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Transcript 410C — Have Signs and Miracles Ceased?
HC: Good evening Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Good evening. Brother Camping. My wife and I have been discussing tonight how, at the completion of the Bible, sign miracles and tongues and messages from God ceased. I wondered if you could please go into as much detail as possible in showing me in the scripture verses where this shows when this happened, when the Bible was completed.
HC: That signs and miracles ceased?
CALLER: Yes, that when the Bible was completed, now we have the Bible and it alone is the Word of God, that we don't have any more divine truth from elsewhere.
HC: You're speaking of two things now. You're talking about divine truth from other sources, and you're also speaking of miracles. Are you interested in both of these questions?
CALLER: Yes. And I also have another question, concerning Malachi 4:6, the last part of that, where God says, "lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." I wondered if you could explain that.
HC: All right. I'll try. The question is raised concerning the matter of miracles and of other revelation. Actually they are two separate subjects. The matter of other revelation, other sources of divine truth than the Bible can be handled very simply.
Until the Bible was completed, God did bring His prophets additional information occasionally. That's the way the Bible was developed. A prophet would receive information from God in a vision or in a dream or by an angel confrontation. This then was written down, and this was added to the Bible, until we have the full revelation of God's will.
As long as this procedure was going on, it was possible, for example, to receive information from God in an unknown language called a tongue, as we read in I Corinthians 12-14. But when God completed the Holy Word, when He came to the last chapter of the last book, remember, the Bible is one cohesive whole. It has one Author, the Holy Spirit. Even though He spoke through a great variety of people, nevertheless there is one Author, and that is the Holy Spirit, God Himself. And when God came to the last chapter of the book He was writing, He declared in Revelation 22:18, "If anyone adds to the words of this book, I will add to him the plagues written herein." In other words, God effectively is saying, if anyone thinks that there is additional divine truth than what is recorded in the Bible, then by this act of rebellion against God he is indicating that he is still subject to hell. He is still subject to damnation. God has spoken. Everything that had to be said has been said. And this is what we are to look upon as the divine Word.
Now insofar as miracles are concerned, first of all we must remember that while today a great many people relate miracles or signs and wonders to Pentecost, a study of the Bible reveals that there is no such relationship. There were far more miracles done before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit was poured out, before God began His program to evangelize the world, than after. No one since the time of Jesus has done miracles as Jesus did. And Jesus, remember, was on earth and did all of His miracles before the Holy Spirit was poured out. This is a very very important consideration that those who want to relate miracles to Pentecost must consider.
Now it is true that when we look at the church after Pentecost we do find a few of the disciples, five in number actually, who still did miracles for a little while - miracles of healing particularly. But even in their case, as we go on in the Bible, we find that the Bible gradually has nothing more to say about it. We find finally, for example, Paul, who originally was able to do quite a number of miracles, counseling with Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. There was no possibility of miraculous healing.
More than that, when we study the Bible, we read, for example, in II Corinthians 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Jesus Himself said to the Jews, "An evil and an adulterous generation seeketh for a sign," or "seeketh for a miracle." You see, Christ was already indicating that signs and wonders were not normative insofar as believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Luke 16, in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in the closing verses, you will recall that the rich man cried out to Abraham, "Send Lazarus from the dead, that he may speak to my five brothers who are unsaved." The fact that someone was raised from the dead should bring them to their spiritual senses. And Abraham answered, "If they do not believe Moses and the prophets," that is, if they do not believe the Word of God, "neither will they believe if someone is raised from the dead." In other words, anyone who suggests that God will first do a sign or wonder in order to encourage someone to become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is not according to the purpose or the program of Christ.
The fact is, when we study John 6, we find that Jesus had a great following because of all the miracles He did. But when Jesus really began to talk about the true nature of the Gospel that He was bringing, then most of His disciples, all in fact except for the twelve, left Him. They weren't interested in the salvation program that Christ was talking about. They simply were excited about the miracles that He was doing.
The Bible declares, "The just shall live by faith." Now the most ominous and conclusive statement that I might say about miracles, which are called signs, the word sign or miracle is the same Greek word in the Bible, in connection with the end of time, where I as well as many others believe we are, because so many signs are pointing to the fact that we are near the end of time, the ominous and terrible fact is (and let this be clearly understood) that every place that the Bible speaks about signs and wonders in connection with the time right near the end of time is always a reference to Satanic activity. It's always a reference to Satanic activity. And that ought to cause anyone at all who is interested in miracles or signs to pause and think it out very clearly. "What kind of a path am I really walking?''
Matthew 24:24 recites, "False prophets and false christs will arise, with signs and wonders, to lead astray if possible even the elect." II Thessalonians 2 records for us that the man of sin will take his seat in the temple. And he will come with signs and wonders of falsehood."
Revelation 16 speaks about Satan coming with signs. Revelation 13 speaks about the image that Satan erects, that it will come with signs. Everything in the Bible that relates to signs and wonders right near the end of time always is Satanic. Now of course when Christ comes on the clouds of glory on the Last Day, Judgment Day, that will be a great sign. That will be a great wonder, because this is Christ Himself coming. But that's the end of time. Anything that relates to the years just before the end of time that is concerned at all with signs and wonders is always related to Satanic activity.
This really is so emphatic and so plain in the Bible that it would seem to me that anyone who calls himself a Christian ought to really lie awake nights wondering why he's interested in signs and wonders, if indeed he is.
Now in Malachi 4 we read about the coming of Elijah the prophet, a prophecy that really was pointing to the coming of John the Baptist, prefigured by the prophet Elijah. In verse 5 of Malachi 4, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." Of course the "great and dreadful day of the Lord" is the Judgment Day when Christ hung on the cross.
There are two Judgment Days in the Bible. One was at the cross, when Christ paid for the sins of those who became believers. The other Judgment Day will be on the Last Day, when those who are not covered by Christ's blood will have to stand for judgment on their own behalf, to pay for their own sins. That will be the end of time.
"And he (that is, Elijah, or John the Baptist) shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Now I'm not really knowledgeable as to why this precise language is used. I just have never done a word study on this particular verse, and therefore I don't really feel qualified to speak on it. I will say this, however. Because of man's sin, the earth is cursed. Because of man's continuing sin, eventually Judgment Day comes. And one of the activities of Judgment Day is that this earth must be burned with fire. This earth must be destroyed. Of course it will be recreated New Heavens and a New Earth. Having said this, however, I'm not really sure how this ties in with this phrase, "lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
I might suggest this, however. And that is that if Christ did not come, and after all, John the Baptist's coming has no standing, no force whatsoever, except in the fact that he was the announcer of the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist's work gained significance only as it anticipated the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord Jesus Christ did not come, of course John the Baptist would not have been there to announce Him, either, because there would be no announcer required. If Jesus had not come, then there would be no salvation at all There would be no redemption of this world, either. Have you ever thought about that?
This world is going to be redeemed. Christ went to the cross to redeem this world. We read about this in Romans 8, around verses 19-22, that the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by Him who subjected it in hope, that is, in hope for the redemption of this earth. Even as our bodies that are to be redeemed return to the dust of the earth and are destroyed in the earth, but are resurrected a perfect Spiritual body likewise this earth, this universe, is going to be destroyed by fire. But that is preliminary to it being recreated New Heavens and a New Earth, where righteousness dwells, as we read II Peter 3. If Christ did not come then this earth would be forever under the curse of God. There would be no New Heaven and New Earth. And perhaps this is the meaning of Malachi 4:6.