Originally Posted by BamaRich
Originally Posted by Bowfool
Originally Posted by Teacher One
My religion doesn't require me to handle snakes to display my faith. No Thanks.
But it's IN the Bible. Just saying

Mark 16

17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.


Many fail to understand the context of Mark 16:17ff and limitations of today. Jesus was giving the Great Commission to his apostles in this passage... their "marching orders" so to speak. In the 1st Century, the apostles had no copies of the Bible to prove their message was truly authentic - from God. Thus, God allowed supernatural miracles to be done through the hands of the apostles and on people apostle's laid their hands upon. When someone could perform a supernatural feat (casting out demons, speaking unlearned languages, etc.), people were convinced the message was from God... not man.

A very interesting study is to go to the book of Acts and look up the instances where Mark 16:17ff relate... see where demons were cast out, people spoke in unlearned languages, healing of the sick, etc. You will find inevitably that when a miracle like this was performed, the occasion provided a teaching opportunity... and people were afforded a chance to hear the gospel.

The point of doing these miracles was never to confirm/validate faith in the person performing the miracles... it was for the purpose to validate their message as truly being from God. A couple more places that offer insight into this topic is John 20:30-31 and 1 Corinthians 13:8-13. The first indicates one major purpose of miracles in the 1st Century... the second indicates the time frame when those miracles would be able to be done.


While I agree that miracles,signs and healings are not to prove faith,I disagree that these things passed away and were only given to the 11 in Mark 16.

We see miracles performed by Paul,Stephen and Ananias in Acts.Using 1 Cor.13 to say that God's miracles have passed away,is just taking it out of context.I suppose knowledge is also passed away,in which case neither of us know what we are talking about.

1 Cor 13 is simply talking about Charity,which is God's kind of giving love.It is telling us that this kind of love is the prevalent nature of God and as such will never pass away.When we meet God face to face there will be no need for prophecies,and tongues ,which only give us a glimpse into God.When we meet God we shall know him as we are known by him and his charity(love)shall remain.