Why Most Christians Miss The Point of God's Admonition Against Using Magic
If there is one fallacy many Christians have, albeit it often comes from the most well meaning motives, it's the belief that trying to influence the world using magic and the occult, contrary to the instructions of God, will actually have an effect on this planet or the people on it as regards events that cannot be explained. They agree doing so is immoral, and they are right, but they would be foolish to believe it has an effect either way without God's assent, nothing supernatural occurs without him signing off on it happening.
This is also missing a very basic point God himself made numerous times about why no one but him and those he gave power should ever trifle with the supernatural, and it wasn't so much he feared we'd do damage in a supernatural way if we tried, but more that we'd be fools to do so because we really have no power outside what he gives us.
He proved this several times in Scripture, showing Man's various attempts to substitute his power for that of others was totally toothless.
1. The ten plagues of Egypt as described in Exodus was God's mockery of the Egyptian Gods. Each plague was a deliberate slap to the faces of the gods said to have power over the sun, the water, livestock, insects, and all the other beings and elements said plagues turned against the Egyptians. God proved, successfully, that the Egyptians followed a sham faith in something that had no power to stop him in any way whatsoever.
2. Later, the Philistines captured God's own Ark of the Covenant and put it in front of their sea god Dagon as a tribute to it's capture. God proved himself mightier than Dagon multiple times, forcing the statue of Dagon to not only bow before his Ark; he even ripped off the head and hands off Dagon's statue after a few times of the Philistines not getting the point to hammer in the obvious point:
Dagon had no power, only God did.
Fun fact, Dagon was the FATHER of Baal in Canaanite tradition, which makes God's next trumping of false gods all the more hilarious.
3. When the showdown on Mount Carmel happened, God really set out to prove no power outside his own meant anything.Baal was allegedly a god over the weather, but Baal had failed to do ANYTHING to prevent a years long drought, simply because God said he'd withhold the rains until everyone acknowledged who truly held any power.
When the priests of Baal faced off against Elijah to prove whose God was superior, God set out to handicap himself as much as possible to just prove how meaningless worshiping Baal was.
God gave them several hours lead time on him doing anything. He had his own altar soaked with water several times over just to make the act of burning anything on said altar harder, and the contest was pretty lopsided to begin with, given the absurdly low bar set for both God and Baal.
All one of them had to do was light the slightest spark on their sacrifice without any human intervention first, and they'd win by default.
Baal was given every advantage, and the fools who thought he had power did everything including maiming themselves in a vain attempt to get their meaningless deity to light the slightest spark on their altar.
Once they finally gave up, all Elijah did was ask God to prove himself.
And God did, overwhelmingly. Despite the altar being soaked, EVERYTHING, from the water to meat on it to the stones of the altar itself, even all the excess water that had pooled in a trench around the altar, it was burned to the point NONE of it was left,
The point to all these incidents was God making a simple message clear: We humans have no power to affect this world supernaturally, except for what God alone allows and what he does on His own.
Any attempt by us to cast spells, make idols, summon demons, or affect this world in any supernatural way will actually do nothing except earn us His rightly earned contempt.
Granted, there were times when supernatural forces other than God were confirmably in existence, such as the demon possessed man who is oft referred to as Legion. Even the demons (who were the fallen angels cast out of heaven due to their collusion with the traitor Lucifer) bowed before God's power when Jesus told them to leave the man they had afflicted, and they begged to be sent into a herd of pigs instead of an even worse judgment at God's hands, and Jesus allowed it for one reason.
Sure, Jesus could have sent them straight to the bottomless pit if he wanted to, but the fact the demons begged Jesus to punish them in any other way means even they in their rebellion acknowledged even the mildest command from God had more power than they all possessed combined, and the slightest command from God would free Men from their influence.
Another time supernatural powers seemed to work was when King Saul was so desperate for God (who had turned his back on Saul for disobedience) to tell him something he went to a witch to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel, all so Saul could get something from world beyond the temporal to go on since God was purposely putting Saul on Ignore for disobedience.
