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Can
Satan Do Miracles?
Can
Satan’s power deceive even true Christians?
Why does God allow Satan and the demons to have that level of
power? Basically, anyone can be
deceived by witnessing amazing miracles and then by automatically assuming that
the person doing them is of God, which is a spiritually very dangerous
conclusion. However, if we use our
knowledge of what the Bible commands and teaches, we can avoid being deceived
by false prophets, including the ultimate False Prophet of end-times prophecy
himself. Clearly Scripture teaches that
Satan and the demons can do miracles, so we must be on guard against assuming
miracles can only be done by God’s power.
Jesus
in the Olivet Prophecy warned His followers (Matthew 24:24): “For false Christs and false prophets will
arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible,
even the elect.” So let’s explore more closely the general issue of why God
allows Satan and the demons to do miracles at times. The basic reason why
the devil can heal and do miracles is the result of God’s decision to test us
so that He knows that we will freely choose to serve him even when we are strongly
tempted to sin. We need to step back and ask the basic
question: “Why does God allow Satan to exist?” That in
turn relates to a still more fundamental question, “Why does an almighty,
all-knowing, loving God allow evil to exist?” The quick, short answer
to the last question is that God is in the process of making beings like
Himself who will be 100% righteous yet still have 100% freedom of the will (cf.
Genesis 1:26-28; Eph. 4:12-13; Hebrews 2:5-12; John 17:20-23; Matt.
5:48). A subsection of this big question would be why God allows
Satan and the evil angels to live and to tempt human beings, including Eve
(Genesis 3:1-7). Fundamentally, God wants us to make a knowing,
conscious, deliberate decision to serve Him and to follow His way of life. We
humans have to go through temptations, tests, and trials that make it hard to
go the right way. The broad path to destruction is much easier to
find and to follow than the narrow path (Matt. 7:12-14). God wants to test us to see if we will trust
Him, have faith in Him, and be loyal to Him when the going gets
tough. God saw what happened when one third of the holy angels, who
had never experienced pain, evil, or injustice, followed Lucifer instead of Him
(Rev. 12:4, 9). As a result, God wants to make sure that human
beings will do a better job than so many of the holy angels did. For
example, God told His people to not follow false prophets. Yet God
would allow them to appear because (Deut. 13:3), “the Lord your God is testing
you to fid out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul.”
Therefore, from the very beginning, God commanded the human race
to choose between good and evil, such as in the Garden of
Eden. After all, God didn’t have to create the tree of knowledge of good
and evil and then place it in a prominent place in the
garden. Similarly, he told ancient Israel (Deut. 30:15-18,
19): “See, I have set before you life and prosperity, and death and
adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in
His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that
you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land
where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away
and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve
them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. . . . I call heaven
and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and
death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you
may live, you and your descendants.” God isn’t in the business of
making robots who would automatically will obey him, and thus avoid committing
evil acts. Instead, He wants sons and daughters who will knowingly
have faith and obey Him even when it’s hard to do so. As a result,
God temporarily allows Satan to test the human race until the time comes to
destroy him (Ezekiel 28:12-19). This is why God allows the devil to
do miracles and to heal people (cf. II Thess. 2:9; Rev. 13:13-14; Matt. 24:24).
Now, what are practical ways to sort out if a miracle is from
God or from Satan? One way to
test whether a prophet's purported revelation is
from God or not is whether it agrees with prior revelations from
Him. For example, if someone prophesies that we should worship another
God besides Jehovah, that person is a false prophet (Deuteronomy
13:1-9) and should be ignored. Such a "revelation"
would contradict the First Commandment (Ex.
20:3). A prophesied prediction that eventually proves to be
false also clearly isn't from the true God (Deut. 18:20-22), and should be
ignored. The basic principle at work here appears in Deut.
18:20-22 and Deut. 13:1-5. In these passages, a prophet who said to
worship other gods, or whose predictions didn't come to pass, should be
ignored, even executed. So we should only believe a (purported)
revelation from God if it agrees with prior revelations and (if applicable)
successfully predicts the future. By contrast, time and time again,
such as in the book of Daniel,
the Bible predicts the future, and it occurs since the true God can see
into the future and know what will happen (Isaiah 46:8-11).
Indeed, this remarkable aspect of the Bible is what proves it beyond any
doubt as being inspired, such as when it predicted Alexander the
Great's successful invasion of Persia followed by his kingdom breaking up
into four smaller kingdoms (see Daniel 11:2-4;
8:5-8, 20-22).
