Should Christians Perform Magic?

Dave:

You’re asking me?Well, certainly it is—well, you’ve sat in with me, one of my dear friends believes this, and we’ve discussed it with him.

Tom:

Yeah, this is André Cole who’s a Campus Crusade, he’s a good guy.

Dave:

Yeah, I love Andre, he’s a good man, he loves the Lord, but this is his view as a magician.But when Paul warns, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, about this man who’s coming is after the power of Satan with lying signs and wonders and all deceivableness of unrighteousness, it hardly seems like he’s warning us about stage magicians, slight of hand and staged magic.Jesus warns Matthew:24:24For 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.
See All... that there will arise false prophets who will show great signs and wonders so convincing that it’s possible even the elect would be deceived.I hardly think that he’s talking about something that any stage magician could say, Now wait a minute here, I’ll explain to you, this is how they do it.When the Scripture tells me that in the temptation in the wilderness Satan took Jesus up to the top of a mountain, and showed Him the kingdoms of this earth in a moment of time.Now that seems like tremendous power to me.I don’t think a stage magician could take Jesus on to the top of a mountain, the wilderness—zip—and there he is, and show Him the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time.Apparently even showing—talking about the kingdoms of this world—the kingdoms to come even, the glory of this.Or could suddenly take Jesus upon the pinnacle of the temple.I mean, if I’m believing the Bible, then it was Satan who transported Jesus onto the pinnacle of the temple and tempted Him to jump off, because then the angels would catch Him and the people would worship Him, and so forth.

Tom:

You know, there’s even a more mundane, if I can use that term in example, and that is the demoniac.Here the Scripture tells us that chains were not able to contain this man.Now, it doesn’t say that this man was like a Houdini, who was able to slip out of these, you know, when he was shackled, but he broke the chains.

Dave:

He broke them.

Tom:

And that’s got to be a super, not supernatural, but a power that we’re not able to do.

Dave:

I could put it like this, just real quickly.Satan is subject to God, he lives in a different dimension.It’s part of this universe, I believe it is, but it’s a non physical dimension, and there are laws that govern, you know, in that dimension just like there are created dimensions.

Tom:

It’s a created dimension.

Dave:

That’s right, but when Satan, from the non dimensional world invades our physical world, he seems to be able to do things that, at least by our scientific understanding are not possible and could seem like miracles, but are not.But nevertheless, there is a power, definitely a power to put boils on Job, to take the boils off, and so forth, you read the Book of Job.So, Yes, I believe that Satan has a definite power, but it is limited, he cannot raise the dead, so Antichrist will not be somebody brought back from the dead.He cannot legitimately, genuinely heal; he can’t restore a missing limb, and so forth.But if he could put boils on Job he could put something on someone, and then he could take that off and it would seem to be a healing in order to cause them to follow him.

Tom:

And the other aspect of this, just briefly, is that if André is saying that this is all some kind of a deceit, it’s like a stage magic, well, this is something—I mean—Jannes and Jambres, we have examples where God is condemning this sort of thing.We spent time on divination; there are things that are condemned.Well, if this is stage magic of that sort, doesn’t André have a problem here, isn’t this what he does?

Dave:

Well, Andre should be here to defend himself, but you know, we give you all kinds of examples in Occult Invasion, of things that cannot be duplicated by stage magic.