The witness of past generations
Did you read the ‘letter from the manse’ in last month’s bulletin? If you did, I hope you remember the subject I wrote about! I mentioned the question that a visitor to the church asked me. ‘Do people in this church have the gifts of the Spirit?’
I went on in my letter to explain that she was thinking especially of the clearly miraculous gifts that God gave to some believers in New Testament times – gifts such as the ability to cast out demons, to heal the sick, to speak in tongues, to prophesy. I answered ‘no, as far as I know, no-one in this church would claim to have those extraordinary gifts. We believe that they were given at the beginning of the New Testament era but are no longer needed’.
She was clearly surprised by my answer. And yet what I said would have been taken for granted by most evangelical Christians until quite recent times.
The leaders of the Reformation – such men as Luther and Calvin – had no doubt that the Lord had long withdrawn the miraculous gifts from the church.
Martin Luther wrote:
‘In the early Church the Holy Spirit was sent forth in visible form…This visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit was necessary to the establishment of the early Church, as were also the miracles that accompanied the gift of the Holy Ghost… Once the Church had been established and properly advertised by these miracles, the visible appearance of the Holy Ghost ceased.’
And this is Calvin:
‘The gift of healing disappeared with the other miraculous powers which the Lord… was pleased to give for a time’. And again: ‘..because Christ meant to set forth the beginning of his kingdom with those miracles, they lasted but for a time.. although we do not receive it (the Spirit) that we may speak with tongues, that we may be prophets, that we may cure the sick, that we may work miracles—yet is it given us for a better use..’
The established leaders of Puritan movement in the 17th century agreed. This is John Owen:
‘the gifts of miracles and tongues… were bestowed on the apostles and many of the first converts. That dispensation of the Spirit is long since ceased’. And Thomas Watson says flatly: ‘extraordinary gifts in the church are now ceased’.
The Evangelical Revival of the 18th century was a powerful work of the Holy Spirit which brought hundreds of thousands of people to faith. But did its leaders believe that they had received or should seek miraculous gifts from the Lord? No. George Whitefield spoke of:
‘the karismata, the miraculous gifts conferred on the primitive Church and which have have long since ceased.’ And this is Jonathan Edwards: ‘since the canon of the Scripture has been completed, and the Christian church fully founded and established, these extraordinary gifts have ceased’.
John Wesley, it is true, believed that miraculous gifts might be granted to believers at any time but, as far as I am aware, he never claimed that he had received such gifts or that he had ever seen anyone else do miracles.
The nineteenth century saw a great awakening of missionary concern. Missionaries travelled from Europe and North America to preach the gospel on every continent. Such men as William Carey, Adoniram Judson, John G Paton, William Burns, David Livingstone, Hudson Taylor – and a host of godly women – were wonderfully used by the Lord to extend his kingdom. They saw wonderful answers to prayer and reported astonishing providences (who could ever forget John Paton’s account of ‘rain from the earth’?) But did they claim miraculous gifts? No. They stood where evangelical Protestants had always stood, recognising that those gifts had been given to God’s people for a short time and then withdrawn when they were no longer needed.
And back in Britain, Charles Spurgeon spoke for the great body of Bible-believing Christians when he pleaded with his hearers to seek not miraculous gifts but ‘saving blessings’.
‘You know, dear friends, when the Holy Spirit was given in the earliest ages he showed his presence by certain miraculous signs. Some of those who received the Holy Spirit spake with tongues; others began to prophesy; and a third class received the gifts of healing, so that wherever they laid their hands disease fled before them… Now, be it never forgotten that those works of the Holy Spirit which are permanent must assuredly be of greater value than those which were transitory… those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us’.
It’s true that in every generation there were Christians who claimed that they had received miraculous gifts or that they knew others who had. Tongue speaking, for example, seems to have surfaced among the French Huguenots, in some Quaker circles, or among the followers of Edward Irving, a popular Scottish preacher of the 18th century. But such movements remained on the fringe of evangelical Christianity, and their leaders were generally viewed as unbalanced and in many cases heretical.
Pentecostalism: a modern movement
It was not until the early 20th century that the movement began which would spread the idea among evangelical Christians that miraculous gifts are for today. It began among a small group of Wesleyan Arminians in the USA led by an evangelist called Charles Fox Parham and a little later, an African-American preacher called William Seymour. These men were the founding fathers of the Pentecostal movement. The movement grew swiftly, and spread to the British Isles. The first Pentecostal denomination to be established in the UK, known as the Apostolic Faith Church was founded in 1908; a second – the Elim Pentecostal Church – was formed in 1915; yet another, the Assemblies of God, in 1924.
