. 1:8 ; Rev. 21:18-19). N ew Testament his– tory suggests that the various sign-gifts, including the gift of tongues, were no longer in use after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that the gifts of knowledge and prophecy were set aside after the Book of Revelation was completed about A .D . 90. Thus, only the Apostle J ohn lived to see the coming of "that which is perfect" (I Cor. 13: 10), namely, the completed Bible. The Bible is per– fect, because no one before John wrote the final chapter had anything more than a "part" of the truth (I Cor . 13: 9; Heb. 1: 1). For someone now, in this superstructure phase of Church history, to claim a new revelation from God would be a colossal step backward ancl clownward to tl1e "pre-perfect" foundation pl1ase . Instantl y, all of oi, r Bibles would be inco,nplete! None of us could teach or preach authoritatively and effectively again, unti l, like Apollos, we could find someone to expound to us "the way of God more accurately" (Acts 18: 26) . III . HRIST'S MIRA L S W R UNIQUE If God is indeed givi ng to certain men the power to perform l1ealing miracles today, why are there o f eiv of them , and why are the ir powers o litnited, and why arc tl1 e resu lts so ll<Jttl)t/11/? Ily contrast, the mirac les of hrist and His apostles were fantasticall y abundant, utterly spec tacul ar , and to tall y tindeniable . J_et t1s consider each of these in 1no re detail. Jr t , our Lord 's miracle were THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIS abundant. The Gospel narratives make it quite clear that hrist healed vast numbers of people in many parts of Palestine and over a period of several years (cf. Matt. 14: 14, Luke 6: 19, etc.). With regard to the apostles, see Acts 5: 12-16, J 9: 11-1 2. But Church hi story since the days of the apostles, even in times of great revival and reforma– tion, has not been characterized by physical miracles in– cluding healings ( ee Appendix). Second, our Lord's heal– ing works were spectacular in nature. Consider the healing of the man born blind (John 9: 32); the replacement and healing of a man's amputated ear (Luke 22: 50 ); and the immediate and complete resuscitation to mortal life of a man who was not only dead but who had been decompos– ing in a tomb for more than half a week (John 11) . By contrast, modern so-ca ll ed faith-heal ers concentrate on those types of phy ical a ilments that are functional rather than organic, and which can more easily be explained as psychother apeutic rather than genuinely supernatural (for an excellent ana lysi of this entire problem, see Edmunds and Scorer, Some Tlzougl1ts On Faith Healing, The Tyndale press, 39 Bedford Square, London W.C. l , 1956). In the third place, our Lord's miracles were undeniable. Note, for exampl e, the testimonies of such unregenerate men as Nicodemus ( John 3: 2) and the chief priests (J ohn 11 :47, Acts 4: 16). In stark contrast to the present situa– tion, no one who saw the Lord Jesus Christ at work ever questioned the completely supernatural character of His healing mirac les. The debate was centered entirely on the issue of whether God or Satan was the source of His power (Matt. 12: 24) . T.he question we must ask, in the light of this fact, is not whether God ti ll has the power to per– form those kinds of miracles today, but whether it js His plan . For we may be perfectly sure that if it were His plan to do now exactly what He did through certain men nineteen centuries ago, there would be no modern day deniers of the reality of miracles, even as there were none in Jesus' day! IV. IS GOD HEALING SICK PEOPLE TODAY? It is my firm conviction that God is hea ling some sick Christians today ( and I have seen this h appen twice in my own family), but in a very different way than He did when Christ was here, and for a very different purpose. It is true that God occasional ly raises up some de perately sick Christians to a conti nued life of worship and service; but H e never does so through a faith-healer , and He never does so in such a spectacular way tha t godless men are absolutely forced to admit that a genuine m ir acle occt1rred. God's basic provi ion and pattern for the healing of Chri tians is outlined in Jan1es 5: 13-1 6. Note ca refully, in the fir t place, that the sick Christian asks for ·~the elder of the church" to come to /1i111. He doe not reqtte t to be carri ed to a miracle-healer! Secondly, God doe not pron1i e immediate and spectacula r healing, nor doe He exc lude recupera tion proces e or the help of doctors and medicine . It i a "family affair," and is not for •· ho\v." In other words, it i not intended to er ve as a sign to I rael or the unbe lieving Gent ile wor ld that God l ~ real. Its purpo e i to encourage hri tian to keep on trtt ting and erving the graciot1 Lord \vho rene\.VS their trength according to His will and pttrposc. In the third place. tl1e healing i not auton1atically guaranteed each ti111e! Other– wise, no hri. tians of the early ' ht1rcl1 \\ ot1 ld e, er l1a, e diccl! We n1t1 ' t therefore as~t1mc that Hthc pr"1)'1,;r ot faith" which was essenti al to the l1eal1ng of 1ck ( ' l1ri tians (Jan1e · 5: I 5) was not alway\ grantc(l h} the ovcretgr1 I orJ, c, en a otl1er gif ts were pro\ iLlcd only accordi11g to tl1c ,, di <.11 th c Ho 1 y pi r it ( I ( ' or. 1 2 · 1 I ) . (Continued on page 12) SEPTEMBER , 1972 s