God’s Power to Perform Miracles vs. Satan’s Power to Practice Magic and Sorcery
By Brian Shillhavy | HealthImpactNews
Western culture, and in particular American culture, can trace its origins back to Europe and the time period known as the “Age of Enlightenment” in the 17th and 18th centuries, which placed a high value on concepts such as “rationalism” and “empiricism”, which shaped academics and the development of the field of modern-day “science.”
In short, this period of western culture placed more value on the academic studies of the physical sciences over the study of philosophy, along with the humanities and arts.
Parallel to this time period was the development of Reformed Theology in Europe and America that broke away from many of the religious teachings of the Catholic Church.
In my opinion much good came out of this period, particularly the translation of the original languages that the Scriptures and the ancient texts that comprise the Bible were written in, into the vernacular languages of the “common people” so that religious “experts” were no longer needed to interpret or explain what the Bible, which was then, and still is today, used to enslave the masses.
But much evil also came out of this period of history.
This is the period of history where Freemasonry was spreading throughout the UK and Europe with Masonic Lodges and “secret societies” which, in spite of the emphasis on rationalism and empiricism in the higher academic institutions that emphasized the physical world over the non-physical world, taught and practiced many spiritual teachings that were considered too advanced for the “uninitiated.”
The most dangerous teachings that came out of this period of history, by far, were the teachings that accepted the theories of Charles Darwin, and his theory about the origins of man known as biological evolution.
The teachings of Darwin were also adopted by the Christian Reformers in religious academics, and one of the most evil doctrines developed by Reformation Theology was the doctrine known as “Cessationism,” the teaching that the miraculous power of God, on display in the Scriptures from the first book to the last book in the Bible, no longer applied in “modern times.”
B. B. Warfield (Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield – November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921) is the man credited with developing the teaching of Cessationism theology, which was an attempt to reconcile the teachings of “secular” academic studies and the acceptance of Darwinian biological evolution that teaches humans evolved over billions of years time from simple organisms, with no help from a higher intelligence or power, with the teachings of the Bible.
Warfield’s famous phrase from the Latin language was “Sola Scriptura” (the Scriptures Alone), meaning that man could understand God and the Christian Religion through the Bible alone and rationalism, because it was inspired.
The “sign gifts” and the miraculous workings of the Spirit of God as attested to in the Scriptures, were relegated to only the time period when the New Testament writings of the Bible were written, that recorded the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the following activities of this disciples directly after his ascension to heaven.
In this theological view, only the Bible is needed today to understand everything about God and his activities with the human race, which allowed religious academic training to now also embrace rationalism and empiricism, and modern-day “science.”
It is a brilliantly evil theology, since it is claimed that this time period of human history where miracles could be observed ended when the last books in the Bible were written. Therefore, it is of no consequence to those who teach this theology that the Bible itself contradicts this teaching.
According to this theology, today man can know God strictly through man’s mind, by way of rationalism and empiricism.
The predominate Christian religious theology that incorporated Warfield’s teachings and is largely taught in Christianity today is “Dispensationalism” theology, the belief that God changes the ways he deals with the human race through different historical “dispensations.”
Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921), a contemporary of Warfield, is one of the founders of this theology, and Scofield is also credited with modern-day Christian Zionism, the belief that the physical Jewish people, and the physical city of Jerusalem today, is at the center of Biblical prophecy for the future.
He adopted the Reformed theological teachings of Warfield on Cessationism into his Scofield Study Bible, which printed his biased theological beliefs onto the actual pages of the Bible in footnotes.
The result of this false Christian theological teaching since the Reformation period is that Western Culture has exalted the physical world and the physical part of humans, the physical body, while either denying or ignoring the non-physical world, and the non-physical, or “meta-physical”, part of humans.
This Darwinian-based “knowledge” that has dominated Western Culture for hundreds of years now, is presented as “science” and is accepted by the masses as “truth”.
The “natural” physical world is accepted today in modern western culture as the totality of “truth”, which is seen as static information (“data” for the Technocrats) that can be discovered by the “scientific method.”
But the reality is that science is really just the modern-day iteration of what used to be called “philosophy,” which seeks to answer questions about life, including the origins of life.
The ancient Greek philosophers, who actually developed most of today’s teachings on rationalism and empiricism, also believed in the spiritual world, as is evidenced by their polytheistic culture that believed in and interacted with these spiritual beings.
When they developed empiricism and rationalism, they did not throw out the baby with the bath water, and did not see their beliefs in the spiritual world and spiritual personalities, as contradictory to naturalism.