God chose to allow Saul to see what he was hoping for just so he could grind the spiritual glass in Saul, telling Saul his own death outside of God's grace was coming soon and there was nothing that could be done to avert it because Saul's faith in God's power had sunk so low he had turned to mediums and spiritualists (whom Saul had once hunted down on God's behalf) because his faith in God's power and that alone had become so weak.
Yet again, God proved the folly of we pathetic mortals in believing we have any control over the supernatural world. He even mentioned in the Books of the Law the only humans who would ever be authorized to do so would receive his explicit approval, and he even provided a two tiered test to weed out false prophets in his name:
1. First, what they predicted or whatever power they displayed had to come to pass. If it didn't, they were a powerless liar.
2. If the first happened, then on whose behalf the sign or supernatural work was performed had to be God. If done in the name of anyone else, they were not doing so with God's sanction or power and thus were false prophets.
Now, speaking merely for myself for a moment, I do not believe, based on all prior biblical precedent, any attempt by us humans to cast spells, summon demons, channel the dead, or any other meddling with the supernatural God said we shouldn't contemplate is real, at least nothing we do by ourselves has any real power, we have none because God gave us none by default.
If something supernatural does happen, it's for the same reasons Saul got to see what he was hoping to see, so God could grind in the glass over the disobedience of those who defied his instructions NOT to meddle in the supernatural, and any actual supernatural consequences of doing so is not because we humans have any power, because we do not, but because God chose to allow us to suffer for our defiance.
The more important reason God tells us not to meddle in the supernatural is far simpler than us messing with something we do actual damage with (and we can't), but it's more simple point, and I'll let God Himself explain why via 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."
Note how God never says they are doing anything other causing others to be defiled? God never says what they are doing is effective, because it isn't, they are charlatans and liars pretending at God's own power.
What they are doing, however, is encouraging others to turn away from God by trusting in supernatural power attributed to a source outside of God's, who is the only one that can actually do anything. The pretenders can't do what God can do, but you would be foolish to be led astray by believing otherwise.
This is also missing a very basic point God himself made numerous times about why no one but him and those he gave power should ever trifle with the supernatural, and it wasn't so much he feared we'd do damage in a supernatural way if we tried, but more that we'd be fools to do so because we really have no power outside what he gives us.
He proved this several times in Scripture, showing Man's various attempts to substitute his power for that of others was totally toothless.
1. The ten plagues of Egypt as described in Exodus was God's mockery of the Egyptian Gods. Each plague was a deliberate slap to the faces of the gods said to have power over the sun, the water, livestock, insects, and all the other beings and elements said plagues turned against the Egyptians. God proved, successfully, that the Egyptians followed a sham faith in something that had no power to stop him in any way whatsoever.
2. Later, the Philistines captured God's own Ark of the Covenant and put it in front of their sea god Dagon as a tribute to it's capture. God proved himself mightier than Dagon multiple times, forcing the statue of Dagon to not only bow before his Ark; he even ripped off the head and hands off Dagon's statue after a few times of the Philistines not getting the point to hammer in the obvious point:
Dagon had no power, only God did.
Fun fact, Dagon was the FATHER of Baal in Canaanite tradition, which makes God's next trumping of false gods all the more hilarious.
3. When the showdown on Mount Carmel happened, God really set out to prove no power outside his own meant anything.Baal was allegedly a god over the weather, but Baal had failed to do ANYTHING to prevent a years long drought, simply because God said he'd withhold the rains until everyone acknowledged who truly held any power.
When the priests of Baal faced off against Elijah to prove whose God was superior, God set out to handicap himself as much as possible to just prove how meaningless worshiping Baal was.
God gave them several hours lead time on him doing anything. He had his own altar soaked with water several times over just to make the act of burning anything on said altar harder, and the contest was pretty lopsided to begin with, given the absurdly low bar set for both God and Baal.
All one of them had to do was light the slightest spark on their sacrifice without any human intervention first, and they'd win by default.
Baal was given every advantage, and the fools who thought he had power did everything including maiming themselves in a vain attempt to get their meaningless deity to light the slightest spark on their altar.
Once they finally gave up, all Elijah did was ask God to prove himself.
