Following Christ’s Example: A Biblical View of Discipleship

Following Christ’s Example: A Biblical View of Discipleship

by  Don Williams

 

Jesus’ pattern for making disciples can show us how to live and minister today.

 

Is the Church both to bear Jesus’ kingdom message and exercise his kingdom ministry by casting out demons and healing the sick? The answer of some is an emphatic “no”! For them, the time of Christ and the apostles was unique. The claim has been made that “as the age of revelation came to a close, the signs ceased also”¹ and that “Christians who pursue miraculous signs are setting themselves up for satanic deception.”²

Our answer to whether the Church should bear Jesus’ kingdom message and exercise his kingdom ministry is an emphatic “yes”! We will fail to see this responsibility if we fail to place the discipling work of Jesus in its historical context and read the Gospels accordingly. How then did people teach and learn in the ancient world? What did discipleship mean?

 

Teaching and Learning in Antiquity

In Israel and her surrounding milieu, learning was based on an intimate relationship between a teacher and his or her pupil. Lindblom notes, “In the Orient teachers have always gathered around themselves disciples … to receive their instruction and pass on their ideas.”³ Even the “writing prophets” of the Old Testament were no loners. Jeremiah had his secretary Baruch and his friends in court (Jer. 26:24; 36:4; 45:1). Isaiah instructs, “Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples” (Isa. 8:16, RSV). There are two reasons for this intimate personal relationship between the teacher and his student. First, teaching was largely transmitted orally. Second, this teaching was to be lived out by being with the teacher and imitating his life.

For the Jews, the basic unit of instruction was the family. In the Exodus, the father teaches his son the meaning of the mighty acts of God by answering his questions about Passover (Exo. 10:1,2; 12:26,27). Likewise, in the wisdom literature, a father addresses his son, and a mother her children, guiding them in practical affairs (See Prov. 1:18; 31:1, 26).⁴ The second century B.C. Jewish educator, Ben Sirach, uses the same father/son form when he speaks to his disciples or pupils (The Wisdom of Sirach 2:1; 3:1; 4:1) Likewise, as a father, the Apostle Paul trains Timothy and calls him his son in the faith (Philippians 2:22). Down through the generations this father-son structure communicates both authority and intimacy.

Since learning takes place in personal relationship, Ben Sirach exhorts the prospective student to find a wise man: “Take your stand in the throng of elders: which of them is wise? Attach yourself to him” (6:34). He should hound him: “If you see a man of understanding, go to him early,/ And let your feet wear out his doorstep” (6:36). The Pharisees and their rabbinic leaders agreed. They were “Torah-centric” (Torah meaning “revelation” written and oral). Rabbi Hillel says, “More Torah, more life” (Aboth II.8). Rabbi Shammai advises, “Make thy Torah a fixed duty” (Aboth I.15) But how is this to be done? Johoshua ben Perahjah answers, “Make to thyself a teacher” (Aboth I.6).⁵

Since ancient culture was basically oral, the first vehicle of learning was the spoken word.⁶ Plato valued it over the written word because once speech was transcribed it had no life; it could not answer back (Phaedrus 275d). The French Old Testament scholar, Roland de Vaux, notes, “Most teaching … was done by word of mouth. The teacher told his story, gave explanations and asked questions; the pupil repeated the story and asked or answered questions. This method of teaching continued under the Rabbis. …”⁷ Ben Sirach exhorts his student: “Be willing to listen to every godly discourse,/ And do not let any wise proverb escape you” (6:35). Likewise the Pharisees stressed the importance of hearing Torah. Joezer of Zeredah says: “Let thy house be a place of meeting of the wise, and dust thyself with the dust of their feet and drink their words with thirst” (Aboth 1.4).

Since their tradition was oral before it was written, the Pharisees also valued memory. Johannan ben Zaccai (second half of the first century A.D.) sums up one of his disciples as “a plastered cistern that loseth not a drop” (Aboth 2.11). His input equaled his output. The nature of oral tradition demands this kind of receiver. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day mostly studied Torah by rote and quoted it from memory, preserving it with precision and accuracy.⁸

Along with the spoken word and an acute memory, the student needed an intimate relationship with his teacher because learning for life demanded the power of a good example. He must observe his teacher and imitate his behavior. As we have seen, according to Ben Sirach, the pupil is to “attach” himself to his teacher (6:34) and virtually live in his house (6:36).⁹ He is to learn not only what to say but when to say it: “A proverb on the lips of a fool will be refused,/ For he will not utter it at the proper time” (20:20). Such timing is only mastered by following the teacher’s example.

For the Rabbis, Torah is not an academic task. This is why Rabbi Shammai says, “Make thy Torah a fixed duty. Say little and do much” (Aboth I.15). Their disciples saw “living Torah” in their teacher’s life.¹⁰ Finkelstein gives this example:

So anxious was [Rabbi] Akiba … to master … the rules of proper behavior that he followed every action of his teachers with the closest scrutiny and recorded their slightest habits, … on one occasion he actually followed Joshua into a privy. “And I learned from him three good habits,” he said many years afterward. “How could you be so disrespectful to your teacher?” asked Ben Azzai. “I considered everything part of the Torah and I needed to learn.”¹¹

This pedagogical ideal is given a moral application by Josephus, the first century Jewish historian. He writes,

The Law … enjoins sobriety in … [the children’s] upbringing from the very first. It orders that they shall be taught to read and shall learn both the laws and the deeds of their forefathers, in order that they may imitate the latter, and being grounded in the former, may neither transgress nor have any excuse for being ignorant of them. (Against Apion II. 204)

Here is education by word and deed. For the Rabbis, even God himself was to be imitated. In Sotah 14a walking after the Shekinah means clothing the naked as God did, and visiting the sick as God did.¹²

The goal of this intimate education is to reproduce the teacher’s life in his pupil. This is true for both Greeks and Jews. Marrou writes of classical education, “For the Greeks, education—paideia—meant … a profound and intimate relationship, a personal union between a young man and an elder who was at once his model, his guide and his initiator. … Education remained not so much a form of teaching … as an expenditure of loving effort.”¹³ This ideal continued to operate in Jesus’ time. The first century Stoic philosopher Seneca tells Lucilius:

Of course … the living voice and the intimacy of a common life will help you more than the written word. You must go to the scene of the action, first because men put more faith in their eyes than in their ears, and second, because the way is long if one follows precepts, but short and helpful, if one follows patterns. Cleanthes could not have been the express image of Zeno, if he had merely heard his lectures; he shared his life, saw into his hidden purposes and watched him to see whether he lived according to his own rules. … It was not the classroom of Epicurus, but living together under the same roof, that made great men of Metodorus, Hermarchus, and Polyaenus.¹⁴

Israel shares a similar ideal. Ben Sirach wants to reproduce his life in his pupil. He writes of a student trained in wisdom:

When his father [teacher] dies,

It is as though he were not dead.

