The miraculous element in revival (II)
A descriptive account has been given in the previous chapter of occurrences which seem to contain a miraculous element. Now the question arises as to what construction we should put on these occurrences. In other words, are we warranted to accept that there may be a miraculous element in revival?
As previously noted, those who have a ‘reformed’ understanding of revival have tended to view with suspicion allegedly miraculous phenomena. But there have been others who have taken a more positive approach. Both sides will be represented in turn in this chapter:-
The case against a miraculous element in revival
Luther, Calvin, and Whitefield
Martin Luther was one of many Protestants who, reacting strongly against Roman Catholic deceptions, left little room for genuine miracles. According to Morton Kelsey:-
Luther came to admit that no one raised the dead any more and that what passed for healing miracles seemed to him to be the Devil’s artifices and not miracles at all. The day of miracles is past, he concluded, and the real gift of the Holy Spirit is to enlighten Scripture, for ‘now that the apostles have preached the Word and have given their writings, and nothing more than what they have written remains to be revealed, no new and special revelation or miracles is necessary.’
M.T. Kelsey, Healing and Christianity, 22.
Luther, then, held that miracles were given at the commencement of the church in order to establish it and so that people could later perform the ‘greater works’ of teaching and preaching the gospel. Speaking to parents about the benefits of education for their sons, he says:-
Thus Paul says in Romans 8 that God will raise up our mortal bodies because of his Spirit which dwells in us. Now how are men helped to this faith and to this beginning of the resurrection of the body except through the office of preaching and the word of God, the office your son performs: Is this not an immeasurably greater and more glorious work and miracle than if he were in a bodily or temporal way to raise the dead again to life, or help the blind, deaf, dumb, and leprous here in the world, in this transitory life?
Luther, in Kelsey, Healing and Christianity, 221.
We might note in passing that when Luther speaks of the work of regeneration as a ‘miracle’ – a miracle greater than miracles affecting the body – he is using a way of speaking often employed by those today who wish to minimise or deny the miraculous element in the Christian life. It is true, of course, that regeneration is a ‘greater’ work than, say, restoration of sight or hearing. But Luther and his modern followers seem to be confusing the issue by failing to recognise that regeneration and miracles belong to different categories. Regeneration, although certainly a supernatural work of the Spirit, is not a miracle in the sense that Scripture uses terms such as ‘sign’, ‘wonder’, and ‘power’. Miracles occur in the physical realm, as tokens of God’s love and compassion, demonstrations of his power, as illustrations of his truth, and as signposts towards the spiritual truths of the gospel. Regeneration occurs in the spiritual realm, and although distinct from and superior to miracles, was aided by them in the apostolic times and could be aided by them in present times. But we are running ahead of ourselves…
John Calvin, in discussing miracles, spent much of his time attacking the often ridiculous and superstitious claims of the Catholic church. His own view was that genuine miracles ceased at an early stage:-
But that gift of healing, like the rest of the miracles, which the Lord willed to be brought forth for a time, has vanished away in order to make the new preaching of the gospel marvellous forever…The Lord is indeed present with his people in every age; and he heals their weaknesses as often as is necessary, no less than of old; still he does not put forth these manifest powers, nor dispenses miracles through the apostles’ hands. For that was a temporary gift, and also quickly perished partly on account of men’s ungratefulness.
Calvin, Institutes, 4.19.18f.
However, Calvin has not quite slammed the door shut: for his last sentence begs the question, ‘What if men were not so ungrateful?’ And, in response to popish jibes that Protestants could not perform miracles, Calvin cryptically remarks:-
Well, we are not entirely lacking in miracles, and these very certain and not subject to mockery.
Calvin, Institutes, I, 17.
Calvin also makes the important point that even Satan has miracles of a kind with which to deceive the unwary:-
We may fitly remember that Satan has his miracles, which, though they are deceitful tricks rather than true powers, are of such a sort as to mislead the simple-minded and untutored. Magicians and enchanters have always been noted for miracles. Idolatry has been nourished by wonderful miracles, yet these are not sufficient to sanction for us the superstition either of magicians or of idolaters.
Calvin, Institutes, I, 17.
The famous evangelist of the Great Awakening, George Whitefield, made it very clear that he made no claim to the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit:-
When accused by the Bishop of London of being a fanatic on the grounds that he believed in ‘extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit’, he replied, “I never did pretend to these extraordinary operations of working miracles, or speaking with tongues…I only lay claim to the ordinary gifts and influences of the Spirit.”
in Murray, Necessary Ingredients of a Biblical Revival, 26.
One of the terms which occurs regularly in the literature of revival is the word ‘enthusiasm’. This was used as a derogatory term, somewhat equivalent to ‘fanaticism’. Many observers and supporters of revival viewed any claims to supernatural gifts as nothing other than enthusiasm:-
During the various religious excitements over the Southern States…there was mingled with the good influence by which sinners were converted and reformed, no small degree of enthusiasm, which led people to seek and expect extraordinary revelations, which were supposed to be granted in dreams or visions. Indeed, at one time, the leaders in a very general excitement which occurred in Virginia…were impressed with the idea that they possessed precisely the same gifts and powers which had been bestowed upon the apostles; and this enthusiastic idea would have spread widely if they had not failed, in some private attempts, to work miracles.
Alexander, Thoughts on religious experience, 79.
Jonathan Edwards
But we return to Jonathan Edwards for a more more detailed critique of these phenomena, as they occurred (or were claimed to have occurred) in a context of revival. Edwards gives a classic statement on ‘the cessation of the charismata’:-
The first hundred years of the Christian era, or the first century, was the era or miracles. But soon after that, the canon of Scripture being completed when the apostle John had written the book of Revelation…, these miraculous gifts were no longer continued in the church. For there was now completed an established written record of the mind and will of God, wherein God had fully recorded a standing and all-sufficient rule for his church in all ages. And the Jewish church and nation being overthrown, and the Christian church and the last dispensation of the church of God being established, the miraculous gifts of the Spirit were no longer needed, and therefore they ceased.
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 312.
In the same work Edwards gives the following historical overview of the manifestation of spiritual gifts:-
They were continued in the church, or at least were granted from time to time, though not without some considerable intermissions, from the beginning of the world until the canon of the Scriptures was completed. They were bestowed on the church before the beginning of the sacred canon…People had the word of God then in another way, viz. by immediate revelation from time to time given to eminent persons, who were, as it were, fathers in the church of God, and this revelation handed down from them to others by oral tradition. It was a very common thing then, for the Spirit of God to communicate himself in dreams and visions, as appears by several passages in the book of Job. They had extraordinary gifts of the Spirit before the flood. God immediately and miraculously revealed himself to Adam and Eve, and so to Abel, and to Enoch, who, we are informed (Jude 14), had the gift of prophecy. And so Noah had immediate revelations made to him and he warned the old world from God;…and so Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were favoured with immediate revelations; and Joseph and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, and so had Job and his friends. From this time, there seems to have been an intermission of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit until the time of Moses; and from his time they were continued in a succession of prophets, that was kep up, though not again without some interruptions, till the time of Malachi. After that, there seems to have been a long intermission of several hundred years, till the dawn of the gospel day, when the Spirit began again to be given in his extraordinary gifts, as to Anna, and Simeon, and Zacharias, and Elizabeth, and Mary, and Joseph, and John the Baptist.
These communications of the Spirit were given to make way for him who hath the Spirit without measure, the great prophet of God, by whom the Spirit is communicated to all other prophets. And in the days of his flesh, his disciples had a measure of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit…But after the resurrection and ascension, was the most full and remarkable effusion of the Spirit that ever took place, beginning with the day of Pentecost…And in consequence of this, not only here and there an extraordinary person was endowed with these extraordinary gifts, but they were common in the church, and so continued during the lifetime of the apostles, or till the death of the last of them, even the apostle John.
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 310ff.
Again, he offers a reason why the extraordinary gifts have ceased:-
[They were] bestowed for a season for the introduction and establishment of Christianity in the world, and when this their end was gained, they were all to fail and cease.
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 306.
The notion of ‘restorationism’ – the idea that New Testament gifts and offices had fallen into disuse in the post-apostolic age but are now being restored to the church – was in fact quite prevalent during the Great Awakening, as the writings of Jonathan Edwards testify. Edwards records an instance of a Christian man “led away with a strange enthusiastic delusion”:-
He gave me a particular account of the manner how he was deluded…He exceedingly rejoiced, and was elevated with the extraordinary work carried on in this part of the country; and was possessed with an opinion, that it was the beginning of the glorious times of the church spoken of in Scripture. He had read it as the opinion of some divines, that many in these times should be endued with extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, and had embraced the notion, though he had at first no apprehension that any besides ministers would have such gifts. But he since exceedingly laments the dishonour he has done to God, and the wound he has given religion in it.
Edwards, Works, I, 363f.
Elswhere, Edwards shows that he is well aware of a ‘restorationist’ position, but rejects it:-
If saving grace is more excellent than the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, then we cannot conclude, from what the Scripture says of the glory of the latter times of the Church, that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit will be granted to men in those time. Many have been ready to think that in those glorious times of the Church which shall be after the calling of the Jews and the destruction of Antichrist, there will be many persons that will be inspired, and endued with a power of working miracles. But what the Scripture says concerning the glory of those times does not prove any such thing, or make it probable.
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 45f.
He is at pains to show why spiritual graces are superior to extraordinary gifts: modern advocates of ‘signs and wonders’ could learn much from Edwards at this point:-
The grace of God in the heart is a gift of the Holy Ghost peculiar to the saints: it is a blessing that God reserves for those who are the objects of his special and peculiar love. But the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are what God sometimes bestows on those whom he does not love, but hates; which is a sure sign that the one is infinitely more precious and excellent than the other.
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 38.
The relatively inferior nature of extraordinary gifts is shown by the fact that they can occasionally be exercised, not only by unspiritual believers, but even unbelievers:-
Though God most commonly has chosen saints, and eminent saints, to bestow extraordinary gifts of the Spirit upon, yet he has not always done so; but these gifts are sometimes bestowed on others…Balaam is stigmatised in Scripture as a wicked man (II Pet 2:15; Jude 11; Rev 2:14), and yet he had the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit of God for a while. Saul was a wicked man, but we read, once and again, of his being among the prophets. Judas was one of those whom Christ sent forth to preach and work miracles: he was one of those twelve disciples of whom it is sain, in Mt 10:1, “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease.”
Edwards, Charity and its fruits, 37f.
No, says Edwards, these gifts are not to be looked for or even desired by modern-day Christians:-
I do not expect a restoration of these miraculous gifts in the approaching glorious times of the church, nor do I desire it. It appears to me, that it would add nothing to the glory of these times, but rather diminish it. For my part, I had rather enjoy the sweet influences of the Spirit, showing Christ’s spiritual divine beauty, infinite grace, and dying love, drawing forth the holy exercises of faith, divine love, sweet complacence, and humble joy in God, one quarter of an hour, than to have prophetical visions and revelations the whole year. It appears to me much more probable that God should give immediate revelations to his saints in the dark times of prophecy, than now in the approach of the most glorious and perfect state of his church on earth. It does not appear to me that there is any need of those extraordinary gifts to introduce this happy state, and set up the kingdom of God through the world; I have seen so much of the power of God in a more excellent way, as to convince me that God can easily do without it.
Edwards, Works, II, 275.
We can be grateful to Edwards for spelling out his case in considerable detail, for many other writers on revival have assumed without argument that miracles no longer occur. For example, in a generally excellent book on the 1859 revival in Ulster, the author, when he comes to discuss the ‘extraordinary phenomena’ associated with the awakening, simply states:-
Some may seek to arrest inquiry by the assertion of miraculous intervention; but such a course is alien to the genius of Protestant Christianity.
Gibson, The Year of Grace, 229.
C.H. Spurgeon roundly dismissed claims to latter-day visions and miracles:-
Visions and such things belong to the infancy of the church. Nobody thinks of putting a post to support an apple tree which has been there for the last fifty years…When a ship leaves the docks and passes down the river, you will see it towed out till it reaches the sea. But that same vessel will soon spread all her sails, and with a heavenly breeze to bear her along, she will need no tug to tow her to the desired haven. The church of God today is a tree that needs no support of miracle or vision, a vessel that has braved two thousand years the battle and the breeze, and will still, till Christ comes, outride every storm. You have the Word of God, which is better than visions.
Carter, Spurgeon at his best, 177.
Perhaps the most famous refutation of modern miracles is B.B. Warfield’s. His assertion is that:-
the miraculous gifts in the New Testament were the credentials of the Apostle, and were confined to those to whom the Apostles had conveyed them.
Warfield, Counterfiet Miracles, 193f.
But we have allowed Edwards, rather than Warfield, to speak more fully against contemporary miracles for two reasons: first, because Edwards was writing from a first-hand experience of revival; and second, because Warfield focussed much of his critique on groups such as the Irvingites, whose orthodoxy was questionable, and the so-called ‘Christian Scientists’, who were (and are) certainly non-orthodox.
The case for a miraculous element in revival
John Owen
Some others who, like Edwards, have observed revivals at first hand have been less inclined to follow through quite such a negative position. There are some who seem prepared at least to keep an open mind on the question of miraculous phenomena. The great Puritan John Owen, for instance, declined to shut out altogether the possibility of latter-day miracles:-
It is not unlikely but that God might on some occasions…put forth his power in some miraculous operations; and so he yet may do, and perhaps doth sometimes.
Owen, Works, IV, 475.
David Brainerd
David Brainerd, godly missionary to the North American Indians (and son-in-law of Jonathan Edwards) found himself having to take a cautiously open-minded approach to this question:-
He writes of an old Indian woman, who ‘felt as if she dreamed, and yet is confident that she did not dream.’ Brainerd comments, ‘As I was sensible that trances and imaginary views of things are of things are of dangerous tendency in religion, when sought after and depended upon; so I could not but be much concerned about this exercise, especially at first, fearing this might be a design of Satan to bring a blemish upon the work of God here, by introducing visionary scenes, imaginary terrors, and all manner of mental disorders and delusions, in the room of genuine convictions of sin, and the enlightening influences of the blessed Spirit…However, I determined first to enquire into her knowledge, to see whether she had any just views of things, which might occasion her present distressing concern, or whether it was a mere fright arising only from imaginary terrors. I asked her diverse questions…which she answered rationally, and to my surprise. And I thought it next to impossible, that a Pagan, who was become a child through age, should in that state gain so much knowledge by any mere human instruction, without being remarkably enlightened from above…How far God may make use of the imagination in awakening some persons, I cannot pretend to determine: or whether this exercises be from a divine influence, I shall leave others to judge. This I must say, that its effects hitherto bespeak it to be such.
in Gillies, Historical collections, 478f.
I have no desire to drive any wedge between Edwards and Brainerd, but it does seem that the young missionary is being driven by what he observed to allow something nearer to a miraculous element (although he would not have used the term!) than the great theologian.
John Wesley
Wesley could discover no reason at all why God should not bestow miracles as and when he wishes:-
I do not know that God hath in any way precluded himself from thus exerting his sovereign power from working miracles in any kind or degree in any age to the end of the world. I do not recall any scripture wherein we are taught that miracles were to be confined within the limits of the apostolic or the Cyprianic age, or of any period of time, longer or shorter, even till the restitution of all things.
Wesley, (source unknown)
John Kennedy
When Kennedy wrote his book, The days of the fathers in Ross-shire (1861), he was conscious of the opinion which some would form:-
I expected that many would count me credulous and some call me superstitious and a few denounce me as fanatical, because of some anecdotes I gave, to prove how near to God were the godly of former days.
Kennedy, The days of the fathers in Ross-shire, 13
These anecdotes included instances when God vouchsafed to believers intimations of his will. Kennedy quotes favourably from Christopher Love:-
They are little acquainted with the ways of God, who imagine God has ceased to give His people assurance as to future events. God has not bound Himself in this manner; and there have been many things intimated to, and known by the most eminent saints, before such things came to pass.
in Kennedy, The days of the fathers in Ross-shire, 209.
Kennedy himself continues as follows:-
It is not difficult to find the reason why those, who are themselves strangers to communion with God, are so ready to denounce as superstitious all faith in the reality of information from heaven, besides that which is given in the direct teachings if Scripture…”It is pretending to know,” they say, “what is not revealed in Scripture.” This sounds well. It seems, at first sight, due to the Word of God, as the only complete revelation of His will, that we should at once regard as false all information regarding the mind of God not derived from the plain import of Scripture. They have never gone beneath the surface in their thinking on this matter, who have not discovered the extremeness of this view. But, backed by this false assumption, some will quote, with an air of triumph, the pretensions to inspiration, the claims of the gift of prophecy, the faith in dreams and visions, of those whom all acknowledge to have been deceivers and deceived. To minds that have always kept far off from the realities of a life of godliness, that look from a distance on the communion of His people with the Lord, the difference between the baseless pretensions of deceivers and the God-given privilege of the righteous is utterly impalpable. All kinds of intercourse with the Invisible are classed by these together, and to them all who claim the privilege of communion with the Lord appear as deluded fanatics. More triumphant still is their air, when they can quote, in support of their position, the mistakes of those who were truly godly. but, surely, it is not difficult to discover a very good reason why the Lord should allow even these to be sometimes deceived in their anticipations, and in their readings of the page of Providence. Such mistakes only prove that they are always prone to error, when the correctness of their information specially depends upon their own spirituality. They need to learn this, and their falls will teach them.
Kennedy, The days of the fathers in Ross-shire, 211f.
Kennedy would not call these ‘special intimations of the mind of God’ by the name of prophecy. But some modern writers do, especially those whose perspective is Pentecostal or ‘charismatic’. Of these, Arthur Wallis strikes me as being particularly helpful. He speaks to those who fear latter-day prophecy because it seems to undermine belief in the authority and sufficiency of Scripture:-
Some are afraid to accept the validity of prophetic utterance today because, in their view, that would be to put such utterance on a par with inspired Scripture – to add in fact to the Word of God. This is based on a misunderstanding. The canon of Holy Scripture is of course complete; by it every other utterance must be judged. But this does not mean that all inspired utterance has now come to an end. What about the discourses of Jesus that Scripture has not recorded? Were they any less inspired by the Holy Spirit because God did not see fit to enshrine them in Holy Writ? When the Spirit came down upon the twelve disciples at Ephesus the ‘prophesied’. Philip the evangelist had four daughters who ‘prophesied’. There were many others in the churches who also prophesied. Though their utterances have not been recorded in Scripture they were none the less inspired by the Spirit. Only a very small proportion of what the Spirit has inspired was needed for the written record of God’s revealed truth. The rest was simply for immediate use and application.
Wallis, Rain from heaven, 69f.
Wallis was one of the most eirenic and balanced writers on revival to emerge from the ‘charismatic renewal’ wing, although we might not want to go as far as he does, for example in his use of the term ‘inspiration’ as applied to latter-day prophecy. But the point is well taken: has not God actually promised to accompany spiritual renewal with signs and wonders? And should we not leave him this prerogative?
If a God-sent revival is characterised by elements altogether new to our experience, and which we cannot understand, if there are dreams and visions, revelations and trances, prophesyings and healings, tremblings and prostrations, let us remember that God said, ‘Signs and wonders’ would accompany the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:17-19) and that it has always been so.
Wallis, In the Day of Thy Power, 74.
D.M. Lloyd-Jones
A recent author has noted that:-
Unlike many who were known as ‘Reformed’ ministers, Lloyd-Jones firmly believed in the possible continuation in the church of gifts of the Spirit.
Eaton, Baptism with the Spirit, 186.
The same writer goes on to summarise Lloyd-Jones’ teaching on this subject. Although he held that impressive phenomena could be caused by agencies other than the Holy Spirit (including human and demonic agencies), he accepted that miracles and gifts had occurred at certain times throughout the history of the church:-
He accepted the claim to the miraculous that had been reported in the Indonesian revival. He would cite approvingly the miracles reported in connection with the ministry of the Chinese Christian known as Paster Hsi. He recommended and wrote a foreword to H.W. Frost’s book Miraculous Healing, in which several incidents of miraculous healing are related. He accepted as authentic the accounts of a resurrection from the dead in the ministry of John Welsh, the son-in-law of John Knox, and he accepted the stories of accurate predictions made by the Scottish covenanter, Alexander Peden.
Eaton, Baptism with the Spirit, 187.
It is true that Lloyd-Jones also warned of credulity in this matter, and regarded as central the sovereignty of the Spirit, who apportions gifts ‘as he wills’ (I Cor 12:11. He held that a mighty outpouring of the Spirit could occur with nothing by way of miracles, or some of the other gifts. But still he held firmly to his conviction that miracles have occured, and can occur. Indeed, he makes a passionate plea for modern Christians to regain a belief in contemporary miracles:-
Do we who claim to believe in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ still believe in miracles?…Do we belive in God coming in and doing things that we not only cannot do, but cannot even understand? Yea, I ask you, do you long to know such things? To see such things happening again today? Are you praying for such a visitation? For believe me, when God hears our prayers and does this thing again, it will be such a phenomenon that not only will the church be astounded and amazed, but even those who are outside will be compelled to listen and to pay attention, in a way that they are not doing at the present time, and in a way that men left to themselves can never persuade them to do.
Lloyd-Jones, Revival, 117.
Richard Lovelace
Let’s look in a little more detail at another recent author, Richard Lovelace, who also writes from a reformed perspective. He evaluates Edwards’ case against modern miracles and judges it to be inadequate:-
Despite all these warnings, however, and beyond all that Edwards says to guard against subjectivism, it is my judgement that is is neither prudent nor biblical to rule out contemporary manifestations of the communication of the Holy Spirit in guidance and in prophetic gifts. Limiting these phenomena to the apostolic age solves some practical problems in the church, but it creates many others. It has an extremely speculative theoretical base which seems to have been derived not from the plain sense of Scripture but from the Reformers’ necessity to fight a two-front war against papists and enthusiasts. The Reformers’ stress on objectivity has often degenerated into a positive neglect of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and of dependence on him. This in turn has only led to enthusiastic overreactions.
