Question:

About miracles, the New Testament describes Jesus working miracles, of course.  At the end of his ministry, he breathed on the apostles, giving them the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).  Jesus gave the apostles the ability to work miracles, signs and wonders.  This can be seen through many examples.  One of these is Acts 3:1-10.  Jesus also gave the ability to the apostles to, when they laid their hands on people, to pass on the ability to work various kinds of miracles, such as healing, tongues, prophecy, etc.  This can be shown using Acts 8:9-25.  Here Phillip could not pass on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but had to send to Jerusalem for an apostle to come to Samaria to give the ability to work miracles.   The most reasonable conclusion of these passages (many others could be mentioned) is that the ability to work various miracles in the early history of the church was restricted to Jesus, to the apostles and to those the apostles laid hands on to impart miraculous ability.   The scripture tells us that these miracles were done to give testimony to the gospel message (Hebrews 2:3-4).  Because the New Testament is complete, there is no logical reason for these miraculous gifts to continue.

Does this mean that God is not doing miracles today?  No, but it means that the way God is working miracles today is qualitiatively different than he did in the first century when he was still revealing his inspired message to the apostles.   I really do not know for sure if God is doing miraculous healings today.  However, I believe that he does and that it is a great idea for Christians to pray to God to intervene in hard situations.   However, the promise of miracles such as those in the New Testament is not there.   If a Christian or a non-Christian friend has a sickness, we should consult doctors, but we should also pray.  This is a biblical way of acting (James 5:13-16)

About eating meat sacrificed to idols, Paul dealt with this question in 1 Corinthians 8.  Paul said that an idol is nothing, and therefore, food sacrificed to nothing (ie and idol) is nothing different than other food.  Idols are nothing, so meat sacrificed to idols is meat sacrificed to nothing at all.  It is not sinful to eat such meat.  However, you should read this passage carefully.  Paul said that for some (weaker) Christians, they cannot understand that it is not sinful to eat meat sacrificed to an idol.  For them, it seems to be sinful.  Paul says that if eating meat sacrificed to idols is a stumbling block to a weaker Christian, then he would not eat meat sacrificed to idols.  1 Corinthians 8:11-13 makes this clear.  So, when it comes to meat sacrificed to idols there in India, it is not sinful, per se, to eat such meat because an idol is nothing.   However, if there is any chance that doing so would be a stumbling block to a fellow disicple of Jesus, or a stumbling block to a non-Christian, you will be wise to not eat such meat.  This is a grey area.  You should seek advice on this from local wise disciples.  I say this because, not knowing the local culture, I am not in a good position to be able to give you strong advice.  This is a grey area (ie it is not a matter of absolutely clear cut doctrine), so you should seek the best wisdom, along with thinking for yourself how best to apply 1 Corinthians 8 to the situation.

John Oakes, PhD