For he leaves behind him

One like himself. (30:4)

Paul carries this same ideal to his ministry. As a father he brings his converts to Christ. His life is the example which they are to imitate. He also disciples Timothy as his son in the faith and reproduces his life and ministry in him. Timothy learns his teaching, follows his ways and is able to communicate them in his absence. As Paul writes to the Corinthians: “… I became your father through the gospel. I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church” (I Cor. 4:15b-17).

In the ancient world then teaching and learning took place in intimate relationship, father to son, mother to child, teacher to pupil. The teacher’s spoken word was learned and his example was imitated. The goal was to reproduce the teacher’s life in the life of his student, so that, in the words of Ben Sirach, he would leave behind him “one like himself” (30:4). And this was exactly what Jesus did in discipling his followers who, in turn, discipled the Church.

 

Jesus and Discipleship

Jesus came bearing the authority of the kingdom of God in the power of the Spirit. The kingdom (the in-breaking of God’s dynamic rule) was the center of his message. Mark tells us, “… Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mk. 1:14b-15). The kingdom was also the center of his ministry. In Luke Jesus says, “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Lk. 11:20). As Grasser notes, this kingdom “is not something growing within history but is the miracle which is independent of all human history.”¹⁵ A. M. Hunter adds, “It is a divine act. …”¹⁶

Jesus’ message and ministry are one. The presence of the kingdom dawning in him is an event which immediately effects the spiritual and social environment around him. The kingdom cannot be locked into some “upper story” Platonic ideal or neo-orthodox abstraction.¹⁷ While some, like John MacArthur, assert that for “Jesus, preaching the Word was more important than performing signs and wonders,”¹⁸ R. H. Fuller sees the unity of his message and ministry. He writes, “… the miracles of Jesus are part and parcel of his kerygmatic activity. In fact, the miracles are part of the proclamation itself, quite as much as the spoken words of Jesus.”¹⁹

Matthew even states that Jesus’ healing ministry was a means of proclamation: “Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations”’ (Mat. 12:15-18 NIV).

Jeremias adds that the Spirit of God always brings both word and deed, “The word is never without its accompanying deed and the deed is never without the word that proclaims it. So too with Jesus: the concluding revelation is manifested in two ways (see Mat. 11:5f.) in acts of power and in words of authority.”²⁰

As we have seen in Luke, Jesus specifically connects the presence of the kingdom with casting out demons. How are we to understand this? William Barclay frames the first century world-view, “Men believed that the air and atmosphere were crowded with demons, most of them malignant spirits waiting to work men harm.”²¹ Guignebert concurs,

For the Jews of Jesus’ day Palestine was a land peopled by good or evil spirits. … A man who claimed to speak in God’s name and to prepare his ways was known as a true recipient of the sign of Jahweh by his intimacy with angels, and still more by his authority over demons. …²²

As for Jesus himself, there can be no doubt that he was born and bred and lived out his life in the midst of a threatening cloud of hostile spirits, and that belief in their existence and in their activities was one of … [his] formative elements. …²³

This means that since Jesus bears the kingdom of God, he must also cast out the demons who oppose it. MacArthur acknowledges this in part, as he writes, “… Jesus encountered Satan and defeated him by his dunamis, his power. … In every case Jesus’ gift of power was used to combat Satan’s kingdom.”²⁴ But MacArthur then takes away what he gives by concluding that, “God’s intended purpose for miracles: [is] to confirm new scriptural revelation.”²⁵ Which is it? Is Jesus the Warrior-King in battle with the devil, or is he merely using the devil to authenticate himself as bearing new revelation from God?

Without a real deliverance from evil, Jesus’ proclamation is bogus or mythological or docetic—giving us credentialed truth, disconnected from our own fallen history and bondage to Satan. There is no kingdom of God where the ruler of the other kingdom, is not put to flight. Jeremias identifies the war which has been declared, “Jesus enters this world enslaved by Satan with the authority of God, not only to exercise mercy, but above all to join the battle with evil.”²⁶ Stauffer agrees and adds, “The kingdom of God is present where the dominion of the adversary is overthrown.”²⁷ With these power-encounters against the enemy, the end, the eschatological climax to all of history has begun. Jeremias notes, “These victories over the power of evil [casting out demons] are not just isolated invasions of Satan’s realm. They are more. They are manifestations of the dawn of the time of salvation and of the beginning of the annihilation of Satan.”²⁸ They “are a foretaste of the eschaton [End].”²⁹ God is making his final move in his Son as he bears the kingdom come and coming, and this move continues in his Church until the glorious return of her Lord (see I Cor. 15:22-25).

