07 2 Miracles of Jehovah and Miracles of Satan

We know that the God of the Bible has performed miracles from the very beginning of his giving written revelations to man. And the purpose of these miracles is declared. Study John 20:30-31; Mark 16:19-20; Hebrews 2:1-4.

But the very same book that tells us of these miracles also declares that Satan works miracles. Study Revelation 13:13-14; Revelation 19:20 :2 Thessalonians 2:3-9. Reading Matthew 24:24, you find that some of these miracles shall be startling and calculated to deceive the strongest among us.

The question of practical importance is: How may we tell a miracle performed by Jehovah from one performed by Satan? The task that is before us we now enter.

Just as true and certain as the first proposition in geometry is used to prove or demonstrate the second and these two the third and on throughout your mathematical series until you have finished calculus, just so the first revelation confirmed by miracle must be used to prove or confirm subsequent revelations. Some, who have not gone the route in the mathematical field, may not get this, but suffice it to say that from the first movement in the mathematical field until you have reached the topmost rung of this ladder, there is perfect accord, as links in a great chain pull together and depend one upon the other.

Since miracles were used by Jehovah to confirm revealed truth, it stands to reason that after God first revealed himself to man on any point, that all subsequent revelations must agree with and never conflict with previous revelations confirmed by miracles. God’s miracles are given to confirm truth. His word is truth. (John 17:17). And since he never contradicts himself, but his word harmonizes, from beginning to end, you will never find any of his miracles used to confirm anything out of harmony or contradictory to what he has previously revealed and confirmed by miracles. Do you get it?

The burden of his first revelation, given through Moses and confirmed by stupendous miracles, was to establish in the hearts of the people that there is but one God, that all things were created by him, and from him all the rules of right living must come. God’s appearance to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2), the signs he performed before Pharaoh and the children of Israel, the giving of the law from Mount Sinai amidst the thunderings, and the lightnings that made even Moses himself quake (Hebrews 12:18-21; the whole book of Exodus)—all of these to prove beyond doubt that Moses was his selected write). and teacher of the first fundamental truth—viz., "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4) and "Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). I say again that, while the law of right living was given in detail through Moses, the first fundamental truth contained in this, the first written revelation we have from God, was to lay heavily upon the hearts of the people then and ever thereafter that we have only one God and we dare not recognize another.

Study Deuteronomy 18:15-22. This prophecy looks forward to our Lord. Study Acts 3:22-26.

In verse 20: of the above you note a curse pronounced on that prophet that should presume to speak a word in God’s name that he does not command or that should speak in the name of another God. Note that speaking a word in God’s name, which he does not command, or claiming to do it by his authority, is placed on a level with speaking in the name of another God.

Now study verse 21 and you see here God anticipates a question that naturally would come up in his peoples’ hearts—viz., "flow shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?"

Now study verse 22 and you have the answer. If the prophet shall offer a sign or prediction and the thing come not to pass, then you may know he has spoken presumptuously of the deceit of his own heart.

But suppose the prophet gives a sign and it does come to pass, is this the final proof or evidence that it is from God? No, you must check up and see if the content of the message is in exact harmony with other revelations confirmed by miracles. Drop back now to Deuteronomy 13:1-5. Study these words closely. Here is a prophet that gives a sign and it comes to pass, but the content of his message is to go after other gods. Certainly we should have sense enough to know God would not establish the law that he is the only true and living God and we dare not listen to another, then come along and work a miracle to get us to go after some other God. Do you get it? So each teacher or prophet who comes among us, regardless of how many miracles he can perform, the content of his message, his teaching, must be compared with what God has already revealed and confirmed by God never contradicts himself. He never sends out different teachers with different doctrines. This is enough to prove that the two or three hundred churches now in existence teaching contradictory doctrines came not from God, but from the evil one.

But go back to Deuteronomy 13:1-5. Why does our God allow such to come among us? The answer is easily seen: "For the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." Here commit to memory Deuteronomy 6:4-7. Here is the fundamental truth of the whole Bible.

And begin with Genesis, the very first verse of the first chapter, and thoughtfully travel right on through the sixty-six books of the whole Bible until you come to the closing words of the last book, the book of Revelation, and you find no writer of any of these books recognizing any God except the one true and living God by Moses revealed unto the people. And you find, in almost the last words of the Bible, a warning to those who would add to what God says or take a word from what he says. How wonderful are these things! Hold your mathematical ladder up before you. Do you see the very first principle in that ladder connected and agreeing with all the other rungs until you reach the topmost rung yonder? Now hold the grand old book up before you and see the very first words in the first book and behold the perfect unity and har­mony between these words and all subsequent words it contains until you reach the topmost rung yonder where John says: "He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen." In that first book you find paradise lost, the remedy promised, and in the last you have paradise regained and the words of the promised Redeemer assuring us that he will come, when he does come, "quickly" to take us home to our lost estate to bask in the sunlight of his presence forever. "And they shall see his face." (Revelation 22:4). What a blessed hope!

Christ claimed not to be the Messiah merely because of the miracles he could perform, but the harmony of all of his teaching and actions with what before had been written and confirmed by miracles was looked to as the final proof of his claim. Here study Luke 24:44-47; John 5:45-47; Matthew 5:17-19. Not only is this true of our Lord’s teaching and action, but his apostles were careful to teach that all that they taught and believed about Christ was the culmination and fulfillment of what was before written. Study 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. Note verses 3 and 4, "According to the scriptures’ here, that Timothy had known from childhood and that were able to make him wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15), are old Testament Scriptures. The coming of Christ, from his conception until his ascension, the establishment of the church and kingdom, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and everything connected with the church of God today were all contained in the old Testament in type, promise, and prophecy.