And God did, overwhelmingly. Despite the altar being soaked, EVERYTHING, from the water to meat on it to the stones of the altar itself, even all the excess water that had pooled in a trench around the altar, it was burned to the point NONE of it was left,
The point to all these incidents was God making a simple message clear: We humans have no power to affect this world supernaturally, except for what God alone allows and what he does on His own.
Any attempt by us to cast spells, make idols, summon demons, or affect this world in any supernatural way will actually do nothing except earn us His rightly earned contempt.
Granted, there were times when supernatural forces other than God were confirmably in existence, such as the demon possessed man who is oft referred to as Legion. Even the demons (who were the fallen angels cast out of heaven due to their collusion with the traitor Lucifer) bowed before God's power when Jesus told them to leave the man they had afflicted, and they begged to be sent into a herd of pigs instead of an even worse judgment at God's hands, and Jesus allowed it for one reason.
Sure, Jesus could have sent them straight to the bottomless pit if he wanted to, but the fact the demons begged Jesus to punish them in any other way means even they in their rebellion acknowledged even the mildest command from God had more power than they all possessed combined, and the slightest command from God would free Men from their influence.
Another time supernatural powers seemed to work was when King Saul was so desperate for God (who had turned his back on Saul for disobedience) to tell him something he went to a witch to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel, all so Saul could get something from world beyond the temporal to go on since God was purposely putting Saul on Ignore for disobedience.
God chose to allow Saul to see what he was hoping for just so he could grind the spiritual glass in Saul, telling Saul his own death outside of God's grace was coming soon and there was nothing that could be done to avert it because Saul's faith in God's power had sunk so low he had turned to mediums and spiritualists (whom Saul had once hunted down on God's behalf) because his faith in God's power and that alone had become so weak.
Yet again, God proved the folly of we pathetic mortals in believing we have any control over the supernatural world. He even mentioned in the Books of the Law the only humans who would ever be authorized to do so would receive his explicit approval, and he even provided a two tiered test to weed out false prophets in his name:
1. First, what they predicted or whatever power they displayed had to come to pass. If it didn't, they were a powerless liar.
2. If the first happened, then on whose behalf the sign or supernatural work was performed had to be God. If done in the name of anyone else, they were not doing so with God's sanction or power and thus were false prophets.
Now, speaking merely for myself for a moment, I do not believe, based on all prior biblical precedent, any attempt by us humans to cast spells, summon demons, channel the dead, or any other meddling with the supernatural God said we shouldn't contemplate is real, at least nothing we do by ourselves has any real power, we have none because God gave us none by default.
If something supernatural does happen, it's for the same reasons Saul got to see what he was hoping to see, so God could grind in the glass over the disobedience of those who defied his instructions NOT to meddle in the supernatural, and any actual supernatural consequences of doing so is not because we humans have any power, because we do not, but because God chose to allow us to suffer for our defiance.
The more important reason God tells us not to meddle in the supernatural is far simpler than us messing with something we do actual damage with (and we can't), but it's more simple point, and I'll let God Himself explain why via 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."
Note how God never says they are doing anything other causing others to be defiled? God never says what they are doing is effective, because it isn't, they are charlatans and liars pretending at God's own power.
What they are doing, however, is encouraging others to turn away from God by trusting in supernatural power attributed to a source outside of God's, who is the only one that can actually do anything. The pretenders can't do what God can do, but you would be foolish to be led astray by believing otherwise.
As for you following the example of said pretenders, you are not affecting the world beyond the natural one little bit. God is clear it is the height of arrogance to believe we humans without God's own sanction can do more than what he allows our mortal shells, anything beyond that is only allowed on his say so.
However, attempting to pretend otherwise accomplishes nothing save to defy God and earn his contempt, to which our fate is that of Saul, to die outside of God's grace because we chose to believe in something other than him.
So all Christians should be afraid to consider making the attempt even more than the actual act, because even attempting to influence this world beyond the natural is more than enough to earn us God's contempt, and that alone is enough of a judgment, we need not fear we could actually do anything God does not allow, but it's still wise to not even make the attempt since God said not to in the first place.
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