What forces do we
contact?
Martie
Dieperink
PART I:
1. What is paranormal? 2
2. Angels and demons 9
3. The discerning of spirits 15
Part II
4. The hidden Christ 21
5. Channelling 28
Communicating
with spirits – trance – techniques – witchcraft
6. Jesus-channelling 37 A false Jesus – A Course in Miracles
7. Eastern meditation 41
Zen
Buddhism - Transcendental Meditation –
Tibetan Buddhism
8. Clairvoyance into the
past and the future 47
Reincarnation –
near-death-experiences – fortune-telling
9. Healing by means of
cosmic energy 53
Yoga – mesmerism
– Reiki
10.Deliverance 61
Ó paranormal-ministry.com – Martie Dieperink
1. WHAT IS PARANORMAL?
Contemporary man is seeking. He is in pursuit of a
little happiness or relaxation and, if he is religiously inclined, he is in
search of God, or rather the divine as many call it these days.
Many people are in search of something because they
are no longer sure of the traditional values they might have been taught in
church. They prefer to go on a journey of discovery themselves and to explore
new areas. There is truth in seeking. The Bible promises: “Seek and you shall
find.” I have done this myself. I too
was one of the many seeking people for a number of years.
My interest in the paranormal came from my parents
and I was sensitive to it. During my studies of theology in the sixties at
Utrecht in the Netherlands (I am a Dutch lady) I was enthralled by Eastern
religions and I also attended the lectures of Professor Tenhaeff, the renowned
Dutch parapsychologist. I even stayed in an ashram in India for one year. In
that community I went more deeply into the studies of yoga and contacted a
guru. I was especially interested in the fact that yogi’s claim to have
experienced God. I longed for a living experience of God and I hoped to find
God in India. For twenty years I was closely associated with the New Age
movement.
People in the New Age believe that a totally new
time will come – a New Age – a time of light, love and peace. They believe that
we ourselves are able to create paradise on earth. According to them we have not yet fully developed our
consciousness. They believe we could acquire unknown divine powers by
developing our consciousness to a much higher degree. This would enable us to
communicate with spirits, to become clairvoyant and to make use of cosmic
forces through which we could heal others and ourselves.
In our post modern time there is a tremendous thirst
for paranormal experiences. These experiences transcend normal sense
perception. There are people who hear, smell, see, know or feel things others
do not. For instance, we cannot see angels with our normal/natural eyes.
However, there are people who claim they have seen angels. Isn’t that very
interesting?
Irene van Lippe Biesterfeld, a Dutch princess,
writes in her book Dialoog met de natuur (A Dialogue with Nature):
“It was quite true what Mary
(a friend) had said: I too had the capacity of learning to read energies in the
chakra’s and aura around us. I discovered this when I attended courses to
satisfy my tremendous curiosity to look behind things.”[1]
There are so many possibilities to satisfy this
spiritual curiosity these days: all kinds of New Age books are available, there
are paranormal fairs and the Harry Potter books enable children to become
familiar with the world of magic.
The hypno-therapist Van der Heide writes in the Paranormal
Journal (August ’99):
“Welcome to the Paranormal Fair of ‘View.’ For many years ‘View’
has organised well-attended fairs on the paranormal and on healthcare.
Everything focuses on the spiritual, paranormal and alternative therapies and
treatments. Visitors and workers in alternative health fields are all searching
for factor X in life. However, no one has absolute wisdom. We talk about
spirits, haunted houses, chakra’s, guardian angels, clairvoyance, mesmerism,
faith, the stars, the spheres … but nobody really knows exactly how Life, the
SPIRIT, the Cosmos is put together … no one knows precisely what God, Jesus, Mary,
Allah or Krishna had in mind.”
From his words we can conclude that we go into a new
mental world when we seek new possibilities and paranormal experiences. This
new way of thinking differs fundamentally from the traditional Christian way of
thinking that many people, especially the older generation, know from their
parental home. These days the old certainties are being exchanged for new
uncertainties. According to Van der Heide we cannot know things for certain.
But are we really improving if we exchange the old
certainties for a new uncertainty? Is it not dangerous to dabble with forces
that are unknown to us? Suppose we end up in quicksand and sink? For this reason we will examine the forces
we contact in the paranormal world.
Whenever we start out on a journey to an unknown
destination we take precautionary measures. For instance, we take a map with us
to be able to find the way. Is it not also necessary to take precautionary
measures when starting out on an exploration of unknown regions in the spiritual
world? According to hypno-therapist Van
der Heide it would be best to rely on our own intuition. He writes:
“Nothing beats your own
intuition when it concerns your own existence.
Life is the art of learning to listen to your own feelings.”
But if I
travel to an unknown destination and rely only on my own feelings for guidance,
I can easily get lost. My own sense of direction can fail. I too have taken
decisions based entirely on my own feelings. I intuitively felt that I had to
go to India in order to seek my happiness there. In retrospect, however, I
realise that this was not the right decision at all. I have experienced that
intuitions and subjective feelings can be deceptive. Just as in our normal
world we need a reliable guide when we go on a journey of discovery, so it is
in the spiritual realm: you cannot do without a trustworthy guide.
But in these times anyone who knows things for
certain is looked on with suspicion. If you express a conviction, you can hear
the following reproach: “You are so sure of everything, you’d think you had God
in your pocket.” It is true, we can easily become arrogant if we are sure of
our ground, thinking that we know everything so well, but is it wrong to be
sure about our destiny? We expect a map to show clearly how we can reach our
destination. We are not satisfied with a map that only shows vague lines, are
we? If factor X, God, is love – and even Van der Heide speaks of LOVE – would
He allow people to remain in doubt concerning their eternal well-being? For
this reason we want to have objective guidelines that will help us discover
which forces we contact in the paranormal world.
Can we make use of the Bible in our quest? A lot of
people are put off by the idea that the Bible expresses absolute truth. The new
way of thinking is not only rather vague but it is also relativistic. Buddha, Jesus, and Krishna are lumped
together. It is difficult to understand why the Bible should be true, but not
the Hindu books. In these times we are easily accused of discrimination if we
regard one religion good and another bad.
