Is God Powerless Today?   
 

by Lowell Blasingame

If I deny that God still heals miraculously as He did in the first century, some of my religious neighbors deride me saying, “Do you believe that God has become powerless?” And when I teach that sinners must hear, believe, and obey the gospel, others will say, “Don't you think that God is able to save a man without his help?”

The issue is not a question of what power God has but one of how He elects to use that power. God certainly doesn't do all the things that He has the power of doing. John told Jews who were putting their trust in their lineage, “That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Mt. 3:9). Now, God is ``able'' to do that but I challenge you to find where He ever turned a stone into a Jew!  God had the power to take a rib from Adam and from it give him a wife.  But He didn't give you a wife in that way. Is it because He has lost some power and is no longer able to do for you what He did for Adam? Surely it isn't; it's because He no longer uses His power in these ways.

Miracles performed by the apostles were to confirm His word as they revealed it to men (Mk. 16:20; Heb. 2:1-3). When the New Testament was completely revealed and confirmed, miraculous power was no longer needed and ceased to be given. My doing God's will to enter the kingdom or obeying the gospel to be saved isn't something that is optional, but mandatory (Mt. 7:21; 2 Th. 1:7-8) --not because God needs my help in saving me but because He has required me to obey Christ to be saved (Heb. 5:8-9). He has never turned a stone into a Jew and He has never saved a disobedient person.

 

 

  

 Other Articles by Lowell Blasingame

Is the Restoration Plea Valid?
Growing Up
Baptism Isn't For!
Cross-Centered Preaching
"By What Authority"
Rejecting the Reins
Are All Churches of Christ Alike?