The temporary sign gifts can be found listed in 1 Cor 12:10 and are; miracles, healings, languages, and the interpretation of languages.

Miracles: A miracle is a supernatural intrusion into the natural law, which can have no other explanation than that of God acting. In John 2:11 it is revealed that Jesus performed His first miracle in order to manifest His glory. Why did He do miracles? It was to manifest His glory and reveal Himself as God. What is His glory? It is the composite of His attributes as deity. Miracles are the confirming signs of the revelation of God. That has always been and will always be their intent. John 5:36 and John 20:30 also attest to this truth. Miracles are always in the scripture for one purpose; to prove God is speaking.

For 30 years of His life Jesus did no miracles (John 2:11). This proves that it is not God’s purpose to perform miracles in all ages and in all times. Only when God reveals Himself do we see miracles. Jesus waited till the beginning of His ministry before the miracles began. We see the same pattern in the Old Testament too. The revelation at the time of Moses was accompanied by miracles, same too with the lives of Elijah and Elisha. The rest of the Old Testament is very scarce when it comes to miracles.

Miracles were to authenticate the living word and the written word. They are only found in Christ, the Apostles and those that worked with them in setting up the foundations of the church. Mark 16:17-20 and 2 Cor 12:12 support the fact that the signs of an apostle were “signs”, that is, the ability to do miracles.

If we were to say that miracles are continuing today, after we have established that the purpose of miracles is to confirm God’s revelation, then God is still revealing His word. And if He is still revealing His word then the Bible is incomplete and Revelation 22:18 and Gal 1:8-9 are a lie, because they say that if anyone adds to what has been taught by them, then they are accursed.

The Greek word for miracles means power, and probably should have been translated that way. The gift of power. Every day Jesus invaded the kingdom of darkness and rescued people. And it was the power of the spirit that allowed Jesus to be victorious over Satan. Note that the concept of power is connected to a struggle with Satan. We see this mentioned with Jesus that “power went out of Him” when he healed and cast out demons. So the gift of miracles (or the gift of powers) is the supernatural and instantaneous ability to cast out demons. Primarily it was used to show that the kingdom of God ruled over the kingdom of darkness.

The apostles never evangelised through miracles. They evangelised through the preaching of the word. Miracles only confirmed the word. Once the word had been preached and accepted, what further reasons were there for miracles?

To clarify; the gift of miracles dealt with demonic influence while the gift of healing dealt with physical problems.

Just as we will see with the gift of healing, the context of miracles here is that of a gift given to an individual. This by no means, means that miracles can’t / don’t happen outside of this setting. God has and will perform miracles according to His will, just not through the agency of an individual believer exercising their own will.

So what do we make of the miracles claimed by the Catholic Church then? Do they resemble any that are performed in the Bible? Many claimed miracles of the Catholic Church are related to relics. The bones of Stephen and John the Baptist; the feather droppings from the wings of Gabriel when he announced the birth of Jesus to Mary; Mary nursing (breast feeding) people; statues and paintings of Mary producing milk at certain times; stigmata’s; visitations and images that do nothing other than look like Mary and Jesus (as if we know what they looked like). Do these sound anything like a Biblical account of the miraculous? Hardly. Satan is busy counterfeiting miracles and is fooling a lot of people.

People who have faith in miracles don’t have faith, they have doubt looking for proof.

Healings: Just like the gift of Miracles, the gift of healing authenticated the living word and the written word. It is only found in Christ, the Apostles and those that worked with them in setting up the foundations of the church.

This is by no means a claim that healing cannot occur. Just that they don’t occur through someone with the gift of healing anymore. God can heal; God can heal in answer to prayer. The distinction is that there is a great difference between God healing someone Himself and God healing someone through a human “faith” healer.  

The gift of healing seems to be pretty self explanatory but some details need to be fleshed out before we can understand how this gift operated. We need to make a distinction between a functional disease and an organic one. A functional disease is where a perfectly good organ does not function properly. An organic disease is where the organ is not good, but is organically destroyed or maimed or crippled. The functional disease has only a symptom without a reality, whereas an organic disease has a reality and a symptom.

The problem we find with so many who claim to have the gift of healing these days is that the only kinds of healings they ever accomplish are functional, never organic. All they ever deal with is the symptom.

So how can we tell? The only way to be sure that it really is the gift of healing that someone claims to have is to look to the scriptures as an example of how Jesus and the apostles performed healings. There are six characteristics of healing that need to be confirmed in order to determine genuine healings. When Jesus and the apostles healed they; 1) Healed with a word and a touch. 2) Healed instantly. 3) Healed totally. 4) Healed everybody. 5) Healed organic disease. 6) Raised the dead.

To confirm the gift of healing all six of these points need to be confirmed by the claimant. And you will find that among every claimant to the gift of healing, not a single one of them healed (if they healed at all) in the same way Jesus and the apostles healed.

