I was directed to a post on Parchment & Pen yesterday in which someone asked about me in the comments, so I decided to stop by and say a thing or two. The gentleman whom I directed most of my first and all of my second comment to contacted me by email to discuss things further. His claim is that there have been no miracles since AD 70. My claim is that there have been plenty. In one of his emails to me he said:
Now, concerning your statement of miracles throughout Church History. In the late fourth century, the well-traveled scholar John Chrysostom wrote a commentary on 1 Corinthians. In it he explicitly states that the miracles described in chapters 12-14 are hard to understand by virtue of the fact that they no longer exist in our day! This is almost an exact quote from him.
As a gesture of fairness, having paraphrased Chrysostom, I would simply ask if you can produce two independent witnesses to the existence of miracles in the third and fourth centuries, thereby disproving Chrysostom claim. As you are, I am really interested in the historical information in addition to biblical interpretation.
To which I replied:
Ahh… Old ‘Golden Mouth’ — I’m familiar with Crysostom’s Homilies on Corinthians, and quite honestly, he was a bit too presumptuous and generalizing in Homily 29 as if he knew what occurred the world over and in all the churches of Christ. I find such broad brush statements akin to the atheist claim there is no evidence for God. In any event, in chapter 2 of the prolegomena to The Life and Writings of Gregory of Nyssa we’re told: “‘The supernatural character of the Gospel miracles bears witness to their divine origin.” He points, as Origen did, to the continued possession of miraculous powers in the Church.” (NPNF2, Vol. 5, p. 12) To this I would add the following:
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I’m going to quote the passages I cited in subsequent posts and update this with links to them (so as not to make the length of this post unbearable). Suffice it to say there were claims of miracles in the third and fourth centuries.
B”H
Another correction: There was no independent witness who actually saw Jesus rise from the dead. They concluded that Jesus rose from the dead based on an empty tomb. All witnesses claim to have been visited by Jesus after he died. But no independent account was ever written outside of the small cult of the apostles.
Either miracles exist or they do not. If they do not, it is very hard to be a Christian since you have to ignore the resurrection. All you have to do is talk to missionaries today and they will tell you stuff that will knock your socks off about stuff that has gone down all over the world.
Drew: Exactly! Here’s something I said to him in the email before the one excerpted above:
And I chose not to play the personal eyewitness card, but I have witnessed and been the recipient of miracles.
it’s amazing how much silliness abounds in the cessationist position. It’s as if they don’t want miracles to exists or to. It’s all just a bunch of silliness really.
In our modern world, rationalism, the enlightenment and modern technology have all blinded our eyes to the reality of miracles – even so is not life a miracle in and of itself? Was not the recent case of the lady who was brain dead for 18 hours, her fingers had the death curl, they pulled the plug, etc – iow, she was dead. Then, all the sudden she sat up and started talking. Was that not a miracle? What else could it be?
Brian: I actually referred the guy to a paper that cites that very case as evidence of miracles. I told him in my final email to him that I’d let him have the last word because I didn’t think the conversation was going to go anywhere, and this is what he just responded with:
It’s amazing how much unbelief ‘believers’ can be filled with at times. :? I’m of the opinion that such unbelief is why Jesus wept in John 11:35.
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Miracles happen to the people in our church all the time! One particular family has a testimony that no one can refute…Their young child was three at the time and was run over by a teenage uncle who had been drinking…He ran over the child twice in trying to get the child out from under the car. The child was rushed to the hospital in critical condition…The child lived and the first thing that the young uncle heard when he finally got the courage to go to the hospital…”Uncle, I saw Jesus and He said to say He loves you!”
Today the child is seven…totally whole and her young uncle is now a Christian and sits with his family in church every Sunday…Jesus still heals in response to prayer and reaches out to the unsaved because He still loves us…No miracles today???That will never fly in this family or those of us who love them.
Nancy: Wow!!! To God be the glory!!! I LOVE hearing testimonies like that! I’ve witnessed more than a few miracles myself so it’s kind of hard to tell me that they don’t still happen.
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Sure, miracles, and yet more miracles, do still occur! They are manifestations of the grace, the mercy and the gifts of the Holy Spirit of GOD; as Brother Nick has posited, you cannot go round the world verifying this or that miracle, all the time!
I am a beneficiary of miracles myself:
1) Way back in 1991, in Moscow, Russia, I had a very unique miraculous encounter with Almighty GOD, Himself, when still yet being a practicing Muslim, for five years, by marriage to a Muslim Lady, I felt my utter sinfulness and separation from the Presence of GOD, and as I meditated and prayed that late winter morning in March, I heard the clear audible Voice of The Almighty GOD, instructing me; “Go To My Son and Learn of Me”!
2) Since, Islam, in the Koran, categorically denies “Sonship of Messiah”; I renounced Islam and began my walk with Christ, who has gently by the Spirit, led me into the Presence of the Almighty Father, whose Voice I heard! My wife, separated from me then, was miraculously restored back, and has also now accepted the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and together with her and our kids, we lovingly worship and call GOD, Abba, Father, with Messiah, his Son as our High Priest and Mediator, and not Mohamed, who denies Son-ship to GOD!
Yes, and please note: the greatest miracle is that of SALVATION! I was a Sinner, Now I Sin no more! A “Womaniser”, now no more! Smoker, Now No More! Adulterer, Now No More! Couldn’t hear GOD, Now I do! These are genuine miracles of grace and mercy!!
Finally, Is our “Cessationist” brother Born Again? That would be his entry point to see and to experience miracles, himself! “You cannot mix oil and water, except you first heat them up, in a sauce or medicinal admixture”! You need Faith, before you can experience, or even “see” miracles, just like in Messiah’s days on mortal earth, when his home folks had unbelief and hence saw no miracles! (Matthew 13:58)
Shalom,
Joshua
Joshua: I agree—salvation is a miracle—it’s certainly an act of God.
Nick -
I thought you might like this article we posted at continuationism.com on the charismata in church history: http://bit.ly/ayHIVS.
Scott: Thanks. I’ll check it out when I have some time.