Abominable Practices
9 “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.
13 You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, (Deut 18:9-13)
The above verses gives insight into the following occultic practices"
- Human sarcifice - The pagan nations that surrounded the Israelites practiced human sacrifice. For example, there were times to appease Baal that required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jer 19:5).
Other cultures that worship the pagan deity Moloch included child sacrifice, or “passing children through the fire.” (Deut 12:31; 2 Kings 17:17). Both Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3) and Manasseh (2 Kings 21:6) are accused of participation in this heinous practice.
Today, child sacrifice is called abortion but it still amounts to the shedding of innocent blood. In Psalm 106:35–38, we read the following: - Calling Child sacrifice abortion
- Those who are aborted are not seen as human or children but referred to as fetuses.
- Justify through legal means (Roe vs. Wade) to white wash abortion. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor went as far to compare fetus to brain dead person, says fetal movement doesn't prove consciousness according to Andrew Mark Miller | Fox News (2021, December 1st.
- Using terms to take away the right to life such as, pro-choice, women’s rights, women’s health care.
- Divination - Ritual action employed to determine the will, knowledge, or plans of deities.
People throughout the ancient Near East and Mediterranean region employed divination to access the domain of the gods, who they believed could communicate their will or knowledge through dreams, prophecy, or theophany. Ancient peoples devised methods they thought could force (or at least prompt) the gods into revealing information. Divination was seen as the means for determining divine knowledge, hidden functions of the world, outcomes of future actions, or the future itself. The Bible contains references to, and examples of, divination in Israel and surrounding nations. 1
Divination may take many forms. One can make two broad divisions, namely, internal and mechanical: the former is either the trance inspiration of the shaman type, or direct second sight; the latter makes use of technical means, such as sand, entrails of a sacrifice, or in modern times tea-leaves. These divisions cannot be pressed, since the objects may release the clairvoyant faculty, as with crystal-gazing. Balaam may have released his powers in this way (Nu. 24:1). - Necromcy - Necromancy, or the consultation of the departed. This is associated with divination in Dt. 18:11; 1 Sa. 28:8; 2 Ki. 21:6, and is condemned in the Law (Lv. 19:31; 20:6), the Prophets (Is. 8:19–20) and the historical books (1 Ch. 10:13). The medium was spoken of as having an ’ob, translated ‘a familiar spirit’, or in modern terms ‘a control’. An associated term, translated ‘wizard’, is yid‘ôni, probably from the root yāda‘, ‘know’, and presumably refers to the supernatural knowledge claimed by the spirit and in a secondary sense by its owner. [2]
- Fortune Telling / Psychics-
- Magic / Sorcery - Magic and sorcery attempt to influence people and events by supernatural or occult means. They may be associated with some form of 'divination', though divination by itself is the attempt to use supernatural means to discover events without influencing them.
Magic is universal, and may be ‘black’ or ‘white’. Black magic attempts to produce evil results through such methods as curses, spells, destruction of models of one’s enemy and alliance with evil spirits. It often takes the form of witchcraft.
White magic tries to undo curses and spells, and to use occult forces for the good of oneself and others. The magician tries to compel a god, demon or spirit to work for him; or he follows a pattern of occult practices to bend psychic forces to his will. There is no doubt that magic and sorcery are not always mere superstitions, but have a reality behind them. They must be resisted and overcome through the power of God in the name of Jesus Christ.
Biblical terms
The following root words are used in Scripture to denote magical practices and practitioners.
In the Old Testament
1. Heb - kashaph. ‘Sorcerer’, ‘sorcery’, ‘witch- (craft)’. The root probably means ‘to cut’, and could refer to herbs cut for charms and spells (Ex. 22:18; Dt. 18:10; Is. 47:9, 12; Je. 27:9, etc.).
2. chartom /khar·tome - ‘Magician’. This term derives from Egyp. ḥry-tp, ‘chief (lector-priest)’, the title borne by Egypt’s most renowned magicians (Gn. 41:8; Ex. 7:11, etc.).
3. cheber /kheh·ber - ‘Enchantment’, ‘charmer’ (Dt. 18:11; Is. 47:9, 12, etc.). The root has the idea of binding, probably with amulets and charms.