A common cop-out from the “healer” is that it is God who does it, not the supposed healer. So if there is a failed healing then you can’t blame the “healer”, just accept that God works in mysterious ways. This proves that it isn’t the real gift because the real gift was always exercised at the will of the one who possessed it. See Jesus in Matt 8:2 and in Romans 12 for the body of Christ. Anytime there is a command to use your gift, there is the assumption that you have the will to control it.

Peter raised the dead in Acts 9:36. Next time you come across someone who claims to have the gift of healing, take them out to the cemetery and say, “Go at it! There are lots of prospects here. One will be convincing for me; any one, you pick.”

Further proof that the gift of healing started to disappear by the end of Acts when the word had been revealed can be found in the life of Paul. The gift of healing had a specific purpose. It was never intended to be used just to run around and keep Christians healthy all the time. Just like the miracle of the manna was no longer needed once the Israelites reached the Promised Land, so to did the miraculous sign gifts stop once we had the living Word. Paul never uses the gift of healing outside of its purpose. We see this in Phil 2:25. Paul does not heal Epaphroditus. Nor does he heal Trophimus in 2 Tim 4:20. Timothy was not healed either in 1 Tim 5. Even Paul himself had a thorn in his flesh 2 Cor 12:7 which he did not heal (or have another apostle heal). The miraculous gifts were a sign to unbelievers that new revelation was true. It was never for any personal benefit of believers.

Since none of the healers can heal with a word or a touch, instantaneously, totally, everybody who comes / asks, organic diseases, and raise the dead; since the Bible is complete, the revelation has ceased, and no more signs are necessary; since the Word needs no confirmation outside itself, “It is sufficient that the man of God might be perfect”; since their healings are based on faulty theology of the atonement and salvation; since they disallow God His own purposes in having some people stay sick; since their personal lives are not known to manifest the fruit of the Spirit; since so many tricks, gimmicks, and special effects are often used; since the evidence is weak, unsupported, and so-called testimonies exaggerated; since they do not go to the hospitals where the sick are, as Jesus did; since they cannot heal all who come to them; and since they do not do things which can have no other possible explanations than that God has acted supernaturally; let me ask you this question: “How do you explain it?”

You can’t explain it Biblically. It is fraud; they are deceived.

So why are some Christians sick? Some people are sick because God wanted them that way. God may have a purpose to fulfil through them and in them which that illness facilitates. Sometimes illness, affliction, infirmity and trouble drive us to His side. Maybe it could be the work of Satan. Or it could be a chastising for sin.

Now, if God makes you sick for His own intents and purposes, that is His choice. Paul prayed three times for God to remove the thorn in his flesh, and He never removed it because He wanted him to have it, perhaps to prevent him from becoming proud because of all his revelations and works. God kept him humble by his illness. If it is Satan, then when you become a Christian I believe God will deliver you from the demon. I think salvation cleans you out. If it is God letting Satan do it, or God allowing it to be done to perfect you, then it will have to run its course until you are perfected the way He wants. Peter said in 1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a while, God will make you perfect.” If, in fact, it is a chastening for sin, then as soon as you deal with the sin I believe that God begins to withdraw the chastening.

That leads us to an important Scripture, James 5:14. “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

The promise of God is that if it is His will, He will heal.

Languages: The gift of languages was the ability that the apostles, and some who worked with them, had to speak a language they did not know, under divine inspiration. In Acts 2 we discover that it was a foreign language, everyone understood in their own language. As discussed earlier, ecstasies and ecstatic speech is very common in pagan (mystery) religion, and the Corinthians had dragged this element of their past religious life into the church.

Sadly, what happened in the Corinthian church is happening today in the modern Charismatic and Pentecostal movements when it comes to the gift of languages.

We can see, in Acts 2, the proper use of the true gift of languages where genuine languages were understood by the Jews visiting from many lands for the feasts in Jerusalem. Contrast this to 1 Corinthians 12 – 14 where we can see how the true gift of languages has been corrupted as well as the ingress of the counterfeit gift of tongues. Paul extensively responds to both of these in Chapter 14.

There are 3 things we need to know about the gift of languages. Firstly it position, secondly it purpose and thirdly its procedure.

The position is secondary; it is secondary to the gift of prophecy. Why? Because prophecy edifies the whole congregation, tongues / languages do not. The purpose that the church meets together is for edification, 1 Cor 14:26 “…Let all things be done for edification.” Edification means to build up. All throughout Chapter 14 we find this common theme of edification of the church and that prophecy edifies while tongues does not, see verses 4, 5, 12 and 31. The basic proposition of verses 1-5 is that tongues don’t edify, especially the way the Corinthians were abusing the gift and introducing counterfeits.

The only way the gift of languages is edifying is when it is accompanied by the gift of interpretation of languages. Otherwise the true gift or counterfeit only edifies oneself (verse 4) which is strongly urged against (see 1 Cor 10:24) because it’s a misuse of the gift.

