The scripture says the antichrist will have a friend, a priest, who causes people to worship him. This priest will have power to do magical things and people will follow along partly for that reason.
The Bible says to stay away from magic, I presume because it's origins are from evil spirits. So I try to understand the difference between magic and a miracle, which is power given by God.
A main difference, I suppose, that you would find is the presentation and who gets the credit. Someone who does magic takes the credit themselves.
There was a man working on a project and he had the head of an ax come off the handle and it landed in the water. He was distressed about it and mentioned that it was a borrowed ax. So the prophet asked where it fell in and took a stick and laid it on top of the water and the head of the ax floated to the top.
Of course there was also Moses performing miracles that Pharaoh's court was familiar with but as we all have learned, Moses' declared the Lord in all things he did. There was no question who got the credit.
Our world is full of mysticism of the wrong kind. It is astounding that people will accept that and deny that anything in the Bible happened, even when archaeology proves it. The fact that both exist lets us know that it's true that we battle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in high places.
I saw a man preaching on whether or not we are alone in the universe using the Bible as a reference. I tend to believe that spirits exist in another dimension and share the same space with us. Why? Because I have seen a few. The first one I saw was at least a year before my mental illness began. When I see them it's only a short glimpse and then when I focus on them, they disappear from my sight, but I know they are always there.
I have been talking about something out loud before and then shortly thereafter a thought that would be normal to have in a carnal sort of way, like exacting revenge, will come to mind when really I don't have that impulse at all. I then know some spirit is lurking about putting thoughts in my mind. I denounce the thought immediately. The Bible says to take your thoughts captive which bumfuzzles me because I've mostly been under the impression that our thoughts are uncontrollable.
