Many sincere people ask whether there are still individuals today who possess the same miraculous healing powers as the apostles. Television programs, healing crusades, and modern claims of miracle workers have convinced many that the miraculous gifts recorded in the New Testament continue unchanged today. The question, however, is not what people claim. The question is, what do the Scriptures teach?
The miracles performed by Jesus and His apostles were never meant to entertain crowds or build personal ministries. They had a specific purpose. They confirmed that God’s message and God’s messengers were genuine. Mark 16:20 says, “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” Likewise, Hebrews 2:3–4 teaches that salvation “was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.” The miracles were God’s divine testimony that the gospel being preached came from Him.
The apostles possessed a unique authority given directly by Christ. Jesus specifically chose them and empowered them to perform miracles. Even more significant, the apostles could pass miraculous spiritual gifts to others through the laying on of their hands. In Acts 8:14–19, Philip was performing miracles in Samaria, yet the new Christians did not receive miraculous spiritual gifts until Peter and John, who were apostles, came and laid hands on them. Simon the sorcerer recognized that these gifts were given through the apostles’ hands, and he even tried to buy that ability. Scripture never records anyone other than the apostles possessing the power to pass miraculous gifts to others.
This is an important point. People who received miraculous gifts were able to use those gifts, but they could not pass them on. Only the apostles could impart them. That means the miraculous gifts depended on the continued presence of living apostles. As the apostles died, no one remained who could give those gifts to the next generation. When those who had received the gifts also died, the miraculous gifts came to an end.
The apostle Paul also spoke of a time when miraculous gifts would cease. In 1 Corinthians 13:8–10, he wrote, “Whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away… But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.” Many Christians understand “that which is perfect” differently. Those who believe the miraculous gifts ended understand this to refer to the completion of God’s revealed message, after which the temporary miraculous gifts were no longer needed to confirm new revelation. Regardless of how one interprets that passage, the New Testament consistently presents miraculous gifts as signs connected to the apostolic age and the confirmation of the gospel message.
Does that mean God no longer heals? Absolutely not. God is still all-powerful. He still answers prayers. He still works through His providence, His mercy, medicine, doctors, and circumstances according to His will. James 5:13–16 instructs Christians to pray for the sick, and Scripture repeatedly encourages us to bring our needs before God. But praying for healing is not the same as claiming to possess the miraculous ability to heal anyone at will, as Jesus and the apostles did.
The healings performed by Jesus and the apostles were immediate, complete, undeniable, and public. The blind instantly saw. The lame immediately walked. Lepers were cleansed. The dead were raised. There were no failed attempts, no carefully selected audiences, and no need for emotional manipulation. Even the enemies of the apostles could not deny that genuine miracles had occurred (Acts 4:16). That is very different from many modern claims that cannot be verified in the same way.
The Bible points us back to Christ rather than to modern miracle workers. Our faith rests on the completed gospel revealed through Christ and His apostles, not on new signs or new revelations. God still has the power to heal anyone according to His will, and Christians should never stop praying for His mercy. But the miraculous healing powers given to the apostles served a unique purpose in establishing and confirming the gospel, and Scripture does not teach that those apostolic gifts continue to be passed from generation to generation after the apostles.
Key Scriptures: Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3–4; Acts 2:43; Acts 5:12; Acts 8:14–19; Acts 4:16; James 5:13–16; 1 Corinthians 13:8–10.