In the New Age movement the Bible is considered an
interesting book, but it also provokes resistance and rejection. People in the
New Age tell us that the Bible is out of date because it belongs to a bygone
Piscean Age. But this cannot be the real reason for their rejection since the
Hindu books are even older than the Bible and they are popular in the New Age
and not classed as out of date. There is another reason for the rejection. What
really matters is that the Bible warns people of practices propagated by New
Age people, for example, channelling.
Of course this provokes resistance. John Klimo writes in his book Channeling
that churches wrongly claim that they have an exclusive right to communicate
with the Transcendence and have to forbid channelling as being idolatry. The
Christian point of view seems to be narrow-minded and this is exactly what I
thought. That the Old Testament forbids spiritualism was, in my view, an
outdated standpoint. Today we can take a much broader view and, during my
student days, I went to séances several times. Whatever seemed to be negative,
namely the existence of hell, the devil, the anti-Christ and demons, I put out
of my mind. I didn’t want to think about it. And so these ‘outdated things’ are
often brushed aside as intimidation or being relics from the past. We are more
enlightened!
Two mental worlds seem to collide with each other.
It looks as if Christians and those in the New Age don’t understand one
another. In post-modern thinking different truths can exist side by side, but
that doesn’t make the actual gap smaller. I know both worlds from my own
experience and I know how great the gap is. In this document we will examine
which collision of spirits takes place in this conflict. Can this conflict
indicate a struggle between powers and forces in the unseen world of
spirits? Is it really true that all
religions experiences come from one and the same common source? It is as if
Christians and those in the New Age receive inspiration from different
spirits.
It is indeed not recommended to adopt a
narrow-minded attitude. I still like to keep a broad view. If we look for an
adequate answer to the question of which forces we contact in the paranormal
world, we must find out as much as possible on the subject. That means we need
to take New Age experiences seriously, but we also must not ignore the Bible.
Therefore this exploration of the paranormal world is based on my personal
experiences, New Age literature and the Bible. It may well be that the Bible
will turn out to be not such an outdated book but, on the contrary, a highly
topical one.
For a long time people in the West – rationalists
but also Christians – were not interested in miracles and the existence of a
spirit world. It seemed as if the Bible consisted only of dogmas. Although
Christians accepted that miracles occur in the Bible, they often didn’t believe
they could happen today. This being the
case it is understandable that people will turn to other sources. For example,
people went to Jomanda who is a well-known Dutch medium, because something did
happen there.
However, faith in miracles, also among Christians,
is making a come back in these days. H.
Stoffels, sociologist of religion, announced in his inaugural lecture dated 22nd
February 2002: you are again allowed to believe in miracles.
The first thing we can say about paranormal
experiences is that they do exist. We cannot brush them aside as if it was
simply imagination. When people tell us that they have paranormal experiences,
let us take them seriously. Let us first listen to what they have to say.
In the sixties the late professor Tenhaeff tried to
prove, on the basis of numerous examples, that telepathy and clairvoyance
exist. Clairvoyance means that a person can see into the future. I have had
predicting dreams. Once I dreamed that my grandmother told me she was going on
a journey. I knew from a book on dreams that it meant that she was going to
die. And so she did.
Telepathy means that one has an extrasensory contact
with others. Let me give an example. You have the thought or idea to phone a
friend and as you go to the phone that friend calls you. I did not find it
difficult to believe with professor Tenhaeff that paranormal experiences are
real for the simple reason that I had them myself. Spontaneous telepathy is a
rather common paranormal experience. Most people have had such experiences once
in a while. There are peripheral areas of the paranormal and there is no need
to call these experiences supernatural or miraculous.
However, remarkable experiences also occur in the
paranormal world; they cannot be classed as just natural happenings. These
gifts are usually developed by training or initiation.
The various areas within the paranormal world can be
identified as follows:
- Firstly, a person can have remarkable
gifts like telepathy and clairvoyance which goes beyond the normal. To know the
future various aids are used like palmistry, tarot cards, I-Ching, and
horoscopes.
- Secondly, it has become popular to
communicate with spirits. These spirits can transmit all kinds of information
and give inspiration to compose music or write a book. They also help the
paranormal healer. Contacting spirits is called “channelling.”
- Thirdly, paranormal powers can be
developed, for instance, by means of magic and sorcery in order to help and
cure people (white magic) or to harm them (black magic).
Now I want to give some idea of the extraordinary
experiences that occur in the Bible as well as in the alternative circuit.
Numerous biblical stories testify of experiences
that transcend the normal sense perception. When the notion “paranormal” is
understood in a broad sense and refers to all experiences that transcend the
normal sense perception, the Bible can be considered to be the most paranormal
book in the world. Miracles occur from
beginning to end.
Modern theologians maintain that the miracles in the
Bible never really took place; they are fairy tales since miracles do not
happen. This is a remarkable thing because, in our post-modern time, the
interest in paranormal experiences has returned. People who are interested in
the paranormal will not find it difficult to believe that the Bible is not a
fairy tale. It tells stories that really have happened. People really have seen
angels. Also today we can have the same remarkable experiences. Wonders never
cease.
Let me give some examples of extraordinary
paranormal experiences in the Bible.
1. People may have the gift of prediction. Joseph
had predicting dreams.
“Joseph had a dream, and
when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them,
‘Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field
when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered
around mine and bowed down to it.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to
reign over us? Will you actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more
because of his dream and what he had said.” (Genesis 37:5-8, NIV translation).
The
prophet Isaiah foretold that a virgin would bring the Saviour into the world.
“Therefore the
Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
The prophet Daniel received revelations about the
end times.
“There will be a time of
distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But
at that time your people – everyone whose name is found written in the book –
will be delivered.” (Daniel 12:1b)
Also in the New Testament there are prophets who
have a gift of prediction, for instance, Agabus.
“One of them, named Agabus,
stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread
over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) (Acts 22:28)
We read about the Holy Spirit:
“But when he, the Spirit of
truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he
will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” (John
16:13)
The apostle John received revelations about the end
time when he stayed on the island of Patmos.
