(January 17, 2012 at 10:11 pm)Ziploc Surprise Wrote: As for the other stuff: Religious people used to say that the reason why miracles like those in the book of acts don't happen today is that (and there are several versions of this) the special anointing that Jesus put on the disciples was never passed down to later generations. The power of the miracle producing magic spell (as I would call it) ended with the disciples. Another version of this belief is that "those miracles aren't for us today" because the purpose for them was to get the glorious church of god started (kind of like a push start).The bible has it's own built in defense of this.
A more modern explanation is that the miracles died out when the church lost their first love so to speak. This belief assumes that Christianity didn't evolve at all. It was perfect (with a few flaws) in the time of Paul, then it went a bit haywire during the reign of the Catholics (note my sarcasm) and then it started it's way back to it's original state of near perfection after the reformation. To "Prove" this they claim that when the church rose in power it had some sort of inverse relationship with miracle producing power.
Mark 6:5-6 NIV Wrote:He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
According to this (which was written well before Acts), the reason for the absence of miracles is due to a lack of faith by Christians.