4. kaśdîm. ‘Chaldeans’. In Dn. the term is used racially (e.g. Dn. 5:30; 9:1) and of a special class linked with magicians (Dn. 2:2, 4, 10, etc.). The word is used in a similar sense by Herodotus (1. 181f.), and may have been current earlier with this special meaning. See A. R. Millard, EQ 49, 1977, pp. 69–71.
5. qsm. ‘Divination’, especially of future (Dt. 18:10; Ezk. 21:21). Of false prophets (Je. 14:14; Ezk. 13:6).
6. lt. ‘Secret arts’. Pharaoh’s magicians (Ex. 7:22).
7. nḥš. ‘Enchantment’ with spells (Nu. 23:23; 24:1).
8. lḥš. ‘Expert in charms’ (Is. 3:3). Snake charming (Ps. 58:5; Ec. 10:11; Je. 8:17). b.
In the New Testament
1. magos (and cognates). ‘Magician’, ‘magic’; in Mt. 2, ‘wise men’. Originally a Magian, a racial group in Media, it came, like ‘Chaldean’, to have a technical use (e.g. Acts 8:9, 11; 13:6, 8; found only in Mt. and Acts; *MAGI).
2. pharmakos (and cognates). ‘Sorcerer’, ‘sorcery’, ‘witchcraft’. The root idea is that of drugs, potions (Rev. 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15; elsewhere only in Gal. 5:20).
3. goēs. ‘Imposter’ (AV ‘seducer’) (2 Tim. 3:13), it may also signify a spell-binding magician. It has the magical sense in classical and hellenistic Greek.
4. perierga. ‘Magic arts’, AV ‘curious arts’ (Acts 19:19). The adjective has the root idea of being exceedingly occupied, then of being occupied with other people’s business, then of interfering with others by magical arts.
5. baskainō. In Gal. 3:1 metaphorically of Galatians bewitched into false beliefs. Ellis, E. E. (1996). Magi. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 713). InterVarsity Press.m [3]
35 but they mixed with the nations and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols, which became a snare to them.
37 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. (Ps 106:35-39)
Today's world culture deceives itself by justifying child sacrifice in the following ways:
Regardless of the arguements used the reality is still the same - the destruction of a human being that was made in the image of God! God gives us children as a gift (Ps 113:9, 127:3; Prov 17:6; Gen 33:5, 48:9; Joshua 28:3). Yet there are those who treat the gift of God with distain and inconvenience.
The following forms are mentioned in the Bible.
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a. Rhabdomancy. Ezk. 21:21. Sticks or arrows were thrown into the air, and omens were deduced from their position when they fell. Ho. 4:12 could also be a reference to this.
b. Hepatoscopy. Ezk. 21:21. Examination of the liver or other entrails of a sacrifice was supposed to give guidance. Probably shapes and markings were classified, and the priest interpreted them.
c. TERAPHIM. Associated with divination in 1 Sa. 15:23(‘idolatry’, RSV); Ezk. 21:21; Zc. 10:2. If the teraphim were images of dead ancestors, the divination was probably a form of spiritualism.
e. Astrology draws conclusions from the position of the sun, moon and planets in relation to the zodiac and to one another. While not condemned, astrology is belittled in Is. 47:13 and Je. 10:2. The wise men (*MAGI) who came to the infant Jesus (Mt. 2:9) were probably trained in Bab. tradition which mixed astronomy with astrology.
f. Hydromancy, or divination through water. Here forms and pictures appear in the water in a bowl, as also in crystal-gazing. The gleam of the water induces a state of light trance, and the visions are subjective. The only reference to this in the Bible is Gn. 44:5, 15, where it might appear that Joseph used his silver cup for this purpose. But one cannot say how much credence to give to a statement that comes in a section where Joseph and his steward are deliberately deceiving his brothers.
h. *DREAMS are often counted as a means of divination, but in the Bible there is no instance of a person’s deliberately asking for guidance or supernatural knowledge through dreams, except perhaps the false prophets in Je. 23:25–27. The spontaneous dream, however, is often a means of divine guidance.
In Acts 16:16 a girl has a spirit of divination. The Gk. here is pythōn. The famous Delphic oracle was in the district of Pytho, and the term evidently was used loosely for anyone supernaturally inspired, as was the priestess at Delphi. (*MAGIC AND SORCERY.) [2]