“The revelation of Jesus
Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He
made it known by sending his angel to his servant John.” (Revelation 1:1)
2. Angels appear to human beings in order to deliver
a message from God. The appearance of angels occurs at all crucial events. They
were present, of course, at the birth of Jesus Christ. The angel Gabriel
announced to Mary (Hebrew: Miriam) that
she would bear Jesus.
“In the sixth month, God
sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to
be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was
Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured!
The Lord is with you.’ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what
kind of greeting this might be.” (Luke 1:26-28)
From her reaction we can conclude that Mary really saw the angel and heard his voice. The shepherds in the field also saw angels.
“An
angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terrified … Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God … “
(Luke 2:9,13)
3.
Numerous miracles testify to a supernatural power. When the widow’s son at
Zarephath fell ill and died, Elijah raised him from the dead.
“Then he cried out to the
Lord, ‘O Lord my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am
staying with, by causing her son to die?’ Then he stretched himself out on the
boy three times and cried to the Lord, ‘O Lord my God, let this boy’s life
return to him!’
The Lord heard Elijah’s cry,
and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.” (1 Kings 17:20-22)
Jesus healed many sick people, he cast out demons
and he raised people from the dead.
“That evening after sunset
the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town
gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also
drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew
who he was.” (Mark 1:32-34)
The apostles also performed many miracles.
“The apostles performed many
miraculous signs and wonders among the people … As a result, people brought the
sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s
shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from
the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil
spirits, and all of them were healed.” (Acts 5:12-16)
4. Many miracles occur in nature. Elijah prayed that
rain would stop and, later on, that it would rain again. And that is exactly
what happened.
“Now Elijah said to Ahab,
‘As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew
nor rain in the next few years except at my word.’” (1 Kings 17:1)
When there was a lack of food, Elijah announced to
the widow, in the name of God,
“The jar of flour will not
be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry, in keeping with the word of the
Lord spoken by Elijah.” (1 Kings 17:14)
Jesus rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a
great calm. He multiplied some bread and fish to feed at least 5,000 people.
There are many more examples of miracles in the
Bible but, for now, I simply want to make the point that paranormal experiences
do occur in the Bible. They are miracles (works) of God.
Paranormal
experiences in the New Age
As
already stated, people believe in miracles again. Many people in the
Netherlands went to Jomanda, a medium, because they had seen or heard that
remarkable things happen there and people seemed to feel better afterwards.
Certainly remarkable paranormal things happen in the New Age movement just like
they happen in the Bible. The
big question is what kind of miracles happen there. When Jomanda lays hands on
a person, does she transmit – like the apostles – the Holy Spirit? Is it just
humbug or does something really happen? And if something does happen, what is
it?
Professor Tenhaeff, the parapsychologist, was of the
opinion that the Bible is full of paranormal experiences and he compared them
with the experience of psychics and clairvoyants. For instance, psychics can
tell fortunes just like the prophets in the Bible. According to him it is a
general human capacity to have or to develop paranormal gifts. He thought it
very interesting that eastern yogis can develop their paranormal capacities by
means of yoga techniques.
New
Age books claim that eastern yogis can perform the same miracles Christ did. A
guru conjuring an orange out of the air has been compared to the multiplication
of food by Christ. The appearance of a guru after he has died has been compared
with the resurrection of Christ. I also was of the opinion that all
miracles were of God.
The guru in the ashram who was an elderly lady
called ‘the Mother’ had great paranormal powers. She could read my mind. She
was able to go into a trance, she could leave her body and appear somewhere
else and she also had a healing gift. I experienced she had a supernatural
power and I assumed that everything that was supernatural came from God…
The idea that the development of paranormal gifts is
a fairly common human capacity is also found in Christian literature these
days. Pastor Piet Schelling writes in his book Jomanda, heks of heilige
(Jomanda, saint or witch):
“As for the paranormal talent, my pre-supposition is that
paranormal gifts belong to the creation of God and that a healing work can come
from these gifts. Paranormal gifts belong to the creation and each individual
human being can get them. Jomanda can also possess such creative gifts.”[2]
According to him paranormal gifts are in fact innate
and, if we are religious, we say that God has created them. He overlooks the
fact that people usually don’t have these powers by nature, but that they have
developed them by means of training, a technique or initiation. What happens
during training or initiation? Contact is made with the world of spirits. For
instance, Jomanda receives help from the spirits of the dead during her
healings. Then you can no longer say she uses a general or common human power
to heal people.
In
Piet Schelling’s book I did not read that people could also have negative
experiences with paranormal healers like Jomanda. For instance, I heard of a
young boy with Down’s syndrome who lived with his parents and used to listen to
CD’s. A friend of his parents brought a package into which Jomanda had radiated
energy and she advised them to put it under his pillow; this apparently would
do him good. They did so. The boy did not know what to do. He felt he was
thumped and beater left and right and lost a lot of weight. His parents brought
him to an exorcist who prayed for him twice and calm returned.
The great question is: how do we explain such
negative experiences? During a conversation, which the exorcist and I had with
Jomanda, she simply brushed aside the negative incident. It was not her fault.
In such a case, negative things that are already in a person manifest
themselves. Of course a person can fall ill because of psychic problems but we
cannot explain the boy’s troubles in this way. He had no psychic problems and
had, on the contrary, the feeling that it came to him from outside. If his
troubles were due to an inner problem, his parents would have discovered that
much earlier. The most plausible explanation is that the boy was affected by a
negative force outside himself. After my return from India, where I was
initiated by the guru, I was suddenly confronted with a long period of ill
health and suffering, for instance, I had excruciating pains which made a
normal life impossible.
I
was perfectly healthy when I went to India. I remember that I had negative
predicting dreams about Holland in the ashram which gave me the impression that
a difficult time lay ahead of me. I had no negative thoughts and I forgot about
those dreams. I was thinking about my studies and I wanted to bring them to a
good conclusion. The source of this difficult time can be traced back to my
stay in the ashram.
