Miracles Part V: What happened to the miracles?

1 Cor. 13:8-11
​
    Through these past several weeks, we have looked at several aspects of miracles. First, the purpose of miracles was to transmit the word of God and confirm what was being spoken (Mark 16:16-17). We noted that the only way to transfer miracles was the laying on of apostles hands (Acts 8:18; 2 Tim. 1:6). In discussing that we talked about how there are no more living apostles because there is no one who meets the requirements (Acts 1: 21-24) so there is no one to pass the miracles on. The past two weeks were spent talking about the two times that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurred (Acts 2 & 10) and that it again was to confirm the word (Acts 2:8-15; 10:44-47) and it was the first time that the Gospel was preached to the Jews (Acts 2) and the Gentiles (Acts 10). It should be noted that those are the ONLY two examples of what is referred to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
    To answer the question; “what happened to the miracles?” The short answer is that they were no longer needed. This should not be a surprise to anyone, considering the apostle Paul said that this is what was going to happen. 1 Cor. 13:8 “… if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.” He says that this miracles were just part, for each member received just a part of the miracles of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8-11), and that the partial will be done away with once the perfect comes. Many who hold on to “miracles” say that “perfect” means Jesus. It is important to note that even though Jesus lived a perfect life (1 Peter 2:22), he is never called “the perfect” in scripture. The word perfect here can be translated as complete and is the same word used in James 1:25. I think it is better practice to compare words that are used similarly throughout the Bible to come to a better understanding of the more difficult verses. In James 1:25, James uses the term “perfect” to refer to the Bible and it seems that would make sense concerning 1 Cor. 13:10. Since the purpose of miracles was to confirm the word, once the word was completed or perfected there is no more need for the miracles. So once the Bible was completed and that last apostle, John, died, so do the miracles. We don’t need the miracles, we have the written word to confirm and believe in (John 20:30-31). 

​In His service,
Steven Hugley