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Can Satan Heal?

By December 1, 1998November 9th, 2022No Comments

Q.

Is there Scriptural evidence that Satan can heal today?

A.
We need to understand a couple of truths about Satan in regard to your question. First, there is only one God. Many people, for all practical purposes, think there are two—God, and then Satan, who in their eyes is only a little less powerful. That is not so. Only God is God, and Satan is completely under His control. Satan is, you might say, on a divine “leash”; he can do only what God allows. Satan is called “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4), but note that “god” is in the lower case.

Second, we must remember that Satan is a master deceiver. Second Corinthians 11:13 and 14 read, “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” If Satan can’t or doesn’t “heal” today, he certainly can imitate and delude. This we saw in the Old Testament time of Moses, when Satan’s magicians were able, up to a point, to imitate the miracles that God had done through Moses (see Exodus 7 and 8).

This business of deception will undoubtedly increase as we come to the close of the age prior to the Millennium. About the coming tribulation period, Paul the apostle wrote, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9).

Perhaps we haven’t seen as much of it in our own country up to now, but reports abound from the mission fields of the world concerning satanic activity in the area of healing. The works of witch doctors are one example of unusual happenings in what people would consider miraculous. Cults likewise claim healings, and we know from their teachings that they are not of God.

This article appeared in the “Q & A” column of the Baptist Bulletin (December 1998) by Norman A. Olson. 

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