In his book Tussen Wetenschap en Mystiek
(Between Science and Mysticism) Rolf Wennekes writes that people who practice
Transcendental Meditation can have serious mental and physical complaints even
those who had been perfectly healthy beforehand.
I am not the only one who has had negative
experiences. If that were the case I could think that I was to blame. What happened
to me has proved to be a common recognisable pattern found with people who have
entered the paranormal world. The conclusion is that it is possible to contact
negative forces in the paranormal circuit.
Why one can get negative experiences in the paranormal
world cannot be ignored. During my involvement with the New Age I read a book
about a Hindu who started meditating and, for many years, struggled with mental
disorders. He could not understand why this happened to him since he had not
practised any dangerous techniques. He talked about his problem with all gurus
he knew in India but none of them could explain it satisfactorily.
I also did not understand why I had to suffer. Sri
Aurobindo wrote in his books that suffering was a necessity for the further
evolution of the world. But does a
loving God impose such torture on human beings? My great question was: why do I end up in darkness when I am
actually seeking God?
I
finally found an answer to my question in the Bible. Having scarcely looked at
the Bible for many years, I started reading it with new eyes. This book warns
us about negative paranormal experiences.
During my time with the New Age I simply did not see the warning passages
in the Bible. I was young and unaware of dangers. After a long period of
suffering, my eyes were opened. The Bible warns about the negative experiences
I had endured and so I understood what had happened to me.
In the Bible we read that not only do good angels
exist, but also evil spirits, called demons, Satan being their ruler. It warns
against practices through which one comes into contact with such dark powers.
This happens, for instance, through spiritualism, that is, the practice of
calling up spirits. The Bible teaches that we have to test the spirits to see
whether they are of God, because false signs and wonders are also possible.
Jesus warns us:
“For false Christs and false
prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the
elect – if that were possible.” (Matthew 24:24)
A clear distinction is made between the real wonders
of God and the counterfeit miracles of Satan.
Professor Tenhaeff was strong against making a
distinction between real wonders of God and false wonders of Satan. With regard
to the account of Simon the magician in Acts 8 he writes that it is an error of
orthodox Christians to consider paranormal powers as either divine or devilish
gifts. According to him the saints have performed the same miracles as witches
and magicians. Capacities which are in general attributed to human nature
underlie paranormal powers.
However, in his argument he makes a certain logical
error. It is not true that orthodox Christians and authors only later on make a
distinction between real and false wonders and condemned Simon’s paranormal
powers. The Bible does and so does Jesus. Professor Tenhaeff fails to make the
necessary distinction. Man has a general capacity to contact the unseen world.
If man did not have that capacity, he would not be able to see an angel. We
have a spiritual aerial for making contact with the spiritual world. But the
crucial question is: to which spirits have we tuned our aerial. If good and
evil spirits exist, then it is necessary to tune our aerial to the good angels
and not to the evil ones.
It is also a general human capacity to transmit
energy. When a mother lays her hand on the sore spot of her child’s knee after
a fall, the pain can go. But paranormal healing is something else. Mesmerist
Frank den Ouden writes in his book that spirit guides assist him when healing
and this gives him the ability to heal better. The question is which spirits
does he contact. How do we know whether
we are exposed to positive or negative energy? This is a vital question since
I, and others, have experienced being exposed to negative forces.
The Bible tells us – not systematically, but if we
read carefully – quite a lot about the unseen world of spirits. Most people
believe that there is more between heaven and earth. There is ‘something.’ That
belief is, however, rather vague. One does not know how everything fits
together. The Bible, on the other hand, - and this is the reason we consult the
Bible – does not use vague language, but gives us a clear and concrete picture
of the unseen reality and also clear insight into the working of unseen forces
in the universe. We learn that God exists, his nature, and that also angels
exist, both good and evil. We learn how to discern between positive and
negative forces.
In the world of the New Age credence is given to the
existence of spirit guides or angels.
Books have been published on personal experiences with angels.
Nevertheless, some readers may wonder whether angels really do exist. Were the
people who claimed to have seen angels perhaps hallucinatory, or do they
fantasize? Hallucinations are usually concerned with a clinical picture and
they have a negative effect on people. They don’t leave a deep impression and
will not bring about a positive change in the person’s life. Let us therefore
examine which effect a vision of angels has on people in the Bible.
There are numerous examples of experiences with
angels. At all crucial events in the history of salvation they appear. Let me
give two examples.
In the Old Testament the patriarch Jacob had a dream
at Bethel.
“Jacob left Beersheba and
set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night
because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his
head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting
on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were
ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: ‘I
am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.’” (Genesis
28:10-13)
This dream left a deep impression on Jacob and he
exclaimed:
“Surely the LORD is in this
place; and I was not aware of it.” (Genesis 28:16)
It is understandable that, at first, what happened
frightened him, but he did not become depressed or passive, on the contrary, it
inspired him to action and he had confidence in God. When we look at Jacob’s
life, we see that from this vision he received the strength to stay abroad with
his uncle Laban and to work there for many years. He knew that God had a plan
with his life.
In the New Testament we read that an angel, called
Gabriel, appears to Mary and announces that she is to bear a son and she is to
give him the name Jesus. He would be great and would be called the Son of God.
We might think that Mary had an overactive imagination, she dreamed of a famous
son. But Jesus was a unique personality; that was not just a fantasy. Mary was
deeply impressed by the appearance. Of course she was frightened at first, but,
like Jacob, she did not become depressed or passive. Her experience made her
actually happy and inspired her to speak out the Magnificat. (Luke 1:30-31;46)
Both examples – and there are many others – point to
the fact that these experiences have nothing to do with fantasy or
hallucination, but with a genuine religious experience of the appearance of
heavenly beings. Let us not detract from people who have religious
experiences. But what kind of beings
are angels?
In the account of Jacob these beings are called
“angels of God.” They belong to God and
were created by Him for His glory.
1. Angels
adore and praise God. The prophet Isaiah had an awesome vision in which he saw angels
calling out:
“Holy, holy, holy is the
LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:3)
Angels also adore Jesus as the Saviour of the world.