Jesus not only drove out demons, he also healed the sick. This, again, was a necessary manifestation of the presence of the kingdom. While, for MacArthur, Jesus’ healings credential the new revelation which he brings, for the Gospel writers they reveal his compassion for the sick (Mat. 9:35-36; 14:14; 20:34; Mk. 5:19; Lk. 7:13; cf. Acts 4:9) and the restoration of the fallen creation. The traditional first century Jew used the doctrine of retribution far too simplistically by equating sickness with punishment.³⁰ Jesus, however, saw the demonic in many forms of illness. Hengel comments, “His eschatological struggle was directed against the demonic powers in the light of the sicknesses caused by them. … His only weapon in this struggle was the word of authority. …”³¹ And Hengel concludes:

The victory which occurs in Jesus’ healings, over the power of Satan, which manifests itself in illness and possession, means the signal and visible ‘dawn’ of the rule of God. A heavenly event corresponds to this victory: the fall of Satan, the Accuser before God. Probably Jesus’ activity as an ‘exorcist’ and ‘healer of the sick’ awakened among the simple Galilean population at least as much attention and enthusiasm as his preaching. It can be seen that this part of his activity (which we find so hard to understand today) was also given great importance in the early tradition of the community, for in the tradition about the Mission of the disciples the Twelve specifically receive authority to exorcise and to heal the sick. … Even an old baraita knows of the Jewish Christians of Palestine having authority ‘to heal’ those fallen seriously ill ‘in the name of Jesus’ … and of this being gladly made use of by the non-Christian Jewish population despite the objections of individual rabbis.³²

It is impossible, therefore, to make the exorcisms and healings of Jesus simply into evidences for his deity, clustered around his historical presence and that of his apostles, as those who oppose the third wave or “Signs and Wonders” movement tend to do today.³³ A. M. Hunter sees the following serious objections to this position. First, Jesus did not work miracles in order to call attention to his message or himself. In Mark 8:12 he refused to produce a sign on demand. R. H. Fuller comments, “Like the devil in the temptation, they [the Pharisees] tempt Jesus to perform some striking act to prove who he is. Jesus rejects this kind of a sign en toto. … Jesus refuses, not to perform signs as such, but signs intended to point to himself.”³⁴

Second, Hunter says that this theory does violence to the close connection between miracles and faith. Jesus doesn’t do his mighty works simply to produce faith (“evidences”). They demand faith. Third, “Worst of all, it portrays Jesus as a sort of ‘heavenly bell man’. …”³⁵ To this I would add that the “realized” part of the eschatological kingdom demands such miracles. Jesus’ signs are much more than evidences. They are a real assault on Satan and his demons, delivering people from their power and the debilitating effects which they have over their lives.

These miracles are the necessary and substantial events of the kingdom which is “at hand” (Mk. 1:15) and “in your midst” (Lk. 17:21). The King is here. Satan’s kingdom is now being assaulted and his authority broken (Mat. 12:25-28; Lk. 11:17-20). This is the triumphant shout of the New Testament and this is the message and ministry which Jesus entrusted to his disciples and through them, to his Church.

Regardless of whether we regard Jesus as a Rabbi,³⁶ or a prophet,³⁷ or a charismatic leader (the Messiah),³⁸ or all of the above and more, as he really is, the eternal Son of God, it is clear from the Gospels (and the existence of the Church) that he not only bore the message and ministry of the kingdom, he also called the Twelve and other disciples to bear the same message and ministry on his behalf. In order to accomplish this, like any good teacher in antiquity, he called his followers into an intimate relationship with himself (Mk. 3:14), taught them the message of the kingdom orally (Mk. 4:11), showed them the ministry of the kingdom, disciples learned from Jesus in his exorcisms and healings (including his techniques of commanding demons, commanding and touching the sick, etc.)³⁹ and then sent them with his authority and power to do the same. Mark 3:14-15 tells us, “And he appointed twelve, that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons.”

Lest we suppose that this ministry was limited to the Twelve, we must remember that Jesus appointed seventy others, commanding them to heal the sick in the cities they entered and say, “The kingdom of God has come near to you” (Lk. 10:9). Later they report with joy, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name” (Lk. 10:13). Jeremias comments, “Authority over the spirits recurs constantly in the mission sayings and is virtually a characteristic of them (Mk. 6:7 par.; Mat. 10:7; Lk. 10:19….).”⁴⁰ In other words, Jesus reproduced his kingdom ministry in his disciples and through them (and, at Pentecost, through the power of the Spirit as the risen Lord) reproduced his kingdom ministry in the Church. Jeremias notes:

They [the Twelve] are to announce the dawn of the time of salvation and to make incursions into the realm of Satan by driving out the demons. That means that they have to make the same announcement as Jesus himself, and they have to do so in the same way as him: in word and action. With them, too, both belong together. The word alone is an empty shell; action alone can be the work of the devil. The reign of God is manifested only in word and action together.⁴¹

In the context of all that we have seen about teaching and learning in antiquity, Jeremias adds, “… in the person of the messengers, Jesus himself comes. The nature of being a messenger is to represent Jesus.”⁴² And to represent Jesus, the Messiah, the bearer of the kingdom, the herald of the End, is to bear his ministry. Hengel writes:

In what he did, Jesus’ aim was not to form tradition or to nurture exegetical or apocalyptic scholarship but to proclaim the nearness of God in word and deed, to call to repentance, and to proclaim the will of God understood radically in the light of the imminent rule of God, which indeed was already dawning in his activity; similarly, ‘following after’ him and ‘discipleship’ were oriented to this one great aim.⁴³

While for Hengel Jesus’ disciples can be called pupils in a derivative sense, Jesus breaks all the molds with his “unheard of self-confidence [manifested in his messianic self-consciousness, healings, exorcisms, eating with tax gathers and sinners, and actualizing the presence of the kingdom] which cuts across all the analogies in the field of Religionsgeschichte (the history of religion) which are known to us from contemporary Judaism.”⁴⁴

The one mold which is not broken, however, is Jesus training his disciples to be like himself in a way similar to other teachers in the ancient world. As he says, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and the slave as his master” (Mat. 10:24-25a). Dr. Cyril H. Powell has said of the disciples’ training, “In all this, Acts witnesses to the emergence of power in ways comparable to those recounted in the Gospels concerning Jesus. Jesus had said (in Lk only 6:40) ‘Every disciple when he is fully equipped (katÄ“rtismenos) shall be as his master.’”⁴⁵

The radical difference in Jesus’ discipling is not the form⁴⁶ but the content: the presence and power of the kingdom overcoming the works of the devil (I Jn. 3:8). Thus Hengel concludes that Jesus’ call to discipleship was a call to participate in his mission and authority “in the eschatological event which taking its beginning in him was moving powerfully towards the complete dawn of the rule of God en dunamei [in power] (Mk. 9:1, cf. 13:26 par.). … But this would mean that following Jesus would be comprehensible only as service to the cause of the approaching kingdom of God.”⁴⁷ Following after him also meant participation in his sufferings,⁴⁸ for his kingdom ministry of power climaxed in the scandal of the Son of Man crucified in weakness (Mk. 8:31, par.). On the cross, in humiliation and abandonment, Jesus bore our sins, lifted the curse of the Law, died our death, and defeated the devil. Here, in this final act of sacrifice (and in his glorious resurrection to follow), the enemies of the kingdom are overcome. Here too, in the cross, after Pentecost, the kingdom power of God through his Spirit is now released (Galatians Gal. 3:1-5).

