John Piper@ reviews the concept of signs and wonders. He notes: Here’s the key passage:
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, “Let us go after other gods,” which you have not known, “and let us serve them, you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)
Notice five things:
First, Moses tells us that signs and wonders in the service of heresy really happen. They are not tricks.
Second, some miracle workers aim to draw believers away from the true God.
Third, God has a design in these deceptive signs and wonders, and he has purposes for the heresies they support.
Fourth, love for God is what God is testing.
Fifth, I conclude from this that the heart that loves God sees through miraculous deception.
In his conclusion: "Understanding these five things from Deuteronomy 13:1-3 helps protect us from deceptive signs and wonders and from heresies. But understanding is not enough. Love for God is both the aim of God’s testing and the means by which his tests are passed. Understanding awakens us to our need to love him. But love for God sees through deceptive signs and wonders to the falsehood they support and flees to Christ. Love for God sees through the heresy and holds fast to him. May God deepen our love to him so that it has this kind of penetrating, protecting power".
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