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[apologies, but we have not yet included the footnotes]  

Answer: The basic issue here is whether we should put our trust in miracles or in the word of God.

In the Garden of Eden Eve looked upon a miracle: a beautiful snake that was able to talk. She trusted the words of this miraculous creature rather than the words of her Maker. God had said, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But the serpent said, "Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 2:17; 3:4, 5). Because Eve believed the miracle-working serpent rather than God she ate of the forbidden fruit and thus opened the floodgates of woe upon the human race.

Deuteronomy 13:1-4 says:

1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,

2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;

3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth [is testing] you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him.

In Matthew 7:22, 23 Jesus warns:

Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [Greek anomia, transgression of the law or lawlessness].

When Jesus was tempted by the devil He was miraculously taken up a high mountain and shown "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them". But Jesus resisted Satan and put His trust in the word of God saying, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10).

We are to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7) remembering that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" and that "without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]" (Hebrews 11:1, 6).

When Satan used the serpent in Eden to deceive Eve he laid the foundation of one of his greatest weapons, namely, spiritualism (or spiritism). Satan said to Eve "you will not surely die" (Genesis 3:4) in direct contradiction to God who said that if they ate of this particular tree they would surely die (Genesis 2:17). This first lie of Satan, that despite disobeying God Eve was immortal, forms the basis of modern spiritualism. Spiritualism's claim is that the dead can be contacted by the living. Webster’s Dictionary defines spiritualism as, "A belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living…" This false idea is based on the satanic lie that our "souls" or "spirits" are inherently immortal. If, as spiritualism alleges, the soul is immortal and goes into a new and higher existence (c.f. "ye shall be as gods" Genesis 3:5) at death, it is natural to expect to be able to communicate with these departed "souls". "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isaiah 8:19, 20). If a "dead relative or friend" appears to us then, no matter how friendly they may seem, we can be sure that they are not from God. Satan and his devils can impersonate dead people or heavenly angels (1 Samuel 28:7-20; 2 Corinthians 11:14). So if an angel or even someone claiming to be Christ comes and tells us to do something contrary to the Bible then we can be certain that they are an enemy. We should resist them with scripture as Jesus did when He said to the devil, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4:10, c.f. James 4:7).

To resist the devil’s spiritualism it is essential to have a proper understanding of the Bible's teaching about the human soul, death, Hell and the wickedness of necromancy (trying to contact the dead). For further details please see Appendix Five.

The books of Revelation and 2 Thessalonians, in describing the times shortly before Christ’s second coming, specifically warn of satanic miracles that will deceive:

And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live (Revelation 13:13, 14).

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty (Revelation 16:13, 14).

Even him, whose coming 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, that they might be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:9, 10).

Jesus also personally warned about deceiving miracles before His return:

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect (Mark 13:22).

Therefore, in answer to Question 47, we should still keep the seventh-day Sabbath even when we have witnessed genuine miracles that overwhelmingly support Sunday observance. Why? Because God’s word must be trusted more than miracles, no matter how great they may be.

For further details on Satan’s end-time deception please see Appendix Four.