When Jesus is born, the angel of God appears to the shepherds:
“An angel of the LORD
appeared to them, and the glory of the LORD shone around them, and they were
terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a
Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the LORD.’” (Luke 2:9-11)
Because of this great event the angels were singing:
“Suddenly a great company of
the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.’” (Luke
2:13,14)
In the book of Revelation we read how angels adore
Jesus in heaven:
“Then I looked and heard the
voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand
times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the
elders. In a loud voice they sang: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to
receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and
praise!’” (Revelation 5:11,12)
2. Angels are messengers who convey God’s message. As Moses received his
calling from God in the desert, first an angel of God appeared.
“There the angel of the LORD
appeared to him in flames of fire from within the bush. Moses saw that though
the bush was on fire it did not burn up.” (Exodus 3:2)
An angel having the appearance of a human being came
to the prophet Daniel.
“I looked up and there
before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his
waist… He said, ‘Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the
words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to
you.’ And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling.” (Daniel 10:5,11)
The angel Gabriel announces the birth of Christ. Two
angels announce the resurrection of the crucified Lord.
“On the first day of the
week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared
and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when
they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were
wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening
stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the
ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the
dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was
still with us in Galilee.’” (Luke 24:1-6)
3. Angels are ministering spirits. They served Jesus Christ during his life on earth, and they also
serve those who believe. We read:
“Are not all angels
ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews
1:14)
In Psalm 91 we read that they protect men:
“Then no harm will befall
you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels
concerning you to guard you in all your way.” (Psalm 91:10,11)
When the prophet Elijah was threatened by Jezebel,
the wife of Ahab, and was not able to see a way out of the dilemma, he was
helped by an angel.
“Elijah was afraid and ran
for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,
while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree,
sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, LORD,’ he
said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under
the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up
and eat.’ He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked
over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up
and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ Se he got up and ate and drank.
Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he
reached Horeb, the mountain of God.” (1 Kings 19:3-8)
In the New Testament the apostle Peter was freed
from the prison by an angel.
“The night before Herod was
to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two
chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord
appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke
him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and
the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him,
‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around
you and follow me,’ the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison,
but he had no idea that what the angel was going was really happening; he
thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and
came to the iron gate leading to the city.
It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had
walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
Then Peter came to himself
and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord send his angel and rescued
me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were
anticipating.’” (Acts 12:6-11)
The following account makes mention of belief in a
personal guardian angel:
“When this had dawned on
him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where
many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outer entrance,
and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized
Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and
exclaimed, ‘Peter is at the door!’
‘You’re out of your mind,’
they told her. When she kept insisting that is was so they said, ‘It must be
his angel.’” (Acts 12:12-15)
So we see that angels help us in difficult
situations. Many people in these times also have received help from angels. Let
me give an example. The well-known man of God in India, Sadhu Sundar Singh
(born in 1889) had the following experience in Tibet. In a certain village he
had tried to get his message across but in vain; people refused to listen to
him. Because of their threatening attitude he had to retreat to a cave. At
night the inhabitants, armed with clubs and stones, went to his hiding place in
order to kill him. Then suddenly they shrank back, frightened and shouted to
him from a distance: “Tell us, who is that man in that shining garment beside
you and who are the others around you?” Sundar Singh answered that he was
alone, but the men stuck to their assertion…
Angels of God had saved his life.
4. There are also fighting angels. Michael is the best-known
fighting angel. When a battle is raging on earth, we mostly don’t realise that
a fierce battle is going on in the heavenly realms: a battle between God with
his angels and Satan with his demons. As the apostle John received his
revelation on the island of Patmos and was the heaven opened, he witnessed a
fierce battle in heaven.
“And there was war in
heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and
his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place
in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the
devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth,
and his angels with him.” (Revelation
12:7-9)
In the Old Testament we read that an angel assisted
king Hezekiah, when he was attacked by Sennacherib, king of Assyria.
“King Hezekiah and the
prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. And the LORD sent an angel, who annihilated
all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian
king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the
temple of his god, some of his sons cut him down with the sword.” (2 Chronicles
32:20-21)
Do evil
spirits also exist?
New Age people tell us that they communicate with
angels who convey messages and they maintain they have special spirit guides.
Princess Irene has a spirit guide, called Zoro. Do people in the New Age also
have good angels at their side to help them? It is necessary to ask this
question because, according to the Bible, there are evil spirits who come to us
as angels of light. Therefore, we must know very clearly which spirits we
contact.
People in the New Age also admit that negative
entities exist. However, when it comes to their own spirit guides they are not
critical at all; they believe them to be good spirits. They do not question
whether a devil exists. They maintain that there is no devil or fallen angel
who rules over evil spirits; also that belief in a devil is only a primitive
superstition from ancient times. I too had brushed aside the belief in a devil
and hell. God was love.
According to A Course in Miracles Satan would
be a projection of our own fears. This is a strange argument. At one time a
serial rapist was operating near Utrecht in the Netherlands and out of fear of
this man women in this area did not dare to go out cycling alone when it was
dark. Is the serial rapist therefore a projection of the women’s fear and does
it nullify his existence? Usually we have fear of something that does exist and
threatens us. If Satan exists, one has good reason to fear him. But does he
exist?
I was surprised to read in a book written by the
Mother, the guru in India, that a depression comes straight from the devil.
Also others in the New Age movement like David Spangler write about the devil,
called by him Lucifer. He writes:
“The light that reveals to
us the path to Christ comes from Lucifer… the great initiator … Lucifer comes
to give us the final … Lucifer initiation … that many people in the days ahead
will be facing, for it is an invitation into the New Age.
Christ is the same force as
Lucifer … Lucifer prepares man for the experience of Christhood … Lucifer works
within each of us to bring us to wholeness as we move into the New Age.”[3]
Just like Satanists who openly adore Satan, he
believes that Lucifer, the devil, is a good spirit. But why do we face so much
misery in the world? Isn’t it only understandable if we take the existence of
Satan as an evil spirit into consideration? Sometimes you hear people saying:
“How can be believe in God after Auschwitz? It is, however, more correct to
pose another question to them: “How can you not yet believe in Satan after
Auschwitz? Satan invents such cruelties. At least this is what the Bible
teaches us.
