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Jeff Fry
  - Joined on 07-30-2006
- Lichfield, UK
- Posts 237
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What does the Bible say about clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, divination, mediums, channelling, witchcraft and the like?
Here is one I get asked quite often: Question: What about Spiritualism, clairvoyants, fortune-tellers, divination, mediums and the like? Does the Bible have anything to say about these people?
Answer: A clairvoyant, as they are often called here in the UK, is one who can perceive information that is not discernible to the senses. In effect this is the same thing as a fortune teller. Fortune telling is mentioned twice in the Bible in Acts 16:16 and Micah 5:12. There commonly is overlap with similar disciplines such as Spiritism (sometimes erroneously called Spiritualism), divination, mediums, mediumship, clairvoyants, channelling, and witchcraft , etc.). These practices utilize evil, demonic spirits in order to deceive people. These practices have nothing to do with Christianity despite the testimony of various people to the contrary. In fact, the Bible is very clear that God condemns these practices as is clearly seen from the verses from the Bible below.
Scripture Verses from the Bible (Bible reference in bold / my comments are indented):
Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her.
Micah 5:12 "I will cut off sorceries from your hand, And you will have fortune-tellers no more.
In Micah the context is one in which the fortune-telling or clairvoyancy is seen as disobedient and dishonouring to the Lord. Because of this action it brings the Lord's judgment in Micah 5:1-15. In Acts 16:18 it is clear that the slave girl was seeing the future via an evil spirit that Paul finally cast out of her.Spiritualism, divination, witchcraft and mediumship are disallowed in Old Testament teaching. The principle is this: going to a spiritist (one who calls on spirits to contact the dead for example) is an insult to God as we should make our requests to God who is almighty and knows all. They (mediums, spiritists) often use people as channels and as a medium to reach the dead. They will use the person's body and call upon spirits of the dead person to fill it so that they can contact the dead (channeling). This is very dangerous as it could lead to possession of a person by a foreign and evil spirit. This can be seen clearly by Leviticus 19:31 where God says that a person will be defiled by such practices whereas God wants people to be holy which is just the opposite. The God of the Bible is clearly against even meddling with such practices as can be seen from these following passages:
Exodus
22:18 "Do not allow a sorceress to live.
Leviticus 20:27 "'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.'"
Leviticus 19:31 "'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 20:6 "'I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.
Deuteronomy 18:10-11 "There shall not be found among you anyone awho makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one bwho practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, aor a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
1 Samuel 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in his own town of Ramah. Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.
1 Samuel 28:8 Then Saul adisguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, "bConjure up for me, please, and cbring up for me whom I shall 1name to you." 9 But the woman said to him, "Behold, you know awhat Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?" 10 Saul vowed to her by the LORD, saying, "As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing." 11 Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me." 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul." 13 The king said to her, "Do not be afraid; but what do you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I see a 1divine being coming up out of the earth."
2 Kings 21:6 He sacrificed his own son in {6 Or He made his own son pass through} the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
2 Kings 23:24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD.
If you are a person who has opened yourself up to such influences and find yourself (and maybe your family too) contaminated or defiled as the Scripture states, then the answer is to turn to God through Jesus for relief from this defilement. This is not easy as the enemy will fight against this and you will need help from Christians who can pray for you, encourage you and help lead you into God's truth (the Scriptures). But Jesus was given all authority in heaven and earth even over demonic and evil spirits (Matthew 28:18). They are at His mercy and the Scripture says that Jesus has come to "destroy the Devil's work" (1 John 3:8) and has power to cleanse anyone who sincerely turns to Him.
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