{"id":8129,"date":"2020-08-05T14:22:51","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T14:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8129"},"modified":"2022-01-10T17:14:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T17:14:25","slug":"purposes-of-miracles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8129","title":{"rendered":"Purposes of Miracles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note<\/strong><strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">Why did God empower men in the first century to work miracles? One of the Biblical words for \u201cmiracle\u201d (<em>semeion<\/em>) provides a clue. This word connotes an act that is beyond natural explanation or human capability and is therefore a sign of Divine origin and\/or authority.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">The Bible indicates that God has employed miraculous powers (Himself or through agents) for at least four purposes:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To ESTABLISH and\/or CREATE. <\/strong>His creation of the universe and the laws governing it demonstrate this purpose (Gen. 1). The Mosaic Age began with awesome miracles (Exo. 19\u201320), as did the Christian Age (Acts 2). Unless God decides to create or establish something else, this purpose no longer exists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To REVEAL His Will. <\/strong>He thus empowered the Old Testament prophets. Jesus promised the apostles He would send to them the Holy Spirit, Who would reveal to them \u201call the truth\u201d (John 16: 13). Paul did not learn his message from men, but through \u201crevelation of Jesus Christ\u201d (1 Cor. 2:10\u2013 13; 11:23; 14:37; Gal. 1:11\u201312; et al.). By this means, by the end of the first century, the revelation was complete as we have it in our New Testaments (2 Pet. 1:3; Jude 3; Rev. 22:18\u201319). Since the revelation is complete, this purpose for miracles no longer exists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To CONFIRM His Will AT THE TIME He revealed It. <\/strong>Moses did not perform miracles at Pharaoh\u2019s court to confirm that Abraham, Jacob, or Joseph were God\u2019s messengers, but that Jehovah sent him (i.e., Moses) (Exo. 4:1\u20139; 7:1\u20139). Jesus\u2019 miracles did not confirm Moses as God\u2019s lawgiver, but Himself as God\u2019s Son (John 10:37\u201338). The Lord empowered the apostles and others in the first century to confirm by miracles and signs the words <strong>they spoke <\/strong>as the revelation of God (Mark 16:20; Heb. 2:3\u20134). The miraculous <strong>confirmation <\/strong>in every case was contemporary with the <strong>revelation <\/strong>it confirmed. Since the revelation is complete, so is the confirmatory purpose of miracles.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>To EDIFY the Church. <\/strong>The gift of prophecy specifically served this end (1 Cor. 14:1\u20135). Paul earlier wrote that this gift (and the other miraculous gifts) would be \u201cdone away&#8230; when that which is perfect is come\u201d (13:8\u201310). Inspired New Testament prophets were gradually revealing \u201call the truth\u201d (i.e., \u201cin part,\u201d v. 10). When it was all revealed and preserved in writing (the completed New Testament), the written Word thereafter provided all of the edification the church needs (Acts 20:32; 2 Tim. 3:16\u201317). This purpose of miraculous powers was fulfilled by the end of the first century.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it appeared in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, March 16, 2007].<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] Why did God empower men in the first century to work miracles? One of the Biblical words for \u201cmiracle\u201d (semeion) provides a clue. This word connotes an act that is&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8129\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Purposes of Miracles<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,84,130,193,115,173,83,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apostles","category-the","category-creation","category-god-2","category-god","category-law-of","category-law-of-moses","category-miracles","wpcat-67-id","wpcat-84-id","wpcat-130-id","wpcat-193-id","wpcat-115-id","wpcat-173-id","wpcat-83-id","wpcat-5-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8129"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17085,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8129\/revisions\/17085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}