Joe R. Price

Invariably, when a great blessing occurs, or an extraordinary event takes place, someone commenting on it says, "It's a miracle!" This may be said to acknowledge the astonishing nature of the event (perhaps a drowning person was rescued; a person survived a shot to the head, etc.). Or this comment may be an attempt to assign the event to God's direct intervention into the natural world.

There is no dispute that God works in this world to accomplish His purposes. However, every work of God in this world cannot be scripturally described as a "miracle." Yes, God is sovereign, and His hand is in the affairs of men (Rom. 8:28). A miracle, biblically defined, defies, and alters the normal, natural course of activities. For example, childbirth is phenomenal, but it is not a miracle. It is the natural process God created and sustains. Instantly healing a man crippled from birth is a miracle (Acts 4:16). What is in dispute is whether God has appointed men through whom He works supernatural deeds today (like the apostles of Christ worked in the New Testament). The Scriptures say "No" for several reasons.

(1) The purpose of miracles. Miracles not only showed the compassion of God, but they were also God's endorsement of the message being preached by the men through whom the miracles were done (Mark 16:15-20; Heb. 2:3-4). The miracles "confirmed" or validated the word as being divine (Acts 14:3). Once the gospel was confirmed as divine, its validity remains true without the need for ongoing validation (Gal. 1:11). Therefore, a vital question must be asked if similar miracles are really happening today: "What is the new revelation that needs to be miraculously confirmed?" While some claim they have received new revelation, the Scriptures teach the first-century word continues to be incorruptible and sufficient (1 Pet. 1:22-25; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). There is no new revelation, and there are no confirming miracles being worked today.

(2) Who worked miracles? The apostles of Christ and those upon whom they laid their hands, thus imparting miraculous spiritual gifts, are the human agents through whom God worked miracles in the gospel age (Acts 2:1-4; 6:6; 8:4-8, 14-24; 19:6). There are no apostles living today to either work miracles or to impart miraculous spiritual gifts to others. Thus, the age of miracles has ended.

When astonishing things happen today, or when great blessings occur, they are not "miracles" as defined in the Scriptures. Bible miracles left no doubt, even in the eyes of the unbelievers, that a supernatural event had taken place (see John 11:42-47; Acts 4:13-16).

There is a difference between miracles and divine providence (God's daily workings in this world in the lives of men, such as answering prayers, Matt. 7:7-11). Our ability to distinguish Bible miracles that were worked through men in Bible times from the blessings of divine providence is the difference between correctly discerning and using God's word and being deceived by the deluded claims of modern "miracle workers" and "faith healers" (2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Thess. 2:9-12). Let us speak as the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11).