History teaches that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit did not cease with the first apostles—the early church demonstrated signs and wonders of God’s work in the world.

Cessationism teaches that the types of signs and wonders evidenced in the New Testament are not for today. The reasons given by cessationists are varied, and the internet is full of websites dedicated to this doctrine. However, many scholars have written in favor of signs and wonders being for today, and they have shown that the arguments against signs and wonders today are weak and biased. Some of the most impressive examples of polemical writings in favor of signs and wonders today include The Kingdom and the Power, edited by Dr. Gary Greig and Kevin Springer; Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, by Dr. Jack Deere; Confronting Powerless Christianity, by Dr. Charles Kraft; On the Cessation of the Charismata: The Protestant Polemic on Post-Biblical Miracles, by Dr. Jon Ruthven; just to name a few.

In this article, I want to take you back in history and present to you an argument for signs and wonders revealing that the miraculous works done by Jesus and the apostles were also done by the early church—thus showing that the main thesis of cessationists, signs and wonders passed away with the last of the apostles, is false. I will limit my discussion to exorcism and healing, and I will quote writers from the 1st-3rd centuries who have written about continuing signs and wonders. I will also add commentary where I feel it may be helpful and relevant for today’s church.

All of the quotes are from the 10 volume The Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson between 1885-1887.¹ They are cited in A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, edited by David W. Bercot.² The citations use the convention of “volume number. page number”; thus 1.200 indicates a quote is from volume 1, page 200. I will use the notation of ANF 1.200 to designate a quote’s location.

Exorcism

One of the main themes I found in the early church writings I examined was exorcism. In the New Testament, exorcism is a sign, wonder, or miracle, bringing deliverance to an individual who is demonically oppressed or possessed. Let’s first examine some of the evidence that exorcism continued on, past the apostolic age.

Justin Martyr
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Justin Martyr, c.155 (or shortly thereafter)

“For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world, and in your city, many of our Christian men exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal, rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs.” ANF 1.190

“We call Him Helper and Redeemer. Even the demons fear the power of His name at this day, when they are exorcised in the name of Jesus Christ, … they are defeated.” ANF 1.209

“He said, ‘I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions.’ … And now we have all the demons and evil spirits subjected to us, when we exorcise them.” ANF 1.236

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.

Continued from Part 1 appearing in the Winter 2007 issue

III. Signs, Wonders, and Miracles Are Intended to Encourage Belief and Deepen Faith in Christ

It is true that “signs do not in themselves create faith in the hearts of observers and can even harden hearts,”⁴¹ as in the case of the Pharisees. F. F. Bruce noted this as well:

What about the signs he [Jesus] actually performed? Why were they not sufficient to convince his questioners? … If the restoration of bodily and mental health could be dismissed as a work of Satan, no number of healing acts would have established the divine authority by which they were performed…While the healing miracles did serve as signs of the kingdom of God to those who had eyes to see, they did not compel belief in those who were prejudiced in the opposite direction.⁴²

But Scripture also shows that one function of signs, wonders, and miracles in the ministry of Jesus and the Early Church was to awaken and encourage faith in the gospel being preached. Why else would the Early Church have prayed prayers like the following, asking God for signs and wonders of healing to accompany its evangelism?

Acts 4:29-30—“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” God obviously granted such requests in the Early Church (e.g., Acts 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:4-8, 12-13, 26-39; 9:17-18, 32-42; etc.).

Jesus more than once challenged his listeners to believe His word on the basis of His miraculous works:

John 10:37-38—“Do not believe me unless I do the miraculous works (ta erga⁴³) of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the miraculous works (tois ergois), that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

John 14:11—“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miraculous works themselves (dia ta erga auta).”

Mark 2:10—“‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’” In his Gospel, John calls all of Jesus’ works of miraculous healing “signs” (sēmeia; Jn. 4:54; 6:2; 9:16: 12:17-18)—e.g., Jn. 6:2, “They saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.”⁴⁴ The miraculous healings of Jesus are also called “works” (erga) in John’s Gospel.⁴⁵ Jesus provided abundant “signs” of miraculous healing to those who were open and seeking God, as every one of the Gospel accounts show. John then said of the signs, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn. 20:31).

In His condemnation of Korazin and Bethsaida’s lack of repentance and faith, Jesus indicates that His miraculous works were intended to produce repentance and faith in Him (Mat. 11:21; and Lk. 10:13):

Matthew 11:21—“Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” Paul expected to proclaim the gospel “in the power of signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit” (Rom. 15:18-19; I Cor. 1:6-7; 2:4-5; II Cor. 12:12; I Thes. 1:5), and he expected God to continue to distribute spiritual gifts and work miracles among the churches to confirm the gospel and build up and encourage the church (Rom. 12:6-8; I Cor. 1:7; 12:1-14:40; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:7-13; I Thes. 5:19-22; I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6-7). Paul says that the gift of prophecy is a sign “for believers” (I Cor. 14:22).⁴⁶ As a sign it encourages and builds up the church in its faith (I Cor. 14:1-5). Through it God gives supernatural insight into the secrets of people’s hearts (“the secrets of his heart will be laid bare” I Cor. 14:25),⁴⁷ and thus it demonstrates that “God is really among you!” (I Cor. 14:24-25).

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.

