The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-11, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

I saw Dan Coram (sp.) at the Master's College and it really opened up my eyes  to a lot of things Wednesday night. And I had a question going away from  that, that I was going to write to you about. I was wondering in the Bible,  in the Old Testament, referring to the Baal worshipers wanting to call down  fire if they could, and Satan wanting to do that, but it didn't happen. And  then also, in Egypt, as Moses did the miracles the magicians counterfeited some of those. And my question was, and especially a lot of areas in the Old  Testament talking about witchcraft and all that, and stoning those type of people, "How do you discern between that and just a regular magician who does  acts of delusion like Dan does as a Christian?" Most magicians, who aren't  Christians of course, will claim that it is powers from whatever. So I was  just wondering how we as Christians are supposed to discern that--whether it  is all delusion, or whether there are some real stuff, and how are we to  discern that?

Answer

You are asking a very significant question and I am not sure that I can  discern that, so I am not sure that I can always give you the answer. What  you are asking me is how do you tell the difference between a guy who has a  technique and a method, and a guy who has Satanic power? Right?

Question (Continued)

A Christian was asking me whether we should even have Christian Magicians?

Answer (Continued)

It depends on what you are doing. Magician is the wrong word in a sense,  because that conjures up the occult, and mysticism, and all of that. What we 
know today as magicians are not functioning with supernatural power--they  have technique. They have just mastered a certain technique and they deceive  you with that technique, as Danny Coram (sp.) can illustrate to you. He can  stand there and tell you your name and your grandmother's name. It is what  is called "Cold Reading," he actually gets you somehow to say that, and you  don't even know you said it and neither does the audience. It is the power  of suggestion and so forth. That kind of "Cold Reading" is a technique.  When they do tricks with cards that is all technique. When they do a 
disappearing trick that is all a technique--it's all that kind of stuff. 

When you are talking about Satanic activity and how much power Satan  has--that's a very difficult question for me to answer. We know that during  the time of the end, certainly 2 Thessalonians talks about it, that there is  going to come certain powers. Jesus in the Olivet Discourse talked about  antichrists who would deceive, and even deceive the whole world. You know in  Revelation we find the Antichrist with an amazing ability to deceive people.  Just how extensive and how that functions and so forth from a Satanic  perspective I am not sure I really know. The Bible doesn't really give us,  what you could call a breakdown of how that works, but I really think, for  the most part what we are dealing with, with magicians is just really  technique. It is just deception by trickery, there is a way that they do  them. In fact, Danny has told me in a number of private conversations that  he knows how they do those things--it is just a technique. But they want you  to believe that it is supernatural. 

Question

Do you think that the magicians in Egypt were doing it by technique or by  Satanic power?

Answer

Well, the Scripture doesn't say, but I would tend to think that they would be  able to do it by some trickery, that they had learned how to deceive; that 
they were bright, smart people, after all they were further back the genetic  trail towards perfection than we are, so they were more clever than we think 
they were. And if we can come up with that kind of stuff, they probably  could of also. Again, I don't know to what extent Satan can counterfeit.  There is no real indication, for example, in Scripture that Satan can raise  the dead, which is a divine act. I don't think that there is any indication  that Satan can raise the dead. I don't see any evidence in Scripture (I am  trying to think this through) of Satan actually performing great wonders,  that were identified as such--I don't know that there is a catalog of that in  Scripture. In fact, I don't know that Satan ever healed anyone. So we don't  have any indication of when he does what he does. 

So I would be hesitant to say that Satan is making an Ace of Spades appear in  somebody's back pocket, you know when some magician does a trick--I think  that it is pretty much just entertainment. But it spills over into the  occult at the point at which they claim supernatural power. For example,  these ridiculous Filipino healers who reach into a body and start pulling out  big pieces of bloody flesh, and Danny Coram (sp.) has pretty well debunked  that stuff. You know it is "slight of hand," they have got all kinds of  bloody animal parts, and they are doing all this "bloodless surgery" and  throwing out a cow's liver and all this stuff that they have got up their  sleeve, or whatever--it's all just deception. The guy that he unmasked on  national television, who was suppose to be able to make objects move and  wave, and bend nails, and all of that--and [he] showed how all of that was  just a deception.

Question (Continued)

Were those kind of people in the Old Testament to be stoned for being a  false prophets or dealing in that kind of stuff?


Answer (Continued)

Well they would if that was associated with a false prophecy or if it was a  competing power to the power of God--Yes. But I am sure that if a Hebrew 
father figured a fun way to play a trick on his kids, God wouldn't stone him  because he made three stones look like two. So it would have to be some kind  of spiritual deception sort of built into the thing. I am sorry. . . .the  Bible just doesn't say anything specific about how Satan does what he does--I 
think he is much more limited than we think he is.