“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever [margin, “the latter day”]; That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus said the Holy One of Israel, because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.” Isaiah 30:8-13

“But the skeptical objector inquires, “Where are the gifts? If your position be correct, why have they not been manifested in the church all along down ever since God set them in the church? Why are not the sick healed by faith now?” We are aware that this is the principal objection brought against the scripture doctrine of the perpetuity of the gifts, therefore it demands special notice. We reply to it as follows:

The sick were not always healed by faith in Paul’s day. He says, 2 Timothy 4:20, “Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.” Again he says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 5:23, “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” God could have answered the prayers of his servant Paul, and raised up Trophimus, and healed Timothy’s infirmities, if this had been best. We conclude that God has not designed in any age of the church to manifest His power so far that there should be no sick among Christians. But in cases where it would be for the good of the afflicted, and for His own glory, He has manifested His power, and will manifest it.” 3 Spiritual Gifts SG 27.2, 3