The year is 1906. A young sixteen year old girl named Henrietta Mears, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has just had a painful accident. She somehow “jabbed a hat pin into the pupil of an eye. Her doctors could do nothing for the condition and predicted possible blindness for her.”¹ Henrietta’s family, which attends the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, asks a close friend named Mr. Ingersoll, an elder in a local Presbyterian church, to come pray for Henrietta’s eye in accordance with James 5:14-16. In response to their prayers, God graciously heals Henrietta’s vision:

Henrietta had no doubt that the God who had made her could also heal her eye. Specialists who later examined the eye agreed there was indeed a hole in the pupil and shook their heads in amazement that she could see anything out of it. That she was, in fact, seeing could not be explained except that God had stretched forth His hand and healed her eye—even though the hole remained. Henrietta learned from this experience and from her mother to accept all Scripture at face value. For God to touch her body simply meant taking Him at His word.²

Henrietta Mears went on to be used greatly by God as Director of Christian Education and College Teacher at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, California. She founded Gospel Light Publications and Forest Home Christian Conference Center in the San Bernardino mountains of southern California. She influenced the ministries and lives of such great evangelical leaders as Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ, and Billy Graham, who called her “one of the greatest Christians I have ever known.”³ Towards the end of her life Henrietta sought all the gifts of the Spirit for her life and Christian work: “I have enjoyed spiritual gifts, … I have had the Spirit’s presence. But now I want every thing that He has for me. I want all the gifts.”⁴

When he was four years old, my own son underwent two painful and traumatic surgeries in the spring of 1991 to correct a congenital defect which he had at birth. That summer the condition had not healed as expected and the specialist who had performed the first two surgeries predicted my son would need a third surgery in the early fall. After persistent prayer by my wife and me and the elders of our church, God touched and healed our son of the condition. The specialist told us that my son’s condition had reversed itself and that this was “highly unusual” in cases like my son’s. My son never had a third surgery and continues to this day without any further need of medical attention for his former condition.

On many occasions my wife and I have also seen God give supernatural insight in prayer to accomplish His purposes. In late February, 1992, my wife was praying with a woman named Carolyn at a monthly church meeting. Carolyn did not know me or my wife well. She knew nothing of our personal lives at the time nor that we had a four year old son and a one and a half year old daughter. Carolyn also did not know that my wife was concerned that she was not spending enough quality time with our son, who at that time had a language-processing deficiency. My wife did not know that Carolyn had been unemployed for six months and had finally gotten a job that very day.

Neither my wife nor Carolyn shared these personal details with each other before they prayed together. As they prayed and asked the Lord to guide their time of prayer, Carolyn saw a picture of a backyard with two children, a boy and a girl, playing on a swing-set and in a wooden-sided sandbox (the only two items which our backyard has). Carolyn sensed God saying that “everything is alright with the children because God is watching over them.” At the same time, my wife saw a picture of the beach and the ocean which she did not understand. It just so happened that Carolyn had had the job interview that day at a Ventura beach. Carolyn shared that God had provided her with a job that day “at the beach.” My wife and Carolyn thanked the Lord for this encouraging witness of His provision and protection in both their lives (Mat. 6:8; Phil. 4:5b-7).

In late September, 1992, I took a cab from the Los Angeles International airport to nearby Santa Monica and was praying for the cab driver, a middle-aged man, and for an opportunity to share Christ with him. Three thoughts flashed through my mind as I prayed: that he was Russian, that he was Jewish, and that he had a daughter whom he dearly loved (I saw a picture in my mind of a young five year old girl with him). The first fact I could have inferred from his name, Boris. The last two facts I could not have known naturally (his last name was not typically Jewish but Russian). I shared these insights with him and found out they were all true—he was Jewish and had only one child, a daughter about five years old whom he loved very much. Then I told him about Jesus, who revealed those insights, who knew every detail of his life, and who, as Israel’s Messiah, loved him enough to die for his sins. Though he did not receive Christ as Savior at that moment, he was grateful for what I said and for my prayer for him and his family. And I was grateful that the Lord demonstrated His presence and His love for this man in a way I could not have done by myself.

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

Old Testament Foundations: Signs, Wonders and the People, by Jeffrey J. Niehaus

When the Son of God came to earth he brought what the Bible metaphorically calls the “water” of the Holy Spirit, who had been poured out on him without measure. The Son’s first advent was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, who foresaw the result of Christ’s ministry. He said it would be a time when “the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field” (Isa. 32:15). Isaiah was a great poet as well as a prophet, and he spoke powerfully of the Messiah’s life and work. What he said has come to pass, and both he and the other Old Testament prophets have much to teach us, not only about God and his Christ, but also about prophetic ministry—a kingdom ministry of “signs and wonders”—both in the past and today.

Signs and Wonders—Moses and Jesus

We know from the Old Testament that God did signs and wonders to advance his kingdom. The phrase, “signs and wonders,” first occurs in the Bible to describe the plagues which God, through his prophet Moses, brought upon Egypt (Exo. 7:3). But the miracles of God in the Old Testament are not only destructive. God also parted the Red Sea and held up the waters of the Jordan River and brought his people safely across both. Such miracles were part of his plan of salvation for Israel.

The ministries of Jesus and Moses have important things in common. Both were covenant mediators: Moses mediated the old covenant; Jesus mediated the new. Both Moses (Deut. 34:10) and Jesus (Acts 3:22) were prophets. And both did signs and wonders which were part of the advance of God’s kingdom—his program of salvation for his people.