Questions About Miracles – Part 4

By: Dr. Norman Geisler; ©2000

What is the difference between “miracles” and “magic”? What about psychics and others who claim and display “supernatural” abilities? What does the Bible have to say about such things?

Questions About Miracles—Part Four

(con’t)

From a biblical perspective, Lucifer, also called the devil and Satan, is not the same as God or even equal to God. In the beginning, God created everything good: the earth (Gen. 1:1), man (vv. 27-28), and angels (Col. 1:15-16). One of the angels was named Lucifer (Isa. 14:12), and he was very beautiful. But he was “lifted up with pride” (1 Tim. 3:6, KJV) and rebelled against God, saying, “I will make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:14). In doing so, he also led many other angels to follow him, so that one third of all the angels left their home with God (Rev. 12:4). These beings are now known as Satan and his angels (v.7; Matt. 25:41). They do have unusual powers and are said to be currently “working [energizing] in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Satan is able to disguise “himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14) and appear to be on God’s side, but it is only a disguise. Satan is always working against God.

How can we tell whether it is Satan or God at work? The Bible gives us some tests so that we can know who is a true prophet and who is false. The key is to distinguish miracles from magic. Miracles are God-ordained supernatural interventions; human magic is man’s manipula­tion by normal or supernormal forces. The chart below summarizes these differences.

One of the key distinctions between miracles and magic is the use of occult means to perform its acts. These are practices which claim to conjure powers from the spirit realm. In many cases they do just that; but it is demonic power, not divine. Some of the practices directly linked to demonic power in the Bible are:

1. Witchcraft (Deut. 18:10)
2. Fortune-telling (Deut. 18:10)
3. Communicating with spirits (Deut. 18:11)
4. Mediums (Deut. 18:11)
5. Divination (Deut. 18:10)
6. Astrology (Deut. 4:19; Isa. 47:13-15)
7. Heresy (false teaching) (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1-2)
8. Immorality (Eph. 2:2-3)
9. Self-deification (Gen. 3:5; Isa. 14:13)
10. Lying (John 8:44)
11. Idolatry (1 Cor. 10:19-20)
12. Legalism and self-denial (Col. 2:16-23; 1 Tim. 4:1-3)

Miracles	Magic
Under God’s control	Under man’s control
Not available on command	Available on command
Supernatural power	A natural [mystical] power
Associated with good	Associated with evil
Associated only with truth	Associated also with error
Can overpower evil	Cannot overpower good
Affirm Jesus is God in the flesh	Denies Jesus is God in the flesh
Prophecies always true	Prophecies sometimes false
Never associated with occult practices	Often associated with occult practices

Many of those who practice and teach pantheistic “miracles” not only admit that they use these occult practices, but recommend them for others also. These characteristics show that such claims to miraculous powers are demonic.

What if we apply these tests to one of the many self-proclaimed prophets of our time, Jeane Dixon? First, let’s check her track record. Even her biographer, Ruth Montgomery, admits that Dixon has made false prophecies. “She predicted that Red China would plunge the world into war over Quemoy and Matsu in October of 1958; she thought that labor leader Walter Reuther would actively seek the presidency in 1964.”^[1] On October 19, 1968 she assured us that Jacqueline Kennedy was not considering marriage; the next day, Mrs. Kennedy wed Aristotle Onassis. She also said that World War III would begin in 1954, the Vietnam War would end in 1966, and Castro would be banished from Cuba in 1970. A study of prophecies made by psychics in 1975 and observed until 1981, including Mrs. Dixon’s projections, showed that of the seventy-two predictions, only six were fulfilled in any way. Two of these were vague and two others were hardly surprising—the U.S. and Russia would remain leading powers and there would be no world wars. With only a 6 percent accuracy rate, how serious can we take these claims?

