Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe?

John Mark, in his writing of the gospel, quotes Jesus, saying, "And these signs shall follow them that believe...." (Mark 16:17). There never has been a time in the history of the church that all who believe and were baptized had these miraculous gifts.

Those converted by the apostles themselves could not do all these miracles (Acts 8:14-17). The promise was not intended to embrace all, but enough were to be endowed with these gifts to confirm the Scriptures as being from God and to enable the world to believe. Such evidences were necessary in the first dawn of Christianity to attract attention to the doctrine; but our Lord's words do not mean they shall be in perpetuity, as a continual recurring of the evidence of the truth of Christianity.

The American Standard Version translates the passage as "And. these signs shall accompany them that believe..." The Greek word rendered "follow" in the King James Version does not necessarily mean to follow indefinitely, but rather to "accompany," to attend one where he goes and only applies to the miraculous age, and must not be understood so as to extend to or apply to any one beyond the age of miracles. Miraculous power was not intended to continue to the end of time, for the New Testament shows that miracles and miraculous power were to cease.

Paul says, "Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away" (I Cor. 13:8-10). This passage plainly teaches that power to prophesy, to foretell future events, to teach things the teacher had never learned, to speak in languages he had never understood, and such like things, would all be done away; that is, "when that which is perfect is come," and that means when a complete revelation of all things pertaining to Christianity should be revealed. This was done when the New Testament was completed, done in the first century; and from then until now there has not been a man or woman on earth that could perform miracles.

Mormons and Pentecostals make bold claims of performing miracles, but there is not a Mormon nor a Pentecostal on earth today that can perform a miracle, and there never has been, nor will there ever be. If all these people on earth were together in one place and should unite all their prayers and efforts, they could not, if their lives depended on it, perform one single miracle. They can go around and prate about contradictions in the Bible and about their ability to perform miracles, and yet they will never perform a single miracle. They will not simply because they cannot, and those who claim the power know that they cannot. Everyone must study the Bible and fortify themselves against such empty claims and vain pretenses.