Evidence for God from Science

"Magic" and "sorcery" are condemned in both the Old and the New Testament. My question is, is it ever said or hinted at, why these activities are sinful? No, I'm not contemplating to actually get into occult practices, I am just curious. I've seen some speculation that these "powers" come from Satan and others demons.

Noah1201 wrote:"Magic" and "sorcery" are condemned in both the Old and the New Testament. My question is, is it ever said or hinted at, why these activities are sinful? No, I'm not contemplating to actually get into occult practices, I am just curious. I've seen some speculation that these "powers" come from Satan and others demons.

According to the bible - such practices invoke demonic spirits, invoke bad decisions, bad thinking, etc, and that is why they are condemned and warned not practice. Most of all, they tempt God as well as curse Him and His works - insult God, etc..

2 Ch 33:1-6, "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asherahs, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem shall my name be forever." 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger." ESV

These verses above illustrate how such practices lead to justify wicked behavior and that it angers God…

Gal 5:20-21, “…idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” ESV

Verses above from Galatians state that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God…

1 Ch 10:13-14, "So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the LORD in that he did not keep the command of the LORD, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. 14 He did not seek guidance from the LORD. Therefore the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse." ESV

Again, another illustration of what happened to Saul and the results…

Deuteronomy 18:9-12, "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you." ESV

There are examples in Acts 8:9-24 and Acts 16:16-19 of people motivated by such arts and what happened to them when confronted with the power of God...

And in we read this account…

Acts 19:17-20, "And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily." ESV

Examples of demonic activity invoked and how it leads people to do things they ought not:

Lev 17:7 So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. ESV

Deuteronomy 32:16-17, "They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded." ESV

Psalms 106:37-39, "They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; 38 they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood. 39 Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds..." ESV

Hope this helps answer your question
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It breaks the first commandment. Almost all spells and occult practices involve the invocation of a spirit or Pagan deity. A spell is basically just a Pagan prayer. Christians aren't supposed to pray to or worship other gods. Be they real demons pretending to be gods or simply products of imagination, you're not supposed to go to spirits that don't follow God.

believ3r wrote:It breaks the first commandment. Almost all spells and occult practices involve the invocation of a spirit or Pagan deity. A spell is basically just a Pagan prayer. Christians aren't supposed to pray to or worship other gods. Be they real demons pretending to be gods or simply products of imagination, you're not supposed to go to spirits that don't follow God.

Hmmm, with kind respect - have you ever tangled with any you were aware of... dealt with people influenced by these? These kinds of practices gives glory to demons and do lead people to do strange behaviors that provoke God. They do invoke demonic activity as such practice involves this so that these entities do the bidding of the one practicing this stuff. Not only breaking the First Commandment – but all the others as well…
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Uhh..this is a bit off topic from the original question, but would "ghost hunting" be the same as sorcery and witchcraft?

I would say that one would need to be extremely cautious when experimenting with spiritual matters. While ghost hunting per se may not be the exact same thing (many simply are curious and aren't going into it with any "sorcery" motivation), I would perhaps suggest that it can leave us vulnerable and open to attack. It's no surprise that those who have dealt with matters of spiritual tests understand the great spiritual stress and strain that can be placed on us. These, after all, are not trivial matters and we shouldn't enter into them blithely. Ephesians 6:10-17 would be a great section to read, it is truly a battle we go into.

believ3r wrote:It breaks the first commandment. Almost all spells and occult practices involve the invocation of a spirit or Pagan deity.

Can you show biblical evidence of this?

Noah1201 wrote:

believ3r wrote:It breaks the first commandment. Almost all spells and occult practices involve the invocation of a spirit or Pagan deity.

Can you show biblical evidence of this?

What Biblical evidence? All it takes is a glance at the spells. It's no secret that Pagans/witches worship gods other than the Christian one.

I agree with Zoe, these are not casual matters at all. One must know about his faith and before jumping in one. Jesus told his disciples once that they only reason they couldn't drive out an evil spirit was because they lacked prayer. About ghost hunting well, usually it is a vain attempt. These things are not like the documentaries and tv shows or movies for that matter, show. If I may add from my personal exp, I have been in exorcisms and believe me, there is nothing thrilling about it, I often see people in pain and torture at the hands of unclean spirits and it is brutal. Most of the times, people who are not right with God and participate in such practices become possessed themselves or get hurt one way or another. My point, one should be careful when planning to do something like this.

A very close friend of mine who is doing a seminary now, was studying demonology and per his statement, one day while he was in his study room, things were hurled around, his pencil and pens levitated in air, the cd player started. Then he begin to pray and it subsided. I told him that he should be careful while reading such things. SO JUST BE CAREFUL and HAVE FAITH.

It breaks the first commandment. Almost all spells and occult practices involve the invocation of a spirit or Pagan deity. A spell is basically just a Pagan prayer. Christians aren't supposed to pray to or worship other gods. Be they real demons pretending to be gods or simply products of imagination, you're not supposed to go to spirits that don't follow God.

I studied witchcraft and also black magic (only for the sake of studying, never practiced), the spells or prayers they have do require rituals, worship, blood, and in lots of cases urine, semen, a lot of things they call natural and necessary for the spells to work. It is generally done with lunar cycles with 7- 40 days, even more. the sites are carefully chosen, graveyards, empty, isolated places, there are strange tasks, body piercings, drinking or eating of unclean animals or birds. it is disgusting.

The reason they are called sinful is very simple, they require a faith opposite to God, and if you remember Hebrews and romans, you will know that without faith it is impossible to please God and what is not with faith, is sin. So even if it breaks the first commandment or not, it still violates the cardinal principle of reaching God, that is faith. so once someone believes in these practices and does them, he/she automatically choose sides. In the book of exodus, the magicians of pharaoh were able to turn water into blood and their staffs into snakes. The point is not that God is the only power, he is the supreme power, the devil has power (granted by God as Satan awaits his judgement) and people who want to take a part in the power that does not come from God, choose sides.

Hope it helps.

God bless

well sorcery is more conversing with spirits which are demons while magick is more or less trying to influence the natural world. Basically the people that wrote the bible wanted to promote the people giving they're worship and eventually money aka. alms to the church and not to cults. So basically it comes down to the church wanting to keep people from understanding occult forces and thus not be willing to satisfy their greedy needs for money, or atleast thats my oppinion.