Reminders (4) – Witchcraft

Introduction:

1. We are pursuing a series of messages with one sermon per topic for reminding us of Bible godliness, so each sermon can only survey each subject; a thorough study may be done by hearers or come later.
2. The context for both verses above is relational (anger and forgiveness, respectively); we intend more.
3. The devilish devices in this study are those pertaining to any aspect of magic, sorcery, or witchcraft.
4. This topic was provoked by the growing fad and trend of teen vampires. See movie, Breaking Dawn.
5. By the grace of God, my grandfather was saved by Jesus Christ from a family and life of Spiritism, which was seeking to spirits of the dark for knowledge and assistance with life’s dilemmas/questions.
6. This sermon’s goal is to convict and provoke parents, especially fathers, to greater vigilance and examination of things that creep into their homes and their children’s lives associated with the devil.

The DEFINITION [from the OED]

1. Witchcraft. The practices of a witch or witches; the exercise of supernatural power supposed to be possessed by persons in league with the devil or evil spirits.
2. Sorcery. The use of magic or enchantment; the practice of magic arts; witchcraft.
3. Magic. The pretended art of influencing the course of events, and of producing marvelous physical phenomena, by processes supposed to owe their efficacy to their power of compelling the intervention of spiritual beings, or of bringing into operation some occult controlling principle of nature; sorcery, witchcraft. Also the practice of this art. [Author’s note: Sleight of hand or legerdemain is excluded here.]
4. Wizard. A man who is skilled in occult arts; in later use, a man who practices witchcraft (the masculine correlative of witch).
5. Paranormal. Applied to observed phenomena or powers which are presumed to operate according to natural laws beyond or outside those considered normal or known.
6. Supernatural. That is above nature; belonging to a higher realm or system than that of nature; transcending the powers or the ordinary course of nature.
7. Pseudoscience. A pretended or spurious science; a collection of related beliefs about the world mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method or as having the status that scientific truths now have.
8. Our definition for the purpose of this study is any activity related to the paranormal or supernatural, but not by the power of God approved in the Bible; any paranormal or supernatural energy or thought involving astrology, enchantment, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchcraft, religion, etc., yet trying to avoid any pseudo sciences merely based on ignorance.

The WARNING

1. God hates anything to do with sorcery, witchcraft, or magic. They are devilish and pagan, representing two of His enemies – the devil himself and those who follow him.
2. God’s civil laws for His nation Israel prohibited any involvement in witchcraft activities.
   1. He condemned enchantment (Ex 7:11,22; 8:7; Lev 19:26; Deut 18:10; II Kgs 17:17), which is employing magic or sorcery to foretell the future or bring power to an action.
   2. He condemned observing times (Lev 19:26; Deut 18:10,14; II Kgs 21:6; II Chron 33:6), which is considering some days more lucky than others through watching the clouds or other natural phenomena or astrological timing.
   3. He condemned divination (Deut 18:10; II Kgs 17:17; Jer 27:9), which is foretelling future events or by discovering what is hidden or obscure by supernatural or magical means; soothsaying, augury, prophecy.
   4. He condemned charmers (Deut 18:11; Isaiah 19:3), which is one who uses spells and enchantments, or who has magic powers; an enchanter.
   5. He condemned necromancy (Deut 18:11; I Sam 28:11-14; I Chron 10:13; Isaiah 8:19), which is communication with the dead.
   6. He condemned familiar spirits (Lev 19:31; 20:6; Deut 18:11; Lev 20:6,27), which are devils in league with persons to assist them in sorcery and witchcraft.
   7. He condemned astrology (Isaiah 47:13; Jer 10:1-2), which uses the movements of heavenly bodies to foretell the future or call forth action.
   8. He condemned stargazers (Isaiah 47:13), a branch of astrology for foretelling the future.
   9. He condemned monthly prognosticators (Isaiah 47:13), which is to know or tell of (an event, etc.) beforehand; to have previous knowledge of; to presage; to foretell, predict, prophesy, forecast. An astrological or astrometeorological forecast for the year, published in (or as) an almanac.
   10. He condemned witches and their craft (Ex 22:18; Deut 18:10; II Chron 33:6).
   11. He condemned wizards, or male witches (Lev 19:31; 20:6,27; Deut 18:11).
   12. He condemned sorcerers, those who practice sorcery; a wizard, a magician (Jer 27:9; Mal 3:5; Rev 21:8; 22:15).
3. God only knows the future, and He jealously resents any effort to discover or declare it apart from His revelation (Isaiah 44:24-26; 41:21-24; etc.).
   1. It was pagan governments like Egypt and Babylon that thought they could foretell the future or call on spirit powers to perform paranormal or supernatural things.
   2. Idolatry generally included the belief that priests could foretell the future by their gods.
   3. Joseph and Daniel proved repeatedly that they had much greater knowledge of the present and the future than the prophets, magicians, and astrologers of other religions.
4. The New Testament, without change from the Old on this topic, condemns the same crimes.
   1. Paul listed witchcraft as a work of the flesh contrary to the kingdom of God (Gal 5:20).
   2. John listed sorcerers as ejected from heaven and sent to the lake of fire (Rev 21:8; 22:15).
   3. Sorcery in the case of Simon at Samaria showed a very evil heart (Acts 8:9-13,18-23).
   4. God’s greater power blinded Barjesus, or Elymas, the Jewish sorcerer (Acts 13:6-12).
   5. Paul cast a devil out of a girl in Philippi that was a diviner or soothsayer (Acts 16:16-19).
   6. Converts at Ephesus burned their books about magic worth a great deal (Acts 19:18-20).
5. The New Testament calls for Christians to be separate from works of the devil and darkness.
   1. Paul gave near ten descriptions of separation in a well-known passage (II Cor 6:14-17).
   2. In this passage, He also gave seven promises from God for obedience (II Cor 6:14 – 7:1).
   3. The apostle by inspiration declared that pagan idolatry is devil worship (I Cor 10:20-21).
6. There can be power and success present, but only to a point, with these tools of the devil.
   1. Remember that Pharaoh’s magicians matched Moses for his sign and the first two plagues, but they could not duplicate the third plague – lice (Ex 7:11-12,22; 8:7,18-19).
   2. God promised that false prophets might have signs or wonders come to pass, but they should be rejected any way for their false doctrine and practice and also killed, for in such cases God is proving His people to see if they will follow His words (Deut 13:1-5).
   3. The standard is far too high for any of these servants or tools of the devil, even an idiot can identify them, for just one misfire proves they are not of God (Deut 18:21-22).
7. An alarming aspect of many of these aspects of witchcraft is their popularity with Christians.
   1. Most Christians are so poorly taught and so in love with the world that they do the same things as the world does, including most of the items in the list of witchcraft that follows.
   2. Items like meditation, of the Eastern type, not the Biblical type, are even introduced as producing a closer walk with God!

