False Miracles
Today, thousands of miracles have been attributed to God that are false, subjective, or fabricated. Many people seem to believe that anything unusual is a genuine heavenly sign and wonder.
The danger here is that we are just opening up more spaces for Satanic influence to infiltrate the church. According to the Bible, Satan’s primary weapon in the end times will be false wonders, false signs, and false miracles (which may even seem true).
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (NKJV)
The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
As Jesus Himself warned His followers in advance in Mathew 24:24 that “False Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect.”
Today, there are a lot of false miraculous claims made without any real evidence or real witnesses to support them.
Unlike the miracles in the New Testament, which were done in front of large crowds with primarily unbelievers who were most likely to be skeptical, modern miracles usually occur privately or in religious meetings where there is a wild emotional expectation of a miracle where one can easily fabricate his or her imagination.
Whenever Jesus and the apostles performed miracles, they were instantly and completely healed. There was never a miracle that took them a long time to perform, nor were any of their miracles temporary, partial, or gradual.
As a final point, and most importantly, the need for miracles in evangelism not only produces false converts, but is also unbiblical. There are a number of reasons for this;
(1) In Romans 10:17, it is stated that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing the Word of God.”
(2) The Gospel itself is “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16), meaning that it is through the message of Christ’s death and resurrection—not through signs and wonders—that God brings people to saving faith.
(3) Jesus said that those who reject Scripture will not believe, even if they witness a resurrection; “if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
(4) Jesus did not endorse the use of signs and wonders in evangelism even though He performed many of them. In fact, He repeatedly rebuked those who demanded signs (Matt. 12:38-39; 16:1-4; Mark 8:11-12; Luke 11:16, 29; 23:8-9; John 4:48).
(5) The emphasis of Jesus’ ministry was not on miracles but rather on preaching and He often spoke without doing signs and wonders (Matt. 13:1-52; 18:1-35; John 7:14-44). He considered preaching more important than performing miracles.
(6) After Jesus performed many miraculous healings in Galilee (Mark 1:29-34), Peter found Him the next morning (v. 37) and said “everyone is looking for you” because the crowd wanted Jesus to perform more signs and wonders. But Jesus responded saying (v. 38), “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, in order that I may preach there also; for that is the reason I came for.”
As we can see, the use of the supernatural experience without any appeal for repentance and trust in the work of Christ is not biblical evangelism.