But these Pentecostal groups were still marginal. Their claim that the Lord was still giving miraculous gifts to believers was rejected by the great majority of evangelical Christians. You could have spent a lifetime attending Bible-believing churches without meeting one Christian who claimed to have miraculous gifts. Whether you attended Anglican churches, Methodist churches, Baptist churches, the Salvation Army Citadel or the Brethren Assembly, tongue-speaking or miracle-working was simply unknown.
Charismatic confusion
So when did things change? Most historians would point to 1960 as a key date. It was in that year that an American clergyman in California declared to his high church Anglican congregation that he had received the ‘baptism of the Spirit’ and the gift of tongues. His announcement made headlines in the newspapers. Other Anglican clergy in the USA began to make similar claims and to hold meetings to encourage others to seek the miraculous gifts. Within a short time, the movement had spread to Lutheran churches, Presbyterian churches, and before the end of the decade, it had become widespread among Roman Catholics.
Some Christian leaders in the UK – including a number of Anglicans – were excited by all that they were hearing from the other side of the Atlantic. Some travelled to witness this ‘revival’ and returned to introduce it to congregations back home. By the mid-70s, the ‘charismatic movement’ as it became known had become a matter of intense controversy among British churches of all denominations.
I was still at school when the charismatic wave engulfed the UK Christian scene. I can remember the excitement with which some of my fellow CU members reported the way the churches they attended were being transformed. Some wanted to tell us about wonderful miracles that were happening. Others told us that they had received the gift of tongues or prophecy.
Many churches were divided. In some, the leaders were determined to introduce ‘the gifts’ to the members. In others, it was groups within the congregation who were determined to take over the church and push out any leaders who resisted.
In some, the takeover was completed successfully. Churches that had devoted themselves in the past to Bible-teaching, prayer, missionary work, evangelism, became centres of charismatic worship in which tongue-speaking and prophecy were encouraged, the sick and disabled were urged to come forward for healing, people who were mentally ill were diagnosed as demon possessed and ‘exorcised’ – and a new style of soft-rock music replaced traditional hymn-singing.
Other churches split. Those who believed in the restoration of miraculous gifts left to form new churches. Or those who rejected claims to miraculous gifts were the ones who had to leave.
What happened back then was revolutionary. The idea that miraculous gifts are for today – an idea which only a tiny minority of Bible-believing Christians had ever held – swept through the churches with astonishing speed and success.
The situation today
So much so that fifty years on, the great majority of Christians in the UK who call themselves ‘evangelical’ take that idea for granted. The great majority of churches which say they hold to the Bible, accept the idea that the Lord still gives miraculous gifts, even if they don’t emphasise it. Even churches which uphold the doctrines of the Reformation in other ways have forgotten what the Protestant Reformers taught on this matter. Many of the preachers and writers who are most influential in reformed circles – men like Don Carson, John Piper or Wayne Grudem – hold to the idea that the miraculous gifts we read about in the New Testament are for today.
And yet, fifty years on, we’re still waiting for examples of Christians who have evidently been given miraculous gifts by God. Countless claims have made but none stands up to scrutiny.
It’s true of course that the Lord does wonderful things today in answer to prayer, just as he always has. I am sure that for example, he heals people whom the doctors have given up on. I have sat by the bedside of a comatose man whom the doctors said was beyond hope. They warned the family members that they should prepare themselves to lose him within hours. They believed that, even if he survived, his organs were too severely damaged for him ever to recover and live a normal life. I – and others – prayed that the Lord would spare him. I returned the following morning to find him sitting up in bed talking and eating his breakfast. Within weeks he had left the hospital and returned to his home.
But do I have the New Testament gift of healing? No. I have prayed for many other ill people and there has been no change in their condition. And that man’s recovery, though statistically very unlikely, was not miraculous. There was nothing that went against the laws of cause and effect that God has built into his world. He was receiving the best of medical treatment and the Lord worked wonders through it.
New Testament miracles
Is that on a par with the miracles we read about in the New Testament? Jesus gave to his apostles a gift that empowered them to heal any illness, instantly. Blindness, paralysis, leprosy, all were removed totally, irreversibly, without any medical intervention, at the command of the apostles. We’re told that people ‘even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed’ (Acts 5:16). Notice the all. Every person who needed healing – whatever their condition – was healed.
