The Occult (Idolatry and Sorcery)

Introduction. Depending upon our emotional and mental makeup, the power of suggestion can have a powerful impact. Books like The Power of Positive Thinking or Think and Grow Rich use this part of our mind to change habits and ways of thinking. It is all based on the power of suggestion to create motivation leading to success. In its most important realm, these abilities and emotions are rightly used by the gospel to lead us to repentance, spiritual growth, and eternal life. The definition of faith reveals true facts can create the substance and evidence to change lives. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

Yet although it can be used for great good, the power of suggestion is also used to create fear, superstition, and dread. It is how the occult finds its source of power and influence. Thus, the palm reader, medium, or horoscope use the power of suggestion to create self-fulfilling prophesies. 

Consider the following scenario that has happened countless times. 

• All the predictions had come true and the young lady was now fully convinced in the power of the occult to predict her future! As a teenager she had been warned: Her first marriage would fail, but her second would succeed. She would have difficulty keeping a job and would not make any friends. All had happened just as she had been told. She knew it was all foreordained. Nothing she could do would stop these things from happening. 

Yet a careful examination of all these “predictions,” reveals a common thread: They are crafted to come about solely by the influence of the predictions themselves. Any marriage can be destroyed by the power of suggestion. When someone becomes convinced it is destined to fail, they won’t work as hard to save it. If the prediction had revealed the first marriage would be difficult, but through hard work would become wonderful, it would have created the opposite outcome. No job can be secure if someone has been persuaded they will soon lose it and therefore won’t gain the skills to be a good employee or overcome hardships/weaknesses. Friendships will be blighted if someone believes it is impossible to keep friends and so becomes unfriendly. The power of positive thinking replaces such negative predictions of failure with positive ones of success. Instead of revealing a power outside oneself that will change a destiny, these predictions utilize the inner power of suggestion to influence the mind.

This is the terrible danger of all superstition. It makes us our own worst enemy. Such predictions unleash the “power of suggestion” and have ruined many promising lives. Those who believe in superstition are easily deceived, and once deceived are prone to fulfill the predictions by their own fear. The naive read horoscopes, have their palm read, or go to a medium and then create the very things they are told will occur. 

God wanted His people protected and insulated from these things. He knew the same strong desires (lusts) we possess that create awe, fear and reverence toward Him could also be used to create the “lusts of the flesh” of “idolatry and sorcery” (Gal. 5:19-21). God gave a clear choice and a stark contrast. 

• EITHER “The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary,” OR “seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter.” 

But God’s question rings through the centuries: “should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” His conclusion: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:13-20).

God revealed there is nothing behind these people or their predictions. They have no power, no insight and no wisdom. There is nothing to fear. Those influenced by any source other than God’s revelation have no light and walk in darkness. Only God knows the future and only God has the power to bring it to pass. Anything else is just “the abominations of those nations.” They include all who “practice witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.” (Deut. 18:9-12) Those who go “to the law and to the testimony” “give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God’ (Lev. 19:31).

God equated those allowing the power of suggestion to create fear or awe as a form of spiritual prostitution: “the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.” (Lev. 20:1-8, 27) 

Idolatry competes with God. It seeks to usurp His rightful influence supplanting it with superstitious dread. Yet, it has no substance and should have no place in our heart. “Do not fear, nor be afraid; have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one” (Isa. 44:8,1-28; 45:5,22; 46:9).

So breathe a sigh of relief! All superstition, charms, or supernatural phenomenon are false, only the vain use of the power of suggestion. They have no power to help or harm. There is no good luck in a rabbit’s foot or bad luck in a broken mirror. There are no ghosts for all who die go to Hades and cannot return to warn of good or ill. Demons have been removed from the land (Zech. 13:2-3). God has bound and limited Satan, and allows no other force or power to influence any outcome.

• For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:38-39
  

Only obedience to the gospel and the prayer of the righteous can truly influence the future. Paul told those in Corinth, “you know that when you were Gentiles you were led away unto those dumb idols, howsoever you might be led” (1Cor. 12:2). But when true miracles were set against this, the difference was so clear those in Ephesus burned their expensive books of magical arts (Acts 19:13-20). Paul “filled with the Holy Spirit,” charged “Elymas the sorcerer” with being “full of all deceit and all fraud,” “perverting the straight ways of the Lord” (Acts 13:8-11).

Yet the lusts of “sorcery and idolatry” still remain. We must all guard our heart against them. Our culture is steeped in such superstition and the influences leading into the occult are still strong. They are the basis of the popularity of Harry Potter, Dracula, fairy godmothers, witches, and the Ouija board. It is why buildings do not have a 13th floor and why people fear a graveyard at night. 

It is only cunning craftiness that has created the means to fulfill such lusts. Astrology was created by those with the false belief that stars control our destiny. Palm reading came into being with the illusion that the lines of our palm reveal the course of our life. Mediums were sought in the vain hope of speaking to the dead. These imaginary realms compete with God for our respect and confidence. This is the real issue! It all belongs only to God! Anything taken from Him is idolatry and those who teach it are sorcerers. 

God’s power has always overruled the imaginary powers of men. When the ark was in Dagon’s temple (1Sam. 5:1-7), when Elijah contested with Jezebel’s prophets (1Kings 18:19-40), when Daniel proved the power of God over all the magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2:1-49) God was victorious! God won a decisive victory over the wise men and sorcerers in Egypt (Ex. 7:11; 8:18). Our faith and fidelity to God must be absolute.  

• “Present your case, says the Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob. 22 “Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, That we may consider them, And know the latter end of them; Or declare to us things to come. 23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, That we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, That we may be dismayed and see it together. 24 Indeed you are nothing, And your work is nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.” Isa. 41:21-24