"There Shall Not Be Found Among You…a Witch" (Deut. 18:10)

Another argument for not being under the Old Testament involves the above commandment. No witches were to be found among God's people in the land they were going to conquer. If any were discovered, they were not to be allowed to live (Ex. 22:18). In the New King James, the word translated "witch" is "sorcerer" and "sorceress." The King James likewise translates it [Strong's #3784] as "sorcerer" in Exodus 7:11, Daniel 2:2, and Malachi 3:5. In 2 Chronicles 33:6 the verb is rendered that Israel "used witchcraft."

But whether "sorcerer" or "witch," the concept is the same: it refers to one who "whispers a spell," "enchants," or "practices magic." Since we are now under the New Testament, witches are safe from being put to death by God's people. This change in covenants, however, did not alter God's attitude toward such activities or free practitioners from the judgment of God.

The reason that these verses remain relevant is that, according to a November 16, 2018 blog by Michael Chapman, the number of witches in the United States is on the rise. He claims (and is backed up in part by Pew Research) that from 1990 to 2008 the number of Wiccans in this country increased from 8,000 to 340,000. About 1.5 million people identify themselves as Wicca or Pagan.

Why Witchcraft?

Various authors are quoted briefly in the blog; they seek to provide reasons for the recent popularity of witchcraft. Julie Roys told the Christian Post: "The rejection of Christianity has left a void that people, as inherently spiritual beings, will seek to fill." Is she correct in her assessment that people have rejected Christianity? One might get that impression since the percentage of people who claim to believe in God has dropped, along with church attendance. Many in society may well have rejected Christianity, which prompts the question, "Why?"

No greater message has ever been composed and set forth to answer all of mankind's most nagging questions about life now, as well as the hereafter. No other world view explains the origin of sin and what to do about it. No other doctrine provides a realistic basis of hope than the resurrection of Jesus, which was seen by numerous eyewitnesses. What could cause a decline in people following Jesus?

The answer may be in the question—people following Jesus. How is Christianity represented today? What do people think of when this word is said in their presence? We would like for them to have the same image in their minds that we do; unfortunately, many are thinking of different, as well as unflattering things. While we are thinking of the matter the way the Bible presents it, they may be going by what they see.

They may have in mind Pentecostals that they have seen on television, heard on the radio, or read books about. They may be turned off by the extravagant claims that they know are fake. If all the people that they see "healed" on television actually were, they would know someone, but they do not. When Jesus healed someone, everyone knew. Word spread like wildfire whether Jesus was in a city, a village, or the country. People came out to be healed. People today are not stupid; they know that is not happening with so-called "faith healers" today. Most people can tell a charlatan when they see one.

Those promoting the pre-millennial error likewise eventually turn people off. Anyone who has been around a few years knows that Hal Lindsey popularized the idea that the Lord was coming soon back in the '60s. He argued so vociferously that the "rapture" would come within 40 years of Israel being made a state in 1948 that another man wrote a book called, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Come in 1988. There is only one reason needed to explain why it did not occur. The doctrine is false! Next came the Left Behind series with its 135 volumes (or whatever it was). People can only be hyped up for so long before they realize, "These prophecies are not coming true."

One does not have to have read Deuteronomy 13:1-5 to figure out that, when someone makes predictions and they fail to come to pass, the person does not know what he is talking about.

Two of the key proofs that Jesus presented to His followers were His miracles and His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Had He not really opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame to walk, or raised Lazarus from the dead, what grounds would the Jews have had to believe in Him? On Pentecost, Peter showed that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was a fulfilment of the Scriptures that they all respected. No one today is fulfilling any Scriptures; they are causing people to doubt when all of their modern-day "prophecies" fail.

Third, the health and wealth prosperity preachers like Joel Osteen have a wide appeal; who doesn't want to get rich? Does anyone wonder: if we all become wealthy, driving Mercedes-Benzes, who will still be poor and won't that put all the other car companies out of business?

If everyone gets rich, how then will we define poverty? "Oh, but you don't understand: not everyone comes to Jesus." Most would—once they saw how everyone who did was prospering. The true gospel is not about money; it's about the soul.