Another way to test if a prophet’s miracles are
from God concerns if they are systematically disobeying major commandments of
God as a matter of public teaching and deliberate personal practice. This
isn’t about temporary weakness, careless hypocrisy, or occasional sins, but
constant, intentional disobedience to God’s law as a matter of settled
doctrinal and intellectual conviction. What did Jesus say in the Sermon
on the Mount? “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the
kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy
in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your
name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from
me, you evildoers.’” (Matt. 5:21-23). True, one could argue about
whether this text describes gifts that came from God, or counterfeit gifts that
came from Satan. After all, Satan certain does have the power to do
miracles also (Rev. 13:13; II Thess. 2:9; Ex. 7:11-12, 22). It’s a very
dangerous teaching to believe all miracles must be from God. As Scripture
warns us (I John 4:1): “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test
the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone
out into the world.” One way to “test the spirits” is to consider whether
their alleged spokesmen are actually obeying God’s law. Likewise, the man
born blind that Jesus miraculously healed told the questioning Jews (John
9:31): “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a
worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.”
Many people use the terms “the false prophet,” “the son of
perdition,” “the Beast,” and/or “the antichrist” almost
interchangeably. This isn’t accurate. Notice how
Revelation 13 describes two beasts who will have two rulers, although the two
are allied to each other for a period of time. “The Beast” can refer
to either the kingdom he will ruler or to the ruler himself. This is
the first Beast described in Revelation 13:1-11. He is the political
leader, who is distinct from the religious ruler, who goes by the terms “the
false prophet” and “the son of perdition.” He will rule over the beast
described in Revelation 13:11-15, which is a religious
organization. “The false prophet” is the same person. He
is described in Revelation 16:13, 19:20; 20:10. The term “antichrist” appears
in Scripture as a term that refers to heretics who deny basic truths of
Scripture, such as someone who denies that Jesus was the Christ (Messiah) (I
John 2:22) and that Jesus didn’t come from God (I John 4:2). The
term can be used, however, for the future apostate leader (I John
1:18). The “son of perdition” is described in II Thessalonians
2:3-12.
A key reason why the man of sin (or “son of perdition”), the false
prophet, and the second beast of Revelation 13 are equated is because all of
these titles refer to someone who will perform powerful miracles by Satanic
power that will deceive people (see II Thess. 2:10; Rev. 13:14; Rev.
19:20). The false prophet will also be the leader of a great
religious organization which has existed and will exist parallel to the area
and even outside the area ruled by the first beast of Revelation 13, which
refers to the political ruler and the territory he rules in Europe (and
elsewhere). This religious organization became powerful even towards the
end of the (Western) Roman Empire, which finally collapsed in 476 A.D. So
it will not be some newly created religion in the future.
Now, in order to understand the Bible's symbols, a basic principle
is to let the Bible interpret them. For example, who and what is the
“Beast”? Let’s allow the Bible to interpret itself. Otherwise, we
human beings can make the Bible mean anything we want by reading our own
desired meanings into anything that appears in it. So the immediate
context doesn't explain a symbol, then we should turn to elsewhere in the Bible
to interpret it. Hence, to interpret the book of Revelation, it's
important to use such prophetic books as Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and Zechariah.
In this context, let’s look at a deeper reason why Europeans have
to be the Beast, False Prophet, Son of Perdition, Antichrist,
etc. Where will the future events described in Revelation 13
occur? Where did they occur in the past as historical precursors and
preliminary fulfillments? They occurred and will occur in Europe,
not the United States. The Beast and False Prophet are Europeans,
not Americans. Let’s now explain how we
know that the Beast is a European political power. It's now
necessary to figure out who and what the beast is first.
Revelation 13 needs to be interpreted in the light of Daniel 2, which
describes the Babylonian King Nebuchadezzar's dream of the great statue
made of four different kinds of metal, and Daniel 7, which pictures beasts that
represent kingdoms coming out of the sea. What the kingdom pictured by
the legs of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream (Daniel 2:33,
40)? Who and what is the first Beast that comes out of the sea (Rev.
13:1-11)? According to Daniel, it would be the fourth, most terrible
Beast that emerged from the sea and which is also the legs of iron in King
Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. That beast is the Roman Empire, including its
various resurrections, such as the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages.
The end-time Beast will be the present European Union turned dictatorial and
(perhaps) shorn of some of its present, smaller members. The “Beast” can
refer to either the empire or the dictator leading it, just as a king
represents his country symbolically, such as on its stamps and coins (cf.
