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HAVE MIRACLES CEASED?

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 31, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 13.

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HAVE MIRACLES CEASED?

By James White

This question of an inquirer is answered in the Examiner and Chronicle by William Hague, D. D. In this answer are the following words:—
“Miracles have ceased. It was divinely predicted that they should cease. In indoctrinating the Greek converts at Corinth, in whose view the faculty of speech in foreign tongues had come to be the chief exponent of the miracle-working power, Paul declared the endowment to be transient, not, like the interior graces wrought by the Spirit, abiding forever; and so, in marked contrast, he affirmed of the ‘tongues’ (1 Cor. 13:8), ‘they shall cease.’ They did cease. The endowment fulfilled its purpose and passed away.”
Even though the Doctor’s assertion were an undisputed fact, we dispute the right of even a D. D. to thus misconstrue and misapply the words of inspiration. We can easily understand the apostle’s words, quoted by Dr. Hague, if we take them in their connection. We read as follows:—
“Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Cor. 13:8-12.
According to this scripture these things shall cease or vanish away “when that which is perfect is come.” But when that perfect is come, then they who “prophesy in part,” and even with the gift of prophecy “see through a glass darkly,” shall see face to face, and know even as they are known. Has such a time come?
It is a truth plainly revealed in the Scriptures that “the saints shall judge the world.” But they are not now qualified for such an office, because they do not understand the motives and intentions of their fellow-men—they cannot discern “the thoughts and intents of the heart.” But by and by, “when this mortal shall put on immortality,” present impediments shall be removed; and in view of that, the apostle enjoins, “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come.” 1 Cor. 4:5. When the Lord comes, and the saints are “changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” then they who saw as through a glass and prophesied in part, will know as they are known, and “that which is in part” will no longer be needed. It “shall be done away.”
We insist that this is the plain meaning and intent of the apostle’s language; and, therefore, if these giftsof the Spirit have ceased, either in whole or in part, the reason must be found outside of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. J. H. W.