Those who practice these things today are as guilty of sinning against God as those who practiced them in ancient times. And in the book of Galatians, witchcraft is included among the “works of the flesh” (5:19-21), showing that the “craft” was practiced at that time.Ĭlearly, the same old pagan abominations that brought great curses upon ancient Israel were still alive in the time of Christ and the apostles, And they are alive today!Īctually, all the spiritualistic “arts” and “crafts” we hear so much about today are nothing more than modern manifestations of very ancient practices-practices absolutely condemned in God’s Word! God calls these things abominations, and pronounces the death sentence upon those who practice them. In Philippi, Paul cast a demon out of a woman “which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying” (Acts 16:16-18). In Cyprus, the apostle Paul confronted a sorcerer named Elymas, calling him a “child of the devil” and “enemy of all righteousness” (Acts 13:8-11). A man named Simon “used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one” (Acts 8:9). Many of the same pagan practices were still occurring in New Testament times. They even burned their children as human sacrificial offerings to pagan deities (Jeremiah 19:5 32:35). They sacrificed to the “gods” of the heathen took up their abominable customs. They sought out the soothsayers, the enchanters, the charmers, and the consulters of familiar spirits. In spite of God’s clear and repeated warnings, the people of Israel, time after time, “went a whoring” after the customs and practices of the heathen. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.” There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”ĭeuteronomy 18:9-11: “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. Leviticus 20:6,27: “And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people…. Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19:26,31: “…neither shall ye use enchantments, nor observe times…. When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, He utterly condemned the use of such practices, This is clearly proved by the following scriptures:Įxodus 22:18: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Both the Bible and archaeology confirm that these practices were universal in the ancient world. The Bible speaks of diviners (Deuteronomy 18:4 1 Samuel 6:2) of soothsayers (Isaiah 2:6 Daniel 2:27) of those (mediums) with “familiar spirits” (Leviticus 19:31 1 Samuel 28:7) of wizards (Leviticus 19:31 1 Samuel 28:3) of enchanters and witches (Exodus 22:18 2 Chronicles 33:6) of necromancers (Deuteronomy 18:11) of astrologers (Isaiah 47:13 Daniel 1:20). The Egyptian Pharaohs had their sorcerers and magicians (Genesis 41:8,24 Exodus 7:11), as did Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king (Daniel 1:20 2:2-13 4:7). In the ancient world, the use of “curious arts” was common. Let’s now turn to the Bible, and see what God has to say about these practices. What about this so-called “New Age”-is it really new? And what of the widespread practice of witchcraft, Satanism, necromancy, transcendental meditation, divination, and other forms of the occult? Are these mere “passing fancies”-fads that are not to be taken seriously? New Agers claim to have achieved “enlightenment” and inner peace through contact with “spirit guides” whom they believe to be the “spirits of the dead.” Are these “spirit guides” really the disembodied spirits of human beings? Or are they figments of the imagination? Or, are they something else? Proponents of the “New Age,” on the other hand, believe very much in the existence of a spirit world. But what are “seducing spirits” and “doctrines of demons”? Most psychologists and many theologians believe demons to be mere figments of the imagination, and regard “demon possession” as nothing more than an unscientific way of explaining mental illness.
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