In the ancient writings of the Bible, the Israeli King Solomon was considered the wisest person to have ever lived. As a young man who inherited the Kingdom of Israel from his father King David, he asked God to give him wisdom.
On one occasion he went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices because that was where the most famous altar was. He had offered hundreds of burnt offerings there in the past.
That night the LORD appeared to him in a dream and asked him, “What would you like me to give you?”
Solomon answered, “You always showed great love for my father David, your servant, and he was good, loyal, and honest in his relation with you. And you have continued to show him your great and constant love by giving him a son who today rules in his place.
O LORD God, you have let me succeed my father as king, even though I am very young and don’t know how to rule. Here I am among the people you have chosen to be your own, a people who are so many that they cannot be counted.
So give me the wisdom I need to rule your people with justice and to know the difference between good and evil.
Otherwise, how would I ever be able to rule this great people of yours?”
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this, and so he said to him, “Because you have asked for the wisdom to rule justly, instead of long life for yourself or riches or the death of your enemies, I will do what you have asked.
I will give you more wisdom and understanding than anyone has ever had before or will ever have again. I will also give you what you have not asked for: all your life you will have wealth and honor, more than that of any other king.
And if you obey me and keep my laws and commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life.” (1 Kings 3:4-14)
When King Solomon grew old, he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and said:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Solomon did not just learn this from rationalism and studying the natural world, but he also learned it by marrying non-Jewish foreign wives who came from cultures that worshiped and interacted with different spiritual forces as well.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.”
Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. (1 Kings 11:1-5)
“Truth” then, according to Solomon, does not depend on the current philosophies or pop culture ideas of any specific generation, because “there is nothing new under the sun.”
Truth was established in the beginning of time, and does not change with the thoughts and religious beliefs of man, because truth is independent of the natural world, and its principles are set in the universe, independent of man’s thoughts and beliefs.
One of the best examples of this reality about truth is the example of mathematics that the late Dr. David Stewart wrote in his book The Chemistry of Essential Oils, where he discusses the difference between “mathematical proof” and the myth of “scientific proof.”
I used to regularly correspond with Dr. Stewart before his death, and he allowed me to publish this part of his book as a separate article which I published back in 2014:
Excerpt:
Absolute proof is strictly the domain of logicians. In mathematics, for example, once a theorem is proven it is proven for all time and all circumstances. Mathematical proof is absolute. Mathematics, however, is not science. This is a point about which many are confused. Mathematics is a language used by science, but is not itself a science. Mathematical proof and scientific proof are not the same thing at all.
“Truth” in modern culture today is almost exclusively defined by “experts” and “authorities” and using the illogical fallacy of “appeal to authority.”
For the opponents of these authoritarians who try to challenge their version of “truth”, they use the opposite illogical fallacy, the Ad hominem attack, which is to attack the person, rather than debate what they are actually arguing to determine if it is true or not.
When we understand that “truth” is independent of how people think and believe what truth is, then it becomes a matter of evaluating language, and who is lying and who is telling the truth, not based on opinion, but a reality that is independent of someone’s opinion or rank of authority.
In this regard, the ancient writings of the Bible teach that all lies come from Satan who is the “father of lies” and whose native language is lying, and is incapable of speaking truth.
On the opposite end, since the New Covenant was instituted by Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection, Jesus is the source of all truth because he himself is the embodiment of truth, and he cannot lie.
That’s because Jesus was the only perfect human being to ever walk on earth in the physical flesh.
Most of what is presented as “truth” today is almost always a mixture of truth with lies, with the most dangerous lie being the one that is 99% true, but 1% lie.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12)
The Reality of Supernatural Powers
Let’s turn now to the spiritual world that co-exists with the natural world, which those of us educated and raised in western culture are very ignorant about, especially modern-day Christians who today are mostly Zionists who completely ignore the supernatural forces in our world because of Dispensationalism theology.
When we read the stories in the Bible, especially in the New Testament portion, we see that Jesus and the disciples constantly interact with the spiritual world.
For example, when discussing a topic such as Zionism, if we were to just rely on rationalism and even apply the rules of logic on the biblical texts, there is no way a rational person could come away from the texts of the original sources and believe in modern-day Zionism, where Christians today are supporting genocide and the condemnation and even mass murder of entire classes of people and the people who belong to those classes, such as Palestinian nationalists, which include people from all three Abrahamic faiths (Jews, Muslims, Christians), or other nationalities such as Iranians, which also include people from all three Abrahamic faiths.
But as King Solomon wrote, there is nothing in our world that is new today, just lies that get repackaged over and over again with each generation.
