To Correspondents

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1871

To Correspondents.

J. McMILLAN: In answer to the objection raised by your friend, that the signs mentioned in Mark 16: 17, 18, are not manifested among professed believers, we would say that we do not suppose the power of God proposes to put itself on exhibition simply to satisfy the curiosity, or to arouse the wonder, of the beholder. The language cannot be taken to mean that all Christians would go about casting out devils, speaking in unknown tongues, handling serpents, drinking poison, and healing all the sick with whom they might come in contact. Suppose a person should not chance to meet with any one who was possessed of a devil. He could not then cast out a devil, and this sign would be lacking in his experience; but it would be nothing against his Christianity, because the opportunity, or the necessity, for such a manifestation did not present itself. And suppose the person lived in Ireland, where serpents are not found, and should not be compelled to drink, and should not by accident happen to drink any deadly thing; then the signs of resisting the venom of the reptile, and suffering no evil effects from the poisonous draught, would not occur in his experience: for, according to the principle already stated, it would not be considered either reasonable or scriptural for a person to seek danger in order to make an uncalled-for exhibition of deliverance therefrom.

What then shall we understand by the promise? Answer: That these signs should appear among believers in the gospel of Christ just as necessity should require. The person who first used the expression that “man's necessity is God's opportunity,” stated the case in a very concise form. And the necessities of God's cause, are opportunities in which he equally delights to work.

In this we are not taking the popular ground that the age of miracles is past, and that now no necessity can arise for such displays of God's power. We believe the whole gospel dispensation is a dispensation of the Spirit, as much so in one portion as another, and that God is just as ready to work now to meet the wants of his cause and his people as at any time in the past, the requisite degree of faith on their part being always understood; yet we believe that a person may be a Christian in the gospel sense through his whole life, and never witness in others or experience in himself, any of these special manifestations, if no occasion exists requiring their presence.

In accordance with this view we are able to show even from the meager records we have of the spiritual experience of true Christians in different ages in the gospel dispensation, that these signs have been manifested from time to time, sufficiently to show that, though the promise may not have been enjoyed to its fullest extent on account of a lack of faith and devotion, yet it has not failed. These signs have from time to time been seen in the church of God.

We see, then, that two conditions must exist before we can expect the manifestation of these signs: first, necessity; the wants of God's people, or the honor of his cause, requiring some manifestation of this kind; second, faith on the part of the people. But the condition of necessity must first exist; for no amount of faith would produce the sign of resisting the deadly potion if it had not been taken into the system, or of surviving the serpent bite if the person had not been bitten, or of healing the sick, if there were no sick present to be healed. Those, therefore, who object to the present work of truth in the earth because they do not see all the gospel signs now manifested, must be able to point to some occasion where such signs were demanded. They must show that a necessity existed, and how and where. If they cannot do this, their objection is of no force; and until they do it, we are not called upon to assume the lack of the other condition, namely, a want of faith.

Should a person say to a believer, “You must work some miracles to attest the truthfulness of your doctrines; if you will work a miracle, I will believe that the seventh day is the Sabbath;” it would be sufficient to reply, You believe that the Bible is the word of God, or if not, you have sufficient evidence to believe it; you believe that all the wonderful scenes recorded in the New Testament, showing the divine mission of Christ, actually transpired, and that of the truthfulness of the Christian religion there is no doubt. Now what we teach is simply what is enjoined in that inspired record; and it could not reasonably be required that God should work a miracle through us to prove the truthfulness of that which you already acknowledge to be his word, or that it is your duty to obey what you admit to be his command. Thus saith the Lord, “The seventh day is the Sabbath; remember it to keep it holy;” and no signs manifested in the church at the present day, could make that command plainer or more obligatory upon the world. We believe that God will give special manifestations of his power, as it shall please him; but whether we shall see them or not, does not affect our duty to obey the plain requirements of his word.