Take the Old Testament. More than two thousand years of the world's history rolled its course, and we have no instance of servants of God performing miracles. Abraham did not. Isaac did not. Jacob did not. There was plenty of need in the world, and there was power with God surely. Not till we come to the time of Moses do we read of miracles being performed by a servant of God.
Why was Moses given the power to perform miracles? We believe it was because he stood on the threshold of a new beginning in God's ways, God was about to claim His redeemed people, and conduct them to the land that He had promised to Abraham. God gave Moses to perform these miracles so that he might be publicly attested by Divine power as the leader of God's people. When he was thus attested by the miracles in the land of Egypt before Pharaoh, Moses did not go on performing miracles. With the exception of his procuring water by smiting the rock with his staff, we do not read of any miracles, unless it be the healing of Miriam. The miracles that Moses performed were all crowded into
a few days, and after that with one or two exceptions we do not find him performing miracles. And Moses was one man among many thousands. Miracles were limited as to times and persons.
In a lesser way Joshua was attested as leader in the miracle of the falling down of the walls of Jericho. Joshua was on the threshold of a new beginning, viz., leading the people of God into the promised land.
Wet get no miracles of moment for a matter of about eight hundred years, till Elijah and Elisha come upon the scene. They did not perform miracles in the land of Judah, where the temple was, and the true worship of God, but in Israel that had broken loose from Judah, and had thrown off the worship of God, and was turned to idolatry. God gave His backsliding people a special testimony, but after that was rendered we do not find a continuance of miracles except an odd one of a minor nature here and there. There was nothing of a national and serial nature as in the case of Moses, and Elijah and Elisha.
We then pass on for about nine hundred years when there was nothing arresting in the way of miracles, till we come to the birth of Christ. We read of the Forerunner of Christ, "John did no miracle" (John 10:4141And many resorted unto him, and said, John did no miracle: but all things that John spake of this man were true. (John 10:41)). Attention was pre-eminently focused on the Lord. Our Lord's birth was a miracle, but there is no record that He performed one miracle, healed one person, until the short life He lived on earth was nearing its end. Yet He was, "Jesus Christ, the Same yesterday, and to-day and forever" (Hebrews 13:88Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)). His power was ever the same, but for thirty years out of thirty-three and a half, there is no record of His having performed miracles. But after His baptism His public ministry was attested by a constant stream of miracles.
We read, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick,
That these miracles were the public attestation of who the Lord Jesus was, is seen in His answer to John the Baptist, who in prison, and in a desponding mood, sent the question to the Lord, "Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" (Matt. 10:33Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; (Matthew 10:3)). The Lord replied, "Go and show John again those things which ye do see and hear: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached unto them " (Matthew 11:4, 54Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: 5The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. (Matthew 11:4‑5)).
Here the Lord plainly points to the miracles that He performed as proof of who He was, and of the mission that He had to perform in this world, as the One, who had been foretold on the prophetic page as the only hope of the blessing of God's people.
Then again the Lord chose twelve apostles, and sent them forth. Did He send them forth without credentials? No, He conferred powers upon them that would attest that they were indeed the Divinely sent messengers of "the Gospel of the Kingdom." The power of the King was with them.
We read, " And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give " (Matthew 10:7, 87And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 8Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:7‑8)). Notice that the Lord only chose twelve men for this commission, and it falls into line with what we have previously pointed out, that the power of healing was connected with a special mission that needed credentials of no ordinary kind.
Again later the Lord chose seventy to go forth by twos into the places where He Himself was to come. Their commission was, " Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are put before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you " (Luke 10:8, 98And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: 9And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. (Luke 10:8‑9)). Notice that this is restricted to seventy men. Note too that the commission is much simpler than that given to the twelve. The twelve had power to raise the dead. This power was apparently not given to the seventy.
These commissions are wrongly quoted by Pentecostalists as applying today. Dr. Simpson writes:- " During His life He sent out the twelve Apostles and then He sent out seventy as the forerunners of the whole host of the Christian Eldership.. with full power to heal. And when He was about to leave the world, He left on record both these commissions in unmistakable terms " (The Gospel of Healing, p. 16).
This last sentence means the claim that these commissions are in force today. Then why do we not have the DEAD RAISED UP? " Jesus Christ, the Same yesterday and today and forever," the Pentecostalists are forever triumphantly asserting. We agree with this statement with all our heart, but we do not agree that this verse means that gifts of healing belong to all those, who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as they assert.
We ask again, If their contention is true, why do they not raise the DEAD?
Further, why do they seize on a part of the commission, and not take it as a whole? The twelve were told emphatically that they were NOT to preach to the Gentiles, and yet the Pentecostalists preach to the Gentiles. They were told to go ONLY to the house of Israel, and the Pentecostalists do NOT observe this restriction. They were told to heal the sick, believer and unbeliever. Why do Pentecostalists confine their healing activities to believers only in face of this?
We wish to emphasize the fact that the commission in the one case was given to twelve men, and in the other to seventy, in both cases selected for SPECIAL service and given SPECIAL credentials. There is no warrant for men today claiming these commissions as applying to them, but if they do, let them at least be consistent, and take all the instructions, and act upon them. If ever there was a book full of the twisting of Scripture it is that text-book of Pentecostalists, " The Gospel of Healing." Will the special infilling of the Spirit be marked by such ignorance? We are warned against " handling the Word of God deceitfully."
Then we come to the apostolic age. Miracles most markedly characterized the early days of Christianity. There was the outburst of tongues on the Day of Pentecost. We can well understand why this was so. It was a miraculous attestation of the new message that was given. The nation had rejected their Messiah. Its leaders stood charged with the basest crime this world has ever seen. Yet the purpose and love of God were seen in that the only way of blessing for the nation lay through the death of the One they had rejected.