Not only the existence of Satan and his demons
explains things we do not otherwise understand, but as many people have
experienced God somehow or other, so many others have gained experiences of
Satan and his demons. We have to take these experiences seriously. A lot of
people who have entered the paranormal world have heard voices. In psychiatry,
the hearing of voices is often brushed aside as a tingling in the brain or a
fantasy, which, of course, can sometimes happen. But in most cases we do not do
justice to the people themselves. Often they are affected by these voices,
which seem to come from outside, and they suffer terribly as a consequence.
There is no way that they invent these tortures themselves. They want to get
rid of it, but they do not know how. Drugs can only partially subdue this
phenomenon. The most plausible explanation to this phenomenon is that people
are affected by evil spirits. From olden times people – also people in the
Bible – have believed that evil spirits exist and that they can affect people
in a negative way. Especially people who are involved in praying for people who
are bound and possessed have to cope with manifestations of evil spirits and
Satan himself. Being experienced is this field, he cannot but admit: Satan does
exist. Let us see what the Bible tells us about this evil being.
According to the Bible one of the highest angels,
called Lucifer in church tradition, was created as a good angel. According to
the late professor H. van Praag, a Dutch parapsychologist, the existence of
Satan is alien to the biblical tradition since it acknowledges only one God. We
are not allowed to turn the evil into a ‘counter-god.’ Indeed, he is not a
‘counter-god.’ He is a created being, an angel. The Bible does not have a
dualistic vision like the Persian religion in which a good and an evil god are
opposed to each other. Acknowledging the existence of Satan is not alien to
biblical thinking, but it is to the sense of oneness in the New Age, which
regards one and all, basically, as divine. This sense of oneness is idealistic,
but not realistic, because the existence of Satan is a reality.
Satan was created as a high-ranking angel with power
and majesty. That he is a good angel according to Satanists and those of the
New Age is only a half-truth. The Bible teaches that he, being arrogant,
revolted against God and so he became the devil. His fall was due to his
haughtiness. A false spirit can be recognized by his arrogance. After his fall
he took a great number of the angels with him and he also tried to ensnare men.
The story of the fall, which is only found in the Bible, in Genesis 3, explains
how all misery came into the world.
Buddha was burdened with the suffering of the world
and therefore could not believe in a Creator. The ancient problem is how can we
reconcile God’s love and omnipotence with the suffering we see around us. But
Buddha could not see the problem in its true perspective because he was not
aware of the event of the fall and so he offered man a solution without God. He
could not explain the cause of the misery, but invented the solution to negate
the evil within by extinguishing all desires and to accept that the soul simply
does not exist. Then there is also no ego that could suffer pain.
In the Hindu philosophy you also have to negate the
evil by thinking that earthly life is an illusion and that you are divine. The
soul is divine and eternal and does not suffer. This is a beautiful philosophy,
but it does not stop a man being downhearted. If we are locked up in a prison,
we can imagine that the prison is an illusion, but we are not yet released from
that prison.
Islam has chosen for resignation: what happens to me is the holy will of
Allah.
Thanks to the biblical account of the fall, we get a
totally different perspective on the problem as to why all misery came into the
world: man listened to the devil. We read:
“Now the serpent was more
crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the
woman, ‘Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’ The
woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but
God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’
‘You will not surely die,’
the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes
will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Genesis
3:1-5)
Jesus has freed mankind from Satan’s slavery through
his crucifixion. Therefore Satan hates his crucifixion and he will always
try to discredit or falsify the gospel of salvation through Christ’s
crucifixion.
On Golgotha Jesus overcame Satan and dethroned the
evil powers. That does not mean, however, that Satan cannot affect the world
any longer. He is not yet bound. We could compare him with a person who is
found guilty of a crime, but is still able to go around freely before he is
sentenced. We live in an interim period, in which Satan can still exert his
power. Now more than ever he is extremely active because he knows his time will
soon come to an end.
“Therefore rejoice, you
heavens and you who dwell in them! But
woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is
filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Revelation 12:12)
If we can contact evil spirits in the paranormal
world, it is of the utmost importance that we discern which spirits we contact.
We must be aware of Satan’s tricks, so that he, the liar, cannot deceive us.
“Be self-controlled and
alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
But the great question is how do we discern.
Paranormal healers, reiki-masters and spiritual
leaders tell us that they communicate with spirits. This will be dealt with in
more detail in the next section. What is of interest at present is whether
they discern between good and evil spirits and, if so, how they make the
distinction.
It is remarkable that, without exception, New Age
authors speak about their spirits and guides in a positive way and don’t wonder
whether they may be deceived. Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer write in their book
Opening to Channel that people, without exception, say that channelling
has influenced their life in a positive way. For instance, they now have a
broader world-view and have more compassion for themselves and others. Almost
all people, they say, have experienced more prosperity and have become more
conscious of their goal. Moreover, they have got more confidence in their inner
messages. Many people experience channelling as an important step towards
illumination. They experience spirits as being higher light bearers. They write
that many guides of a high level are almost pure energy and radiate light. They
also realise that there are lower entities with which we must not contact, but
they don’t call them evil entities; they are only less developed and can give
negative experiences. They predict calamities or they promise wealth or fame.
After their advice you feel powerless, depressed or anxious.
The medium Ursula Roberts also warns in her book
All about Mediumship against lower negative entities. We should distrust
messages like: “You will save the world,” “you are a strong personality,” and
“Jesus writes to you.” All these messages need not be untrue, she says, but
good spirits preach humility. Evil spirits only want to flatter the ego and
foster a spirit of misplaced pride.
The conclusion is: New Agers can indeed make a
certain distinction between lower and higher good spirits, but they don’t
believe that there are also high, but fallen angels. They simply think
that the spirits they communicate with are higher light bearers; therefore they
are good.
In New Age books there is no warning about the risks
taken when we start communicating with spirits. Roman and Packer only relate petty discomforts. For instance, the
world may look unreal in the aftermath of a trance. And one can experience
pain, which is explained as follows: the guide brings a higher energy into your
body with which you are unable to deal. Or you can become depressed. This is
explained as an after-effect of the higher consciousness that one has experienced.
