Matt 13:58

“And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith” (NIV).

It is often claimed that miracles such as speaking in tongues are lacking today in some quarters because people lack faith in the power of God. The scripture above is cited to support this point. I concede that my lack of faith likely inhibits many things in my life, most especially my own spiritual growth, but I have some questions about the notion that my lack of faith somehow inhibits God doing miracles.

First, the comment made in Mark 13:58 is about Jesus not performing miracles in his home town. If I understand the “Pro Charismatic Gift’ argument, Jesus was unable to perform a miracle in Nazareth because the people had no faith. This would mean that the power of God at work in Jesus is actually under the control of the people around him. As long as people did not have faith, he would not be able to perform any miracles. Could it be that God is incapable of performing miracles unless humans believe that he can do it?

The next obvious conclusion is that all of Jesus’ miracles occurred because the people he performed them on or for had faith. However, when we look at the Bible this is simply not the case. I list for you here some examples.

Lk. 4:31-37 – Jesus casts a demon out of a man. The man exhibits no faith and the crowds are amazed.

Lk. 5:1-11 - Jesus helps Simon catch a load of fish though Simon does not believe that anything will happen.

Jn 11 – Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead though no one except Jesus seems to believe that this will happen.

Lk. 8:22-25 – Jesus calms the storm though the disciples clearly do not believe that he can do such.

As previously noted, miracles were often performed for the very purpose of promoting faith. Note this statement in the gospel of John about Jesus turning the water to wine. “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him (Jn. 2:11 - NIV). Or this comment in the book of Acts. “After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive” (Acts 1:3 - NIV).

It seems clear then that neither God nor His son are limited in performing miracles by our lack of faith and that many times miracles were performed to promote faith in God’s work. What then, could Mark have meant about Jesus not being able to perform many miracles there? First we should note that he did not say that Jesus did not do ANY miracles, only that he could not perform MANY miracles.

Second, it seems more likely that what Mark meant is that Jesus DID not perform many miracles there because they would have been useless in promoting faith in the people of his home town. They had already decided that he was just the carpenter’s son and nothing special, therefore they would not be compelled by any miracles. While they may have recognized his power, they might have, like the religious leaders earlier in Mark (3:22), claimed they came from Beelzebub. In fact, it may be that the earlier incident actually happened in Nazareth given the fact that his mother and brothers were present (Mk. 3:31).

It is true that we can grieve or resist the Spirit (Eph. 4:30; Acts 7:51). This would seem to suggest that we have some power over the work of God in our lives. But this is in direct proportion to our free will. Throughout the Bible people are given a choice about following God and allowing the Spirit to work in maturing in faith. But this is wholly different from my faith keeping Jesus from healing me.

Do miraculous activities of the Spirit still happen in the church today as they did in the first century? Those from the charismatic movement answer “Yes”. “The Holy Spirit”, they say, “Is moving in the church in the same way as he did in the first century”. Is this true? Is there any biblical basis for this claim?

I have already noted that I see no biblical evidence to support the notion that speaking in tongues was strictly limited to the apostolic age. However, neither do I see any evidence that such manifestations were intended to continue indefinitely. Nowhere in scripture is this claim made. One might respond that Jesus said things like “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mk. 16:17-18 – NIV). Since Jesus did not mention that they would cease, the argument goes, we should expect them to continue.

It is interesting to notice the term used for all of the manifestations of God’s Spirit. They are often called “Signs”. They are called signs because they are intended to point to something else. God made a practice of using them. When he sent Moses back to Egypt he gave him three signs (Ex. 4:1-9). These signs were for one purpose: to confirm that God was with Moses. “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers–the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob–has appeared to you” (Ex 4:5 – NIV).

Should we assume that such signs would appear indefinitely for the people of Israel? While we read of miraculous events continuing in the Old Testament, they are not always as widespread as in the days of Moses and there are times in which no such things seem to occur at all. And yet there is no mention in the Old Testament of these things ceasing. Therefore we cannot assume that simply because it is not said that these things would cease that we should assume that they would continue.

In the same way we cannot assume that these manifestations seen in the New Testament would necessarily continue. Remember, they are called signs. Just as God confirmed Moses’ message with signs, so he confirmed the work of Jesus and the apostles with signs (Acts 2:22; 14:3). But there is no indication that God would continue to do so perpetually after Jesus any more than there was any indication that such would occur perpetually after Moses.

While there are some stories of miraculous events in church history, they are hardly on the scale that we are hearing about in the modern charismatic movement. Nor do we see the same things happening today that happened in the early church. If the Holy Spirit in operative in the exact same way today as in the first century, then we should see more than speaking in tongues. We should see people being raised from the dead the way that both Peter and Paul raised the dead.

There are constantly stories circulating about such things happening in far off places like Africa, but we have to wonder why those things do not happen in America? Some suggest that it is because of a lack of faith. But how is it that these churches seem to have enough faith to prompt a manifestation of the Spirit like speaking in tongues but when faith is needed to raise the dead it seems to be missing? Could it be that speaking in tongues can be imitated WITHOUT the Holy Spirit while raising the dead cannot?

Are those of us who don’t speak in tongues simply lacking in faith? We’ll explore this topic next.