Now studyGalatians 1:6-9. The question could be asked, Why say "though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed"? if it were never possible for an angel from heaven to come with another gospel. No position is taken here. But certainly the Holy Spirit here puts us on guard for teachers claiming miraculous endowment and backing. Let it be here noted that every teacher who comes among us must be proven and tested by what has already been revealed and confirmed by miracles. The claim to miracle-working power is not enough. The content of the message must be in perfect harmony with what has already been revealed.

Miracles real and pretended. In Revelation 13:13-14 you find it said: "And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." This clearly teaches that there is something connected with these miracles that are deceptive. But the words of our Lord in Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect," clearly teach that miracles would be performed that would be calculated to deceive even the strongest among us. There is no need of our undertaking to prove that Satan can perform real miracles and wonders or whether they are all pretended. Such things are spoken of and of such we are warned. And another thing, we must keep before us:

Is it not correct to say that every religious order not mentioned in the Bible started with the claim to the miraculous? Take the Adventist’s (Mrs. Ellen G. White) claim that she was caught up into the third heaven, into paradise, and there is where she learned that we must keep the Sabbath under the new covenant. Get her early writings and see for yourself. But something has been said about this in the chapter on "Regular and Utility Scriptures." Turn and read it again. The Mormons lay claim to the miraculous. And even among so respectable groups as our Baptist and Methodist friends, take their theory of conversion, and you find the miraculous there. A mysterious, miraculous operation of the Spirit in conversion that they make their converts believe in, leads them to set aside the plain-as-day teaching of our Lord on the essentiality of baptism in salvation. What else is there about these religious orders but this claim that leads them to repudiate baptism for the remission of sins? They had this miraculous experience, and it is evidence to them that their sins are forgiven and that they are children of God before baptism; hence, this so-claimed miracle leads them to repudiate the words of our Lord. And for this very reason we know it is a miracle that Satan is using and not one God has introduced. So on with every religious order not named in the Bible. Think this through. The Catholics certainly lay claim, in a very large way, to the miraculous.

One more exemplification. A call once came to preach at a schoolhouse for the purpose of quieting a community much worked up over the claims of a woman preacher who said she was baptized in the Holy Spirit and could speak in tongues. To abridge the story, preaching was done from Sunday night over until Friday night in the schoolhouse. This woman was in attendance and asked questions almost every night. On Friday night, having her claims in, we were ready to weigh well all of her theories by the Scriptures. Right in the midst of the expose, given in the kindest of words and in the spirit of gentleness, she arose and came down the aisle shouting and dancing the holy dance, as they call it. At first, it was thought she recognized the fact that her doctrine had been torn into shreds, as indeed it was, and she meant to drown the speaker out. He jumped up on the front bench and raised his voice and continued to preach with all the heart he had. In this way he held the attention of the people in spite of her noise. Finally she swooned and fell upon a long bench to his left. It was presumed she swooned—it may have all been pretended. But the sermon was concluded and the gospel invitation extended with two souls coming to accept Christ. After attending to this the speaker quietly went back to the rostrum and stated: "It would be a mistake not to say something kindly about what this woman has done here tonight. Will each one of you listen?" The speaker said: "And especially I want you, Mrs.,_______ to listen. You claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit moves you to do all that you do and say. There is a problem before us that you good people will have to help us to solve. Turning to 1 Corinthians 14:23-40 we have our Lord’s orders just how the people were to conduct themselves when spiritual gifts were actually possessed and exercised by the early Christians. In the directions we find here it plainly says: ’Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.’ Now we know that this is what the Holy Spirit really did say over eighteen hundred years ago when writing through Paul. (See 1 Corinthians 2:13). 1 Corinthians 14:37 says: ’If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.’

I Have Seen an Angel. Some have said: "I know I am saved because I have seen an angel." Very well, let us look into that. We have on record a case where a man saw an angel. See Acts 10; Acts 1-6, 22; Acts 11:12-14. Did the angel you think you saw talk to you like the angel that Cornelius saw? That angel told Cornelius to send for Peter and he would tell him what he should do, words whereby he and his house should be saved. Did the angel you saw tell you that Peter had the "keys of the kingdom" (Matthew 16:18-19), that he opened the doors to the Jews on Pentecost (Acts 2:36-41) and to the Gentiles at the household of Cornelius, and to go to Acts 2 and see just what the conditions of pardon are and do them because Christ has bound in heaven what Peter bound on earth? Just remember, Paul says: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8).

I Have Seen Jesus. Some say: "I have seen Jesus, hence I know I am saved." It is well to study this claim. What did Jesus say to you when you saw him? Did he talk like he did to Saul of Tarsus when he met him? Turn and read this account in Acts 9:1-6; Acts 22:16. Our Lord told Saul plainly where to go and he would learn what he must do. He then sent the right man to him to tell him what to do.

It is an undeniable fact that never did an angel appear to a man to save him or tell him he was already saved. And our Lord has never appeared to any human soul to tell him he was saved without doing what he himself has said we must do to be saved. See Mark 16:15-16. Let us remember that there are "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ," and that even "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. You do not have to bother your mind as to how far the miracles that Satan works are real or faked. The one thing to remember is that it matters not by whom performed, and if so startling that it would almost deceive "the very elect" (Matthew 24:24), if they lead you not to believing and doing what Christ and his apostles teach they must be rejected as from the devil. Commit to memory 2 John 1:9-11.