More Miracles Described
In Revelation 16:12, at the time JUST BEFORE the second coming of Christ, during the sixth of the seven last plagues, John sees the water of the River Euphrates being dried up to prepare the way for the Communist hordes of Russia and the Orient to come across for the final battle with the kings of Modern Babylon. Notice Verse 13: "And I saw three unclean spirits [DEMONS] like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon [SATAN], and out of the mouth of the beast [the coming Fuehrer over the Holy Roman Empire], and out of the mouth of the FALSE PROPHET. For they are the spirits of DEVILS, working MIRACLES, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the WHOLE WORLD, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
Clearly, this is a TREMENDOUS event which is destined to affect your life whether or not you have any religion of any kind whatsoever! God says this is going to affect the rulers of the whole world!
But note here again that the coming FALSE PROPHET is going to be working in close conjunction with the "beast" — ruler over the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe which will once again be REVIVED just before Christ's second coming! And this false prophet is destined to perform MIRACLES in order to gain a following and DECEIVE the leaders and peoples of this empire into following him. But the spirit power he is using to perform these miracles is the power of DEMONS!
The TIME is Just Ahead!
The final prophecy describing this coming false prophet is found in Revelation 19:19-20. After describing Jesus Christ coming from heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords, John states: "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the FALSE PROPHET that wrought MIRACLES before him, with which he DECEIVED them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
The God of your Bible states that the armies of this revived "beast" power — with the soon-coming FALSE PROPHET — will be FIGHTING against Jesus Christ at His second coming! Even though he can perform FAKE MIRACLES, this false prophet — along with the coming Hitler or super-dictator over the ten rulers of the coming Roman Empire (Rev. 17:12-14) — is going to be destroyed by the living CHRIST at His second coming in glory and power!
These tremendous developments WILL HAPPEN. You had better be watching and praying for UNDERSTANDING. When Christ returns to this earth as a conquering King, you had better be sure whose side you are on!
What about MIRACLES?
"But," some will ask, "I thought miracles were the PROOF of God's true Church and His true servants!"
What about this?
Obviously, if you have thought about the portions of the Bible we have just covered, you will realize that miracles ALONE are not the proof of God's true servants at all. For the false prophet WILL WORK MIRACLES!
God states in His Word that when people turn to familiar spirits or DEMONS, He tells His people: "To the LAW and to the TESTIMONY: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:20).
In every age, God's true servants will obey His law, and have the same practices and teach the same way of life which God teaches through Jesus Christ and the Bible!
In describing His true Church after the days of the original apostles, God NEVER mentions miracles as a sign of their identity one way or the other. Study God's inspired description of the true Church during the Middle Ages which had to flee for safety from the bounds of the Roman Empire. This is given in Revelation 12. Notice the real mark of IDENTITY of the true Church in Verse 17: "And the dragon [Satan] was wroth with the woman [the true Church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS of God, and have the TESTIMONY of Jesus Christ."
In Revelation 14:12, God IDENTIFIES His true saints NOT by miracles but by their OBEDIENCE to God: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS of God, and the FAITH of Jesus."
The Apostle John, writing near the very end of the Apostolic Age, was inspired to state: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (I John 2:4). A man does not even KNOW the true God unless he has learned to exercise the character of God by OBEYING the Ten Commandments — the great spiritual law which reveals God's character, and helps us know what God is like!
According to this plain scripture, any preacher, priest, prophet or minister who claims to represent God and fails to KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS is a LIAR!
Could anything be more clear?
The Right KIND of Miracles
Jesus Christ did state in Mark 16:17-18 that certain signs would follow His true servants in every age. Notice: "And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
Notice what KIND of signs these are which Jesus said would follow His Church. They include the laying on of hands for the sick which God commands in James 5:14. They include the casting out of demons — expelling EVIL SPIRITS which take over the minds of men and which may be causing a great deal more of the mental illness today than most people dare realize!
They include speaking in different languages — as a supernatural gift. The original disciples did this on the Day of Pentecost when they spoke — NOT IN SOME GIBBERISH — but in the normal languages of the Parthiaas, Medes, Elamites and others who had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost from all over the Roman Empire (Acts 2: 8-11). And these signs include protection from poisoning through snake bite or accidentally drinking some poison — as in the case of the Apostle Paul who ACCIDENTALLY picked up a snake when he was gathering firewood in Acts 28:3-6.
Miracles Are to SERVE and HELP
Notice some inspired accounts of how these miracles actually were carried out by Christ, our EXAMPLE. In Mark 6:5, Jesus had found that the people in His own home country were lacking faith. "And he could there do no mighty work, save that he LAID HIS HANDS upon a few sick folk, and HEALED them." Then (Verse 7) He sent out his twelve apostles to cast out demons and heal the sick. The Scripture states: "And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and HEALED them" (Verse 13).
Here we see the example of James 5:14 being carried out. The sick were being anointed with oil — a symbol of God's Holy Spirit — and the laying on of hands employed as a sign of God working through His human servants to bless and heal.
Often, of course, Jesus was so filled with the POWER of God's Holy Spirit that He simply commanded the person who was sick to be healed (Mat. 12:13). But nearly ALWAYS — following the example of the laying on of hands — Jesus either touched the afflicted part or laid His hands on them when people came to be healed of sicknesses and afflictions (Mat. 8:15; 12:13).
Another very important point to remember is that these miracles had PRACTICAL results in helping and alleviating people who were sick and demon-influenced or possessed. They were performed IN THE WAY that God's servants had ALWAYS healed throughout the Old and New Testaments — except, of course, Jesus' own miracles were of greater number and power in His office as the very Son of God.
However, the miracles of Jesus and His apostles were NEVER performed as a type of "show-off" demonstration in the middle of a big "tent meeting" or preaching service! They were NEVER accomplished to the accompaniment of a lot of violent, demon-inspired, uncontrolled human emotions and screaming!
Nor did Jesus' miracles EVER involve weeping dolls, crosses that glowed in the dark, dead people's breath being "liquefied" — or any other superstitious and RIDICULOUS and PURPOSELESS manifestation!
Strange Manifestations
In Europe, the very area destined to see the rise of the Holy Roman Empire once again and THIS VERY SYSTEM described in the Bible which we have been discussing, notice the kind of miracles to which people have begun to look with awe.
A United Press clipping from Konnersreuth, Germany, states: "Therese Nuemann today began her lonely, PAINFUL reenactment of Christ's agony as she has every year since 1926.
"The sixty-year-old villager of the Upper Palatinate first suffered the mystic wounds of the crucifixion on Good Friday thirty-three years ago.
"Every year, on Good Friday, the stigmatic has bled from various of the wounds Christ suffered. This year, she is bleeding from the heart wound and from her eyes.
"Her family has reported that since the first appearance of the wounds, she has eaten nothing. In the thirty-three years that have passed since then, they report, the only solids she has consumed were the hosts she received at communion."
Very frankly, this describes a DEMON SPIRIT keeping a human body alive — on very little solid food — and causing an admittedly "PAINFUL" condition which is supposed to be a reenactment of Christ's suffering!
The miracles of Christ and His apostles never were the CAUSE of people's suffering! Rather, they were performed to relieve human suffering and heal people so that they might return to a normal way of life, be able to GROW in grace and in the KNOWLEDGE of Christ, to overcome their human nature, and to become in character LIKE God — able to rule with Christ at His second coming as kings and priests governing the nations of this world (Rev. 2:26).