Apostolic Signs and Gifts of the Spirit

At the birth of the church the apostles and others among the first generation of Christians could be viewed as miracle workers. They had authority from God to heal at will and exercised that authority. There are several persons today who profess to exercise the same kind of authority and claim some measure of authority or ability to miraculously heal people similar to the apostles. In recent years even within non-charismatic churches, a willingness to accept the possibility of miracle workers today is growing. As biblical illiteracy increases in the churches, the desire to debate the issue seems to decline. The younger, post-modern generation is less willing to take a stand for or against the issue. Instead, they are more willing to allow the possibility because of their valuation of personal experience over absolutes. So how are we to address this issue today? Can we be dogmatic? How should we relate to those who disagree with us or are unwilling to take a stand on the issue? The answer lies in the evidence of church history as well as the information we can learn from the biblical record, not only in Acts but in the epistles as well. Finally, the work of the Spirit in the church today, in non-Charismatic as well as Pentecostal/Charismatic churches does speak to the issue.

To this date, the debate continues within the evangelical community concerning the possibility of present-day miracles and miracle workers. The range of opinion is spread between those who believe that God continues to work miracles today in the same manner and numbers as the first century and those who see miracles as a first-century phenomenon. Between those views are those who are open to miraculous gifts but cautious about their use in the church. This range of views was described well in the book, Are Miraculous Gifts for Today? from Zondervan's Counterpoints series. So, what questions should we address today?It is not the intention of this book to address every area of the modern faith-healing debate. Rather, this book is written to provide questions and answers based on the testimony of Scripture, which challenges specific claims of that movement. It is easy to claim that God wants to heal everybody and that healing is in the atonement. But how well can such claims stand in the face of unhealed saints of the Bible, men who walked with Paul, who had healed others earlier in his ministry?