There were basically only three
periods in all of human history when God performed
miracles, signs, and wonders through His
people. During these periods, God performed
miraculous signs through special messengers
to validate His message.
Moses and Joshua (1445 B.C. –
1380 B.C.) approx. 65 years. Elijah and
Elisha (860 B.C. – 795 B.C.) approx. 65
years. Jesus and his Apostles (A.D. 27-
A.D. 90) approx. 63 years.
That is
only about 200 years in all of recorded
human history.
Miracles occurred at
certain times in order to confirm the
authenticity of a new message from God.
Moses was given the ability to perform
miracles in order to prove his mission to
Pharaoh (Ex. 4:1-8). God continued to
perform miracles during Joshua’s leadership.
Elijah was given miracles to prove God’s
purposes before Ahab (1 Kings 17:1; 18:24),
and Elisha also did miracles during his time
(2 Kings 2-13). Miracles and "signs" were
performed through Jesus' ministry and
according to John, were confirmations of the
genuineness of His ministry and message
(John 2:11). All the miracles done through
the apostles were done to validate their
ministry and to authenticate the New
Covenant in the eyes of Israel (Acts 4-28).
The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit,
speaking in tongues, faith healing and
prophetic utterances all ceased being
operational in the church during the time of the apostles.
The miraculous gifts were provided for the
foundation of the Christian Church, during
the time between the coming of the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 (A.D. 33), and
by the completion of the last New Testament
book; no later than the time of the Apostle
John’s death.
The Apostles were personally chosen by Christ:
While
Jesus was here on earth, He personally
selected twelve men to be apostles from His
followers and gave them the special
responsibility to receive and spread His
message as His witnesses after He returned
to heaven (John 17:6-20; Matt. 10:1-4;
Mark 3:14-15; Acts 1:6-8). These men were His apostles
(chosen and sent ones). Jesus never
explained the criteria He used to choose
them during His ministry.
After Judas
Iscariot betrayed Jesus, the Apostle Peter
proposed choosing a new apostle to replace
him and set the
qualifications for the office. Candidates needed to have
been with Jesus during the whole three years
of His ministry on earth, and needed to be
an eyewitness to His baptism, heard
His teachings and been present to see His
healings and other miracles. They also needed to
have witnessed His sacrifice and
resurrection. The apostles cast lots between
two men, Justus and Matthias and
determined that Matthias was to become the
twelfth apostle (Acts 1:21-26).
Sometime
later, Jesus personally appeared to Saul on
the road to Damascus and said that He had
chosen him “to carry My name before the
Gentiles and their kings and before the
people of Israel” (Acts 9:15; 22:14-15). Following his conversion, Paul
spent some time in Arabia, where he was
taught by Christ personally (Gal. 1:12-17). The other apostles recognized that
Jesus had personally appointed him to be one of them (Gal. 1:1; 2:1-11;
1 Cor. 9:1; Acts 26:16-18).
Paul
identified himself as an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles in 1 Corinthians 12:27-30
and Ephesians 4:11. The apostles were
commissioned to lay the foundation of the
Church, second only to that of Christ Jesus
Himself
(Eph. 2:19-20; 4:11-16), thus requiring
eyewitness authority behind their preaching.
After the apostles laid the foundation, the
Church could be built.
Paul and the other
apostles understood themselves to be laying
that foundation for the church with their instruction (1 Cor. 3:11). Everything we need to know about
salvation and Christian living has already
been given to us through their inspired teachings found in
the New Testament. We
have no further need of special, or
authoritative revelations from God
to describe what Jesus Christ has already
accomplished for us. We "contend for the faith once for
all entrusted to the saints" through the
writings of the apostles and prophets (Jude 1:3). The apostles and prophets gave us all
the authoritative doctrine that we need to
live the Christian life. The scriptures do not allow for
apostles today. There is no reason to
believe there will be any more apostles
after the time of the early church since Paul said he was the last one
to be chosen (1 Cor. 15:8).
There are other apostles
referred to in the New Testament, but
they were only appointed, and sent by
churches on special occasions (Acts 14:4, 14;
Rom. 16:7; 1 Thess. 2:6). These
individuals bore the title of “apostle” in the
limited sense of a missionary, and did not
possess all the qualifications necessary for
apostleship that Paul and the original twelve
had.
Tongues in the
New Testament:
• Tongues in the Book
of Acts were
clearly intelligible, known human languages
(Acts 2:4-11; 10:46; 19:6).
There is no record of
anyone in the Bible ever speaking to God in
anything other than normal human language.
If anyone believes that tongues are ecstatic speech,
the burden of proof rests with them to show
that from scripture.
• The Apostle Paul predicted the gift of
tongues would cease in 1 Corinthians 13:8.
Unlike prophecy, Paul said that tongues will simply stop
(no external cause is indicated by the
Greek).
• The gift of tongues and the
other miracles were given primarily to the
apostles and the need for authenticating
signs disappeared once their mission was
completed (2 Cor. 12:12).
•
The gift of tongues served as a sign to
unbelieving Israel that God's salvation was
now open to all nations (1 Cor. 14:21-22 and Isa. 28:11-12).
• The
only two books that mention tongues
functioning are Acts
and 1 Corinthians. Romans 12, Ephesians 4,
and 1 Peter 4, all discuss the Spiritual
gifts, but tongues are not even mentioned.
• 1 Corinthians 14:1-3 says tongues were
an inferior gift to prophecy (preaching)
because preaching edifies the entire Church
while tongues do not.
• Tongues were
said to have stopped according to the early
church Fathers. Justin Martyr, Origen,
Chrysostom, and Augustine all believed that
tongues only happened during the earliest
days of the Church.
• If the gift of
tongues was still operating in the Church
today then there would be no need for our
missionaries to learn a new language.
The
sign gifts were only in operation during the
ministry of Jesus and His apostles. As the
Apostolic age drew to an end, the signs and
wonders became less common. Paul was not
able to heal his friends Trophimus (2 Tim. 4:20),
Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25-27), Timothy
(1 Tim. 5:23), or himself after raising
Eutychus back to life (Acts 20:9-12). That
tells us the miraculous gifts were already
coming to an end.
• The miracles,
signs and wonders witnessed in scripture
were all done in the open for people to see.
Virtually all professed miracles today are
without reliable, verifiable evidence that
they ever happened.
The gift of
tongues that was spoken in the New Testament
was known, human languages. The ecstatic and
unintelligible speech being manifest in the
church today is not the Biblical gift of
tongues at all. Signs and wonders are not
happening today and there is no reason from
scripture to believe that they will happen
again. All the historical evidence tells us
that the true gift of tongues (along with
all the other sign gifts), ended with the
close of the New Testament canon, which is
our infallible guide.
There are no more
apostles or miracle
workers today! God still performs miracles
as He sees fit,
but the sign gifts have all passed away.
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