In Matthew 24:24, Jesus tells us that in the end times, Satan's deceptions will be rampant in an attempt to deceive everyone—even God's elect people. One way Satan tries to deceive us is to counterfeit God's wonder-working power.

In the last century, signs and wonders have appeared more and more in connection with the Catholic Church.

The Catholic belief that Mary is the queen of heaven and mediator between us and Christ has been bolstered recently by apparitions of Mary appearing around the world. She has become a key figure to be worshiped.

Catholics have experienced all kinds of strange occurrences, but this should not be surprising, considering the Catholic statement that apparitions are more important than theology:

The theologian Karl Rahner has pointed out that we are moved much more readily and effectively by those divine interventions that we call apparitions than by abstract teachings of knowledgeable theologians or the hierarchy of the Church (emphasis added).ⁱ

Some of the miracles occurring in Catholicism seem very similar to the experiences of New Age mystics.

In 1973, for example, Catholic Father Stefano Gobbi received over 600 dictated messages that he wrote down. He published them in a book entitled To the Priests, our Lady’s Beloved Sons.

In the book, he urges priests to be faithful to the Pope and to render “total obedience to his commands,” “ready to fight even to the shedding of their blood in order to remain united to him.”ⁱⁱ

The New Age and Catholicism should have nothing in common, but in reality the lines have always been blurred. Both New Age and Catholic practices are adaptations of ancient Babylonian paganism, and now New Agers and Catholics alike are seeing the same deceptive signs and wonders in their respective spheres.

The prominent New Age organization Share International lists many instances of miraculous signs and wonders in Catholicism, the New Age movement, and even Islam and Hinduism:

We are witnessing a huge increase in the number of miraculous appearances. People worldwide describe seeing the Madonna or Jesus, while many others report meeting ‘angels’. Hundreds see Maitreya in dreams, visions, or in person...religious statues and icons weeping tears, real blood and even pearls; the extraordinary Hindu ‘milk-drinking’ statues in 1995; appearances or sightings of the Madonna; holy messages in fruit and vegetables...ⁱⁱⁱ

A Holland news service says this about miracles taking place in Teheran, Iran:

"It is reported in various parts of the city that an image of Jesus has been seen on fences or in windows. People have gathered to witness it for themselves." So writes the Iranian newspaper Akhbar in its 25 December 1995 edition. Reuters news agency quotes newspaper reports of the face of Jesus appearing on the wall of a flat in the Iranian capital of Teheran. The report also mentions the spontaneous healing of a paralysed girl from a Christian family. Rumours spread like wildfire within the city and hundreds of Iranian Christians and Muslims alike flocked to the apartment building. An elderly woman in a black chador claimed it had happened before and that a Muslim man suffering from cancer had been healed on that occasion.^iv

New Age teacher Benjamin Creme says that the signs occurring in every religion are proof that the New Age Christ—the Maitreya—is coming:

These events are occurring on a world-wide scale, and are part of the signs which people expect and look for in connection with the reappearance of the Christ today...

They are signs that we have come to the end of one era and the beginning of a new one, and that the Christ has returned to the world to inaugurate this new cycle...

I was contacted by one of the disciples of the Christ in January 1959, and soon afterwards was given, by Maitreya Himself, the task of preparing the way for Him. I have been doing this for nearly 20 years now. My role is to create a climate of hope and expectancy for the return of the Christ, so that He can enter our lives without infringing our free will.^v

Here are other examples of signs and wonders happening around the world:

• Healing water in Nordenau, Germany
• Crosses of light appearing
• Circles of light appearing
• Milk drinking icons
• Crystal tears
• Native American White Buffalo
• Don Bosco
• Signs of his presence
• Apparitions at Medjugorje

Can the signs in New Age circles regarding the Maitreya and signs in Catholic circles regarding Mary be one and the same? The similarities in these supposed miracles seem to indicate that they came from the same source. But as we will read in our next article, these signs rarely align with the character of the true God and therefore could not have come from Him.

Read about stigmata, one of Satan's worst supernatural deceptions

This article is adapted by Wendy Goubej from Professor Walter Veith's DVD Signs and Wonders.