The MEASURE

1. Rather than see how close you can get to witchcraft, you should get as far away as possible.
2. Witchcraft, even in small doses, is stronger than you and a sure way to corrupt your life.
3. Since God wants you to come out from among them and not touch the unclean thing, do it!
4. Since the promises of God to His beloved require repentance of all and perfection, then do it!
5. We avoid all appearance of evil (I Thess 5:22). Real Christians burn their expensive books!
6. Children must be trained to hate all these things as deadly poison from hell (Eph 6:4).
7. Worldly popularity should mean nothing except condemnation of a thing (Ex 23:2; etc.).

The APPLICATION

1. Since this is a reminding sermon, there is not nearly time to define and explain each entry.
2. By using the Internet, you can yourself, with a strong Biblical viewpoint, research any entry.
3. While this list may not be exhaustive, it is close enough to give you some food for thought.
4. While this list is not absolutely prohibitive as presented, due to modifications or variations within many of the line items, there are still significant reasons to examine each of the items.
5. If you are serious about God’s hatred and prohibition of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, or related activities, or if you have doubts or questions about things related to witchcraft, you will carefully examine and/or avoid any association with these:

• Acupuncture (sticking pins in a body to help physical health by balancing spirits/energy)
• Alternative medicine (some is clearly superstitious, others home remedies, others advances, etc.)
• Amulet (good luck charms of any kind worn on your person or kept in vehicle or home)
• Ankh (a cross with a ring on the top used in satanic rituals)
• Apparitions (seeing spirits)
• Astral Projection or Travel (using your astral, or spirit, body to travel in the astral plane)
• Astrology (a large body of beliefs relating astronomical events to events in human life)
• Athletic fetishes (amulet, good luck charm, talisman, or routines to assist performance)
• Augury (interpreting omens, especially the flight of birds, as in ancient Rome)
• Automatic writing (or psychography, is a person writing content outside their mind)
• Belomancy (divination by use of arrows; see Ezek 21:21)
• Bermuda Triangle (also known as the Devil’s Triangle)
• Bewitched (the ABC television series from 1964 to 1972)
• Birth sign (West’s zodiac sign or the Chinese birth sign based on date and/or location)
• Birthday wish (before blowing out candles on birthday cake)
• Birthstones (various sources for these with different intentions and meanings)
• Black arts (the same as black magic, the use of magic to harm others)
• Black cat (superstition of witches)
• Black magic (the same as black arts, the use of magic to harm others)
• Black mass (sacrilegious parody of the Catholic Mass to profane the host, often sexually)
• Bless you! (or God bless you! for sneezing, assumed to involve spirits in a person)
• Blood pacts (with another for eternal friendship or with the devil for earthly advantage)
• C.S. Lewis (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, etc.)
• Cartomancy (divination or fortune-telling using a deck of playing cards)
• Cartoons (with magical power, spirit, forces, energy, fairies, wizards, witches, etc.)
• Casting lots (without the fear of God, and with more intended than merely casting dice)
• Chain letters (rather than the get-rich-quick pyramid style, the religious blessing kind)
• Charming (or enchanting, for spirit power, with the simplest being a good luck charm)
• Chinese astrology (the Chinese variation on the Western adoration of the solar system)
• Chinese birth gender charts (for pregnant moms to predict the gender of their babies)
• Christmas (spirit, Yule log, mistletoe, winter solstice, etc.)
• Clairaudience (supernatural sense of hearing, as spirits of dead persons giving advice)
• Clairsentience (supernatural sense perception)
• Clairvoyance (supernatural sense of sight)
• Coins in fountains (connected to making a wish)
