Have All Miracles Ceased?

By Carl O. Cooper

There are respected scholars within the Church of Christ that for years have been able to recognize doctrinal errors taught by the denominational world and they have been able to give good explanations as to how these doctrines are wrong. There has been good and simple teaching to expose many of these doctrinal errors. One such error taught by many protestant religious groups is their incorrect understanding of miracles in the early days of the church when inspired men were alive on this earth; and the so called miracles of today. Many denominations including Pentecostals and Holiness groups as well as the Catholic Church have declared to the world that they have documented cases of confirmed miracles that have occurred and are occurring today. We know this teaching to be false. Many respected men within the church of Christ have written and taught about these errors for years and this teaching has been proven without doubt to be false. However, like we do so many times in our zeal to combat false teaching, men almost always carry the explanations to a point beyond where they need to stop.

We all know that in the first century during the beginning of the church the apostles and men to whom they gave specials powers had the ability to perform miracles and heal the sick and even raise the dead. The Bible tells us that these signs and miracles were for the purpose of confirming that the teaching of these men was indeed coming from and endorsed by God Himself. And we also know by the inspired words of the Holy Spirit that these special powers would cease when the Bible was written and completed. There are many, many books and articles explaining this information and the purpose of this article is not to re-teach this information which has been settled long ago. The purpose of this article is to clarify what God is doing in our lives today. Is He still active in our world in a Divine way, and does He still change events and make things happen that only happen because He causes them to happen? I contend that, indeed, He does.

In our zeal to combat the claims of Pentecostals groups who claim miraculous ability to heal the sick and speak in tongues and do many miraculous things we have, unfortunately, left the impression that God does not have any active part in any Devine intervention in our world today. But don’t be too quick to discount God’s part in the world we live in and in our personal lives today. God is still sovereign in today’s world and He is the ruler of this universe and he places governments and kingdoms in power. He rules times, places, and events according to His own good pleasure. He answers prayer as He sees fit, He causes things to happen in ways that He decides is right, He knows the names of children many years before they are born, He plans the future according to His sovereign will, and in General He plans and intervenes in our world in Divine ways that the feeble mind of man could never comprehend or understand. God has an active part in our lives today.

Now we know full well that none of us have miraculous powers today. We can’t heal the sick or speak in tongues or have special visions and knowledge and revelations from the Holy Spirit. But just because we cannot do those things, don’t make the mistake to think that we have no help from God to modify and influence our lives and our world in a divine way today. God answers prayer. What powerful influence a Christian has with God today to think that an all powerful God would allow us to ask Him for help and God would actually do it. How great is that? Is that Divine intervention? You bet it is. God is sovereign and His will is always done as He sees fit, but He allows us to come to Him in prayer and ask Him for things we want to happen. Sometimes He alters the natural order of events and gives us what we ask. That’s divine intervention but it does not mean that we have miraculous power. It means, instead, that God is all powerful and works in the lives of men today. We thank God for the love He has to involve Himself in the lives of His creation to the point that He takes care of us in many ways.

God does things that are beyond our understanding. He still does things today that are beyond our understanding. How do you define these things today when God manipulates times, events, and interventions? What definition do you use and what terminology is appropriate to describe these indescribable works of an almighty God? We really haven’t invented an appropriate word to describe this as of yet. Does this fall under the accepted definition of a miraculous event? Perhaps not, but don’t be too hasty there. You certainly can’t describe how God does these things and you might be grasping at straws to try to make the case that all of the events that God causes to happen are merely accomplished through natural means. Even if God used natural means to accomplish His purpose, it would take the great and mighty power of God to make everything come together to allow natural means to happen. Many prayers can go up for God to cure someone’s cancer and when the cancer is cured we might be able to describe the cure using natural means but how many indescribable things did God have to make happen that are too mighty and too complex for us to understand in order for the natural means to come to pass? And suppose a forest fire was almost ready to engulf your house and suddenly, by the power of God, a strong wing blew the fire in another direction. Natural means, right? No doubt, the wind is part of the natural laws of this universe. But tell me, can you explain the way God caused the wind to change direction? Would this intervention be natural or supernatural? The truth is, you can’t describe it and neither can I. And for that matter, neither can any man explain how God caused this to happen. Frankly, our explanations and terminology for these events where God uses His divine power to cause and manipulate circumstances on this earth are far too complex for us to understand and I doubt that we ever will in this life.

So the conclusion is this. We do not have the power to work miracles on this earth today. No man has this power today. In times past, men had special gifts of the Holy Spirit and could speak in tongues and cause miraculous things to happen but those days came to a close when the Bible was completed and the need to confirm God’s message was accomplished through the inspired words of the Holy Spirit through the Bible. But don’t limit the power and Sovereignty of God by limiting God’s divine intervention in our own world today. God still works in our lives today in ways that are too mighty and too complex for us to even begin to understand. And whether we call this intervention miraculous or providence it is still done by a supernatural power that far exceeds our human minds to comprehend.

Carl O. Cooper