Only John Klimo – in general he has a positive view
of channelling – remarks on the fact that serious troubles can occur and cites
Hans Bender, a psychiatrist, who talks of “mediumistic psychosis.” In his
experience a lot of patients who suffer from a psychosis, have entered the
paranormal world in one way or another. Channelling can even lead to suicide.
In general there are no references to the great
risks of channelling in New Age books.
When I was still at school I met a Greek who read my
palm and predicted that something quite horrible would happen before my death.
For a long time I lived with the feeling that something terrible was going to
happen to me at the end of my life. Predictions are very often concerned with
negative things and can cause great anxiety.
Once in a while I too had predicting or telepathic
dreams concerning disasters. One summer when I was staying in Germany I had a
nightmare in which a war started in a city. The next day I heard that the Berlin
wall had been built. Just before going to India I dreamed that I was on my way
to India by ship but there was something wrong. The ship could not sail through
the Suez Canal and had to sail around Africa, which meant I arrived in India
too late. I sensed some pending disaster. Fortunately, the ship could sail
through the Suez Canal on the way to India and I forgot about my dream. But
when I stayed in the ashram, a war against Israel broke out and the Suez Canal
was indeed closed and the ship had to sail around Africa.
Once you have entered the paranormal world, one
thing leads to another. During my student days I examined the different aspects
of the alternative circuit. I attended a meeting of the Sufis (mystical Islamic
sect) movement and a course with the Rosicrucians. I read books written by
eastern gurus and Rudolf Steiner and occult books on Palmistry, astrology and
also magic. I practiced some yoga exercises and went to a meeting with the
paranormal healer Croiset. I attended séances several times. The medium, a woman, was hypnotised by her
husband. She would lose consciousness and then the so-called spirits of the
dead would speak through her. A young man who was visiting was troubled by a
black magic spell, he was apparently treated by the spirit of an Egyptian
doctor. I never heard whether he got cured or not. The medium said that she was
exhausted after such séances. These sessions did not have a beneficial effect
on her health. But, in those days, that did not bother me at all. I was not aware of any dangers and, full of
expectation, I even went to India on my own.
My stay in the Aurobindo Ashram in South India
during 1966 – 1967 impacted my life enormously. An ashram is a community where one practices yoga under the
spiritual guidance of a guru. The guru,
Sri Aurobindo, had already died but his co-guru, a western lady of almost 90,
called the ‘Mother’, was still alive and possessed great paranormal powers. She
had trained in occultism for years. On my birthday I went to visit her. She
laid hands on me and I received her ‘blessings.’ I sensed that her powers were
supernatural.
After that year I returned to the Netherlands with
the feeling that I had gained new inspiration that could also be important for
the church. I continued my studies and had almost completed them when my life
took an unexpected turn. Initially, I had the feeling that the trip to India
had done me good, but then I was suddenly confronted with a long period of
suffering. It all began when I went into a trance and this happened whether I
liked it or not. According to Roman and Packer a trance is a state of
consciousness in which you can contact a spirit guide. I also experienced that,
in a state of trance, you can become hypersensitive to influences from the
paranormal world of spirits. In such a mental state your own spirit becomes
empty and then another spirit can act through you. At first it was a state of
supreme bliss. I had a sensation of experiencing something of the divine and
the feeling of having reached a state of illumination. But this bliss did not
last long. I even lost consciousness like the medium did through hypnosis and,
when I came out of the trance, I experienced a tremendous tension and pressure
on my head for the first time in my life and I was unable to study.
From that moment I had continual problems. From time
to time I would go into a trance, I started to suffer from nightmares and the
physical troubles increased. One night I woke up with excruciating pains in my
chest. They were so severe that I could no longer even sit in a chair as usual.
This caused me to spend months lying on my bed. In my distress I wrote to my
guru who sent me a ‘blessings packet,’ in which she had radiated energy. I was
required to put it on my chest. (This is the same method now used by Jomanda.)
Then I had a wonderful experience of being healed! I was so happy! In spite of
everything I had completed my studies and now I could start to work.
But my joy did not last long. A few months later the
misery began again, and from that time on I started to feel pain and tension in
my whole body. I had the feeling that I had to compete with a power much
stronger than myself. With ups and downs I suffered like this for many, many
years.
A paranormal healer crossed my path; he wanted to
help me because he could transmit energy. And, again, I experienced the same
thing. After the treatment, for a time, things improved but afterwards my
health deteriorated once more so that I finally came to the conclusion: things
are only going to go from bad to worse. In the next section we will see how the
turn for the better came.
Of course each story is unique and, fortunately, not
everybody who enters the paranormal world needs to endure such pains, but there
is always a price to pay.
I have personally experienced that evil powers and
forces do exist. The warnings given in the Bible are not the product of the
narrow-minded from the distant past, but are highly relevant today.
The criterion for New Agers is, as we have already
seen, that their spirit guides are of a high level and are light bearers and,
therefore, good beings. Once when I talked to Jomanda I asked her, “How do you
know you have contacted good spirits and not the evil ones?” She answered,
“They are of a very high level.” But I replied, “Jomanda, that does not mean a thing. The Bible teaches that the
devil is of a very high level.” Then she became very angry. I simply wanted to
make clear that the Bible warns that this is not an adequate criterion. Satan
was created as a high-ranking angel and the apostle Paul warns us that he,
Satan, can imitate the miracles of God (2 Cor. 11:14). In the Old Testament we
find a striking account about the battle between the real prophets of God and
the magicians who imitated God’s miracles. We read:
“The LORD said to Moses and
Aaron, ‘When Pharaoh says to you, Perform a miracle, then say to Aaron, Take
your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.’
So Moses and Aaron went to
Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front
of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise
men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their
secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s
staff swallowed up their staffs.” (Exodus 7:8 – 12)
As we have seen, Professor Tenhaeff thought that the
saints perform the same miracles as the witches and magicians. Indeed, the
wonder Aaron performed was exactly like the magic of the Egyptian magicians.