In the New Testament period recorded in the Bible, the forerunners to today’s Zionists were those that most Christian commentators label as “Judaizers”, and who Paul refers to as “the circumcision party”, because they believed everyone should continue following the Old Covenant and the entire Law of Moses which included circumcision of males, making blood sacrifices of animals in Jerusalem at the Temple, etc.
Many of those “Zionists” had accepted the historical fact that Jesus Christ was, in fact the Jewish Messiah (the one thing that was true), but then mixed that belief in with lies that all people who claimed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah had to also follow the Old Testament laws, and the Jewish traditions.
Today we would see this as an intellectual problem (whichever side you are on) that can potentially be solved by intellect and “enlightening” the other side.
However, Paul viewed it as a spiritual problem, and claimed that those who diluted the Good News (Gospel) message that Jesus was the Messiah and savior of the world for ALL people, regardless of whether they were a Jew or not, had a magic spell cast on them that blinded them spiritually from understanding the truth.
He deals with this issue head on in his letter to the believers living in Galatia at that time.
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?
Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?
Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? (Galatians 3:1-5)
The Greek word that is translated “bewitched” into English in this verse is baskainō, which can also be translated as “to cast a spell” and means to “bring evil on one by feigning praise or an evil eye, to charm, to bewitch.” (Thayer Greek Definitions.)
Later in this same letter to the Galatians, Paul deals with the miraculous power of God that allowed Isaac to be born to Abraham and Sarah, who were way past the age of child bearing, and fulfilled God’s promise to them, as compared to Abraham’s son Ishmael, who was born the “natural” way.
He also distinguishes between the physical city of Jerusalem in Israel, which was about to be destroyed, to the spiritual heavenly Jerusalem.
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
His son by the slave woman was born in the natural way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants.
One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.
It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:21-31)
When it comes to supernatural powers outside the natural/physical realm, according to the New Testament writings, we are dealing with God’s supernatural power, versus Satan’s supernatural powers.
Satan’s Magical Powers
The words used in the original Greek texts that describe Satan’s supernatural powers are all mostly related to the occult, or “magical” powers, with words like “sorcery” and other terms used in the English translations.
Here are some of the Greek words used in the New Testament from the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology by Collin Brown, Volume 2 under listing “Magic”, 1967 (originally published in German):
Magic is the technique of manipulating supernatural or supernormal forces to attain one’s own ends. It may be a means of bending spirits of various grades to carry out one’s wishes, or of developing psychic powers so that one can project an inner force on to some person or situation. There have always been fake magicians, or conjurers in the modern sense of the word, but even the English word “conjurer” up to the time of Shakespeare had the magical sense of one who bound spirits or people by invocation.
The following descriptive words are found in the NT.
perierga, “magic arts” (Acts 19:19 RSV). Here the reference is to the voluntary burning of books by those who had previously practised magic arts at Ephesus. The act is seen as testimony to the growth and power of the word of the Lord (19: 20) especially as the value of the books was put at fifty thousand pieces of silver. On this word in other contexts —+ Busybody.
magos, magus, magician; mageia, magic; mageuö, practise magic. According to Herodotus (1, 101 ; 1, 132), the Magians were originally Medians who became priests under the Persian empire. Like the Chaldeans of Dan. l :4 and 2:2 ff., they merged their racial identity in their profession, and their name was applied to any practitioner such as Bar-Jesus (Acts 13: 6, 8.) They are referred to in Josephus, Ant. 10, 216; 20, 142. The term is used of the Magi who came from the East at the birth of Jesus (Matt. 2:1—16). The noun mageia and the vb. mageuâ are found in Acts 8:11 and 9 respectively of the magic of Simon Magus.
pharmakos, magician (Rev. 22:15); pharmakeus, mixer of potions, magician (Rev. 21 : 8); pharmakeia, magic, sorcery (Gal. 5:20; Rev. 9:21 ; 18: 23). The basic word pharmakon does not occur in the NT (only its derivatives), but its meaning of medicine, magic potion, poison gives the underlying idea of the words. Potions include poisons, but there has always been a magical tradition of herbs gathered and prepared for spells, and also for encouraging the presence of spirits at magical ceremonies (cf. possibly the final sentence of Ezek. S:17: “They put the branch to their nose”). Sorcery is classed among the works of the flesh in Gal. 5:20.
goés, sorcerer, juggler, occurs only in 2 3:13. In c1. Gk. it may mean a magician, probably from the root seen in goaâ, wail. A wizard might chant his spells. In 2 Tim. 3:13 magicians may be the correct translation in view of Jannes and Jambres in v. 8 (see above 1 (c)). Cl. Gk. also knows the meaning of imposter, since spellbinders could make false claims for their powers, and RSV prefers this translation in 2 Tim. 3:13 in the light of the closing words of the verse.