Note that the whole context of chapters 11 to 14 is that of the assembly of the Corinthian church. Paul is not referring to any private time or personal relationship / prayer with God.

Paul goes on to point out from 1 Cor 14:7 onwards that speaking must be intelligible to the hearers. To which he illustrates this point using example of musical instruments needing a recognisable pattern / distinction in tone that communicates meaning. That’s why interpretation is required if the true gift is to be used.

Paul also had to address the mindless counterfeit version of the gift of languages that the Corinthians were also exercising. So in verse 14 he exposes this activity as the unfruitful mindless emotional gibberish that it is. This is not what a Christian is supposed to be doing. There is never a time in the Word of God when God wants us to be mindless (see Matt 22:37).

The purpose for the gift of languages is that of a sign that God was present. It should be easy to determine what’s going on today if we can determine the purpose for this gift. It either fits the Biblical purpose or not. We can thus determine its legitimacy.

What many Charismatic and Pentecostals will tell you is that the purpose for languages / tongues is for personal edification and devotion. It’s a private prayer language that builds you up and allows you to have devotions with God in a supernatural way, communicating in a language that is your own private language with God. In 1 Cor 14:1-19, Paul shows that this is not true and chides the Corinthians for this. Jesus Himself instructed in Matt 6:9-13 how to pray and it was nothing like this.

It has been suggested that the gift of languages is for evangelism. That it enabled someone to preach the Gospel in another language. The problem with this theory is that scripture does not bear this out. All examples of the use of the true gift have it being used as a sign to get the attention of unbelievers who where then preached to in a common language commonly known. We see this in Acts 2; it gathered the crowd to which Peter then preached the Gospel to all in a common language. It was similar to the gift of healing. A miraculous sign was performed to prove that what was to follow was from God.

Also, the gift of tongues is not an automatic gift that proves baptism of the Holy Spirit because we have scriptural evidence that not all speak in tongues (1 Cor 12:30). All are baptised, but all do not speak in tongues.

The purpose of tongues as a sign is threefold. They are a sign of cursing, blessing and authority.

In 1 Cor14:21 we find Paul quoting from Isaiah 28 and then applying it in verse 22 that “…tongues are a sign, not for those who believe, but to them that believe not…” This is a curse because like in Isaiah 28 and with Moses (Duet 28:49) and Jeremiah (Jer 5:15) the presence of foreign languages will be a sign to the unbelievers that God is about to act in judgment. So on the Day of Pentecost when they began to speak in languages, every Jew should have known that the judgment of God was eminent. God is no longer going to speak just one language or favour just one people. God is going to go to the world and build His church.

It’s in this way now that gift of languages is also a blessing. While it is a curse on Israel, it becomes a blessing to all nations (Rom 11:12).

Thirdly, the gift of languages is a sign of authority. It authenticated that those who preached this message of transition spoke the truth.

A sign is to point to something. The sign gift of languages pointed to the curse of God upon Israel and the subsequent blessing to the nations. Once it came, the sign was no longer necessary. If tongues were still around today then they would still have the same purpose. What would be the point of signifying today that God is moving away form Israel to open up the Gospel to all nations? He already did that 2000 years ago. Further evidence can be found in 1 Cor 13:8 where it says tongues will cease.

Finally we come to the procedure of the gift of languages. The procedure is to be systematic. The Bible, in particular the New Testament epistles, never asks for behaviour without first postulating a reason which is always a theological truth. Up until now, Paul has been giving us doctrine in the first 25 verses of chapter 14. But now, he lays out a very systematic procedure by which the worship of the church is to function.

Paul says that in order to edify, we must follow a procedure for the gift of languages. Firstly that only at the most 2 or 3 exercise their gift. This regulation enforces the notion that spiritual gifts are subject to the control of the possessor. Secondly, that it should be done in order or in sequence. Thirdly, that one interprets. Fourthly, if there is no interpreter, stay silent.

Paul has a similar procedure for prophecy here as well.

Interpretation of Languages: As described above, this gift was required in order for the gift of languages to be edifying to the church. And like the gift of languages, it was a gift reserved for those special times when an unbeliever was present. The unbeliever would be amazed that they could speak in his native foreign language and would then be alert to the subsequent preaching of the Gospel.

Finally, Paul sums it up with a simple but beautiful truth. In verse 33 “God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace…” If someone comes into your church and sees confusion and fighting, they will conclude that you have a confused, angry, fighting God. 1 Cor 14:23 “Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad?”

It’s important to get spiritual gifts right. Else we thwart the purpose of God that we manifest Christ to the world. We don’t want that, and neither does God.

The above is basically a summary of John MacArthur’s sermons (below) from “Grace to you” www.gty.org

The Temporary Sign Gifts, Part 1

The Temporary Sign Gifts, Part 2

The Temporary Sign Gifts, Part 3

The Truth About Tongues, Part 1

The Truth About Tongues, Part 2

The Truth About Tongues, Part 3

The Truth About Tongues, Part 4

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