ARE MIRACLES FOR TODAY: R.C.SPROUL

ARE MIRACLES FOR TODAY?

Should Christians today expect miracles, or did miracles cease at the end of the Apostolic age? A related question is this: can Satan and his minions perform miracles? These questions are raised in the context of the so-called miraculous gifts of the Spirit. Most people in the evangelical church today believe that miracles still occur and that Satan and his demons have the power to perform miracles. Those who hold the opposite view, including me, are often vastly misunderstood on this point. We will consider in this chapter some of the problems surrounding these matters and why historic cessationism is the view of the orthodox Reformed.

MIRACLES DEFINED When people talk about miracles, they do not always mean the same thing. Some say that any answer to prayer is a miracle. Others argue that any supernatural work, such as the regeneration of the human soul, is a miracle, and some even go so far as to say that anything amazing or fascinating, such as the birth of a baby, is a miracle. However, babies are born every day; there is nothing extraordinary about it. If ordinary things are actually miracles, then miracles should not be thought of as extraordinary. The significance of miracles in Scripture lies in their extraordinary character. There were periods in biblical history when flurries of miracles occurred in short periods of time. The most notable of these periods, of course, was during the life of Jesus. Jesus’ life was attended by an abundance of miracles. However, we also see periods of miracles during the life of Moses, and later in the life of Elijah. Still, during most periods of the Old Testament, miracles were absent. They did not occur on a consistent basis. While the word miracle occurs frequently in English translations, it does not correspond exactly to any one word in the original languages. Theologians extrapolate the concept of miracles from three words in the biblical record (particularly the New Testament): powers , wonders , and signs . Miracles are manifestations of divine power; they inspire wonder and awe; and they are significant. When describing a miracle, John frequently used the word sēmeion , which is translated as “sign.” When Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, John wrote, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him” (John 2:11).

THE PURPOSE OF MIRACLES Signs point to something beyond themselves. They have significance; they signify something. What were the so-called miracles or signs of the New Testament designed to signify? What did they point to? Obviously, they had important value in what they accomplished. Jesus satisfied the needs of the wedding host when He made wine out of water, and He certainly met the needs of sick people when He healed them and of grieving parents when He raised their children from the dead. But what was the significance of those things? In order to answer that question, we can look first at Nicodemus. When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, he said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Nicodemus was saying that Jesus must have been from God because of the signs He performed. Later, Jesus Himself said, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves” (John 14:11). To see this idea in its full measure, we can look at a warning in Hebrews: Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (2:1–4) The author of Hebrews is saying that God confirms the truth of His Word through miracles. That point is often woefully neglected, but it has important implications. If the Scriptures say we know God’s Word is true because its authors have been authenticated by miracles, how then can one who is not an agent of revelation also perform miracles? If all kinds of people can do these things, their “signs” prove nothing about their authority or whether they have been sent as spokesmen for God. At stake in this issue is the authority of Christ, the authority of the Apostles, and the authority of the Bible itself. Moses was called by God from a burning bush to stand up to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses staggered at this command and said, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’” (Ex. 4:1). So God instructed Moses to throw his staff on the ground. Moses did, and the stick became a serpent. Then God told Moses to place his hand in his shirt, which he did, and Moses’ hand became leprous. God was planning to confirm His Word by miracles; these “signs” would be the means by which Moses would demonstrate that he was God’s spokesman and appointed leader. The Roman Catholic Church claimed miracles to argue against the Reformers in the sixteenth century. Rome said: “We have miracles in our history, and those miracles prove the truth of the Catholic Church. Where are your miracles? How can you authenticate the truth of your claims if you have no miracles?” The Reformers replied, “We do have miracles that prove our teaching, and they are recorded in the New Testament.” Anyone can claim a miracle, but only a spokesman appointed by God has the actual power to perform one.

MIRACLES TODAY? Today, many people claim to perform miracles. However, if they actually do perform miracles in the biblical sense, we have to conclude either that their teachings are endorsed by God or that such works do not authenticate true Apostolic teaching. For that reason, we must make a distinction between the word miracle in the narrow sense and miracle in the broad sense. Theologians are careful to define miracle narrowly. Miracle in the broad sense refers to God’s ongoing supernatural activity in the life of His people—His answers to our prayers, the outpouring of His Spirit, and the changing of our souls. Certainly these activities continue down to this day. However, according to the narrow definition used by theologians, a miracle is an extraordinary work performed by the immediate power of God in the perceivable world, an act against nature that only God can do, such as bringing life out of death. Most of those who hold to the continuation of miracles today stop short of claiming the kind of miracles we find in the Bible, such as raising people from the dead, but there are some who go even that far. Do we see resurrections happening today? I do not think so. The question is not whether God can or did perform miracles; it is whether He is doing so today. We have to make a distinction between the quality of miracles some today are claiming to do and the miracles we find in Scripture. So-called miracles today are not of the sort that only God can do. SATAN AND MIRACLES Because we are warned in Scripture against the crafty ploys of Satan, who performs lying signs and wonders, the majority of evangelicals believes that Satan can perform bona fide miracles. For instance, the magicians of Egypt performed extraordinary acts in their contest with Moses, and those acts are usually attributed to demonic power and influence. However, if Satan can perform a bona fide miracle, how do we know that the Bible is the Word of God and how do we know that Jesus is the Son of God? In the Bible, miracles do not prove the existence of God; they authenticate His work. When Paul spoke to the Greek philosophers at Athens, he said that Christ had been confirmed as the Son of God by His resurrection (Acts 17:31). Yet how do we know that the resurrection was not brought about by Satan, and how do we know that Satan did not enable Jesus to do all the works that He did? That was the accusation the Pharisees made against Jesus. I do not believe Satan did those things because I do not believe Satan is God or that he can do things that only God can do. Jesus warned that Satan can perform lying signs and wonders that are able to deceive even the elect (Mark 13:22). Yet what is a lying sign or wonder? Satan does not have the power that only God has, but he is more sophisticated than any human being. The famous magicians of our day do not claim to do miracles. They make clear that their tricks are mere sleight of hand. That was not the case in the ancient world. The magicians of antiquity claimed to have supernatural powers. They claimed to do magic, but it was all trickery. The magicians of Pharaoh’s court pulled all they could from their bag of tricks, but they exhausted their feats in a short time. Moses kept going, however, because Moses was no magician. He had been anointed with the power of God to do what no magician could do. In like manner, Satan can be clever and deceive people, but he cannot do things that only God can do. He cannot do a real miracle in the narrow sense of the word.