why satan heals

Very few Christians, apparently, know that Satan sometimes heals.  Even fewer, it seems, understand why....

I know a certain man - let's call him Steve.  Steve was raised, from his childhood, in a mainstream evangelical church.  After he graduated from Bible college, he enrolled in seminary and earned his Ph.D. degree from a world-class university.  'Dr.' Steve then went to work developing Bible-study materials for a major Protestant denomination, while also working as a church-planter.  I have always known him to be a very conservative and conscientious Christian man.

Steve is the last person I would have expected to hear him say, that "Todd Bentley is a real man of God".   (Bentley was the leader of the so-called "Lakeland Revival," or, the "Florida Healing Outpouring," in Lakeland, Florida, in 2008.  Here is a link to an hour-long video about that demon-fest:)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=UDEsXVUQeLo

I was stunned by Steve's confession.  Even though I tried my best to convince him that Bentley is a false prophet and a deceiver, nevertheless, Steve would not recant; he was (and perhaps still is) a true believer in Todd Bentley.  Evidently, multitudes of professing Christians believe that Todd Bentley is the real deal, that is to say, a man sent by God.

But why would anyone -- indeed, why would a mature, well-educated, Bible-literate, conservative, Christian man like Steve -- be deceived by someone so bizzare (even blasphemous) as Todd Bentley?

Steve told me why he believes in Todd Bentley.  One of Steve's friends, who was a pastor, took his 12-year old daughter, who was totally deaf, to Lakeland, to have Bentley pray over her; whereupon when prayer was made for her, she was miraculously healed of her deafness!

Steve could not be persuaded that such healing(s) could be accomplished by anything other than the power of God.

I told you what was Steve's opinion of Todd Bentley.  May we not then suppose that Steve, henceforth, would enthusiastically endorse Bentley and, so, favorably influence others concerning Bentley -- that is, concerning his message as well as his 'ministry'?  And what about Steve's pastor friend -- whose daughter was miraculously healed of deafness?  What, do you suppose, did that pastor report to his own congregation, to his family and friends, indeed, to his community at large?  Was the testimony of his daughter's healing, perhaps, published as a special interest story in a local or metropolitan newspaper?  Did the girl herself, and/or her family and friends, post the story to Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, etc.?  How many times has that testimony since been repeated to others (as, for example, you are now reading about it -- even several years after the fact)?

I believe we may reasonably conclude that virtually thousands of people have heard that story.  And that is but one story involving Todd Bentley and his reputed gift of miracle-working power.

Thus, in that way, Todd Bentley obtained a huge following among professing Christians!

And that, dear Reader, is one, important reason why Satan is sometimes willing to heal.  If by releasing a few of his victims from his tormenting power, the devil can thereby seduce many to accept his (the devil's) messenger and his message, don't you know the devil will gladly make such a tradeoff?  His game is entirely one of deception; at which he is a master.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(I don't intend this essay to be a 'Bentley-bash'; there are very many others who, like Todd Bentley, either knowingly or unwittingly are being used as instruments of Satan to deceive.  I chose to use the foregoing story, because it is a true case.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Is there anything in Scripture which indicates that Satan does sometimes heal?  Actually, there are numerous passages of Scripture which suggest that is the case.  Here are just a few:

"And he [the False Prophet] exerciseth all the power of the first beast [Antichrist] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed."  (Revelation 13:12)

Question: Who "healed" the "deadly wound" of "the first beast"?  Did Christ do that? 

 "But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.  And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries."  (Acts 8:9-11)

Observe, if you will, that none supposed Simon was of the devil -- but that he was in fact operating in the power "of God".  To be sure, Simon must have worked some miracles of healing.  Else, if his works were evidently destructive in nature, would others have believed his power was from God?  Likewise, we can see in Scripture that the magicians in Pharoah's Egypt, in the time of Moses, demonstrated supernatural power.  Moreover, why were the people of Israel oftentimes tempted to worship the gods of the heathen, in the case that the priests of those heathen cultures never exhibited any power to heal?  Consider, too, that in every heathen culture -- whether ancient or modern, witchdoctors and shamans are principally engaged in rituals involving healing.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
'Steve' -- a fictitious name for a real, Christian minister, believes Todd Bentley is a true minister of Christ; whereas, I am convinced that Bentley is a minister of Satan.  I am further convinced that Steve's opinion of Bentley is substantially based upon the testimony of miraculous healing, as above reported.  In fact, Steve related that testimony, to me, as evidence of Bentley's identity as a Christian minister.

Therefore, the question, of WHAT POWER was responsible for the various miracles which reportedly occurred, in the context of the Lakeland Revival, that question, I say, is of paramount importance for determining . . . . .

Wow!  That last sentence presents a profound challenge to my own mind!  Why, in fact, is that question important?  I almost said, that it is important "for determining the character of the man through whom that power operates".  But I was checked in my spirit, to consider more carefully my words.  I now see that it has to be the other way around, so to speak.  Which is to say, that:

one needs FIRST to discern the character of the man, before it is then possible to identify the "power" that is using the man; whether that "power" is of God, or, of Satan.

That must be the reason why the Holy Ghost warns in Scripture, that the greatest deceiver of all time -- Antichrist -- will deceive the world by means of miraculous signs and "lying wonders"; for, notwithstanding the depravity of his own, evil nature, the world will nevertheless worship him as "god"!

"...whose coming [Antichrist's] is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth..."    (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)

There is where Steve made a fatal (no exaggeration) mistake: instead of first discerning the character of the man (Bentley), in order then to identify the nature of the "power" using the man, Steve was willing, rather, to accept the man (Bentley) as being a man of God -- on the basis of some miraculous signs.

That is the same mistake, tragically, which multitudes of professing Christians have also made: which has resulted in their failure to discern the host of Satan's ministers which have infiltrated and subverted the vast majority of America's churches as well as most so-called Christian media.

Without going into detail, it is furthermore instructive, to understand that the Christian Church is not the only setting in which Satan seeks to deceive people by means of occassional healings and/or by other miracles.  In virtually every culture and religious society, Satan employs his power -- sometimes subtly but oftentimes brutally; yet, at all times and in every case it is for one and the same purpose: that is, to deceive men to follow Satan's ministers -- whether those may variously appear as an African shaman, or as a Haitian voodoo priest, or as a Charismatic Christian minister.  To destroy humanity, is the devil's objective.  But, chiefly, Satan is the intransigent enemy of the Christian Church.  Why should anyone be surprised to learn that the prince of fallen angels and demons uses his supernatural power in ways designed to seduce men's minds and, so, to turn them from the truth, to chase after some phantom of a miracle-working god?