Miracles Have Ceased

Ben F. Vick, Jr.

One of the problems in trying to help people to understand that miracles have ceased is a failure to define a miracle. What is sometimes called a miracle is not necessarily a miracle. Calling a dog's tail, a leg, does not make it a leg. The birth of a child is a wonderful thing; however, it is not a miracle. It is the law of nature in action. Sometimes people call something that is unexplainable, a miracle; however, the fact that something cannot be explained does not necessarily make it a miracle. When someone recovers from a horrible disease, we can certainly attribute it to God's healing hand; however, that does not make it a miracle, though no one can explain it. I cannot explain how a black cow can eat green grass, produce white milk and give yellow butter; but that does not mean it is a miracle. One may not be able to explain some natural phenomenon but that does not make it a miracle in the Biblical sense.

Many years ago I was preaching over the radio on this very subject. I made the comment that the age of miracles had ceased. A few days later I received a letter from a lady rebuking me and setting me straight on the fact that miracles are still happening. She said that she had experienced many miracles in her own life, and she began to enumerate them: "many miracles of healing, answers to prayers, seeing her children healed of ulcers, toothaches, TB, and she added, fixing my air conditioner." I always thought it was interesting that Oral Roberts, who had claimed to do miracles of healing, would have a hospital built.

In Robert Milligan's classic work, The Scheme of Redemption, we find an excellent definition of a miracle. He wrote, "... And hence I would define a miracle as an extraordinary manifestation of Divine power, operating either independently of the law and forces of nature, as in the original creation, or in opposition to them, as in the separation of the waters of the Red Sea, or in connection and harmony with them, as in the Noachic deluge" (p.263). Alexander Campbell said that a miracle is, "A display of supernatural power in attestation of the truth of some proposition. That supernatural power may be either intellectual or physical: such as raising Lazarus, or foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem" (Campbell-Rice Debate, p.667).

In the church at Corinth there was a misunderstanding of the spiritual or miraculous gifts which they had been given. Paul writes to correct this misunderstanding. In I Corinthians chapters 12 -- 14, he discusses miraculous gifts -- their variety (chapter 12), their longevity (chapter 13), and how that ability to speak in tongues was not a greater gift than prophecy (chapter 14).

First Corinthians 13, which is the love chapter, showing the more excellent way, Paul points out that the miraculous would cease. After showing the value of love and its description, he wrote: "8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Why is love superior to spiritual gifts? All the good that one might do is of no avail if the motive is not love (13:1-3). The very characteristics of love show it is superior to any miraculous gift (13:4-8). And love will last, even after spiritual gifts would end (13:8-10).

Note that Paul said that prophecies shall fail, tongues (miraculous languages), shall cease and knowledge (miraculous knowledge) shall vanish away.  These spiritual gifts all relate to the giving of the revelation, that is, the New Testament, which is the complete and perfect will of God. When the New Testament (the perfect) was revealed completely, the "in part," that is, the miraculous gifts, would cease. The perfect, (that is, the New Testament, also call "the faith") was revealed completely, at the very latest, the end of the first century. Jude wrote, "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). Therefore, the "in part", that is the miracles, have been done away.

Miracles were for the purpose of confirming the word (Mark 16:20). Once God's word was confirmed, the miracles ceased. It did not need to be continually confirmed. The miracles were like the scaffolding used to build a high-rise building. While the building is going up, there is the necessity of the scaffolds; however, once the building is completed, the scaffolding is removed. Since the New Testament is complete, the miracles have ceased. To assert that miracles are still taking place today is tantamount to a denial of the all-sufficiency of the word of God. It implies that God is still revealing His will to man in means other than through the written word. The problem with that view is that everybody has his own take on what God is revealing. One's feelings become his standard, rather than the faith being his standard. What one feels is not necessarily what the faith of the gospel reveals.

The apostles were baptized in or with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Acts 2:1-4). They could impart spiritual, or miraculous gifts by laying hands on individual Christians (Acts 8:14-24; Romans 1:11;  2 Corinthians 12:12). Thus, when the apostles died, and those upon whom they laid hands died, the miraculous ceased.