The word pythân is connected with the Delphic oracle, Delphi being the place where Apollo slew the mighty serpent Python that guarded the oracle (Strabo, 9, 3, 12). Later on p ythân came to designate a spirit of divination and also a ventriloquist who was thought to have such a spirit inside his or her In Acts 16:16 a girl at Philippi had a Python spirit (pneuma pythâna), the two words being in apposition. She probably had second sight fostered by a possessing spirit. Such second sight was characteristic of the priestesses of the Delphic oracle. The spirit in the girl was forced to admit the truth of the gospel, just as other spirits confessed Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry (e.g. Mk. 1 :24; Lk. 4: 34; Matt. 8:29), but neither Jesus nor Paul accepted testimony from this source, and they cast out the spirits. (On the term pythân see further Arndt, 736; F. F. Bruce, op. cit., 315; E. Haenchen, op. cit., 495; W. Foerster, pythân, TDNT VI 917-20.)
baskainâ is possibly related to Eng. fascinate via the Latin (cf. fascino, bewitch, charm). The meaning is to cast a spell by what is called the evil Paul uses the word of the deceived Galatians in Gal. 3:1 (“Who has bewitched you . . ?”). The effect of the spell, if the evil eye is detected at the time, could be averted by spitting, and some hold that this was in Paul’s mind in his use of ekpt yâ in Gal. 4:14 (lit., spit out; RSV “despise”).
In the New Testament Middle Eastern culture, those who practice magic or sorcery were referred to as “priests” who practice their craft in “temples.”
Most Christians today have zero to little concept of Satan’s magical powers, and unwittingly participate in the practice of Satanic sorcery and magic by visiting the priests who today are called “medical doctors” who no longer practice in temples in modern times, but in “hospitals.”
I have written on this topic for almost 2 decades now. For further information see:
God’s Miraculous Power
The most common Greek word in the New Testament that is translated into English as “power” or “miracle” to describe the spiritual power that comes from God is “dunamis” which means:
strength power, ability1a) inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth1b) power for performing miracles1c) moral power and excellence of soul1d) the power and influence which belong to riches and wealth1e) power and resources arising from numbers1f) power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces, hostsThayer’s Greek Definitions
Here is one example from the Gospel of Luke that is translated as “power”:
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. (Luke 6:17-19)
In the following account dunamis is translated as “miracle”:
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. (Mark 9:38-40)
“False miracles” are also common where the power is actually from Satanic magic, and Jesus knows the difference.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
This power from God that also resided in Jesus to perform miracles, was passed on to those of us who receive the promise of Abraham when we believe in Jesus as the Messiah. It comes from the Spirit of God and Jesus, which was first given to believers on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem, as Jesus promised:
He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.
He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:44-49)
Without the Power of God you are Helpless Against the Power of Satan
The Zionist Dispensationalist doctrine of Cessationism is perhaps the most evil and dangerous Christian belief in the history of the world, and once you understand this, you will understand how people who claim to follow Christ can be so deceived that they participate in Satan’s magic and sorcery which is marked by lies, hatred, and murder.
Most Christians today are “bewitched” just like the “believing” Jews who were “bewitched” in the First Century by the “Circumcision Party” (Zionists), as they are literally under a magic spell that prevents them from knowing the truth.
Those of us who grew up in western culture have been conditioned to believe only in the natural, physical world, and ignore or deny the realities of the spiritual world, of which we are mostly ignorant.
Most Christians today are only rational, intellectual Christians who claim to follow Christ, and have almost zero discernment in spiritual matters.
“Sola Scriptura” is a trap, as it leads one to only have an intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures, and even Satan has that kind of knowledge of the Scriptures, as he even quoted the Old Testament to Jesus in their lone, physical encounter, as recorded in the Gospels.
See Matthew chapter 4. He probably has the entire Bible memorized in every language it has ever been translated into.
Paul, who experienced the power of God firsthand, made it very clear that intellect alone cannot understand the Word of God, without its power.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” (1 Corinthians 1:17-19)
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
Does your faith rely on the miraculous power of God, or the magic sorceries of Satan?
If you don’t even believe that miracles are for today, then I am sure this question makes no sense to you.
Dark and evil days are just ahead, and without the power of God in your life, you will be left helpless before the power of Satan.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
And having disarmed the (Satanic) powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:8-15)
February 6, 2023 report, accusing me of posting child pornography.
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