Most agree that miracles, similar in nature, variety, and number to those recorded in the Book of Acts, are no longer happening among God's people today, and that such supernatural works did not persist beyond the apostolic period. There is also general agreement among Christian historians that up until about 70 AD the record is clear but that the rest of the first century is obscure; so that when the Church appears in the second century, the situation regarding miracles is so changed we seem to be in another world altogether. As one such historian puts it,
"The thirty years which followed...the destruction of Jerusalem are in truth the most obscure in the history of the Church. When we emerge in the second century we are, to a great extent, in a changed world. Apostolic authority lives no longer in the Christian community; apostolic miracles have passed; the Church has fairly begun her pilgrimage through "the waste of Time." As Dr. Arnold has finely said: "We stop at the last Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy with something of the same interest with which one pauses at the last hamlet of the cultivated valley, when there is nothing but moor beyond. It is the end, or all but the end, of our real knowledge of primitive Christianity; there we take our last distinct look around; further the mist hangs thick, and few and distorted are the objects which we can discern in the midst of it." We cannot doubt that there was a Divine purpose in thus marking off the age of inspiration and of miracles, by so broad and definite a boundary, from succeeding times."
Acts and the Epistles show evidence that a gradual change took place during the approximately forty years between Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem. For example, in Acts 5 all of the sick who were brought from various cities to Jerusalem were healed by the apostles (v 16). But twenty-five years later we find Paul himself is denied healing (2 Cor 12:7-9). And near the end, we see him advising Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent ailments (1 Tim 5:23). Still later we learn that Paul has left another worker sick at Miletum (2 Tim 4:20). In the early chapters of Acts no one who is preaching Christ dies, but as Israel's opposition increases, Stephen is killed (Acts 7:54-59). And a little later James dies by the sword of Herod (Acts 12:1-2). So although in the early chapters of Acts Jerusalem, the seat of Israel's government, is filled with miracles, after the stoning of Stephen there is never again any record of a public miracle in that city called the city of the great King (Matt 5:34-35).
Of course not everybody agrees that there has been a change. Some argue that such miracles are still happening today; but are they merely seeing what they wish to see? Others admit there are no miracles as seen during the apostolic era, but they say that this is because we are less spiritual today and that a revival of faith would bring them back. But the fact is, there have been great spiritual revivals as well as great spiritual leaders in the history of the Church, with no matching revivals of great public miracles. Still others argue that the purpose of miracles in the apostolic era was to authenticate the truth of Christianity; that once this had been done and the canon completed, there was no further purpose for them and therefore they ceased. But to say they were necessary only at the very beginning of the Church raises another question: If useful then, why not now? Moreover, that reasoning seems rather limiting. It is true that miracles of the bible authenticated divine revelation, but they also relieved human problems and needs and these needs haven't stopped. In fact, we live in a world filled with all kinds of complex sicknesses and problems, so our need for supernatural help certainly hasn't decreased.
So what happened? What was the reason for this sharp change?
In Scripture great public displays of miracles are consistently connected with the earthly kingdom of God. They are seen when that kingdom was established at Sinai and did not completely stop until it ended with the departure of the Shekinah-Glory. Miracles are also recorded in the OT predictions of a future re-establishment of the kingdom under the reign of the Messiah as well as when the kingdom was announced as being imminent in the Gospels. In Acts, too, they are the signs of the kingdom, given primarily as a testimony to the nation Israel (1 Cor 1:22), because its imminent establishment depended on Israel's repentance. Of course we know she did not repent nor believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, so that kingdom was not established — but it will be (Rom 11:25-27).
The Epistle to the Hebrews, written especially to Christian Jews, specifically mentions the miracles of the period of Acts, indicating their purpose and meaning. Hebrews 2 refers to the testimony that was "at the first spoken through the Lord"; and then says that the same message "was confirmed to us by those who heard [Him]" (v 3), a clear reference to the apostolic preaching in the Book of Acts. Continuing on, the very next verse (v 4) says, "God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles." The three Greek words here are generally used in the NT to describe miracles. Dunamis points to the source of the miracle; it is an act or display of divine "power." Teras describes the immediate effect it is intended to produce; it is a prodigy or "wonder." Semeion indicates the purpose of the miracle; it is a "sign" pointing to something beyond it.
Later in Hebrews 6:5 the miracles of the Acts period are referred to once again, this time using the Greek term dunamis and reminding the Jewish readers of that generation that they had "tasted...the powers of the age to come." These miracles and manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, although "tasted" by that generation, are clearly said to be in the future. Now this "age" cannot be the Church age, because that had already begun and was even then running its course. Nor can it be heaven or the eternal state, for there will be no need for miracles then. It seems clear to me that the true meaning of "the age to come" is the Millennial Kingdom, which was offered by Peter to the nation in Acts 2-3 but, because it was rejected, will now follow the Church age and be ushered in at the second coming of Christ. It will be during this time that the Pentecostal signs and wonders will return in a higher and glorified sense, as we can see in Isaiah 35.
The great miracles of Acts, then, are powers which belong to the Millennial Kingdom. This suggests that their occasional and partial enjoyment by the generation living during the time of Acts, as also in the period of the Gospels, was intended to authenticate an offer of the kingdom to Israel, a genuine offer although conditioned on the repentance of the nation. It also explains why, following Israel's rejection in Acts 28 and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, the age of great public miracles came to an end.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom (1 Cor 1:22).
**It is interesting to note that Geerhardus Vos seems to agree that there was some connection between the miracles during the Acts period and the eschatological expectations of that time: "The subsequent receding of this acute eschatological state has something to do with the gradual disappearance of the miraculous phenomena of the apostolic age" (Eschatology of the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 980). He does not attempt to explain what the connection is, however.