Daniel 7:17-18, where "king" and "kingdom" are
interchangeable).
But then who is the second beast (Rev. 13:11-18)? This will
be the false prophet or man of sin described in II Thess. 2. But it also
refers to the religious institution that he leads. Inevitably, if we
apply the historical school of prophecy's premises to what this chapter
says and what Revelation 17-18 says about the woman riding the Beast, this
second beast is also the woman. So then, what church became unified with
the state during the Middle Ages and even with the Roman Empire before it
fell? What church had such great influence with kings and emperors?
If we use history as our guide to interpret these symbols, that means
the Roman Catholic Church, past and future, was and will be in an unholy
alliance with the political governments of Europe that supports it. The
union of church and state that characterized the Middle Ages will be reborn
fully in the years to come, believe it or not. Especially that’s likely
after its top leader, the man of sin (II Thess. 2) publicly performs demonic
miracles that will deceive almost everyone into believing the power of God
backs him. (Just because its miraculous doesn’t mean God is behind it!
Notice again Revelation 13:13-14 about this Beast's power to do
miracles). Since the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church
have had their seats of power in Europe, this will be the future location of
the Beast and False Prophet.
The historical school of prophecy, has declined in recent decades,
but it often gives half of the overall picture. The competing futurist
school, which places all the events of the Book of Revelation into the future
besides the letters to the churches (Rev. 2-3), is also often correct.
There is often duality in the fulfillment of prophecy: Once earlier
in time, one later. So the two schools can both be right without
contradicting each other. Hence, Babylon the Great refers to both the
Medieval Church and to the church that will be allied with the Beast Power,
which is the European Union turned dictatorial. Perhaps a major terrorist
strike by Muslims allied with the King of the South (Daniel 11) will cause or
help to cause that to occur, when the EU sheds its democratic veneer. (The
bureaucrats in the European Commission in Brussels already have much more
political power that the elected representatives in the EU's parliament).
Therefore, the son of perdition and the false prophet will be a future
pope. Martin Luther and others in the time of the Reformation and others
since then have made the same basic identification. It's hardly an
innovative interpretation of Scripture. Europeans will become the
evil pope and the dictatorial leader of the European Union turned dictatorial,
not people from other countries. (in
the very unlikely case that the future evil pope is originally from another
continent, as is the current Pope Francis, then that man will move to Rome in
Italy to rule).
We shouldn’t worry about the possibility that
God would allow a deception so great that no one could figure it out and that
would cost everyone any opportunity to be saved. God will not allow us to
be tempted beyond our strength (I Cor. 10:13). “Let God be found true,
thought every man be found a liar” (Romans 3:4). Miracles done by
Satan and the demons can be detected by comparing what those doing such
miracles say compared to what’s already revealed in the Bible and whether those
doing them are obeying God and teaching others to do so.
Christians have to use their knowledge of the
bible to avoid being deceived by the devil’s miracles. By having discernment, we can avoid being
punished with the rest of the people of the world who did mistakenly believe in
the Satanic miracles of the Son of Perdition (Revelation 9:4-6). We need not be tricked by the many false
prophets who will come in Jesus’ name (Matthew 24:4-5, 11) in order to endure
until the end (Matthew 24:13).
Eric V. Snow
Click here to access essays that
defend Christianity: /apologetics.html
Click here to access essays that
explain Christian teachings: /doctrinal.html
Click here to access notes for
sermonettes: /sermonettes.html
Why does God Allow Evil? Click
here: /Apologeticshtml/Why Does God
Allow Evil 0908.htm
May Christians work on Saturdays?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Protestant
Rhetoric vs Sabbath Refuted.htm
Should Christians obey the Old
Testament law? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does the New
Covenant Abolish the OT Law.htm
Do you have an immortal soul?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Here and
Hereafter.htm
Does the ministry have authority?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is There an
Ordained Ministry vs Edwards.html
Is the United States the Beast?
Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Are We the Beast
vs Collins.htm
Should you give 10% of your
income to your church? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Does the Argument
from Silence Abolish the Old Testament Law of Tithing 0205 Mokarow rebuttal.htm
Is Jesus God? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Is Jesus God.htm
Will there be a third
resurrection? Click here: /doctrinalhtml/Will There Be a
Third Resurrection.htm
Links to elsewhere on this Web
site: /apologetics.html /book.html /doctrinal.html /essays.html /links.html /sermonettes.html /webmaster.html For
the home page, click here: /index.html