In the Bible, witchcraft and sorcery refer to practices involving the use of occult powers, manipulation of supernatural forces, or invoking spirits. These practices are condemned throughout scripture, as seen in passages like Deuteronomy 18:10-12, which warns against divination, sorcery, and contacting the dead, emphasizing that such actions are abominations to God.
Scripture
18 “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
19 “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.
20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.
Biblical Meaning of Witchcraft and Sorcery
The biblical condemnation of witchcraft and sorcery signifies a broader theological and ethical stance against seeking power or knowledge through means that oppose God’s sovereign will. This is highlighted in Deuteronomy 18:10-12, where various practices—including divination, sorcery, and necromancy—are explicitly labeled as “abominations.” This not only reflects the ancient Israelite’s understanding of the spiritual realm but also serves as a warning against the temptation to override divine authority in pursuit of personal gain or insight. The practices of witchcraft are often associated with rebellion against God, as seen in 1 Samuel 15:23, where the prophet Samuel equates rebellion to the sin of witchcraft. This correlation illustrates that engaging in these practices is not merely about the activities themselves but also about the rejection of God’s plan and instructions.
Moreover, the Bible presents a stark dichotomy between the power of God and that of the occult. Acts 19:19 exemplifies this conflict in the New Testament, where those who practiced sorcery brought their books together and burned them upon converting to Christianity, signifying a complete rejection of their former lives and a commitment to the teachings of Christ. This act underscores a transformative rejection of reliance on occult powers in favor of faith in God’s providence and guidance. Consequently, the biblical stance against witchcraft and sorcery serves not only as a prohibition of specific practices but also as an affirmation of a deeper relationship with God that prioritizes trust, sincerity, and obedience over the allure of power derived from occult knowledge or supernatural manipulation.
The biblical narrative extends the condemnation of witchcraft and sorcery to encompass the overarching themes of trust and dependency on God alone. In the ancient world, practices such as enchanting, potion-making, and astrological predictions were commonplace, often drawing individuals away from a genuine relationship with the divine. Jeremiah’s prophecies highlight this issue; in his writings, he admonishes the people for placing their confidence in false prophets and diviners, illustrating how such actions lead to spiritual disarray and distance from God’s intended path. The prophet recognizes that seeking wisdom through occult means not only endangers the individual but also jeopardizes the community’s covenant relationship with God, which is built upon faithfulness and dedication to Yahweh.
Further illustrating this theme, the book of Galatians addresses the influence of works of the flesh, including sorcery, as barriers to true spiritual freedom and communion with God. Paul emphasizes that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, demonstrating that reliance on magic or sorcery undermines the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. In contrast, the fruits of the Spirit represent a life deeply rooted in faith, reflecting love, joy, and self-control, which stand in stark opposition to the chaos and deception associated with witchcraft. This call to a Spirit-led life serves as a reminder of the importance of spiritual sincerity over the enticing but ultimately destructive allure of sorcery, reaffirming that God’s ways are not just a matter of obedience; they are meant to liberate and uplift the faithful, fostering a holistic relationship with Him.
The Rejection of Divine Authority
In the Bible, witchcraft and sorcery often symbolize a rejection of God’s authority and a pursuit of power through means that are contrary to divine will. Engaging in these practices is seen as an attempt to manipulate spiritual forces for personal gain, which undermines the relationship between humanity and God. This reflects a broader theme of idolatry, where individuals place their trust in created things rather than the Creator.
The Pursuit of Knowledge and Control
Witchcraft and sorcery can also represent humanity’s desire for knowledge and control over the unknown. In biblical narratives, these practices are often associated with seeking hidden knowledge or attempting to predict the future. This pursuit can lead to a false sense of security and autonomy, diverting individuals from reliance on God’s wisdom and guidance. The Bible warns against this quest for knowledge that is not aligned with divine truth, emphasizing the importance of faith and trust in God’s plan.
The Consequences of Moral Corruption
The practice of witchcraft and sorcery is frequently linked to moral corruption and societal decay in biblical texts. These activities are often depicted as leading to a breakdown of community values and ethical standards. The consequences of engaging in such practices can result in spiritual and social repercussions, highlighting the importance of maintaining a moral compass aligned with God’s teachings. This broader meaning serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of straying from righteous living.
How to Embrace True Faith and Reject Deception
Embracing true faith while rejecting deception is a journey that requires both introspection and a commitment to seeking God’s truth. Start by immersing yourself in Scripture, allowing the Word to illuminate your path and guide your decisions. Surround yourself with a community of believers who encourage you to grow and challenge you to think critically about your faith. Remember, deception often masquerades as truth, so cultivate a spirit of discernment through prayer and reflection. Ask God to reveal any areas of your life where you may be misled, and be open to His guidance, even when it’s uncomfortable. True faith is not just about belief; it’s about living out that belief in love, integrity, and humility. As you deepen your relationship with Christ, you’ll find that His light will help you navigate the complexities of life, steering you away from falsehoods and toward a more authentic, fulfilling faith.
Bible References to Witchcraft and Sorcery:
Leviticus 19:26-31: 26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
27 You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
28 You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.
29 “Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.
30 You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14: 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.
14 For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
1 Samuel 15:22-23: 22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
2 Kings 21:1-9: 1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices 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 destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, 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 will I put my name.”
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 son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
7 And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.”
9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:1-6: 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.
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.
Isaiah 8:19-22: 19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.
22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
Isaiah 47:8-15: 8 Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children”:
9 These two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments.
10 You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.”
11 But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away; disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone; and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing.
12 Stand fast in your enchantments and your many sorceries,
with which you have labored from your youth;
perhaps you may be able to succeed;
perhaps you may inspire terror.
13 You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.
14 Behold, they are like stubble; the fire consumes them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame. No coal for warming oneself is this, no fire to sit before!
15 Such to you are those with whom you have labored, who have done business with you from your youth; they wander about, each in his own direction; there is no one to save you.
Jeremiah 27:9-10: 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’
10 For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.
Ezekiel 13:17-23: 17 “And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own minds. Prophesy against them”
18 and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive?
19 You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies.
20 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds.”
21 I will tear your veils and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
22 Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life,
23 therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination.
Micah 5:10-15: 10 And in that day, declares the Lord,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots.
11 And I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds.
12 And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
13 Your carved images I will also cut off,
and your pillars from among you;
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands.
14 And I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury on the nations that did not obey.
Acts 8:9-24: 9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great.
10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.”
11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,
19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
Acts 13:6-12: 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.
7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?
11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” So immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Galatians 5:19-21: 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 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.
Revelation 9:20-21: 20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,
21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
Revelation 18:21-24: 21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;
22 And the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,
23 and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.”
Reverend Ogunlade is a seasoned Church Minister with over three decades of experience in guiding and nurturing congregations. With profound wisdom and a serene approach, Reverend Ogunlade has carried out various pastoral duties, including delivering uplifting sermons, conducting religious ceremonies, and offering sage counsel to individuals seeking spiritual guidance. Their commitment to fostering harmony and righteousness within their community is exemplified through their compassionate nature, making them a beloved and trusted figure among the congregation.