We begin the topic with healing, but what we say can apply to other spiritual manifestations. As a form of deception, Satan can sometimes appear to heal. We can make several observations about this. First, the methods are sometimes very grotesque, but not always. For example, a shaman might cut open the afflicted part and spiders might come crawling out, after which the person might appear to improve. Second, after sufficient time has transpired to make an impression on people, the individual would often receive the same sickness again (or he has never truly been healed), or something worse in another part of the body would surface, or some tragedy would come upon the person, such as strange financial troubles, or a fatal accident. The Bible says, “The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it” (Proverbs 10:22). But Satan will not let anyone run off with a true blessing. In contrast, some people speak as if the blessing of God is a curse, and the curse of Satan is a gift from God.
The Bible says that Satan can appear as an angel of light. Rather than relying on the Scripture and the Spirit to discern — rather than using the ways God himself has established — cessationists would want visions to cease so that they can call all visions false. Some of them allow the possibility on paper, so that they would not appear to usurp God’s sovereignty, but if one claims to have seen a vision, he is automatically prejudged and attacked. The standard doctrine of divine sovereignty is, “God may do whatever he wants, unless he does.” Thus whether miracles are allowed or denied in principle, they are denied in practice, and then really, denied in principle also. They pretend to exalt the word of God — “preach the word, preach the word,” they say — but they preach only parts of the word of God, and then even distorting those parts to shut out other parts, and they will attack those who preach all of it. They want people to think that they “preach the word,” but the truth is that they only preach their creed, expressed by passages from the word of God. They will crucify Christ over and over again if they have to, but they will protect their “historic” faith!
However, they cannot escape from the fact that Satan also preaches. Acts 16 tells us about a girl who had a demon. She followed Paul and his companions, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved” (v. 17). The words that she said were exactly correct. Elsewhere I have discussed how this could have hindered the gospel, but now our focus is on another issue. Someone could preach the same message that the apostles preached or promote the apostles as divine messengers, but he could be functioning by the power of the devil. If he is more obvious about his satanic influence, he could even preach a doctrine of cessationism. He could castigate the Pentecostals with full indignation. He could write a book to denounce charismatic chaos and defend the faith. It would all be very dignified, very precise, very demonic. And many who claim to be Christians would applaud him for it.
A cessationist theologian may say many things that sound right, but what spirit is driving him? If he truly believes the gospel, then why does he reject so much of it? Why does he draw people in with a few sound doctrines, only to slit their throats with unbelief? He may be one of the most respected personalities in Christian circles, but is he God’s gospel ambassador, or Satan’s double agent? Do you follow him because he says some good things, because he is so faithful to historic orthodoxy, and because he strives against non-Christian immorality? But he is a cessationist. He refuses even the basics of the gospel, things that even a new convert should pick up on the first day. The girl in Acts 16 also said some good things. She also announced the apostolic faith. And then Paul cast the demon out of her!
In any case, what defense does the cessationist have against demonic preaching that is, well…true? Would he even notice? Can he see the spirit and cast it out in the name of Jesus? Even if he perceives something evil, can he cast out a demon? Such a thing is foreign to him. And what is there to cast out, when the preaching is true? Does he know? I admit that the comparison is not exact, because the cessationist is perhaps more like the girl with the demon than the apostle and his companions, but let us tolerate this for now. By rejecting the gifts of the Spirit, including the discerning of spirits, the cessationist disowns the thing that God has provided to judge something like this.
The cessationist thinks that he is not deceived, but he is already deceived, and the most deceived. The atheist also thinks that he escapes deception, but he is so deceived that Satan does not need to do anything more to him. Someone can place the truth before him, and he would reject it in the name of rationality, skepticism, and integrity, when this is just an excuse to avoid intellectual responsibility, to avoid thinking at all. The atheist does not escape deception, but he hides from the truth about God and about himself. He is an intellectual invalid. Likewise, the cessationist is already defeated. He is so deceived that he does not need to be deceived any further. Someone can place the gospel before him, and he would call it strange fire in the name of true religion, when this is just an excuse to avoid spiritual responsibility, to avoid believing at all. He is a spiritual invalid.
The Bible teaches that we defend ourselves by taking up the shield of faith, not the shield of doubt. Unbelief offers no protection, because unbelief is the thing that kills. It is the most fatal thing. Unbelief does not defeat lies, because it is the biggest lie. The way to escape deception is a complete embrace of the word of God by faith — throwing ourselves totally into all of the gospel. The cessationist tries to protect himself with unbelief, and this is why he is a failure. He says, “Even if there are no spiritual gifts, I will discern by the word of God.” But how can he discern anything by the word of God, when he does not believe the word of God? Besides giving us doctrines and principles to judge spiritual things, the word of God teaches us about the gifts of the Spirit, including discerning of spirits and other relevant endowments. God’s word prescribes these things, and the cessationist has rejected them, but he claims that he judges by God’s word. How is he not deceived? We also judge spiritual things by the word of God, and even without the discerning of spirits, it is obvious that the cessationist preaches a different message than the one ordained by Jesus and the apostles.
How did God’s true servants deal with miracles from evil spirits and false religions? With denial? With skepticism? Did they take up the shield of doubt to quench all the flaming arrows of the devil? Did they cry, “This is all fake. I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it. I will not be deceived”? No. They responded with faith in God and overwhelmed their opponents with miracle power. Moses told Aaron to throw down his staff before Pharaoh, and it became a snake. Pharaoh’s magicians tried to match this. They threw down their staffs, and they became snakes. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs (Exodus 7:8-13). Elijah confronted the prophets of Baal. He said, “Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire — he is God” (1 Kings 18:23-24). The false prophets called on Baal, but nothing happened. Elijah prayed to God, and fire came down from heaven and burned up the sacrifice.
Philip went to Samaria and declared Jesus Christ to the people. The Bible says, “With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:7-8). There was a sorcerer named Simon in the city, who for a time had captured the people’s attention. When the people turned to Jesus, Simon himself began to follow Philip everywhere, “astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw” (v. 13). This also happens when we preach the gospel. In one case, an experienced witch perhaps thirty years my elder tried to follow me around and submit to my ministry, astonished by the things that she saw. Forgoing the details, I had to turn her away just as Peter did with Simon (Acts 8:20-23). In any case, witches and sorcerers recognize the superior power, and they covet it. In other cases, we have found that evil spirits and powers cannot function in our presence. The name of Jesus is greater than witchcraft, and all the powers of Satan. This also addresses what we mentioned at the beginning. Even though Satan could appear to heal, we can dominate him in the name of Jesus and command him to cease, and then provide genuine miracles of healing and a message of salvation to the people.
Of course, a cessationist can also speak the name of Jesus, but it means something different coming from him. Jesus means something less to him. To me, Jesus is an ever-present person, an overpowering force, and his name sounds like miracles. Peter walked into a room and said, “Jesus Christ heals you,” and a man who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years got up immediately. This is Jesus. But when the cessationist whimpers, “in the name of Jesus,” if the demons pay attention at all, they would probably yawn, “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?” (Acts 19:15). When Paul ran into a sorcerer who opposed him, he called down blindness on the fellow (Acts 13:6-12). When a cessationist encounters an evil spirit, he can only verbally deny and condemn. He will write articles about it. He will add it to his database and send out an alert on his mailing list, but Satan is not afraid of his mailing list. The man is powerless, but he offers himself up to evil powers to step on him and laugh at him.