(to be continued)
"The thirty years which followed...the destruction of Jerusalem are in truth the most obscure in the history of the Church. When we emerge in the second century we are, to a great extent, in a changed world. Apostolic authority lives no longer in the Christian community; apostolic miracles have passed; the Church has fairly begun her pilgrimage through "the waste of Time." As Dr. Arnold has finely said: "We stop at the last Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy with something of the same interest with which one pauses at the last hamlet of the cultivated valley, when there is nothing but moor beyond. It is the end, or all but the end, of our real knowledge of primitive Christianity; there we take our last distinct look around; further the mist hangs thick, and few and distorted are the objects which we can discern in the midst of it." We cannot doubt that there was a Divine purpose in thus marking off the age of inspiration and of miracles, by so broad and definite a boundary, from succeeding times."
Acts and the Epistles show evidence that a gradual change took place during the approximately forty years between Pentecost and the destruction of Jerusalem. For example, in Acts 5 all of the sick who were brought from various cities to Jerusalem were healed by the apostles (v 16). But twenty-five years later we find Paul himself is denied healing (2 Cor 12:7-9). And near the end, we see him advising Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent ailments (1 Tim 5:23). Still later we learn that Paul has left another worker sick at Miletum (2 Tim 4:20). In the early chapters of Acts no one who is preaching Christ dies, but as Israel's opposition increases, Stephen is killed (Acts 7:54-59). And a little later James dies by the sword of Herod (Acts 12:1-2). So although in the early chapters of Acts Jerusalem, the seat of Israel's government, is filled with miracles, after the stoning of Stephen there is never again any record of a public miracle in that city called the city of the great King (Matt 5:34-35).
Of course not everybody agrees that there has been a change. Some argue that such miracles are still happening today; but are they merely seeing what they wish to see? Others admit there are no miracles as seen during the apostolic era, but they say that this is because we are less spiritual today and that a revival of faith would bring them back. But the fact is, there have been great spiritual revivals as well as great spiritual leaders in the history of the Church, with no matching revivals of great public miracles. Still others argue that the purpose of miracles in the apostolic era was to authenticate the truth of Christianity; that once this had been done and the canon completed, there was no further purpose for them and therefore they ceased. But to say they were necessary only at the very beginning of the Church raises another question: If useful then, why not now? Moreover, that reasoning seems rather limiting. It is true that miracles of the bible authenticated divine revelation, but they also relieved human problems and needs and these needs haven't stopped. In fact, we live in a world filled with all kinds of complex sicknesses and problems, so our need for supernatural help certainly hasn't decreased.
So what happened? What was the reason for this sharp change?
In Scripture great public displays of miracles are consistently connected with the earthly kingdom of God. They are seen when that kingdom was established at Sinai and did not completely stop until it ended with the departure of the Shekinah-Glory. Miracles are also recorded in the OT predictions of a future re-establishment of the kingdom under the reign of the Messiah as well as when the kingdom was announced as being imminent in the Gospels. In Acts, too, they are the signs of the kingdom, given primarily as a testimony to the nation Israel (1 Cor 1:22), because its imminent establishment depended on Israel's repentance. Of course we know she did not repent nor believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, so that kingdom was not established — but it will be (Rom 11:25-27).
The Epistle to the Hebrews, written especially to Christian Jews, specifically mentions the miracles of the period of Acts, indicating their purpose and meaning. Hebrews 2 refers to the testimony that was "at the first spoken through the Lord"; and then says that the same message "was confirmed to us by those who heard [Him]" (v 3), a clear reference to the apostolic preaching in the Book of Acts. Continuing on, the very next verse (v 4) says, "God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles." The three Greek words here are generally used in the NT to describe miracles. Dunamis points to the source of the miracle; it is an act or display of divine "power." Teras describes the immediate effect it is intended to produce; it is a prodigy or "wonder." Semeion indicates the purpose of the miracle; it is a "sign" pointing to something beyond it.
Later in Hebrews 6:5 the miracles of the Acts period are referred to once again, this time using the Greek term dunamis and reminding the Jewish readers of that generation that they had "tasted...the powers of the age to come." These miracles and manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, although "tasted" by that generation, are clearly said to be in the future. Now this "age" cannot be the Church age, because that had already begun and was even then running its course. Nor can it be heaven or the eternal state, for there will be no need for miracles then. It seems clear to me that the true meaning of "the age to come" is the Millennial Kingdom, which was offered by Peter to the nation in Acts 2-3 but, because it was rejected, will now follow the Church age and be ushered in at the second coming of Christ. It will be during this time that the Pentecostal signs and wonders will return in a higher and glorified sense, as we can see in Isaiah 35.
The great miracles of Acts, then, are powers which belong to the Millennial Kingdom. This suggests that their occasional and partial enjoyment by the generation living during the time of Acts, as also in the period of the Gospels, was intended to authenticate an offer of the kingdom to Israel, a genuine offer although conditioned on the repentance of the nation. It also explains why, following Israel's rejection in Acts 28 and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, the age of great public miracles came to an end.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom (1 Cor 1:22).
**It is interesting to note that Geerhardus Vos seems to agree that there was some connection between the miracles during the Acts period and the eschatological expectations of that time: "The subsequent receding of this acute eschatological state has something to do with the gradual disappearance of the miraculous phenomena of the apostolic age" (Eschatology of the New Testament, Vol. II, p. 980). He does not attempt to explain what the connection is, however.
(to be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment