The Miraculous Mirage
“What a different bunch these church of Christ folks are,” Joe thought as he and his family filed silently out after the funeral service. A distant neighbor of theirs had died somewhat suddenly and the funeral service had been held at the church of Christ building because of the deceased’s family request. Unfortunately, this funeral marked the first time that Joe and his family had been in the church of Christ building, and he wasn’t all that comfortable with it. Oh, he liked the members there well enough; they all seemed very loving and sincere. He particularly liked his church of Christ co-worker, Chuck Churchman and his family; they never seemed to be at a loss for a simple and straightforward biblical answer to any question he had. 1 Thanks to them, he now even understood the biblical reasons why these folks didn’t use instruments in their worship to God, 2 and he was even beginning to understand the biblical reasons they insisted that baptism was essential to salvation. 3 These weren’t a matter of opinion, personal preference, or even interpretation, but of simply and faithfully following the New Testament biblical pattern. 4 How could that possibly be wrong?
Why aren’t you speaking in tongues?
No, what troubled him today was that he had attended a funeral there, and no one had even spoken in tongues! Wasn’t tongue-speaking a sign of Holy-Spirit anointing and of one’s eternal salvation? That’s what the T.V. preacher he used to listen to so often said. He would have to ask Chuck about that and soon…
The next morning as he entered the parking lot, he saw Chuck arriving at the same time. Chuck waved Joe into the empty parking space nearest the building and parked his own car further away, down near the back end of the lot. Joe waited for Chuck to walk up. “Good morning Joe; glad to see you at Burt’s funeral yesterday,” Chuck said. “Everything okay? You seem a little down.”
“Not down, just a little confused,” Joe countered.
“About what?” Chuck inquired.
“Well… yesterday to be honest, at the service. Where it was a funeral and everything, I expected that surely someone there – the preacher, one of the song leaders or someone – would surely speak in tongues! I mean, after all, shouldn’t a group of people claiming to be Christ’s be publicly able to prove the power of the Holy Ghost’s acceptance of them by their speaking in tongues?”
Chuck grinned knowingly, and politely said, “That’ll teach you to watch and take to heart everything those T.V. preachers and teachers want to tickle people’s ears with so they can steal ‘em blind, won’t it?” 5 Joe shrugged.
“You see Joe, the Bible explains in Mark 16:17-20, that the possession of the “miraculous gifts” was given to confirm that the word the apostles brought was indeed from God; these gifts were given to get people’s attention just as they did in Acts 2, so people would then listen to the apostles’ preaching. That chapter also shows us that only the apostles – and those whom they then laid their hands on as we see in Acts 8 – possessed these gifts. Later on, Cornelius and his household also received them in Acts 10, but that was a one of a kind thing as Peter later explained in Acts 11. The Bible is clear in 1 Corinthians though, that when the entire New Testament was revealed and written down, by around 100 A.D., that the miraculous gifts would cease because they would have fulfilled their original purpose and would no longer be needed to confirm the word. And, you might also notice as you read Acts 2, that these ‘tongues’ were not the unknown, gibberish-typed gobbledygook that you hear some claim as speaking in tongues today. They were instead very recognizable, instantaneously-spoken, and perfectly dialected and known languages!”
“But here’s the simpler, common-sense bottom line if you’d prefer,” Chuck continued. “There are many so-called ‘charismatic’ denominations around today, which claim that the ‘miraculous gifts’ of speaking in tongues, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead are still in effect, correct?”
“Well, I don’t know about raising the dead,” Joe replied.
“Oh yes; you can’t pick and choose,” Chuck replied. “With God, it’s all or nothing. Jesus and His first-century apostles possessed the power to raise the dead just as surely as they did to heal the sick – just as several scriptures verify for us 6 – and just as these churches claim they can today.”
“Actually,” Joe responded a bit sheepishly, “I know they do. My wife grew up in one; her parents were strong members.
“Where are they now?” Chuck humbly asked.
“Her dad is dead, and her mom is in a nursing home suffering from Alzh——–.” Suddenly, the scathing and all-illuminating truth struck him like a bolt of lightning!
“Exactly,” Chuck sadly said, noting the light of understanding now piercing his friend’s understanding. “I realize that there are many sincere and well-intentioned people in most of these churches. But if some of them possessed half of the miraculous gifts they professed, then why do their own members still get sick and die? Why do they and their preachers still have health insurance? Where’s their faith to practice what they preach? Why do they ever have to have funeral services held in their buildings? How come they haven’t raised their leaders like Oral Roberts from the dead if they can truly do what they claim they can? Why don’t they go out onto the front lines of our armed forces and raise the fallen as soon as they’re killed so they can fight on? Why don’t they go to Tulsa daily and heal the sick and dying little children in those cancer wards – if they really can? How can they claim to love, and to have those gifts, and then not exercise them to the glory of God in this sick and pain-filled existence? I’m not judging, I’m simply asking. And please don’t insult us both by giving me that, ‘the afflicted didn’t have enough faith’ stuff. I doubt that any of those that Jesus, Peter, or Paul raised from the dead had much faith at that point either.” 7
Joe, now stunned and stupefied by the sheer simplicity of that which he had never even considered before, just stood there in silent disbelief that he could have possibly been so blind for so long. “Is there any way you can biblically prove, ‘book, chapter, and verse,’ as you say, what you’ve just said?” Joe humbly and awkwardly asked.
“Sure,” Chuck replied, sensing and seeking to help heal the hurt and helplessness his uninformed friend was now struggling with. “Go and download http://www.clevelandcoc.com/?page_id=154 from our church’s website, and then let’s get together over an open bible and talk about it, okay Joe?”