Do You Dabble in the Occult?
Psychics, fortune tellers, seances, tarot cards, Ouija boards, divination, mediums, wicca, clairvoyants?
The New Age movement popularized some dabbling in the occult. New “spiritualities” are more common. Have you played with it? Have you been to a psychic or called one on the phone? Have you used tarot cards or Ouija boards? Have you tried to speak to the dead, contacts ghosts, hear from a departed loved one or a saint? Have you asked a saint or Mary for special help with God?
In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul goes to a medium — traditionally called a “witch” — to get guidance. (For a full exposition of 1 Samuel 28, listen to the YouTube link at the bottom.) He came by night it is done in darkness because it is of the darkness. Saul’s refusal to walk in the light of God’s Word, has resulted in him here literally walking in the dark. Saul seeks to use the occult even though Exodus 22:18 says, “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.” Even though Leviticus 19:26 says “You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.” Deuteronomy 18:10 says, “There shall not be found among you . . . anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.” Saul knows this is against God’s law. He had enforced it himself. But his fear has driven him to desperation.
He tells the witch, “Divine for me by a spirit and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you” (28:8). She asks for the order, here at Mother Endora’s Séance House, ‘what would you like?’ “Whom shall I bring up for you?” in verse 11. Saul says, “Samuel.” If he can’t hear from God, he’ll conjure up the one man whom he knows speaks for God.
For a full exposition of 1 Samuel 28, listen to the YouTube link at the bottom.
So, then she does whatever she does. The passage gives us no idea what that was likely because it doesn’t want to teach anyone how to be a witch. But, she did something, an incantation — double, double, toil and trouble, abracadabra, hocus pocus — or some kind of magic, like a crystal ball or a magic hat (like Joseph Smith, the Mormon, who was just a con-man), but something like that. Then, to her surprise, she sees something she’s not used to seeing. She is used to seeing something, just not this. It’s not as though she is a con-woman.
The Bible doesn’t prohibit these things — seances, mediums, witchcraft — because they’re all bogus. The Bible’s prohibition is not based on naturalism; the idea that there’s just nature, nothing supernatural, so obviously mediums can’t contact the dead or any spirits who appear to be the dead; there are no spirits or supernatural powers, there’s only the laws of nature. No, the Bible absolutely does not teach that. It admits that mediums, like this woman, witchdoctors, psychics, shamans, tangki (the Chinese term) might have real power. They might be able to do supernatural things, to cast spells, or heal people, or curse people, or lift curses, or talk to spirits. The Biblical view isn’t that these things are all fake but, like Pharaoh’s magicians, that they can do supernatural things but when they come up against God’s power — there’s a “power encounter” — they lose.
The notable Christian missiologist — professor of missions — Paul Hiebert said that modern Western Christians have a “flaw of the excluded middle,” especially when encountering other cultures. Western missionaries go to Africa or Asia and they’ll talk about God — theology, the top level — and they’ll bring science, especially medicine, to deal with physical things, the lower level, but have no category for spirits, demons, curses, evil eyes, ancestors, spiritual forces like in feng shui but those are exactly the kinds of issues many people in non-Western cultures are obsessed with: how to deal with a spirit, a curse, to appease a hungry ghost or help an ancestor overcome a demon. Westerners could give revelation about the ultimate issues of God — theology — or help for the practical, physical issues, like medicine for a disease but nothing for that in-between category, the kind of thing mediums, psychics, clairvoyants, deal with. Here, we see that it is real.
But, if it’s real, why is the medium startled when she sees Samuel? In verse 12, “When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.” Fear makes her scream. So, what she sees isn’t what she’s used to; it’s something much more powerful. I think Paul explains that in 1 Corinthians 10:20 where he says that what pagans worship — the powers they tap into with their incantations and rituals— are demonic. “What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.”
So, the Bible prohibits us from the occult, from using psychics, going to seances or tarot card readings, playing with Ouija boards, because they may not be fake, they might have real power but it’s demonic. You might contact demons. The medium — the witch of Endor — apparently is used to seeing something, contacting something, that made her think she was conjuring up the dead but was really demons. Now, suddenly, probably for the first time, she sees the real thing, the real person, in this case Samuel. She’s afraid because this is real and she’s not in control.
Another reason why we’re prohibited from the occult — besides the fact that it can lead to contact with the demonic — is that it’s all about us trying to have control. It’s about us trying to use supernatural power or get knowledge by supernatural means because we don’t trust God’s control. If something is natural — in the realm of nature, like medicine, technology — we can study it and use it to control the natural world. We can figure out how to cool the air so that we can sit comfortably in church when it is in the mid-80s outside. But if something is supernatural — beyond our nature — it’s not given to us to study, or control, or use. And to try to do so — to try to get and use supernatural power or get supernatural knowledge outside the Holy Spirit — is to try to take God’s place, to be in control, to be the sovereign. That’s rebellion against our place, under God, and a refusal to believe in God’s sovereignty. It’s without faith and so is sin.
Praying to the Dead is Pagan
Some religions tell us we can pray to the dead and they can hear us and come and talk to us. But that is a violation of the first (or second) commandment, having another god besides the Lord, worshipping falsely. To pray to someone is to worship them, calling it “veneration” doesn’t change that; inventing a new word for the same activity doesn’t make the activity different. If you say, ‘We didn’t commit adultery; it was love-making,’ you’ve still committed adultery. ‘I didn’t steal; I reappropriated.’ You stole. If you worship something else besides God, it’s still worship even if you call it “veneration.”
Some people try to argue that the early church practiced veneration of saints and Mary and use of icons from the beginning. That is false. There is no example of any Christian using or approving of icons from before AD 500. For more, see: “Answering Eastern Orthodox Apologists regarding Icons.” The practice of praying to Mary or saints and using icons came about from hordes of superficially converted pagans bringing their pagan practices with them into the church.
Praying to someone assumes they are either omnipresent — everywhere at all times — or omniscient — all knowing — so they can hear us, and they can hear many people all over the world praying to them at the same time. But those are only attributes of God. So, to pray to a person, like Mary, or a saint, or Samuel, is to treat that person like God. It’s idolatrous. It’s divination.
Venerating Mary and saints is pagan, idolatrous, and a sign that your faith is not in the Lord Jesus.
Then, why did God allow it in 1 Samuel 28? (For a full exposition of 1 Samuel 28, click on the YouTube link below.) God allowed it in order to let Samuel give one more declaration. The very first thing Samuel says — the only time a dead person appears in the spirit and talks to someone in the Bible: “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up.” ‘You should not have done this.’
I’ve heard stories, from Protestants, of supposedly Mary appearing to people who were praying to her and telling them, ‘Don’t pray to me. Pray only to God.’ First, I doubt those stories because I doubt God lets Mary go tell Mary-worshippers not to worship her when they could easily find that out from scripture. But if God did allow it, that’s what she would say. The one time, in 1 Samuel 28, God allowed a medium to really bring up the dead, the very first thing he says is ‘you shouldn’t have done this.’ There’s never any excuse to pray to, talk to, or conjure up the dead.
If you’ve dabbled in the occult or you still engage in it, if you’ve prayed to Mary or saints, or have images of them that you venerate, realize that you’ve broken the first two commandments, against other gods and against using images in worship. Your faith in the occult or Mariolatry demonstrates your lack of faith in the true God. You cannot believe in the occult or the cult of the saints and have true, living, saving faith. Realize that. Admit it. Confess your sin and forsake your occult practices. Put your faith in the Lord Jesus instead.
For a full exposition of 1 Samuel 28, click and listen:
Covenant Reformed Baptist Church is Danville’s/Caswell County’s Reformed church.