Although it appeared they performed the same wonders, the miracles of both
parties came from different sources. Moses and Aaron accomplished the miracle
in the name of God but the Egyptian magicians performed their signs by means of
their idols. There was a radical difference between God and these idols because
Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. God shows here that He is the
Conqueror and that He is stronger than the demonic forces. Jesus warns also, as
we have seen, that people who are influenced by satanic spirits can perform
great signs and wonders.
Satan has brought illness and ruin into this world.
A well-known example of this is Job’s suffering. God had permitted Satan to test Job. Job sat down among the
ashes, covered with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his
head (Job 2:7). He looked so terrible that his friends did not recognise him.
This is Satan’s horrible work.
Jesus speaks of bondage to Satan in the case of a
special disease.
“On the Sabbath Jesus was
teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled
by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up
at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you
are set free from your infirmity.’ Then
he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Indignant because Jesus had
healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six
days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.
The Lord answered him, ‘You
hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the
stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter
of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on
the Sabbath day from what bound her?’” (Luke 13:10–16)
Satan can also make people mentally ill. Job was
afflicted by inner unrest (Job 3:26). This is also a great problem today. Satan
can even make man possessed or mad. He can also cause man to lose his or her
humanity and so become like a beast.
“They went across the lake
to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an
evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and
no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been
chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his
feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and
in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.” (Mark 5:1–5)
So Satan can inflict a great deal of suffering on
men. But apparently Satan can also cause people to have good luck and he can
perform healing miracles. How is that possible? We associate Satan’s work
with death and destruction, but what about healing?
We have to realise that Satan was not bad
originally; on the contrary, he was a high-ranking angel. Being one of the highest angels he received
great gifts and power from God. The force and energy he has received from God,
he now uses for evil in order to bind people. Because he has received his power
from God originally, he can imitate the wonders of God and also healing
miracles to a certain extent. He can also inspire you to make beautiful art and
to write fascinating books. If you will fall down and worship him, he will give
you all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he told Jesus (Matthew
4:8, 9).
If man binds himself to satanic powers, he can do
abnormal things. We have seen that a possessed man could wrench his chains
apart. This is impossible to do with our normal strength. This man had
supernatural strength from an evil spirit.
At the start things can look pretty good. We have
the feeling that we have benefited from it and have received gifts, but the end
is bitter. The devil’s intention is to bind a person’s soul to himself and pull
him into hell. One does not immediately see that because the devil comes as an
angel of light. Remember demons know how to make a good impression at first,
but after a time you discover that you have been deceived by them.
When I went to India, I was still young and naïve. I
had no idea that evil powers could indeed deceive you. So it is with many
people today who enter the paranormal world not realising the dangers. Sometimes people only realise on their
deathbed that they have been taken in by the devil. Rolf Wennekes saw
TM-teachers who died rebellious, frightened and insecure.
Often people only perceive after a time that they
have become bound: they suffer from psychic troubles, like anxieties,
depression or suicidal tendencies. Their headache may be healed at first, but
after a time the complaint returns and often much worse, or they have psychic
disorders. The worst effect is that a spiritual blockage arises, making it
impossible to believe in Jesus Christ. Such a person has become bound and, in
the worst case, becomes possessed like the man in the gospel of Mark. He is
completely under Satan’s control.
Let us look once again at what we need to notice
when we come into contact with a person who claims to have seen an angel or can
heal people so that we know whether that gift or experience is of God.
We have already learned the following principles:
-
One
can recognise a false spirit by arrogance
-
Satan
discredits the gospel
-
Satan
imitates the miracles of God. At the outset they seem real and positive
miracles.
-
We
have to pay a high price for his gifts: we become bound and rush headlong to
perdition. Jesus said you will know the trees by their fruits.
We have seen that Professor Tenhaeff made no
distinction between miracles done by the apostles and the magic practiced by
Simon the magician. In either case the point would be that general human
capacities are at work. The Bible, however, mentions a battle between the
apostle Peter and Simon the magician. If Peter and Simon had the same spirit as
their source, this battle would not have taken place. The battle is really only
understandable if there was a conflict of spirits.
Let us see whether we can recognise the
above-mentioned principles of false wonders worked by Satan in the story of
Simon the magician who lived in Samaria. The account is as follows:
“Philip went down to a city
in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and
saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.
With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples
were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
Now for some time a man
named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of
Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high
and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, ‘This man is the divine power
knows as the Great Power.’ They followed him because he had amazed them for a
long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good
news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised,
both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptised. And he followed
Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
When the apostles in
Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and
John to them. When they arrived, the prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them;
they had simply been baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and
John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
When Simon saw that the
Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money
and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands
may receive the Holy Spirit.’ (Acts 8:5-18)
This story gives us several indications that Simon’s
miracles were not of God.
In an early Christian writing Recognitions of
Clement we read more about the battle between the apostle Peter, who had
also come to Samaria, and Simon the magician. “I have,” Simon said, “made the
soul of a boy, unsullied and violently slain, and invoked by unutterable
adjunctions, to assist me, and by it all is done that I command.” So he was
into spiritualism. This spirit assisted him. Peter recognized that Simon was
deluded by demons. It is not true that his magic was simply a matter of general
human ability. He was assisted by a spirit, probably a demon.
He felt very special; he claimed to have an exalted
power, which excelled that of God the Creator. His flesh was so influenced by
the power of his divinity that he believed he could endure through to eternity.
Furthermore, he said that could make himself invisible to those who wished to
lay hold of him, and again become visible when he felt it was right for him to
be seen again. He professed to have made a boy out of the air. The ancient
account of Simon is that he went to Rome where he embarrassed people. That is
why Peter went to Rome. Simon also believed that he could fly and, in the end,
he destroyed himself. The Bible warns
the ungodly: “Then I (the psalmist) understood their final destiny. Surely you
place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.” (Psalm 73:17,18)
Jesus never did miracles in this way. He did not
want, like a magician, to satisfy his hunger by commanding the stones to be
made bread. It is vital that we discern between the real wonders of God and the
magic of Satan.