A fourth reason people turn away from Christianity is that they see a great deal of hypocrisy. They know to some degree that Christians are supposed to shy away from sin. But then they see a Christian family, perhaps neighbors, behaving much the same way they do. They might see them at a block party, drinking beer or wine—just like they do. What if they mention how they won a few hundred dollars in the lottery? The neighbors attend a play with profane language as part of it (perhaps a little nudity, too) and they see their "Christian" neighbors there. What are they to think? What if one of the neighbors has seen the husband with another woman or the wife with another man? How would they react to see a "Christian" family going fishing or playing golf together on a Sunday morning instead of going to worship? It will just help to convince them that most Christians are as worldly as they are—not to mention hypocritical.

A fifth reason that many have rejected Christianity is that they do not understand what it is that they are rejecting. In their minds they are resisting something that has no rational foundation. So many have never opened the Book to find out what it says and what the evidence for it is—or they made an effort but did not understand the overall arrangement of the Scriptures or the best way to study them. So they gave up. It remains true what was stated by the prophet: "My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6).

Postmodernism

These are a few reasons why people have rejected Christianity and are taking up non-Christian practices like witchcraft. The Blog under review also quoted Roys as saying: "It makes sense that witchcraft and the occult would rise as society becomes increasingly postmodern." To what does postmodernism refer? To answer that, the following explanation, which was prepared by your congenial editor for Studies in Ephesians, the Sixteenth Annual Denton Lectures, in 1997, is repeated (554-71)

Postmodernism agrees with Modernism in echoing Judges 21:25: "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes." … The rationale under which Modernism and Postmodernism operate is more sophisticated, intricate, and complex, but the results, in terms of morality and behavior, are the same.

In Postmodernism, opinion is exalted as truth, which is absurd. Just as Hindus have nearly an infinite amount of gods, so would postmodernists argue that there are an infinite amount of "truths" in the world—as many as there are people—all of which are equally valid—no matter how preposterous. Postmodernism is wishy-washiness at its worst; it is love without standards or judgment gone to seed; it praises the irrational and crowns contradiction as king.

In other words, whatever one believes is all right for him. We can all believe different things—even contradictory things, and we can all still be right. No one can tell another that what he believes is wrong. This is the age in which we are living. There is only one type of individual who is actually wrong—the one who insists upon absolute standards. All who do so (Christians, for example) are absolutely wrong! How is that for irony? All ideas are equally valid except the notion that says otherwise. So, if all ideas are equally acceptable, then no one can find fault with sorcery.

"Pre-Christian Tradition"

Roys says that witchcraft has been "effectively repackaged." It's no longer "satanic" or "demonic." No, it's "a 'pre-Christian tradition' that promotes 'free thought' and 'understanding of earth and nature.'" Freethought means thought that is free from God and absolute standards of morality. They claim to believe in logic and reason, but they cast spells. Really? Is there some empirical evidence that confirms that doing so is effective?

The news media favors anything that is non-Christian. The Los Angeles Times ran a commentary on May 23, 2017, in which writer Diana Wagman described how she had joined with "thousands of witches, believers, and people like me all over the world" to cast a binding spell on President Donald Trump "under the crescent moon" in April last year.

What? So now the president not only has George Soros, Jeff Bezos (who owns Amazon.com), and other billionaires against him, he is also the target of spells put on him by a gaggle of irate witches. Since that spell was cast, however, his popularity has increased. Maybe we could convince them to put a spell on the Lord's church.

Popularity

According to the Christian Post, the "psychic services industry" has been growing steadily in the years between 2011 and 2016; it is now a $2 billion dollar industry here in our country. The estimated number of persons identified as Wicca or Pagan is 1.5 million, which is one-tenth of a percent more than the number of mainline Presbyterians, according to author Carmen FowlerLaBerge [sic].

All of the things related to witchcraft are primarily harmless, unless they lead to murder or otherwise harming people. They have no actual power to put spells on anyone. Why, then, did God forbid their existence? The reason may be that what people believe is powerful, and they open themselves up to deceptions—just as with psychics. Someone can make ten predictions, and nine of them will fail, but people only remember the one that actually happened. The same would be true of spells. The problem is that witchcraft, freethought (usually expressed as one word), evolution, and other such fantasies, ignore reality and begin with a rejection of God.

Those who do not know what they are saying shouldn't be: