From: Eric Vaughan (jevaughan@sauaca.saumag.edu)
Date: Mon Nov 06 1995 - 14:28:06 EST
"David Moore" <dvdmoore@dcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us> wrote:
> Eric Vaughan's contention that TO TELEION refers to the completion
>of the apostolic witness amounts to an extreme dispensational position.
>That charismatic and miraculous phenomena had the purpose of confirming
>the apostolic witness does not logically or necessarily mean that the
>charismatic and miraculous can have no other purpose in God's economy.
>"What purpose would miracles have today?" Eric asks. Well, for example,
>if your kid were in the hospital, sick, and the doctors say there's
>nothing more they can do for him, a miracle would be pretty useful,
>wouldn't it. Is it legitimate to limit God saying He may work
>miraculously in the apostolic age but not afterward?
This a very clever argument and such appeals to emotions and hypothetical
questions can be used to authorize many things that have no basis for
authority. I would just like to answer this one question. I'm sure we humans
could find countless number of "purposes" for miracles. But God has no purpose
for miracles. Miracles in the Bible were never in one instance used strictly
for someone's personal benefit. Jesus would rather have starved to death than
to turn that stone into bread (Matt 4:1-4, etc.). Fulfilling his physical
desires would've served God no function. As I said before, miracles were God's
witness that the one teaching was truly from God. Remember the story of the
man sick of the palsy who was let down through the roof? Jesus didn't heal him
at first. He just told him that his sins are forgiven, which He had all
authority to do. His opposition thought it outrageous that He felt He had the
authority to do so. Jesus rebuked them and healed the man. Why? Not because
he felt sorry for the man. But to show He had the authority from God to do
what He did and say what He said. That's the only use that God's ever had of
miracles. I agree that if my child were sick, that a miracle would be pretty
"useful" but I wouldn't expect God to perform a miracle. By the way, there is
a difference between God's miraculous healing and God's providencial hand in
matters (which I do believe), but that is perhaps a different subject.
I would like to say that I appreciate all the comments on this scripture, and
many of them I have found very informative and eye-opening.
Eric Vaughan
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