The Age of Miracles

He complained in no way of the evil reputation under which he lived, indeed, all over the world, and he assured me that he himself was of all living beings the most interested in the destruction of Superstition, and he avowed to me that he had been afraid, relatively as to his proper power, once only, and that was on the day when he had heard a preacher, more subtle than the rest of the human herd, cry in his pulpit: “My dear brethren, do not ever forget, when you hear the progress of lights praised, that the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he does not exist!” ~ The Devil in The Generous Gambler

A little over two years ago, I wrote an article entitled “Pete Garcia” href=”http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=7239″>The Death of Atheism”, in which I concluded that the further along we went into the last days, the less palatable atheism and skepticism would appeal to the masses.  In fact, once the Rapture of the Church occurs, Satan will no longer have any use for that kind of thinking.

At that point, the gloves come off and he is going to want to need everyone to get on board the globalist agenda and support his man, Mr. Antichrist.  Mr. Antichrist and Mr. False Prophet will start pulling out all the bells and whistles, wooing a Christ-rejecting world with false signs and lying wonders.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and when you remove Christianity, something has to fill that void.

The Age of Reason

The Twentieth Century was the test-bed for much of the godless humanistic philosophy and evolutionary science, and the end-results aren’t pretty:  Hundreds of millions killed in wars, hundreds of millions killed by abortions and euthanasia, prisons are full, societies are in decline, false religions, paganism, and mysticism are flooding our culture through music, television, and movies.  Again, nature abhors a vacuum.  You remove Christ, and something will fill that void.

So, for the last 120 years or so, Christianity has in part, been playing catch up with the godless agenda contained within naturalistic worldviews of science and philosophy.  I’d say we had been doing a rather poor job for the first half of the century with science because we lacked the depth within our own ranks of people who can articulate and credential the Bible’s scientific background properly.  Now that we do, and the more science tries and disproves Biblical Creation, the more it is confronted with the harsh reality that creation’s complexity rules out random chance quite convincingly.

The Age of Miracles

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders…2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Christianity today can enthusiastically answer the challenge to Darwinian evolution.  We can answer the challenge of atheistic and humanistic philosophies.  We can prove through logic, reason, and through history, why Christianity is by far, the best belief system on the planet.  And since the late Dr. Walter Martin, Christian apologetics has done an amazing job of pointing out the false religions who are trying to move inside of Christendom and pagan movements who are trying to slip inside of Evangelicalism.

That is not to say Christian apologetics are 100% effective in stopping false teachings and teachers, but they are effective in helping steer people away from these wandering stars.  And wouldn’t you know it, right about the time that Christianity is starting to dominate the argument (hence why it’s trying to be silenced), Satan pulls the rug out from underneath us.

Cris Putnam, noted author and teacher, has written a new book entitled “The Supernatural Worldview”, which points out very clearly, that mainstream Christianity is way behind the power curve when it comes to dealing with the supernatural.  We have been so focused on answering the atheist and skeptics that we have all but thrown up the white flag when it comes to dealing with the supernatural.  He rightly noted, that the supposed resurgence of atheistic thought from 2005-2009, was not a resurgence at all, but rather atheisms last, dying gasp.

When Sam Harrison, Richard Dawkins (agnostic now?), and the late Christopher Hitchens rode that short wave of atheistic popularity, little did they know that their wave would crash against the rocks of the supernatural worldview.  Cris alluded to the idea that Christians really don’t have an issue believing in God, which is what we would consider the high view, and Christians don’t have an issue dealing with the natural, which is considered the low view.  What Christians are guilty of, is disregarding the ‘excluded middle’, which for all intents and purposes, could be labeled the ‘Twilight Zone’.

There is simply too much evidence out there to dismiss outright the following: UFOs, ESP (extra-sensory perception), NDE (near-death experiences), paranormal phenomena, hauntings, etc.  These things are becoming so prevalent, that the atheist is very hard-pressed to dispute the onslaught of evidence.  Most people outside of Christianity will state that they are either agnostic, or spiritual, but most definitely do not completely discount the supernatural.  On the flip side of that coin, is the Evangelical Christian, who for the better part of a century…spent so much time focusing on defending itself against the naturalistic worldview, that it stands ill-prepared to answer the challenge of the supernatural.

Supernatural are those things which defy all known laws of science and physics, yet, we are getting more and more verifiable proof.  One such case is Ammon’s story in Ohio.  Too many credible witnesses saw too many things for this to be simply written off.  If this happened to a family in your church, how would they deal with it?

And there are many, many great preachers whom I highly respect and have learned from, that in a sense, throws the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to things that aren’t as black and white as we Christians like them to be.  If you have a child who can see the ‘otherworldly’, how is a Christian to deal with that?  If you are a witness to demonic possession, do you call a priest?  Have a house that is haunted?  Seen a UFO or something you can’t explain?  Seen a person do something that a normal person couldn’t do, or know?  Had a near-death experience?  These things are out there, and becoming more common.