If Jesus trained his disciples to reproduce his message and ministry of the kingdom, then we should expect that they, in turn, were to train the Church to do the same (I Cor. 11:1; Phil. 4:9; I Thes. 1:6; etc.). This must be the intention of Jesus’ commission to make disciples from all the nations “… teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Mat. 28:20). To eliminate the Kingdom message and ministry from this agenda in favor of Christology or ethics is to cut out its heart. All must be held together to make any sense of the New Testament.

But did Jesus’ reproduction of his kingdom ministry in his apostles end with them? For MacArthur, the answer is “yes.” He writes, “ … no miracle ever occurred in the entire New Testament record except in the presence of an apostle or one directly commissioned by an apostle”⁴⁹ His attempt to narrow the field of the miraculous fails, however, on the evidence of the seventy who were not apostles (Lk. 10:1) and the rest of the New Testament (see especially Gal. 3:5; cf. Acts 9:17-18; 22:13 [Ananias, a non-apostle, lays hands on Paul and heals him]; Rom. 12:6-8; I Cor. 12:1-11, 28-31; 14:1-31; I Thes. 1:5-6; 5:19-20; Heb. 6:2;⁵⁰ Jas. 5:14-16; I Pet. 4:10-11). The Risen Lord continues to gift his Church with charismatic leaders: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers, in order to equip the saints, that is, the whole Church, for ministry (Eph. 4:7-12). This is no seasonal (dispensational) gifting, restricted to the Apostolic Age. Acts hints at this when it shows us that the next generation of leadership, men such as Stephen, Philip, Ananias, and Paul, continue to minister with signs and wonders in the power of the Spirit (see Acts 6:5, 8; 8:5-7; 9:17-18 (22:13); 13:8-12, etc.). And, as we have seen, this ministry continues in the life of their churches. How else can we account for the gifts and power running riot in Corinth which Paul corrects but does not quench?

Since the charismatic leaders, starting with the apostles, given by the earthly/risen Lord are also to be disciplers, they, in turn, will invest themselves in those who are raised up by the Spirit just as Jesus did in his incarnate ministry. From the whole cultural context of teaching and learning in antiquity, we can be sure that they will continue the chain of kingdom teaching and training into the next generation. Of necessity, this means that kingdom ministry will not end with the Apostolic Age, since, starting with the immediate followers of Jesus, each generation will pass on its ministry to the next.

This appears clearly in Paul. Trained as a Pharisee, he transmits the tradition of Jesus⁵¹ and lives out that tradition so that he can be an example to others as he ministers in power. He tells the Romans, “For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles in word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit” (Rom. 15:18-19). He also expects his converts to minister in the same way: “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (I Cor. 11:1). To restrict this imitation to doctrine or ethics, is to do violence to the New Testament evidence and to miss the point of discipleship in the ancient world. As Paul manifested the ministry of Jesus, so he expects his Church to manifest that same ministry. He expects a continuing work of signs and wonders among, for example, the Galatians as he asks, rhetorically, “Does he then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” (Gal. 3:5). Later, when he corrects abuses in Corinth, he never suggests that the powerful manifestations of the Spirit are not of God. The exalted Lord continues his ministry there not only through gifted leaders such as Paul but also through the whole Church which is his living body. W.D. Davies writes,

To use the famous Pauline metaphor … the Church is the Body of Christ, it is the extension of His Being: quite literally Christians are to form the eyes, the feet, the ears, the mind of Christ (the notions of corporate personality, derived from a Semitic background, which lie behind such a conception of an extension of the Being of Christ in His followers, are indispensable to the understanding of the New Testament doctrine of the Church. …) In other words, since the Church is the Body of Christ, it is called upon to perform His work: the Church is the continuation of the life of Jesus, the Messiah.”⁵²

“Thus this self-giving ministry of Christ becomes the norm for the life of the Church, its pattern: the life of the Church is to be the continuation of that ministry, and, in so far as this is actually the case, the Church heals as He healed, and restores as He restored, the brokenness of men.”⁵³

I Corinthians 12 makes it clear that this ministry includes the works of the kingdom. Paul describes various gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge, gifts of healings, discernment of spirits, and effecting miracles which will equip the Church to continue what Jesus did. In his attempt to make all of these gifts “sign gifts” (proving revelation rather than effecting ministry), MacArthur is forced to define prophecy in the gift list of Romans 12 as preaching, while admitting that prophecy in I Corinthians 12 is “revelatory prophecy.”⁵⁴ We may rightly ask, by what special exegetical insight has one the right to take the same word in the same context of spiritual gifts and give it two separate meanings?

The gifts in I Corinthians 12, then, are situationally given by the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:11; cf. 11:18,33-34; 14:23, 26) for ministry in the moment (I Cor. 14:24-26, 30). They are also institutionalized in some who are appointed to exercise them regularly in leadership in the Church (I Cor. 12:28 appointments [tithēmi “make, appoint”] as opposed to incidental giftings). They are to be actively sought (I Cor. 14:1) and exercised in love (I Cor. 13). By giving the gifts of the Spirit, Jesus continues his ministry through his whole Church. Because of this gifting, every Christian has the potential to prophesy or heal the sick (I Cor. 12:7; I Cor. 14:1, 5, 12-13, 24, 31; Jn. 14:12; Mat. 7:7-11; Jas. 4:2b). Here, indeed, is the functional expression of the priesthood of all believers and the ministry of the laity.

