Are Things The Same Now As In The First Century?

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.