Matthew 4:10
Popular culture has an ongoing fascination with evil. Movies, television, and literature are filled with accounts of witches, ghosts, mystics, mediums, and demons. Many Christians aren’t sure if they should draw a line to stop this constant barrage, or how much of it is harmful, or how much is harmless entertainment.
There will always be a whole lot more we don’t know in this life about these occult subjects than what we do know, but God’s word tells us some things about how we should respond to them. Let’s examine some of these subjects as they are addressed in the Bible:
1.Enchanters, Diviners, & fortune-tellers. These people used things in the natural world such as the position of the stars, the lines on a palm, the knots in a rope, or the entrails of a goat to supposedly predict the future or reveal hidden things. Today we might also refer to them as astrologers or mystics.
2. Magicians, sorcerers, witches, and wizards. These people might use deception to deceive people, often to unethically make a profit. Some might use drugs or “magic potions” as part of the deception. Some might be in league with Satan’s powers.
The Egyptians had magicians who could turn rods into snakes and make frogs appear, but they couldn’t match ther demonstrations of God’s power through Moses. The Chaldeans did magic for Nebuchadnezzar, but they couldn’t equal the power of God demonstrated through Daniel. Simon the sorcerer could do tricks that amazed the people but he couldn’t match the power of God demonstrated by the apostles.
The question that presents itself is, “Were these individuals using simple tricks which anyone with time and talent could dupliucate, or were they making use of some unknown scientific phenomenon, believing that they were tapped into some supernatural power, or were they using some power of Satan?
The allure of magic and wizardry is strong and seductive. When God created man, He gave him permission to eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He gave man dominion over the birds and beasts. A little power usually causes us to want more power, and a little knowledge usually causes us to want complete knowledge. Eve and Adam didn’t realize that there was a cost to the knowledge of good and evil. By going beyond what God had circumscribed for them, they lost access in this world to the tree of life. Much of the allure of magic and witchcraft and wizardry is having power and knowledge beyond what ordinary humans have, but this is beyond what God has permitted.
EXODUS 22:18 “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.”
LEVITICUS 19:26 “You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.”
LEVITICUS 20:27 “A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them. “
DEUTERONOMY 18:10 “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,”
2 KINGS 21:6 “Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.”
GALATIANS 5:19-20 “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,”
REVELATION 22:14-15 “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
3. GHOSTS. Ghosts are rarely mentioned in God’s word. The Bible uses the word ghost to mean the spirit separated from the body, as when Jesus died, He “gave up the ghost”. The same when Annanias and Sapphira died. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man wanted to send back someone from the dead to warn his family, but he was not allowed to do so. Jesus’ friend Lazarus, of course, physically rose from the dead and was not a ghost. When Jesus died on the cross, many graves were opened and the dead rose. These were not ghosts, but bodily resurrections. Modern stories would call them zombies, but they were not zombie-like at all, but living, breathing demonstrations of God’s power over death. The only possible referrals to ghosts in Scripture are the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration and also, as we shall see shortly, in the story of Saul and the witch of Endor.
4.FAMILIAR SPIRIT, OR NECROMANCER. One who contacts, or attempts to contact the dead. Today we would call them mediums.
There is considerable difference of opinion about what actually occurred in the story of Saul and the witch of Endor (I Samuel 28). Some people believe the witch was merely a charlatan who used tricks to make Saul believe that he was seeing the ghost of Samuel. Certainly those kinds of mediums existed and still exist today. Some people believe the witch was in league with one of Satan’s demons, a “Familiar Spirit”, who came to them and pretended to be the ghost of Samuel. Some people believe that the witch actually brought up the ghost of Samuel, as a literal reading of the text might suggest. Some people (such as Adam Clarke) believe that the witch was in the process of bringing up her familiar spirit for her ruse when God intervened and actually brought up the ghost of Samuel to confront Saul. Some might say that God would never work in conjunction with a witch this way, but the way that the witch was surprised at the outcome certainly lends credence to this possibility. Whichever theory is right doesn’t really matter. The sin of Saul was in seeking to go outside God’s will concerning witches, and for that he suffered death.
5.DEVIL, DEMONS, & PRINCIPALITIES. The devil is the father of lies, the adversary, a roaring lion, the tempter, a dragon, a lord of flies, and the angel of the bottomless pit. His helpers are demons, the angels who sinned, and those who seek to enslave us to sin in their principalities.
There was a fundamental change in the devil’s power after the resurrection of Jesus. Before His crucifixion, Jesus referred to the devil as the prince of this world. After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples, “All power has been given to me in Heaven and Earth.” There were still examples of demon possession after Christ rose from the dead, but they seemed to be much less innumber and intensity. Perhaps God permitted just a few to allow the apostles to demonstrate God’s power. Or perhaps the devil had a free hand in posessing people before Christ’s resurrection, but afterward, he could only possess those people who “invited him in.”
The idea opf inviting the devil survives in some cultures where people will not speak of the devil or evil things for fear of “inviting the evil eye.” It even survives in our modern day expression “Speak of the devil,” when someone appears shortly after you speak of him. It probably would take more than that to invite the devil into our life, but we would do well not to speak or think lightly of evil things. EPHESIANS 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” God has already won the battle, but it is still up to us to put on the whole armor of God against the wiles of the devil.
Some would dismiss those who condemn the devil’s influence in our culture as over-reactive. But when God calls something an abomination (Deut. 18:11), who are we to call it harmless entertainment? Who are we to give honor and acceptance to ideas that honor Satan? We are to avoid the very appearance of evil. We would do well to be entertained by those who seek the knowledge, control, security and comfort that God offers, not that promised by witchcraft, magic, sorcery, fortune-telling, and contact with the dead. Trust in the Lord, and lean not on our own understanding. By our fruits we will be known. We have been called out of darkness into God’s light. Think on good things.