The New Testament bears witness to the continuation of the kingdom ministry of Jesus far beyond the Twelve. His assaults upon Satan’s kingdom and the healing of God’s fallen creation extend into the next generation (see Hebrews 2:3-4 and Lk. 10:1; Jn. 6:60-70; I Cor. 15:6). But kingdom ministry did not stop there. Signs and wonders did not cease with the Apostolic Age or become marginal as in the case of the second century A.D. heretic Montanus and his prophetic followers. MacArthur’s attempt to make the charismatic movement “the spiritual heir” to Montanus⁵⁵ fails on the evidence—the charismatic movement, at its best, instead is the heir of the orthodox Early Church Fathers. Consider their evidence: Justin Martyr writes in the middle of the second century A.D.,

This Word went out to all nations over which the demons rule, as David testifies, ‘The gods of the nations are demons.’ And so it happened that many, powerfully gripped by his Word abandoned the demons whom they served. Now through Jesus they have come to believe in the Almighty God.⁵⁶

But how are these demons expelled? Justin continues, “For every demon is exorcised, conquered, and subdued in the very name of this Son of God.”⁵⁷ He concludes,

After all, many of our people have healed a great number of possessed persons who did not receive healing from any other exorcist, sorcerer, or herb doctor. They did this throughout the whole world, and even in your own capital city, by driving out the demons in the name of Jesus Christ.⁵⁸

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, adds his second century witness to kingdom ministry as he writes:

Wherefore, also, 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. And what shall I more say? It is not possible to name the number of gifts which the Church [scattered] throughout the whole world, has received from God, in the name of Jesus Christ. … [But] directing her prayers to the Lord, who made all things … and calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, she has been accustomed to work miracles for the advantage of mankind.⁵⁹

From these Church Fathers, it is clear that the generations which followed the Apostolic Age experienced the Risen Lord continuing his kingdom ministry in the midst of his people, engaging in spiritual warfare against the devil and all his works. This was no diminishing after-glow from the time of the apostles. Fox shows that the battle against the demons, lurking behind the idols and working “wonders and visions,” continued for centuries.⁶⁰ The church at Rome in 251 A.D. listed among its staff 154 ministers and 52 exorcists.⁶¹ According to Fox, Cyprian, the third century Bishop of Carthage, “pictures the action of the Spirit on a man’s inner demon in terms which are compounded of torture, burning and beating. Ejection, it seems involved a rough combat of powers, with few holds barred.”⁶² In the fourth century, Jerome reveals that Christians liked to remember their “holy men” having their ways “with demons and miracles.”⁶³ About 420 A.D. Sozoman recounts that Hilarion exorcized a friend of his grandfather and turned the man’s family to Christ, “succeeding where Jewish and pagan exorcists had previously failed: Sozoman’s grandfather became a Christian too.”⁶⁴ To identify such ministry as heretical or marginal, as MacArthur attempts to do, is to deny the witness of history in favor of a theological opinion.

 

In Conclusion

In the book Ministry and the Miraculous, several Fuller Theological Seminary professors argue the traditional position that God grants miracles in order to authenticate his Word. David Hubbard, President of Fuller, writes in the foreword, “The theological conclusion to be drawn from the Bible’s own use of the miraculous seems clear; the primary motive for divine miracle is not compassion [in manifesting God’s kingdom] but revelation.”⁶⁵ In other words, miracles credential Jesus and his apostles, they are evidences of divine authority and basically end with the Apostolic Age. Out of this study a vision for ministry at Fuller emerges: “The minister of the gospel should major in the power that enables ordinary people to bear the cross and accept the burdens of suffering for the sake of doing God’s will in a world that hungers for forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, peace, the feeding of the hungry, and the relief of the oppressed.”⁶⁶ This seems to mean that we are to bear with Satan’s assaults rather than repulse them. We are to medicate the demonized rather than deliver them. We are to comfort the afflicted rather than heal their affliction.

The Fuller scholars argue their position, first of all, based upon the assumption that foremost among Jesus’ works was his “forgiving of people’s sins”⁶⁷ rather than casting out demons and healing the sick. Forgiveness, however, is never included in the Gospel summaries of his ministry or in his commission to the Twelve and the seventy (Mat. 4:23, etc.). The Fuller position makes a theological judgment rather than an historical observation by placing forgiveness at the top of the list of Jesus’ works.⁶⁸ Rather, as Mat. 9:6, Mk. 2:10-11, and Lk. 5:24 (also Jas. 5:15-16) show, healing of sickness and casting out demons are signs of God’s forgiveness of sin. Richardson notes this when he says “miracles of healing are, as it were, symbolic demonstrations of God’s forgiveness in action.”⁶⁹

Second, the Fuller scholars warn that Christians should not expect too much worldly benefit (such as healings) since Jesus calls us to suffer.⁷⁰ Granted that this is a part of our call, we also live in a kingdom come and coming where God’s reign is actually breaking in upon us. To stress suffering at the expense of healing is to deny the realized aspect of the kingdom in our midst (Mat. 10:7-8; Lk. 10:9; 17:21; I Cor. 4:20; Rom. 14:17).

Third, the Fuller position argues that miracles have a narrow function; they signal that the kingdom is drawing near in the “unique acts of God in Jesus.”⁷¹ But as we have seen, we should expect signs and wonders to continue because they not only reveal the kingdom, they realize the kingdom, especially in delivering people from demons as Jesus’ own words state in Mat. 12:28 and Lk. 11:20. As Acts and I Corinthians assert, it is the Risen Lord who continues his kingdom ministry in his Body, the Church. He cannot do less than he is.

Fourth, the Fuller scholars assert that Jesus’ mandate to the apostles to preach the kingdom and heal the sick was a “specific mission” with “limited objectives.”⁷² Their commission, however, was no more specific and limited than the ministry of Jesus itself. What he did personally and what he did with his disciples hang or fall together.

