A Mississippi brother suggests that divine miracles such as those found in the Book of Acts occurred until the Apostles and their immediate converts died, then ceased forever. As evidence, he cites Acts 1:8, Mark 16:20 and Hebrews 2:4.
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The specific promise in Acts 1:8 of forthcoming “power” is addressed to the Eleven Apostles. In this verse, Jesus directly relates that power to the coming of the Spirit, an event which the very next chapter of Acts records. However, divine witnessing power is not limited to the Apostles, as Acts 4:31 makes plain with its report not only that the whole church experienced a house-shaking visitation of God, but also by its express statement that all the gathered believers were filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak the word of God with boldness.
The Greek word translated “miracles,” you might remember, signifies acts of power. “Signs” may refer to the same occurrences, with emphasis on the divine significance of the event. I know of absolutely nothing in the Bible which suggests that God has stopped doing powerful acts (“miracles”) which carry spiritual significance to those who perceive them rightly (“signs”).
Clearly Acts 2, Mark 16:20 and Hebrews 2:4 affirm that God worked powerfully through the Apostles. However, they do not limit God’s powerful (“miracle-“) working to them. Nor do these passages say that God stopped exercising his “sign-ificant” power when the Apostles had all died. Church history is replete with such occurrences until the period of the secularization, institutionalization and sacramentalization of the Church in the fifth century. Credible reports of such mighty acts of God (“miracles” and “signs”) abound today, for those who have not decided beforehand that such do not exist.