tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post4926594735873823592..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Naturalizing miraclesRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-84115916209684424782013-11-28T14:57:21.458-05:002013-11-28T14:57:21.458-05:00Steve,
RE: cessationists denying agency when heal...Steve,<br /><br />RE: cessationists denying agency when healing comes through prayer<br /><br />Would they also deny human agency in the following cases where prayer was used or would have been instrumental in healing others?<br /><br />1 Kings 17.21-24 Elijah raising the widow’s son<br /><br />2 Kings 3.32-37 Elisha raising the Shunammite’s son<br /><br />Acts 9.40-41 where Peter prays before raising Tabitha<br /><br />Acts 28.8 Paul prays before healing Publius’s father of recurrent fever and dysentery<br /><br />Mark 9.18-29 where Jesus explains that the disciples were unable to heal the boy of the demon because “This kind cannot come out by anything <i>but prayer</i>” or “<i>prayer and fasting</i> (as some manuscripts)<br /><br />The elders praying over the sick person in James 5.14-15 would seem to fall into the same category.<br /><br />If these examples admit that God healed through the prayer of the person and that it was through agency, I don’t see how cessationists can legitimately exclude post-apostolic prayers of individuals or groups over a person as use of human agency and prayer.<br /><br />RE: God healing once through a person/gift of healing<br /><br />I think it is possible for God to use a person to heal who may never had done this previously or may never afterward. The gift in 1 Corinthians is “gifts of healings” (both nouns are plural not singular) which may suggest that each healing is a gift in itself. Furthermore, if charismata can be occasional (for the moment) as well as permanent in persons, then it is possible for a person to exercise a gift they don’t normally because the Spirit has chosen to use the person in that moment.Ian D. Elsasserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12649583616088619833noreply@blogger.com