Fifth, the Fuller scholars claim that there is no healing mandate in the Great Commission. As we have seen, this can be challenged from the form of the Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus’ disciples are to teach their converts to do everything which he commanded them. Must not this include announcing the kingdom, casting out demons and healing the sick?

The witness of the New Testament shows the answer is “yes.” First, in Acts 13:51 Paul and Barnabas obey the command to the Twelve and the seventy-two to “shake the dust off your feet” as a testimony against unbelieving towns (Mat. 10:14; Mk. 6:11; Lk. 9:5; 10:11), showing they still considered the pre-crucifixion commissions to be binding.⁷³ Second, the apostles continued to proclaim the gospel with preaching and healing in the post-resurrection period just as they were commanded to do in the pre-crucifixion commissions to the Twelve and seventy-two (Acts 3:6, 12; 4:29-30; 5:12-16, 20-21, 28, 42; 9:34-35; 14:3, 8-10, 15ff.; 15:12, 36; 18:5, 11 [cf. II Cor. 12:12; I Cor. 2:4-5]; 19:8-12; Rom. 15:18-19; I Cor. 1:6-7 [cf. 12:9]; II Cor. 12:12; I Thes. 1:5-6; Heb. 2:3-4). Finally, the apostles not only proclaimed the gospel with preaching and healing, but they also taught the disciples they made to proclaim the gospel with preaching and healing–non-apostles like Stephen (Acts 6:8, 1; 0), Philip (Acts 8:4-7, 12); Ananias (Acts 9: 17-18; 22:12-16); congregations like the Corinthians (I Cor. 11:1; 12:9); the Galatians (Gal. 3:5), the Philippians (Phil. 4:9); the Thessalonians (I Thes. 1:5-6); and Jewish Christian congregations (Heb. 6:1-2⁷⁴; James 5:14-16).

To the above points, MacArthur would add that miracles ceased with the apostles and their companions because fresh revelation ceased as well. Apart from his theological position, what concrete evidence does he offer for this assertion? He answers, “The types of miracles claimed [today] … are nothing like New Testament miracles. Jesus and the apostles instantly and completely healed people. … New Testament miracles were immediate, thorough, and permanent. … By contrast, most modern miracles are nearly always partial, gradual, or temporary.”⁷⁵ Such a statement seems completely unable to explain modern miracles that are exactly like New Testament miracles—immediate, thorough, and permanent.⁷⁶ These miracles are delivering people afflicted with demons by the name of Jesus in the power of the Spirit. Having seen this happen numbers of times, I must simply say that I stand with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. Jesus has come to break the power of the enemy and he continues to do this today through his Church, just as he did in the early centuries. This will only become real for us as we see demons challenge us as they did Jesus, be silenced by Jesus through us, and then come out, often with physical convulsions or other manifestations just as they did when Jesus sent them packing in his earthly ministry (see Mk. 1:21-28).

MacArthur writes, “We are not commissioned to confront satanic power with miracle power. We are commissioned to confront satanic lies with divine truth.”⁷⁷ But such a statement seems to ignore the fact that we are not only dealing with “lies” but with liars (Jn. 8:44) when we are dealing with real malignant personalities, and they must be driven out. I have seen numbers of witches, drug addicts, sex addicts and others set free from these evil powers by the commanding name of Jesus. This is the core of kingdom ministry. As quoted above, MacArthur warns, “Indeed, Christians who pursue miraculous signs are setting themselves up for satanic deception.” But, in light of our study, may we not warn that Christians who do not pursue miraculous signs according to the biblical model of ministry are setting themselves up for satanic deception? Are they not in danger of “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (II Tim. 3:5 NKJV)?

In conclusion, Jesus the Messiah, the eternal Son of God, bore the kingdom in his word and work. Like any good first century teacher, he discipled his followers in order to reproduce not only his life of faith and holiness but also his ministry in them. When he ascended into heaven he left behind ones “like himself” (Ben Sirach) who he then filled with himself by his Spirit. They were like him in doctrine, character and ministry. They, in turn, discipled the next generation to be like themselves, as Jesus had done.

The risen Lord, however, is the key to all of this. By his Spirit he pours his life into his Church and continues his ministry through those who obey his command to preach the kingdom, cast out demons and heal the sick. In ages of secularization, rationalism and unbelief, this ministry has grown dim, to be sure. But as God renews his Church, kingdom ministry breaks forth again. So it is in our generation, across the continents, across ethnic groups, across denominations and across theological traditions. So it is more and more intensively as we approach the end of this age.

 

PR 

 

Further Reading: Preview other books by Don Williams

Start Here: Kingdom Essentials for Christians https://books.google.com/books?id=fvO49nJsNLcC

12 Steps with Jesus https://books.google.com/books?id=lu8lBQAAQBAJ

 

Notes

¹ See, for example, John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), p. 118.

² Ibid., p. 120.

³ J. Lindblom, Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1962), p. 160.

⁴ Similar formulae appear in Egyptian wisdom literature as well. See “The Instruction of King Amen-em-het” (1960 B.C.). “The beginning of the instruction which the majesty of the King…made, when he spoke in a message of truth to his son.” James Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 2nd, ed., (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. 418.

⁵ All Rabbinical citations come from before the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70). Unless otherwise noted, they are found in Pirke Aboth. See R. H. Charles (ed.), Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1913), Vol. II, p. 686.

⁶ This observation is not intended to depreciate the importance of written texts, from the Old Testament and the legal, mythological, wisdom, and ritual writings of the Ancient Near East, to Homer and the classical Greek philosophers, etc. It is intended to make a point which we who live in a culture dependent upon the written word often minimize or forget.

⁷ Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, Its Life and Institutions (New York: McGraw, Hill, 1961), p. 49.

⁸ When the Mishnah was published, its original form was not in writing but in a fixed oral text recited by the Tannaim or “repeaters.” See Saul Lieberman, Hellenism in Jewish Palestine (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1950), p. 88.

⁹ “Attach” (da—baq), according to Brown, Driver, and Briggs, “starts with the ideal of physical proximity. …” Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1952), p. 179.

