What Has God Been Doing Since Acts 28 or the end of the Bible?
Miracles and Miraculous Gifts - The Search Begins for What Happened After the Bible Ended
Growing up looking at Jesus and Bible stories in stained glassed windows I had the sense that God had done a lot of amazing things a long time ago…but what has he done since Bible times or has he been silent or absent? Was the God of the Bible like the Rolling Stones, with all the hit songs from many years ago, or has he been active in all of human history? Was the point of this life to merely learn facts from the Bible and wait for Jesus to return or ourselves to die to have a real meaningful relationship with Him?
When Jesus ascended to heaven as recorded by Matthew 28 and Acts 1 he made promises to “be with us till the end of the age”, but where was He actually and what has He been up to? Was He still doing miracles? Was anyone friends with God now like they were with Moses in the Old Testament or John the Beloved in the New Testament?
When I was searching for answers at first none of the answers were satisfying to me. I found a few videos of miracles happening but the first footage I saw didn’t convince me. Was it real or faked? Then there were passages of the Bible that I had no context for in my church experience. I had never seen a demon cast out of anyone. I had seen pastors pray for people in the hospital during the liturgy, but it seemed more like nice words to make the family feel loved, rather than any expectations that the prayer would be answered or change events in the real world. Also, there seemed to be scandals with some famous pastors who did believe in healing. Were the scandals proof that healing was also fake? My grandfather was the valedictorian of Harvard Medical school and a doctor for many years and most of my family are highly educated from Ivy League schools. Was a belief in a miraculous present God a denial of intellect?
First Exposure
When studying abroad in London at Oak Hill Theological College I met a student named Paul who shared that God healed him from a broken foot where he was walking around with crutches at a conference. Other events began to happen which I had no place to file in my worldview or theological system. I met a few charismatic believers and visited one or two services but to me the charismatics I met seemed too emotional, too touchy feely (I couldn’t go ten feet without random strangers trying to give me a hug), and some of the guys seemed weak/effeminate. In reality, my own background in church had often been so intellectual and un-emotional that any display of emotion at church was uncomfortable for me.
My Testimony
Also, I wrestled with passages in the New Testament that seemed to speak about miracles as normative. In this time of wrestling I found a book by Larry Christensen called “Charismatic Renewal in the Lutheran Church”, written in 1971.
In this book, he clearly examined New Testament passages about speaking in tongues and other spiritual gifts. Growing up Lutheran for some reason I felt more comfortable hearing an ordained Lutheran pastor explaining these things and it began to click with me.
Oddly enough the beginning of faith can be doubting the doubt one has. After reading that book, I feel I began to doubt my doubt enough to pray a simple prayer, “Lord Jesus, if the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today, please give me one? I won’t believe it from any person only from you God”. At that moment a warmth came on my throat alone in my room and I began to speak in tongues and felt the presence of God come on me from head to toe.
This was a shocking experience as I hadn’t expected anything to happen and didn’t know a single charismatic person or attended a charismatic church. Up till that moment in my life I don’t recall a single answer to prayer that I was aware of. Also, one of my roommates at the time, his Dad is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, one of the major university’s that is strongly cessationist seminaries.
After that my life began to resemble the book of Acts. I was driving in Austin, TX on the East Side and there was a lady by the side of the road and I felt the still small voice of the Holy Spirit say, “She has a demon, go and help her”. Not knowing what to do, and being a total noob/rookie I approached her. She was barefoot on a street with broken glass and staring into nowhere as though in a trance. I shared with her, trembling inside, “This may sound weird but is there something bad inside of you that you want to get rid of?”. She said, “Yes, that makes sense”. I didn’t know what to pray so I just said, “Satan, I command you to leave her with all your demons”. Instantly she shrieked like the horror movies and then calmed down and seemed transformed. Then I said, remembering the story of the house swept clean “Do you want to receive Jesus?”. She said yes.
Growing up Lutheran our version of the salvation prayer was the Apostle’s Creed so I guided her in confessing it.
“I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.”
After that I knew I needed to deal with the practical problem of her not having shoes so we went out and found some and I did the best I could to get her to a safe place. This was my first experience with the miraculous. Later on I heard about John Wimber’s book “Power Evangelism” and realize that God himself had been teaching me this way of releasing His Kingdom and that the gospel itself is both show and tell.
My 2nd miracle I recall was when my back was hurt in a car accident while I was a student at Bethel. Sometimes people have the thought that the most famous person is the most likely for God to use and when Bill Johnson prayed for me, the pain in my back decreased, but it was actually a random church member who prayed for me when I was fully healed even though I had little faith anything would happen since the person seemed to not know at all what they were doing.
Sometimes God likes to use the foolish things to shame the wise. The most recent testimony I’d like to share was a person in 5th stage kidney disease who was told by a doctor they would be on dialysis the rest of their life. After prayer for her, she reported and was confirmed by lab work that her kidneys were healed and are now normal. She shared the lab work with me so I could see the levels that had returned to normal. I like miracles that are confirmed by lab work and doctors reports because they can help a skeptic see that this stuff is really real and not just a placebo affect or the emotion of the moment.
The 7000x Principle and My Search Through Church History
Over time I not only saw God do amazing things in response to prayer personally, but in my research of church history I discovered that the Lord had never stopped. Even among charismatics there is a popular theory that there were a lot of miracles the first few centuries or only on ministry trips, but then they trickled out until modern times, but the record shows otherwise. There is no century where God wasn’t doing miracles. Another odd theology says miracles can still happen but the gifts of the Holy Spirit no longer exist.
Both ideas are totally false and make no sense. If the apostles and early church needed the gifts of the Holy Spirit it would take a supreme level of arrogance to suggest that somehow we now possess a capability in our natural selves without those gifts to complete the Great Commission or even our call as believers on the Earth. If the great men and women of God throughout history required those gifts…we mere mortals need them even more.
I wanted to prove that there was no century without miracles and miraculous gifts in operation and I’ve done research and created a non-exhaustive list below showing the miraculous gifts of the spirit in continuous operation since Bible times. As far as I’m aware this is the 1st list ever compiled with this exact information. It includes gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation in time when only one church existed from 0-1000AD, Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches from 1000-Present, Protestant groups from 1500 - Present. God doesn’t require someone to have advanced theological degrees or perfect theology on every point to give a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Since the list of Biblical miracles is widely known I won’t include that. Finally it is important to note an important principle from the Elijah story. Elijah thought he was the only prophet left and the only one who had not bowed the knee to Baal. God responded to him that “No Elijah” you are not the only one. There are actually 7,000 who haven’t and many prophets left that you are not aware of. This to me establishes a principle of 7000x. I think it is safe to assume that God is doing at least 7,000 times more than we see Him doing or have a record for, probably more. So for every name written here, assume 7,000 more less famous saints and heroes that we will only meet in heaven.
Church History - Miraculous Gifts in Continuous Operation from 1st Century to 21st Century AD
1st Century – 0-100AD
i. 12 Apostles – Book of Acts, Steven (Non Apostle), Daughters of Philip, Apostle John - gift of prophesy
ii. Post Completion of Bible
iii. Julian, Bishop of Cenomanis (Le Mans) - Healing, Dead Raising, Casting
out Demons
c. 2nd Century - 100-200AD – Culture of Miraculous - St. Irenaus - “Those who are in truth His disciples,
receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform [miracles], so as to promote the
welfare of other men, according to the gift which each one has received from Him. For
some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed
from evil spirits frequently both believe [in Christ], and join themselves to the Church.
Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic
expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are
made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and
remained among us for many years…. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ even now
confers benefits [upon men], and cures thoroughly and effectively all who anywhere
believe on Him".[15]
i. Quadratus of Athens - Prophet
d. 3rd Century - 200AD - 300AD – St. Anthony the Great – Healing, Casting Out Demons, Prophetic, Tryphon,
Phrygia Greece (250) Healing, Casting out Demons. Panteleimon- Healing Blind Eyes
e. 4th Century – 300-400AD - St. Patrick of Ireland and St. Nicholas of Myra, Healing gift, Dead Raisings,
Prophetic gifts, nature miracles
f. 5th Century – 400-500AD - Macedonian from Antioch – Healing/Prophesy
g. 6th Century – 500-600AD - Saint Benedict of Nursia – Healing/Dead Raising/Prophetic, Remigius –
France/Gaul – Healing/Casting out Demons
h. 7th Century – 600-700AD - Cuthbert of Lindisfarne – Healing/Casting out Demons/Prophecy, Eumenes,
bishop of Gortyrna - Healing,, Casting out Demons, Theodore of Sykeon (613) – Healing,
Casting out Demons
i. 8th Century - 700-800AD - Hilarion the New, abbot of Pelecete, (754) – Healing, Casting out Demons
j. 9th Century – 800-900AD - George the Confessor, bishop of Mitylene (~820) Healing
k. 10th Century - 900-1000AD - Thomas of Mt Maleon (10th c.) – Healing (including blind), Casting out
demons
l. 11th Century – 1000AD - 1100AD - Nikon of the Kiev Caves - Healing
m. 12th Century – 1100AD - 1200AD - St Francis of Assisi – Healing/Dead Raising, Bernard of Clairvaux – Healing gift
n. 13th Century – 1200-1300AD - Simon, Founder of Simonopetra Monastery, Mt Athos (1287) – Healing,
Prophecies, Casting out demons
o. 14th Century – 1300AD-1400AD - Sergius of Radonezh – healing, Alexis, Bishop of Moscow (1378) –
Healing, including blind eyes
p. 15th Century - 1400-1500AD - Gregory Palamas the Archbishop of Thessalonica – Healing gift
q. 16th Century – 1500-1600AD - Francis Xavier – Healing, 10 Dead raisings, baptized millions of people. A demonstration of John 14, doing greater works than Jesus
r. 17th Century – 1600-1700AD - George Fox (Quakers) – Healing, Prophecy, Martin Luther - gift of healing, prayed for Philipp Melancthon who was healed
s. 18th Century – 1700-1800AD - St Jean Vianney - powerful gifts of healing, prophecy, and word of knowledge.
t. 19th Century – 1800-1900AD - Johann Blumhardt – Healing, Casting out Demons, Charles Spurgeon –
Prophecy/Healing, Seraphim of Sarov – Healing, Prophecy, Word of knowledge
u. 20th Century – 1900-2000AD - Smith Wigglesworth – Healing, Dead Raising, Aimee Semple Mcpherson –
Healing, Kathryn Kuhlmann, Maria Woodworth Etter, St. John Maximovitch – Healing,
Prophecy, Word of Knowledge, Saint John Kronstadt – Healing, Oral Roberts - Healing
v. 21st Century – 2000AD - Present - Elder Ephrem of Athos - healing, prophesy, Bill Johnson - Healing, Damian Stayne – Healing, Heidi Baker – Healing, Surprese Sithole - Dead Raising, Reinhardt Bonnke – Healing/Dead Raising, TB Joshua – Healing/Dead Raising, Prophecy
