Miracles

Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. [Matthew 4.23]

Very similarly, Matthew later records a very similar statement:

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. [Matthew 9.35]

The Good News was, among other topics, a message of healing and deliverance as Jesus presented it. At whatever point it became less than that message was a dark turn for Christianity.

In all four Gospels, some form of Jesus' final words are recorded before His ascension to heaven following His crucifixion and resurrection:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28.18-20]

And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” [Mark 16.15-18]

It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ [Luke 24.47]

Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” [John 20-21-23]

The gist of these four Gospel accounts is that Jesus' followers are to replicate everything Jesus taught and did. Any attempt to "explain away" miracles from the believer's commission is apostacy. There, it needed to be said, and so it was.

Objective reading of the Gospels will always yield the conclusion that Jesus' followers are to look and act like Jesus in every way. It is the proud fabricated religion of man that comes up with the fallacy that miracles passed away. Jesus gave no reason for anyone to believe such error. It was only after His Ascension when the Church eventually gelled into a business that the flow of miracles miraculously subsided to the pitiful trickle we actually see today (which is, in reality, sadly nothing more than giving God credit for the work of an idol created by man: debt, insurance, medicine or technology).

I am sure it comforts a powerless person to believe miracles passed away, but that person must necessarily remain ignorant of what the Bible, and particularly what Jesus, teaches. Ironically, that is the prevailing condition of the Church today: gross ignorance of the Word because people are too lazy and/or too busy to look into the mirror of God's Word where they would see just how disheveled their present spiritual condition really is.

As long as people remain ignorant of the Bible, this condition will not improve.

Father, may I, for one, break free from the bondage of ignorance of Your Word showing others the Truth of it by Its effect on my life and the lives of those around me! God, You are the Creator of this universe and You are MY GOD. Your power has in no way subsided and I will not be satisfied to give any man or fabrication of man credit for genuine miracles that only You can do in spite of all man's efforts. May we stop lying to ourselves and the world proudly defending our powerlessness. May Your people return to faith in You and You alone and, may Your power be demonstrated mightily, as You have always willed it, in those who believe. So be it!