¹⁰ Birger Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript (Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup, 1961), pp. 182ff

¹¹ Louis Finkelstein, Akiba (New York: Covici Friede Publishers, 1936), p. 181 See B. Berakot 62a; Yer. Berakot 9.8, 14c.

¹² Cited in Wolfson, Philo (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947), Vol II, p. 195.

¹³ Henri Marrou, A History of Education in Antiquity (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1956), p. 31f.

¹⁴ Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, VI.5-7. Cited by Willis De Boer, The Imitation of Paul (Kampen: J.H. Kok, 1962), p.26.

¹⁵ Cited in Martin Hengel, The Charismatic Leader and His Followers (New York: Crossroad, 1981), p. 60, n.87.

¹⁶ A.M. Hunter, The Works and Words of Jesus (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975), p. 76.

¹⁷ I am indebted to Francis Schaeffer for this thought in Escape from Reason (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter Varsity Press, 1968), p. 46.

¹⁸ MacArthur, op. cit., p. 139.

¹⁹ R.H. Fuller, The Mission and Achievement of Jesus (Chicago: Alec. Allenson, 1954), p. 40; Many New Testament scholars have noted the revelatory nature of both word and deed in the ministry of Jesus, the apostles and the Early Church (See also appendix 1 of this book: “Power Evangelism and the New Testament Evidence”): F. F. Bruce, The Hard Sayings of Jesus (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983), pp. 96-97; O. Hofius, in C. Brown, ed., NIDNTT, vol. 2, pp. 632-633; K. Tagawa, Miracles et évangile (Études d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses, 62; Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1966), p. 87 (also see pp. 49-73, espec. pp. 53 and 73); A. Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels (London: SCM Press, 1941), pp. 17, 35-45; H. van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus (Supplements to Novum Testamentum, vol. 8. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1965), pp. 220-224, 252, 284-285; C. H. Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power (London: Epworth Press, 1963), p. 131-139; H. Hendrickx, The Miracle Stories of the Synoptic Gospels (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987), p. 25; B. Klappert, NIDNTT, vol. 3, p. 1108; G. Delling, “Botschaft und Wunder im Wirken Jesu,” in H. Ristow and K. Matthiae, eds., Der historische Jesus und der kerygmatische Christus (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1961), p. 393; G. Friedrich, “euaggelizomai,” TDNT, vol. 2, p. 720; W. Grundmann, “dunamis,” TDNT, vol. 2, p. 311.

²⁰ J. Jeremias, Theology of the New Testament (New York: Scribner’s, 1971), p. 85 (for similar comments, see references in previous note).

²¹ William Barclay, The Mind of Jesus (New York: Harper and Row, 1960), p. 71; cf. T. H. Gaster, “Demon,” in IDB, vol. 1, pp. 822-823.

²² G. Guignebert, The Jewish World in the Time of Jesus (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1939), p. 104.

²³ Ibid., p. 105.

²⁴ Mac Arthur, op. cit., pp. 200-201.

²⁵ Ibid., p. 201.

²⁶ J. Jeremias, op. cit., p. 94.

²⁷ E. Stauffer, New Testament Theology (NewYork: MacMillian, 1955), p. 124.

²⁸ Jeremias, op. cit., p. 94.

²⁹ Ibid., p. 95.

³⁰A. Oepke, TDNT, vol. 3, p. 201.

³¹ Hengel, op. cit., p. 60.

³² Ibid., p. 66.

³³ See D.A. Carson, “The Purpose of Signs and Wonders in the New Testament,” in Michael Scott Horton, ed., Power Religion (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992). It is significant that Carson never relates Jesus’ signs and wonders to the presence of the kingdom or to his battle with Satan. By avoiding this major theme of New Testament theology, he makes a linguistic analysis of signs and wonders which is remarkably cut out of its proper context (to say nothing of the other proper context, teaching and learning in antiquity).

³⁴ R.H. Fuller, op. cit., p. 39.

³⁵ A.M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 55.

³⁶ Harald Riesenfeld, The Gospel Tradition and its Beginnings (London: Mowbray, 1957), p. 24.

³⁷ Rudolph Bultmann, Jesus and the Word (New York: Scribner’s, 1958), p. 124.

³⁸ Hengel, op. cit., concludes, “Thus, basically, Jesus stood outside any discoverable uniform teaching tradition of Judaism,” p. 49.

³⁹ Compare Mk. 1:25; 5:8; 9:25; Lk. 4:35 (“come out” exerchomai) and Acts 16:18 (“come out” exerchomai);

Compare Mk. 2:11; 5:41; Lk. 5:24; 7:14; 8:54; Jn. 5:8 (“get up” egeirō) and Acts 3:6-7 (“get up” egeirō majority of texts); 9:34, 40; 14:10 (“stand up” anastēthi);

Compare Jn. 5:8 (“walk” peripatei) and Acts 3:6 (“walk” peripatei);

Compare Mat. 8:3, 15; 9:25, 29; Mk. 1:31, 41; 5:41; 6:5; 8:23, 25; Lk. 4:40; 5:13; 8:54; 13:13; 14:4 (laying on of hands) and Acts 8:12; 9:17; 28:8 (laying on of hands);

Compare Lk. 18:42 (“see again” anablepson) and Acts 22:13 (“see again” anablepson);

Compare Mat. 9:25; Mk. 5:40 (removing a weeping crowd) and Acts 9:40 (removing a weeping crowd).

⁴⁰ Jeremias, op. cit., p. 95.

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 237.

⁴² Ibid., p. 238.

⁴³ Hengel, op. cit., p. 53.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 66.

⁴⁵ Powell, The Biblical Concept of Power, p. 138 and n. 36.

⁴⁶ Although the form was not Rabbinic—Jesus called his disciples, they did not seek him out. He did not teach with a chain of authoritative tradition, but by his naked word of authority. His methods were not scribal or bookish, etc. Other major differences in form were also the way Jesus preached the urgency of the kingdom and the “form” of deliverance from demons and healing the sick, for example, by touching them and releasing the power of the Spirit in this way (Mk. 1:31, compare Lk. 8:46).

⁴⁷ Hengel, op. cit., p. 73.

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 78.

⁴⁹ MacArthur, op. cit., p. 121.

