A5. The Devil Made Me Do It
I'll be interested in your feedback on the issue raised in this email just
before you quit answering. I do personally find it challenging to think that
God may somehow be less accessible or involved than Satan in miracle-working.
In an age of post-modernism where belief is non-existent or challenged, what is
the role of miracles? Does Satan do them more than God? Why/why not? Why perhaps
in the mission-field more than here? Etc.
Take care,
Robert
It is critical to understand the limitations of angels in their ability to influence our world. The model I proposed can be used to establish these limits. For example, God can create an angel that we can physically see, who has supernatural powers as well. God can do this because it's all His thoughts. However, no one in God's mind can do this. If an angel imagines something, it only exists in his own mind and not in the world around him. Likewise for humans. So, if Satan is to "appear" in our world, he can only create the illusion of that in the minds of those he is influencing, ie his hypnotic victims. Yet, in the End Times, most people will fall into this category (2Thes 2: 9-12). If you understand this at that time, then you will be one of the few who are not deceived.
You asked if, "God may somehow be less accessible or involved than Satan in miracle-working".
Miracles come in a variety of dimensional levels. Anything that is natural in a 4D world is easy for angels to do. Some of those things would be super-natural to us in this 3D world. Yet these angels are limited to doing only those things that are natural for them to do. Our impression of what is happening is also limited. We get our information on those things via our 3D senses and our thoughts. On the other hand, God is capable of miracles that are supernatural to angels as well. Can we tell the difference? Is it like telling the difference between being blown up by a 1 megaton bomb versus by a 100 megaton bomb? Either way you're blown away.
I say God can do miracles that are on a par with what the demons are doing to deceive us humans. He demonstrated that He does this on occasion, in His Bible stories. EG: the pharaoh's priests duplicated Moses' initial miracles. Then, when God wants to distinguish Himself from the false prophets, He elevates His miracles to things that they cannot do.
With the priests of Baal, He alone could bring down "fire from heaven". This distinguished the true God from the fakes, but we are warned in Revelation 13, that in the End Times the demons will be able to duplicate this feat. At least we understand that we onlookers will think that they are duplicating it. The key distinguishing characteristic for God, in my opinion is His unique ability to always predict the future accurately. God makes this point often throughout the Bible. My model accounts for this unique ability, because God is the Thinker and everything else is His thoughts. Only God knows exactly what He will think of next. Although angels and humans may know what they are going to think of next, they are only guessing about God's thoughts.
So, is God less involved in working miracles now-a-days? I say that He continues to work miracles but only upon request. If we were to poll all the people who have sincerely asked God to intervene, then we'd see how often His miracles are still happening. In the Bible we have a record that is biased toward the miraculous events, since they are more noteworthy. But the purpose of these accounts is to show us how and under what circumstances God intervenes and when and why He doesn't always do what we expect. A lot of the miracles God works deal with changing hearts by way of the situations that God may indeed be manipulating. God's goal is to help us choose Life instead of Death.
Conversely, the miracles that demons work are often more tangible. In the occult, you ask to be hypnotized so the demons can tell you what to think. When that happens, you believe what you are told. You can be made to believe that something is happening that really isn't (eg an apparition appears to be physically real but it is not visible to everyone because it really isn't there.). Likewise, you can believe that something is miraculous even if it is a trick. You might attribute some of David Blaine's magic to a supernatural power, but so far all his magic is just illusion and slight of hand. It's really "cool" but once you see how it is done, then you feel duped.
In an age of post-modernism where belief is non-existent or challenged, what is the role of miracles? Does Satan do them more than God? Why/why not?
Why perhaps in the mission-field more than here?
What I see happening is that more and more altruistic people are defaulting to various kinds of New Age Spiritualistic beliefs. From horoscopes and fortune cookies that aren't really taken seriously, to 900 phone numbers to supposed clairvoyants who seem to read your mind and claim to be able to put you in touch with your dead friends. All this occult stuff is now fashionable in Western culture as it always has been in the Eastern cultures. At the same time those Eastern cultures are valuing Western science and technologies. This is in their attempt to escape from the impoverished societies that their occult connections have put them in.
It would seem that non-Christian cultures are all into some form of the Occult, dealing with trusting in false gods. Theories like reincarnation from past lives, out of body experiences, and séances with dead people abound. None of these things are actually true. The victims are willingly deceived.
On the other hand, we see hard evidence of supernatural phenomena in things like those extremely complex crop circles, and perhaps in some of those weird healing experiences you mentioned. Indeed demons can and do affect our physical world, and I think they can only do that via their thought energy. I believe telekinesis is possible given enough practice and those angelic beings have had enough time to get it perfected. Anywhere that people are actively asking for the demons to communicate with them we will see more of these (UFO-like) phenomena. Conversely, if people are avoiding the occult in all its forms even when everyone around them is doing something that appears to be benign, and when they instead are trusting and praying actively to the real God, then these occurrences will not confuse them. In the mission field we see many cultures steeped in occult practices as a way of life. Voodoo is a good example. There is a power in the occult and these people are close to it routinely. God has told us that we must resist the Devil and he will flee from us, but then we must develop a relationship with God or they'll return in even stronger force.
In summary, God uses His miracles to change situations around us and not to directly intervene against our will. His goal is for us to make our own choices to follow/trust Him. Alternatively, the demons yoke is not so benign. They will stop only at their natural limitations to affect us as directly as possible. Their goal is to make us choose any false god in place of trusting in the true God. They will control our minds if we let them and then they will control what we perceive as reality (eg the paranormal UFO sightings and other apparitions). They will also stun us with magic in order to win our allegiance to them (eg the automatic typewriters, objects flying through the air, and crop circles).
A5a. Demons and the Occult, Notes from November 2000
People want power without accountability therefore they are excited about
occult and magic
Our culture has lost its boundaries. People no longer realize the dangers of
the occults, because they have forgotten God's warnings. The media portrays the
occult as attractive.
Formulas for attracting the spirit world are so simple: Relaxation, concentration, visualization, and mental projection. Anything supernatural is perceived as "good", without question.
2Thess 2:9, 10 = Satan uses magic to deceive.
God also uses miracles also:
Matt 24: 24 = Jesus predicts end
time events will include false prophets deceiving even elect
Acts 2: 22 = God testified to Jesus by miracles and wonders to prove He was
God's Image.
2Cor 12:12 = Miracles by Apostles testified to their mission for God
How to Test the Spirits:
Deut 18: 10-12= First, don't practice occult. It's not healthy spiritually
By practicing the Occult, you become blind to God's truth. You lose your reference for distinguishing good from evil. Rom 1: God gave them over to their lusts and their depraved minds, which would tolerate evil of all kinds and no longer know the difference. This is where we are today. Danger is that they will lose touch with God, which can only be recovered via Prayer and a relationship with Christ.
Matt 16:6, 9-11 = Jesus would not work more miracles when they were closing
their eyes to those He had already done. (God multiplies the resources He
places in our hands. Therefore they need not worry about lunch)
Jesus' miracles were revelations about God. This is the biggest difference from
magic.
Healing on Sabbath - legalism
Paralytic - Faith
Lepers - forgiveness
Occult miracles: Close our eyes, and are used as an escape from our problems
God's miracles: Teach us and help us grow through our problems
Magic vs Miracles: Ask these questions
Look at the source
Look at the results
Does it help us grow closer to God
Is it helping us escape our problems, but only temporarily
Also remember that, only God can predict the future accurately without error.
26 July 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com