• Color therapy (using the energy of color to heal, etc.)
• Concept therapy (using a change in mental ideas to alter your life)
• Conjuration (summoning up a spirit by incantation)
• Coven (a community of witches)
• Crosses (worn around the neck, on key chains, on steeples, etc., includes crucifixes)
• Crystal ball gazing (crystallomancy, a form of witchcraft using a crystal ball)
• Crystals (using crystals or stones for power)
• Death magic (necromancy or variations of it involving the dead and the spirit of death)
• Demon worship
• Disembodied spirits
• Disney cartoons and movies (a little examination will discover magic or sorcery)
• Divining rod (see also dowsing rods or witching sticks, used for finding things)
• Dowsing or witching (see also divining rod, pendulum, twig, or planchette)
• Dream interpretation
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Eastern meditation (religious to contact spirit world; gurus, mantras, yoga, etc.).
• Ectoplasm
• Eight-Ball (the magic toy from Mattel for determining the future)
• Enchanting (seeking to foretell the future by snakes or any mystical or spirit power)
• Exorcism
• Extrasensory perception (beyond a mere gut instinct or hunch of what another might do)
• Farmer’s Almanac (two-year weather forecasts by “planetary position” and other factors)
• Fairies (mystical, spiritual beings in folklore; fairy godmother)
• Feng shui (decorating based on “positive energy” of furniture structure and/or position)
• Findhorn Foundation
• Floating trumpets (for paranormal voices)
• Fortune cookies (thinking there is any value in these little Japanese religious cookies)
• Fortune telling (any effort to tell the future outcome of any activity or life)
• Friday the thirteenth (superstition surrounding the day and number of the month)
• Games (any occult-type games with spirit power, paranormal activity, vampires, etc.)
• Gender prediction methods (Chinese charts and other superstitious methods)
• Goth (the Gothic subculture of music, attire, etc.)
• Groundhog Day
• Gurus
• Gypsy curses
• Hallucinogenic drugs
• Handwriting analysis (for fortune telling)
• Hard rock music (Doors, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, etc.)
• Harry Potter (books and movies; combined franchise worth over $15 billion!)
• Heavy metal music (Slayer, Behemoth, AC/DC, etc.)
• Hepatoscopy (examination of liver for divining; Ezek 21:21; popular in Roman history)
• Hex signs
• Holy underwear (Masons and Mormons)
• Holding your breath when passing cemeteries
• Homeopathy
• Horoscopes (fortune telling based on astrological charts of a person’s time of birth)
• Hydromancy (divination by viewing images in water, as ripples by dropping a pebble)
• Hypnosis (a trance state marked by extreme suggestibility, relaxation, and imagination)
• Idols
• Incantations (calling to spirits)
• Iridology (examining the iris of the eye to determine locations and causes of sickness)
• Japanese flower arranging (ikebana, a religious method of arranging plant life)
• Jeane Dixon
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull
• Joseph Smith (notorious for peep stones for divination; used them for Book of Mormon)
• Kabbala (or Kabbalah or Cabbala, a set of scriptures outside Jewish canon of the O.T.)
• Karma
• Knock on wood
• Levitation
• Love potions
• Luck (there is providence, but there is no luck; there is neither bad luck nor good luck)
• Lucky (items of clothing, hats, penny, etc.)
• Lucky charms (signs of the zodiac or birthstones)
• Magic
• Mantras (a sound, syllable, word, or group of words capable of spiritual transformation)
• Martial arts (Aikido, Judo, Karate, Kung fu, Tae Kwan Do, etc.)
• Matthew Manning
• Meditation (not the Bible kind, but the self-hypnosis kind for paranormal power)
• Mediums
• Mental suggestion
• Mental telepathy
• Mental therapy
• Merlin the Magician (other books or movies with similar character in them)
• Mesmerism (or animal magnetism)
• Metaphysics (the study of the spirit world)
• Mind control
• Mind Dynamics
• Mind mediumship
• Mind reading
• Moon-mancy (superstition based on the phase or other aspect of the moon)
