Paul wrote:I am a little bit puzzled aswell by this question, how could pure evil have any genuine good deed? In the OT (1 Samuel 28) the witch of endor helped Saul to conjure up the spirit of Samuel, which I assume must've been through demonic force, though one can wonder whether that was really Samuel or a demonic deception. But I don't think that really qualifies as a good deed.
As someone else mentioned before though, it is clear from Scripture that satan can work counterfeit miracles to deceive people (if possible even the elect) - and these miracles do give temporal benefits, though they lead to eternal destruction and can't be considered 'good deeds' in any sense.
2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 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. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
My understanding of the sorceress of Endor is that she was startled when "Samuel" appeared. It seems, then, that what/who she saw was not what/who she expected. It does seem contrary to God's workings that it really was Samuel, but that does seem to be the implication of the text (at least as I understand it - I readily admit that I am not a Hebrew scholar). So in the context of this discussion, I don't know what to make of that example.
Earlier we were talking about God providing the rain (and sun) for everyone, both good & evil. The shamans in Egypt were able to duplicate some of the plagues that Yahweh sent down on Egypt through Moses & Aaron. But, again, those were all bad things, curses, exactly what we expect from the devil & his crew. Those things are at least not presented by Scripture as counterfeits or fakes, sleight of hand, so they appear to have been genuine 'miracles', if such a curse can be called that. So back to rain. I didn't mention it, didn't even think of it at the time, but of course the obvious event of this sort was Elijah on mount Carmel (I Kings 18), where the sorcerers of Baal were unable to call down rain, four hundred of them. If the Satan had been able to do so, would it not have been clearly to his advantage to bring down rain that day?
So I've been attempting to think of how this should be applied to the modern day question someone already posed - what about 'water witching' (known as dousing where I come from). I can think in the following vein: Since all good comes from God, we should depend solely on Him, not attempting to 'assist Him' by use of any such tool as the dousing rod (or wire). But then my self argues with myself, saying, "But we also know and believe that healing comes from God. But we still believe that we can use medicines and the services of Doctors to 'assist' in the process, if possible. Do we not believe that God has given many plants as natural medicines?" And my self goes on to remind me that while in Brazil we sometimes used natural medicines that the Indians told us about, things that we could easily recognize as effective. Things that their shamans had almost certainly also used in conjunction with their demonic practices. (The oil from a certain tree is an incredible antiseptic. We also used certain flowers & leaves to treat colds & sore throats, and some tree saps were used as pain killers for tooth aches. Many of these medicinal uses are not documented anywhere, which is part of the reason Brazil is so keen on keeping foreigners out of the Amazon. While we were there, a European guy, Dutch, I think, was arrested for having a collection of leaves in his boat. He told them that 'They must have just fallen into the boat as I was going through the flooded areas,' but they didn't fall for it. Brazil wants to discover & document those things themselves, because they know that if big foreign corporations are involved, the benefits will all leave Brazil.)
I don't think I mentioned it before, because I didn't have any examples of it at the time, although I have often seen this sort of thing both in the newspaper, and on FaceBook, what I call 'incantational prayers'. I have always just deleted them, but I just saw two of these in the last few days.
Before the end of this month, God will increase your money .... if you know that God is able type AMEN and share.
and another
Every hand that will type AMEN and share in 3 seconds, by faith, <picture of 'Jesus' here, with bloody whipped back> you receive a miracle.
These are not exactly occultic, but they utilize an occultic approach - an attempt to manipulate a spiritual power by some type of saying or practice. You see the same thing with the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel, and even the 'Seven Sons of Sceva' (Acts 19), who were, ostensibly, doing a 'good thing', and invoking the Name of Jesus to do so.
So I've attempted to make an application of the principle I believe we see in Scripture, that is, that the Satan is incapable of doing any good thing. (Or at least unwilling, although the Mt Carmel deal certainly makes it look like he is incapable.) But the application force is weak, and I cannot make it stick to something like the thing someone brought up earlier - the deal of looking for water. Finding water is a good thing, and at least in the times I've seen it done (only twice), there was never any incantation or manipulation of any spiritual power involved. (People here in Holmes County Ohio talk about people doing it over a map, and I'd say there is something very suspicious about that sort of practice. But I'll also say that in Oklahoma where I come from, an area of the country where it is generally pretty difficult to find water at all, such things were unheard of.) But I didn't want this to be about dousing for water - it is just a case to which what ever principle that can be identified should be applied. So far, though, the most likely Biblical truth than can be most clearly seen is that the Satan is not able to give any good thing, so even if this practice was an attempt to manipulate him into indicating where there is water, he is neither able nor willing to do that. It seems to me that the application is this, that since all water that comes from the sky is from God, so also the water that comes from the earth is from God. (Although the question remains if this method of finding it is the wrong one, or not. What is clear to me, so far, at least, is that it cannot be the Satan who is causing it to be found in this way.) But this is just a sort of bunny trail - my real question is still if the devil is able to do any good thing, and I need to see it in the Scripture, because that is all I know as an authority.
Congregation: Gospel Haven Mennonite Fellowship, Benton, Ohio (Holmes Co.) a split from Beachy-Amish Mennonite.
Personal heritage & general theological viewpoint: conservative Mennonite Brethren.