Lovelace, Dynamics of spiritual life, 269.
Let us reject convenience and expediency, says Lovelace, and recognise both what the New Testament does say and also what it does not say about the spiritual gifts:-
It would be theologically and practically convenient for the church not to have to make room for current manifestations…but the plain import of the New Testament gives no hint that they are limited to the first century…There is a vigorous faith in the supernatural operation of God in many Charismatic circles which the rest of the church should emulate.
Lovelace, Dynamics of spiritual life, 126.
This is not to accept all claims to spiritual gifts uncritically: this would be to fall into the ‘enthusiasm’ which Edwards and others were so concerned to avoid:-
Paul’s injunction to test these phenomena must be strictly heeded along with his other cautions on the control of the gifts given in I Cor 12-14. Demonic counterfeits of many of these manifestations are common in occult circles, and it is not uncommon for Christians to be infected with false charisms if there is an attempt to manufacture a gift in the flesh or a seeking of gifts from wrong reasons. Eager and uncritical seeking after wonders to believe is a work of the flesh, not a grace of the Spirit. Superstition was common in pre-Reformation Christianity as any readers of the lives and legends of the saints know. Now that it has been chased out of the church it should not be brought back under the guise of faith and piety. Parts of the Pentecostal testimony are a jungle of superstition today, although discerning critics in Charismatic circles have carefully sought to correct this situation. It is extremely harzardous to give prophetic utterances and interpretations canonical authority. And substantial dependence on these can easily lead to a neglect of the whole counsel of God already given to us and a failure in following the Holy Spirit’s ordinary leading through the illumination of biblical knowledge.
Lovelace, Dynamics of spiritual life, 126f.
Perhaps it is possible to explain why earlier generations of evangelicals tended to be so resistant to the spiritual gifts:-
Reaction against abuses connected with “extraordinary operations of the Holy Spirit” – that is, the gifts present in the New Testament church, particularly miraculous healings and prophecy – has been a persistent factor in dampening interest in the Holy Spirit among serious theological minds during the church’s history. The Reformers, harassed on the one side by Romanists who claimed that the miracles of the saints guaranteed the truth of their doctrine and on the other side by disruptive enthusiasts who claimed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, adopted as a theological convenience the notion that extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were attestations of new revelation and therefore limited to the final period of revelation, the New Testament era. The Puritans and the leaders of the First and Second Awakenings continued to discourage any emphasis on extraordinary gifts.
Lovelace, Dynamics of spiritual life, 121.
Do We Need Extraordinary Gifts?
One further plea of many who discountenance miraculous gifts today is that even if they were possible, they would be unimportant. ‘Miracles might occur today’, it is often conceded, ‘but only very rarely; they are not to be looked for or expected; they are of minimal importance; the whole subject of miracles does more harm than good.’ But over against this minimalist position, others have argued persuasively that the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit are very much needed in our own time:-
As the century draws to its close, the church would seem to need the benefits of spiritual gifts more than ever before. For at a time when Christians of all traditions realize deeply the imperfections of the church, Christ has given gifts ‘for the perfecting of the saints’ (Eph 4:12, AV). At a time when the continued existence of the Christian ministry is at stake, with panic, uncertainty and surrender on every hand, there are gifts ‘for the work of ministry’ (Eph 4:12). At a time when Christians are ashamed at their divisions but embarrassed by misdirected efforts to heal them, gifts are available ‘until we all attain to the unity of the faith’ (Eph 4:13). At a time when heresy and half-truth and doctrines of men bewilder Christians, God has given his gifts, ‘so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.’ (Eph 4:14f).
Bridge & Phypers, Spiritual gifts and the church, 30f.
Conclusion
The Church of Christ has always had to guard against two extremes – the extreme of undue caution and suspicion on the one hand and the extreme of unbridled and uninformed credulity on the other. While we will do well to learn from the errors of deluded and while we must note the cautions of Edwards and others in this matter, we really should ask some searching questions: first, Do the Scriptures allow room for us to believe in the possibility of contemporary miracles? second, Has there been, as a matter of fact, a miraculous element in some of the revival movements which have occurred in the past? and third, Is it right to accept the possibility of miracles in our own day? In each case, the evidence seems to pointing towards the answer ‘yes’.