• Motorskopua (mechanical pendulum for diagnosing illness)
• Mysticism
• Necromancy (conjuring up the spirits of the dead)
• Nostradamus (French apothecary and reputed seer that published his prophecies)
• Numerical symbolism (the number three, seven, twelve are good; thirteen is bad)
• Numerology
• Occultic Games (Dungeons & Dragons, Ouija board, Guild Wars, etc.)
• Omens
• Ouija boards
• Pagan fetishes (pagan religious objects, amulets, artifacts, talismans, or relics
• Pagan rites (Voodoo, Fire walking, etc.)
• Palmistry (or chiromancy, the study of the palms of hands for fortune telling)
• Parakinesis (or psychokinesis, or Pk, or the movement of things by power of the mind)
• Paranormal voices
• Parapsychology (or PS, especially study of demonic activity)
• Peace sign (with inverted cross as satanic symbol despising Jesus)
• Pendulum diagnosis (medical dowsing)
• Phrenology (divining, diagnosis, or analysis from the skull)
• Placenta eating (for avoiding postpartum blues and other health problems)
• Planchette (a small, usually heart-shaped piece of wood that moves; see Ouija board)
• Pokemon
• Precognition (foreknowledge of events)
• Psychic healing
• Psychic sight
• Psychography (automatic writing)
• Psychometry (obtaining knowledge from an inanimate object about its history)
• Punk rock music
• Pyramidology (mystic powers associated with pyramids or their models)
• Rebirthing (supposed healing power and energy from breathing exercises)
• Reincarnation
• Rhabdomancy (divination by rods, sticks, arrows, etc.)
• Salt over the shoulder (the superstitious act of dealing with the devil)
• Satanism
• Seances
• Self-hypnosis
• Significant pagan days (Yule, Samhain, etc.)
• Silva Method (mind control through various means for improved life)
• Simple living (the simplicity and/or minimalist movement)
• Sorcery
• Spells
• Spirit knockings or rappings
• Star signs (see signs of the zodiac)
• Stichomancy (or Bibliomancy, a book is opened randomly and assumed to foretell truth)
• Stigmata
• Superman (Krypton, kryptonite, earthly and heavenly parents, savior, etc.)
• Superstitions (black cats, cracks, ladders, horseshoe, rabbit’s foot, four-leaf clover, etc.)
• Table tipping (a type of séance using movements of a table by spirit power)
• Tarot cards (for divination)
• Tea-leaf reading
• Telepathy
• Thirteenth floor (or thirteenth anything; presumed to be bad luck)
• Thought transference (see telepathy)
• Tk (telekinesis – objects move, instruments play, engines start by thought)
• TM (transcendental meditation)
• Tooth fairy (innocent? God did not leave the money. Why not Santa?)
• Trances
• Transmigration (of the soul; see reincarnation)
• Travel of the soul (expansion of consciousness to get closer to God, etc.)
• UFO fixation
• Uri Geller
• Vampires (current very popular movie about teen or young vampires)
• Wart removal charms (various, but including stealing and hiding grandma’s dishrag)
• White magic (using magical or hidden powers for good ends)
• Wish upon a star
• Wishbone (pulled by two persons, the one with the largest portion gets their wish)
• Wishing well (of various kinds, includes coin tossing after making a wish)
• Witchcraft
• Witching sticks (see divining rods or dowsing rods)
• Wizard (male witch)
• Ying and yang
• Yoga (involves Eastern demon worship through pagan meditation)
• Zen habits (very popular blog and website with Buddhist-type suggestions)
• Zodiac charms
• Zodiac signs

Conclusion:

1. There is a great war between God and His Son Jesus Christ and the devil – the outcome is certain.
2. As children of God, we should abhor anything to do with the devil, which in this case is witchcraft.
3. Seven promises are offered to those who separate and not touch unclean things (II Cor 6:14 – 7:1).
4. Rebellion or stubbornness against God’s word are equivalent sins to witchcraft (I Sam 15:22-23).

For Further Study:

1. Sermon Outline: Power of Darkness
2. Sermon Outline: Halloween.
3. Sermon Outline: Perfecting Holiness.
4. Sermon Outline: Holiness to the LORD.
5. Sermon Outline: Forgotten Sins.