It’s amazing to me that the one group of people who absolutely should not discount the supernatural, tend to be the ones who come to discount it the most.  We, who profess the Christian faith, have supernatural faith.  We believe in a supernatural God, who is a supernatural Tri-Une God.  We believe that those Three, are One, and that alone defies our comprehension for understanding.  We believe in an Inspired Holy Scriptures, who by the Holy Spirit moved certain men to write what they wrote over a period of 1,600 years…and yet, it all flows together seamlessly.

In our supernatural book, we have: A six-day Creation, angels, fallen angels, giants, a worldwide flood, scattering by language, more giants, ten plagues, parting of the Red Sea, a pillar of fire and smoke, visions, dreams, raptures, and so many more things that defy what modern science and society deem as possible, that we of all people, should discount things like: demonic possessions, sleep paralysis, extra-sensory perceptions, conjuring the dead, necromancy, and many more unexplainable phenomena.

Do we embrace these things?  No.  I’m not saying that we need to give credence to them, but we do need to be the ones who have the answers for why and how they happen.  I like Doug Overmeyer’s ministry because he is not afraid to deal with people who have supra or supernatural abilities that go beyond the normal person.  His response is that Christians already have a supernatural worldview.  We should be the ones leading the charge on dealing with these things, not deferring them to Catholic priests, psychiatrists, or others who do not have a Biblical worldview.

Doctrines of Demons

But a growing majority of Christendom, primarily in the Mainstream Denominations, even refuse to acknowledge the supernatural aspect of our faith.  They take a liberal and non-literal view of the Scriptures, and turn what the verses say, into allegorical and metaphorical generalities of what they think it should say.  But we are starting to see the fruit of that being borne out in mainstream Christianity today.  Like the Church of Pergamum, many churches didn’t go out into the world, but the world came into the church.

We need to realize that as we draw closer to that day, we are going to see this spiritual battle moving more and more into evangelical circles, attempting to pass itself off as legitimate.  The problem then becomes, because these denominations have begun to stray from what the text says, they no longer have the spiritual discernment to see this corruption creeping into their churches.  We need only look at the Emergent Church, Ecumenical movements, and Latter Rain/Dominion theology, to see how far we have strayed from what we tolerate as “Orthodox Christianity”.

And now we have ‘harmless’ new worship techniques and discussions going in many Christian churches and universities today with things like; mystical and contemplative prayer, “Christian” yoga, circle-maker, and centering-prayers.  They don’t recognize the demonic baggage that comes along with all this repackaged eastern mysticism, because they’ve long since denied that a literal Satan and demons exist.  Now, like a tapeworm, and these heretical teachings have firmly attached themselves within the bowels of their churches.

Warning

A good friend of mine who is a senior member of a local church, asked me what I thought of this book he was reading.  And having just heard Glenn Beck glowingly throw praises onto how great this book was, it immediately sent a red flag shooting up my discern-o-meter.   Glenn Beck is a Mormon, therefore, isn’t a Christian.  He is seduced by a demonic doctrine and does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling in him to be able to make a sound judgment on what is Scriptural and what is not.  If he did, he wouldn’t be a Mormon.  I told my friend honestly, that I didn’t know much about it, but it sounded suspect.  I advised reading with caution.

Tens of thousands of well-meaning Christians are going to read books like the ‘Circle Maker’ and ‘The Shack’ and ‘The Secret’, etc., thinking that it is going to bring them to some new level of spirituality…but they are only fooling themselves.  We have, from Genesis to Revelation, all the wisdom, guidance, revelation, and deliverance we will ever need.  What we need to be wary of, is books that point us away from the Bible and towards other sources as ‘truth’.  And really, this shouldn’t surprise any of us, because we were warned that these days would come and be full of deception.

Jesus warns us:  Matthew 24:3-5; Paul warns us: 1 Tim 4:1-3; Peter warns us: 2 Peter 2:1; Jude warns us: Jude 1:4.  I literally, could fill page after page of warnings from Jesus and the Apostles, that in the last days, deception will be ripe and false prophets and teachers will be in abundance.  The reason that so many professing Christians see no issue with mysticism and Gnosticism, is because they quit believing that there is a real, spiritual battle going on.

What are Christians going to do if they see a false preacher get up and really perform a miracle?  Or what would Christians do if they really see extra-terrestrials like what the Vatican is gearing up for?  We need to realize, that Satan is a master of lying signs and wonders, and as we draw closer to the end, his leash is getting longer and longer.  And while we don’t embrace the strange goings-on in this present age of miracles, we would be wise not to disregard the ‘excluded middle’ either, but to have an answer and understanding, for those things that are coming on the earth.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Ephesians 6:10-13