Likewise we read about Paul, ‘..God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them’ (Acts 19:11).
In the New Testament we read about people blind or lame from birth who were healed. We read about a man whose ear had been cut off being made whole. We read about a man with a visibly withered arm which was instantly restored. UK doctors – including Christian doctors – have not been able to document one such miracle in the present day, despite all the services and crusades that have been held by people claiming the gift of healing.
Even more startling, the apostles were empowered to raise the dead. ‘…Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive’ (Acts 9:40-41). ‘Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and bent over him, and taking him in his arms, said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him… and they took the youth away alive, and were not a little comforted’ (Acts19:9-12)
Has there been one case in the last fifty years where someone has been certified as dead, and then been raised by a Christian miracle-worker? Imagine the furore in the media if it happened! When a member of a charismatic church dies, none of the people who claim to have miraculous gifts tries to bring him back to life. They arrange a funeral just like everyone else.
Believers in New Testament times were given the gift of speaking in tongues – languages they had not learned. The hearers on the Day of Pentecost were astonished: ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?’ (Acts 2:8). Countless Christians today claim to have the gift of tongues. Yet I’m not aware that there has been one documented case of a message given in tongues being recorded and then proving to be spoken in a language not known to the speaker.
Many churches these days video all their services. But not one video has surfaced in which water is turned into wine or bread and fish multiplied to feed a crowd.
Signs of the apostles
Why do we see no miracles today – miracles that are on a par with the miracles we find in the New Testament? Why does the Lord give no-one the gift of doing such miracles?
If you read last month’s letter, you already know the answer. Even at the beginning of the New Testament age, the Lord gave miraculous gifts to relatively few people. He gave such gifts to his apostles, and to people closely associated with them – usually people on whom they laid their hands.
See how careful Luke was to make clear that the apostles did miracles but that most believers did not:
‘…there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles’ (Acts 2: 41-43).
‘And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things. Now many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles (Acts 5:11-12).
When other believers received miraculous gifts, it was through the apostles:
‘They (the members of the church) chose Stephen, a man full of the faith, and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip… These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them… And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people…’ (Acts 6:6-8).
‘Simon himself believed and after being baptised he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was baptised…’ (Acts 8:13).
‘…the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands…’ (Acts 8:18).
‘…and when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying…’ (Acts 19:6).
The miracles that we read about in the New Testament are described as ‘signs of the apostles’ (2 Corinthians 12:12). Paul could say ‘the signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works’.
The writer to the Hebrews puts this question to his hearers: ‘How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord (Jesus) and it was attested to us by those who heard (the apostles), while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will’ (Hebrews 2:3-4). The writer did not put himself forward as an independent witness. Instead he looked back to those who heard the Lord Jesus while he was here on earth – the apostles – and says the Holy Spirit bore witness to them by the miraculous gifts he gave them.
So why no miracle-workers today? The answer is simple. We should not expect people to do miracles today because there are no apostles today. We went through the evidence last time. The apostles were the once-for-all foundation-stones of the church. Each of them met the Lord Jesus personally after he rose from the dead – they were all witnesses to the resurrection. Paul says explicitly that he was the final witness to the resurrection – the last apostle to be appointed by Jesus.
Does it matter?
How serious is this issue? Does it really matter if Christians claim to have miraculous gifts, or believe that others have them?
Well, of course it matters. It matters if Christians are believing lies and living in delusion. It matters if they are distracted from the real work they have to do by these fictitious claims. It matters if Christians suffering from life-threatening illnesses are led to believe that they will be healed – or have been healed – by people who claim healing gifts. It matters if believers think that God is speaking today through tongues or prophecies, and listen to them instead of taking the words of the Bible as his Word to them, sufficient for every situation.
As a church we have begun the search for a full-time pastor who will take my place when I come to retirement. Would it matter if we appointed a man who believed that miraculous gifts are for today? Yes, it would matter very much. Wherever that belief has been held, it has caused damage to believers and churches. It has diverted many churches away from the gospel and the pursuit of holiness.
We may return in yet another letter from the manse to the particular issue of prophecy and tongues. But I’ve said enough for this time round.
We have God’s word, spoken by Christ, expounded by the apostles, written in the pages of Scripture. ‘…contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints’ (Jude vs 3).
All Bible quotations in this article are taken from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers © 2001.