And further, the work of the Lord received a mighty impetus that day. The unknown tongues-unknown to the disciples who spoke them-were real tongues, known languages. The Gospel was precious. Here were a few fishermen, " ignorant and unlearned " men, as the Bible describes them, with no language but their own, and that the Galilean patois. Was it any wonder that the Spirit of God, eager that the Gospel should be received and spread, communicated the good news through the agency of tongues? " About three thousand souls " were saved in one day. No small result surely!
We have the miracle of the healing of the lame man at the Gate Beautiful of the Temple. The palsied man was instantly healed. Dorcas was raised from the dead through Peter. Peter was miraculously released from prison. They brought the sick into the streets and laid them upon beds and couches, so that Peter's shadow might fall upon them. We are told, " And they were healed EVERY ONE " (Acts 5:1616There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one. (Acts 5:16)).
It was not a question of a selected few. It was not a necessary condition that the healed must be believers. No tickets were issued to a special class. We can understand how this honor was put upon Peter, It is alluded to in Hebrews 2:34, " How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will?" Does this passage not indicate that miracles were the attestation of the Divine message, and once that was recognized, that miracles should cease to be characteristic? We shall find this thought supported by Scripture as we proceed. But Peter stood at the front of the new movement on the Day of Pentecost, and he was specially singled out as the worker of miracles.
The Apostle Paul, too, as the leader in this new movement, specially commissioned to preach among the Gentiles, as Peter was to the Circumcision, was singled out in a remarkable way also. The manner of his conversion and his restoration of sight were both alike miraculous. He could say, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all" (1 Corinthians 14: 18). He healed the cripple at Lystra; he raised the dead Eutychus; he shook off the viper that bit him at Mean, and no harm resulted in fulfillment of the Scripture, "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them" (Mark 16:1818They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (Mark 16:18)).
Special honor was put upon this chosen vessel of the Lord. We read, "And God wrought SPECIAL MIRACLES by the hands of Paul: "So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them " (Acts 19:11, 1211And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. (Acts 19:11‑12)). But did miracles continue to characterize the ministry of Paul? There was undoubtedly an outburst of arresting miracles at the beginning of the careers of the Apostles Peter and Paul, but did they continue?
There was no lack of power with Paul, yet we know that he himself had some infirmity in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, something that made his bodily presence weak and his speech contemptible, something that he prayed thrice might be removed, but he was NOT healed.
He advised Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake, and his often infirmities, and no longer to drink only water. He did NOT heal him.
Epaphroditus was sick, nigh unto death. It was through his zeal for Christ's service that he was thus laid low. Surely here was a case for healing. But Paul did NOT heal him. He recovered, but in the manner sick people generally recover.
The Apostle John hoped that Gaius might be restored to health. He did NOT heal him.
A great point is made by the present-day alleged healers that the sick, whom they anoint for healing, must be believers. But in the Scriptures it is remarkable that there are only one or two cases of a Christian being healed. Blinded by the light above the brightness of the sun on the day of his conversion, three days later Ananias was used of God to the restoration of the sight of Saul of Tarsus. The cripple of Lystra " had faith to be healed." Dorcas was raised from the dead. Paul was not poisoned by the viper bite. There was a stream of miracles, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, following the Day of Pentecost, but towards the latter part of the book there is but an odd case recorded here and there. The public attestation of the reality of Christianity by miracles ceased when the work, that the miracles were given for was accomplished.
We may well ask the modern healer why this should be so, in the face of the assertion that the gift of healing is the normal thing today, that it is as much in the atonement as the forgiveness of sins, and that they do not profess to heal unbelievers, though the One, who is " the Same yesterday and today and forever " did? If the atonement is not intended for unbelievers, for whom is it?
It might be asked, too, How was it that in Elisha's time there were many lepers in Israel, and yet not one was cleansed, but Naaman the Syrian—not even one Israelite?
TO SUM UP. Scripture clearly shows that the miraculous in the Old Testament was confined to one little nation, it was not universal; to a few individuals, it was not general; to particular epochs, it was not continuous; and when that which it was intended to effect was reached, it ceased.
In the time of our Lord, we find again the miraculous was confined to the same little nation, to a few individuals, the Lord Himself, the twelve, the seventy, upon whom He conferred power, but in no way was the miraculous general.
In the time of the Apostles, we find they had miraculous gifts, and that the Holy Spirit of God conferred gifts on individuals, not generally, as witness the testimony of 1 Corinthians 12:8-118For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (1 Corinthians 12:8‑11). We do not find the believers generally having these gifts, and they received the Holy Spirit without necessarily receiving special gifts. We find Peter, Paul, Stephen, Philip, Barnabas doing miracles, but the testimony is that the miraculous was confined to the few, it was not universal, it was for distinct purposes. It was not promised anywhere in Scripture to be continuous.
The miraculous gifts have often been likened to the church bells that call the congregation to the service, and once that is accomplished, they are silent. We believe from the testimony of Scripture that the miraculous gifts were the attestation in a wonderful way of the Divine message, and as soon as that attestation was effected, they ceased as a characteristic thing.
Doubtless after the rapture of the Church, and when the new dispensation of the millennium will be ushered in, there will be a revival of miraculous happenings, and the time for the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy will arrive—a prophecy which received a partial fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost, but whose prime fulfillment awaits the coming day of blessing for God's ancient people, and through them for the whole world.
Let us now examine in some little detail the claims of the faith-healers.