Her most noted prophecy was to predict the death of her friend John F. Kennedy. We must face the fact that some psychic prophecies come true. Sometimes this is because they are so general that they can be interpreted to fit many situations. Others simply offer common sense, like a horoscope that says, “Careful investments will secure your financial future.” But some are specific and accurate, and these can be accounted for in three ways: the prophet is of God (that means 100 percent accuracy though), has demonic influence, or they just made a lucky guess. Just exactly what is the source of Jeane Dixon’s power?

An accuracy rate around 6 percent could easily be explained by chance and general knowledge of circumstances. But there may be more to it. Montgomery also tells us that Dixon uses a crystal ball, astrology, and telepathy, and that her gift of prophecy was given to her by a gypsy fortune-teller when she was a little girl.^[2] Even her prophecy of Kennedy’s death is vague, wrong in some aspects (she said that the 1960 election would be domi­nated by labor, which it was not), and contradicted by her other prophecies—she also said Nixon was supposed to win!

But the Bible allows no room for such things. All forms of divination are prohibited. More important, no error is allowed for a prophet of God. Deuteronomy 18:22 says that he must be 100 percent accurate.

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

That last phrase, being interpreted, means that it is all right to stone him. If God has spoken, it will come about. There is no need for a second chance.

But the demonic is not the only source of power found in such miracles. Some claims to supernormal powers have been shown to be nothing more than illusions and sleight-of-hand tricks. Danny Korem, a professional magician who has written a book to expose such frauds, says, “Given the proper circumstances, anyone can be made to believe he has witnessed something which never took place.”^[3]

One example of this is the “psychic” Uri Geller, who claims to have the power to bend metal objects without touching them, as well as telepathy and clairvoyance. He even re­ceived some support from a Stanford Research Institute report. But the editors of the magazine also noted that the men who had refereed the tests felt that “insufficient account had been taken of the established methodology of experimental psychology…. Two refer­ees also felt that the authors had not taken into account the lessons learned in the past by parapsychologists researching this tricky and complicated area.”^[4] Their skepticism proved to be well-founded, as New Science magazine recorded “at least five people claim to have seen Geller actually cheat.” One woman observing him in a television studio said that “she actually saw Geller bend—by hand, not by psychic powers—the large spoon.”^[5] Another of Geller’s tricks is to take his picture with a camera while the lens cap is on. But this has been duplicated by a photographer using a wide angle lens and with the cover not quite closed. Geller’s success also seems to drop dramatically when the controls are tightened. On television shows, he liked to pick an object from one of ten film cans.

On the Merv Griffin show on US TV, Geller did the trick successfully, but some people thought they saw Geller jarring the table so that the cans would shake and he could tell which was heaviest. On the Johnny Carson Tonight show on 1 August, 1973, therefore, special precautions were taken and Geller was not permitted to get near enough to the table to jar it or touch the cans. He failed.^[6]

It is hard to avoid the conclusion of one critic who said flatly that “the SRI paper simply does not stand up against the mass of circumstantial evidence that Uri Geller is simply a good magician.”^[7] Magician Andre Kole enlightens us:

What most people do not realize about Uri Geller—what he has tried to suppress in his publicity—is that he studied and practiced magic as a youth in Israel. But he quickly realized that he attracted a far greater following by claiming paranormal powers than he did as a conjurer. In fact, most of what he does would be rather insignificant coming from a magician.^[8]

(Concluded next week)

Notes

1. ↑ Ruth Montgomery, A Gift of Prophecy (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1965), p. viii.
2. ↑ Ibid., p. 15.
3. ↑ Danny Korem, The Fakers (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980), p. 19.
4. ↑ Nature, Oct.18, 1974, p.55.
5. ↑ New Science, Oct.17, 1974, p. 174.
6. ↑ Ibid., p. 174.
7. ↑ Ibid., p. 185.
8. ↑ Andre Kole and Al Janssen, Miracles or Magic? (Eugene, OR Harvest House, 1987), p. 27.

Read Part 5