Are the days of Miracles Past ?
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This is a vital question that needs to be answered. The general thinking is that healing passed away with the apostles, confining miracles to the biblical days. Many argue that God does not work through miracles in modern times. This is a teaching that is prevalent in Churches in many parts of the world. But such teaching and arguments are a presumptuous interpretation, completely opposed to the Word of God and personal testimonies in the past and in the present days. Those who fiercely oppose divine healing are a real mystery to those filled with the love and compassion of Jesus. It looks like antagonists of divine healing would fight for the right to receive sickness, remain sick and die in sickness! Teachers from such circles invariably interpret scriptures according to their experiences. They resist teaching on healing to such a degree that they prefer to see their students or their listeners and hearers remain sick, and even die. Systematically and deliberately, they prefer sickness to healing. Of course from another side of their mouth, they would talk about God’s Sovereignty and Omnipotence. The Bible clearly warns that no Scripture is of any private interpretation (2 Peter 1:20). No matter what our experiences, we must work on bringing them around to conform to the life of Jesus and the Scriptures, and refrain from limiting the Holy One of Israel. If miracles are indeed past, then a new birth is not possible. The greatest miracle is the new birth. When a person is born again into the Kingdom of God, a miracle takes place in the person’s spirit. In Salvation, the power to cause the new birth penetrates the body and the soul, and recreates the spirit. This is the greatest miracle of them all. If miracles were over, no one can be saved. If that power of the rebirth of the spirit is available today, how much easier it is for that same power of God, to do miracles in the outer layers? The Bible records God's miraculous acts through its entire length and breadth, spanning over 4000 years. God's miracles can be seen All the above are not natural occurrences but supernatural acts that defy the laws of nature. The Judgements of God foretold in the Book of Revelations, are miracles that cannot be explained by physical processes. Hence, the Bible not only records God's past miracles, but also foretells future miracles. How then could we possibly discount miracles in the present day? Moreover, there is an abundance of documented and undocumented testimonies to miraculous healing. Nita Edwards testifies about God's gracious and powerful healing in her book 'Miracle in the Mirror', 'Beyond the Veil' by Esther Gulhsan tells of another powerful present-day miracle. We can produce doctors who will testify to Divine Healing in their own bodies and in many cases of their patients. (Please see the Testimonies sections). God fearing doctors, whether Christian or pagan, will acknowledge God’s miraculous working and intervention in assisting them. It is amazing to observe that in so called pagan nations, miracles in the name of Jesus, both small and great, occur more freely than in other parts of the world. Church History and Miracles To those who would like to know something from Church History concerning the continued healing ministry of Jesus, please read on. Justin Martyr (165 AD), one of the great Church leaders and scholars of his day says, "For numberless demoniacs throughout the whole world and in your city, many of our Christian men, exorcising them in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, have healed and do heal rendering helpless and driving the possessing devils out of the men, though they could not be cured by all the other exorcists, and those who used incantations and drugs" (Apol. II, Chapter 6) Then this Apostolic, miracle-working power was in the church down to 165 AD Irenaeus (200 AD) says, "Those who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform miracles; and they do truly cast out devils. Others still heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years. " (Vs.Hermetics, Book I, Chapter 32.) Then down to 200 AD this same Apostolic, miracle working power was in the Church Origen (250 AD) says: "And some give evidence of their having received through their faith a marvelous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things, and of Jesus, along with a mention of His history. For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from distractions of mind and madness, and countless other ills, which could be cured neither by men or devils" (Contra Celsum Book III, Chapter 24). And down to 250 A.D., Clement (275 A.D.) says: "Let them (young ministers), therefore with fasting and prayer, make their intercessions, and not with the well arranged, and fitly ordered words of learning, but as men who have received the gift of healing confidently, to the glory of God" (Epis. C. XII). Dr. Waterland (Creation and Redemption, page 50) says: "The miraculous gifts continued through the third century, at least." Then he tells how, under Constantine, the Church became flooded with worldliness and began to put its trust in earthly rulers more than in God. But even then those who remained true to God saw miracles performed in His Name. Theodore of Mopsueste (429 A.D.) says: "Many heathen amongst us are being healed by Christians from whatever sickness they have, so abundant are miracles in our midst" (Christlieb - Modern Doubt, page 321 ): Rev. A. Bost (History of United Brethren, page 17) quotes the famous Zinzendorf's words, spoken in 1730: "To believe against hope is the root of the gift of miracles; and I owe this testimony to our beloved church, that Apostolic powers are there manifested. We have had undeniable proofs thereof in the unequivocal discovery of things, persons, and circumstances, which could not humanly have been discovered, in the healing of maladies in themselves incurable, such as cancers, consumptions, when the patient was in the agonies of death, all by means of prayer, or of a single word." Dr. A. J. Gordon (Ministry o f Healing, page 65 - a book every saint should read) quotes from the Confession of the Waldenses as follows: "Therefore, concerning the anointing of the sick, we hold it as an article of faith, and profess sincerely from the heart, that sick persons, when they ask it, may lawfully be anointed with anointing oil by one who joins with them in praying that it may be efficacious to the healing of the body according to the design and end and effect mentioned by the Apostles, and we profess that such an anointing, performed according to the Apostolic design and practice, will be healing and profitable." No wonder Dr. Gordon says (Ministry of Healing, page 43), "Two streams of blessings started from the personal ministry of our Lord, a stream of healing and a stream of regeneration; the one for the recovery of the body, and the other for the recovery of the soul, and these two flowed on side by side through the Apostolic age. Is it quite reasonable to suppose that the purpose of God was that one should run on through the whole dispensation of the Spirit, and that the other should fade away and utterly disappear within a single generation? We think not." Conclusion In the light of so much evidence, it is only too clear that God's miraculous healing power is available today and now. Let me close this section with this challenge. Can a professing Christian, if literally confronted by Jesus Christ today, look our Lord in the eye, and confess that the days of miracles are over? 
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