⁵⁰ Besides bestowing the Spirit and spiritual gifts, the “laying on of hands,” mentioned in the list of elementary teachings, is one of the principle means of prayer for healing in the New Testament (Mat. 9:29; Mk. 1:41; 5:23; 6:5; 7:32; 16:18; Lk. 4:40; 13:13; Acts 9:17; 28:8; Jas. 5:14 “let them pray over [epi] him”). It follows that prayer for healing and prayer to convey the power and gifts of the Spirit was included in the “elementary teachings” of the Early Church.

⁵¹ Oscar Cullmann, The Early Church (London: SCM, 1956), pp. 64-65.

⁵² W.D. Davies, Christian Origins and Judaism (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1962), p. 234.

⁵³ Ibid., p. 235.

⁵⁴ MacArthur, op. cit., p. 199.

⁵⁵ Ibid., p. 75.

⁵⁶ Eberhard Arnold, The Early Christians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), p. 95.

⁵⁷ Dialogue with Trypho, 85.1-2, in Ibid., p. 96.

⁵⁸ Second Apology, 6 in Ibid., p. 138.

⁵⁹ Irenaeus Against Heresies, XXXII.4, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1981), Vol. I, p. 409.

⁶⁰ Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), p. 137.

⁶¹ Ibid., p. 268.

⁶² Ibid., p. 328.

⁶³ Ibid., p. 20.

⁶⁴ Ibid., p. 19.

⁶⁵ Lewis Smedes (ed.), Ministry and the Miraculous (Pasadena, CA.: Fuller Theological Seminary, 1987), p. 13.

⁶⁶ Ibid., pp. 28-29.

⁶⁷ Ibid., p. 25.

⁶⁸ I would certainly concur with the Fuller position theologically. There is no triumph of God’s kingdom apart from the atoning work of Christ. If Jesus had healed everybody and not died for their sins, they would have all been healthy and gone to Hell. We are speaking here of the historical evidence of the Gospels which gives first place to Jesus’ kingdom message and ministry.

⁶⁹ A. Richardson, The Miracle-Stories of the Gospels (London: Epworth, 1942), p. 61-62.

⁷⁰ Smedes, op. cit., p. 26.

⁷¹ Ibid., p. 28.

⁷² Ibid., p. 29.

⁷³ See appendix 3 (“Mat. 28:18-20–The Great Commission and Jesus’ Commands to Preach and Heal”); Konrad Weiss (TDNT, vol. 6, p. 629 and nn. 47-48) has no trouble relating Paul and Barnabas’s obeying the command to shake the dust from their feet in Acts 13:51 to the authority of Christ conveyed to His disciples in the pre-crucifixion commissions. Dr. van der Loos (The Miracles of Jesus, pp. 217-218) also points out that the evidence from the Gospels and Acts suggests a clear relationship between the pre-crucifixion commissions and the post-resurrection ministry of the apostles: “Acts make mention of many signs [italics his] performed by the apostles. … This miraculous power of the apostles was inseparably bound up with the instructions and authority [italics his] which Jesus had given them. The discourse to the disciples before they are sent forth, Mat. 10 and parallel passages, begins with the statement that Jesus called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them power ‘against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.’ ‘Preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give,’ are the direct instructions that Jesus gives His disciples.”

⁷⁴ For the “laying on of hands,” mentioned in the list of elementary teachings, as one of the principle means of prayer for healing in the New Testament, see E. Lohse, “cheir,” TDNT, vol. 9, pp. 431-432; cf. Mat. 9:29; Mk. 1:41; 5:23; 6:5; 7:32; 16:18; Lk. 4:40; 13:13; Acts 9:17; 28:8; Jas. 5:14 “let them pray over [epi] him.”

⁷⁵ MacArthur, op. cit., p. 110.

⁷⁶ See, for example, the tabulated statistics and in-depth analysis of 100 randomly selected cases out of a total of 1,890 cases of healing and other phenomena presented by Dr. David Lewis, a British social anthropologist and Cambridge Research Associate (Mongolia and Inner Asian Studies unit) in his book, Healing: Fiction, Fantasy or Fact? A Comprehensive Analysis of the Healings and Associated Phenomena at John Wimber’s Harrogate Conference, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. Dr. Lewis also summarizes his research in his chapter in this book. See also the carefully documented cases of otherwise inexplicable healings associated with prayer in Christ’s name which are investigated by obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Rex Gardner, Healing Miracles: A Doctor Investigates (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1986) and Dr. Ann England, ed., We Believe in Healing (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1982). Gardner remarks in a 1983 article which presents detailed accounts of seven contemporary cases-histories in the British Medical Journal that “no attempt has been made to prove that miracles have occurred, such proof being probably impossible. The adjective ‘miraculous’ is, however, permissible as a convenient shorthand for an otherwise almost inexplicable healing which occurs after prayer to God and brings honor to the Lord Jesus Christ” (Gardner, “Miracles of Healing in Anglo-Celtic Northumbria as Recorded by the Venerable Bede and His Contemporaries: A Reappraisal in the Light of Twentieth-Century Experience,” British Medical Journal 287 [1983], p. 1932).

⁷⁷ Ibid., p. 135 MacArthur writes, “Today we deal with evil spirits not by finding someone with the gift of powers to cast them out, but by following the instructions of 2 Corinthians 2:10-11; Ephesians 6:11-18; 2 Timothy 2:25-26; James 4:7; and I Peter 5:7-9. All these verses teach us how we can triumph over Satan.” Ibid., p. 201 While this is true, MacArthur does not deal with demon possession or demonization. This becomes completely clear if we ask, how do you deal with a demon in a non-Christian? The teaching texts MacArthur cites are for Christians. None of these texts apply to an unbeliever or to one who needs actual deliverance from a demon.

 

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the NIV®.

This chapter is from Gary S. Greig and Kevin N. Springer, eds., The Kingdom and the Power: Are Healing and the Spiritual Gifts Used by Jesus and the Early Church Meant for the Church Today? A Biblical Look at How to Bring the Gospel to the World with Power (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993). Used with permission.