(4) Healing is the ability to restore health (e.g., Acts 3:7; 19:12) and also to hold off death itself temporarily (Acts 9:40; 20:9–10). (5) Miraculous powers may refer to exorcising demons (Acts 19:12) or inducing physical disability (Acts 13:11) or even death (Acts 5:5, 9). (6) Prophecy is the ability, like that of the Old Testament prophets, to declare a message of God for His people (1 Cor. 14:3). (7) Ability to distinguish between spirits is the gift to differentiate the Word of God proclaimed by a true prophet from that of a satanic deceiver (cf. 2 Cor. 11:14–15; 1 John 4:1). If the Corinthians possessed this gift (cf. 1 Cor. 1:7), it was not being put to good use (cf. 12:1–3). (8) Tongues refers to the ability to speak an unlearned, living language (e.g., Acts 2:11). (9) Interpretation was the ability to translate an unlearned, known language expressed in the assembly (1 Cor. 14:27).

With the possible exception of faith, all these gifts seem to have been confirmatory and foundational gifts for the establishment of the church (cf. Heb. 2:4; Eph. 2:20) and were therefore temporary.

Cornelius Van Til argued that a miracle is one of the three modes of revelation, each of which confirms the other two: theophany—God’s intervention in His own person; prophecy—God’s intervention by His own word; and miracle—God’s intervention by His own power.

This understanding of faith as miracle-working suggests a close relationship between the gift of faith and the following references to gifts of healings and miracles. According to Thiselton, “rather than focus on the category of miracle, it is more helpful to consider the conceptual entailments of faith in the God who is Almighty and sovereign in relation to his own world.” In other words, faith in an almighty and sovereign God entails an understanding that he is capable of intervening in the most dramatic or supernatural (or even more subtle and mundane) ways. It is important to note, however, that Paul is working from an eschatological understanding of the significance of the outpouring of the Spirit and of other signs of God’s long-awaited grace, favor, and presence among his people. This is not merely a question of a timeless doctrine of the nature of God, but one of understanding the possibilities now that God has acted and chosen to manifest his presence among the people “on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (10:11).

NT Witness to Cessation of Miracles. Many deny that the NT itself testifies to the cessation of sign miracles with the completion of the Biblical revelation. However, Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 13:8–13 clearly establish the point. He emphatically states that the supernatural gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will vanish away, or be abolished (v. 8). He sets the time of this in verse 10, “when that which is perfect is come.”