" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'Perhaps you are over-applying these verses. The rich man and his family were not inclined to accept, for they had Moses and the prophets already to convince them and hadn't done so. A miraculous type of experience doesn't usually convince that type of person, or sometimes may only temporarily."He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
Now who said that the Bible wasn't relevant for life today? What Jesus said in the above passage is this: listen to what the Scriptures say about this life and the afterlife. Don't depend on the 'miraculous sign' when you have God's testimony available already.
I don't think that rules out experiences for those who might be inclined to believe, or already believe but need comfort/strenghtening/etc.
It would be a strange God indeed, to permit Satan to deceive those in the least position to discern (e.g. the stories of the various two year olds posted in this thread.). Even stranger, perhaps, for Satan to be interested in deceiving in such a way as to strenghten the faith in the Lord of the child and his family.
Also, as it just so happened our sermon this Sunday (2/8) was Luke 16:19ff. One statement that our pastor made summed up the last two verses well: "If a person does not believe in the Word of God, they will not believe in the works of God." The works should always point to the Eternal Word, and our experiences based on God's Word as found in the Scriptures.
"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." - 1 John 4:1