OCCULTS IS FORBIDDEN BY GOD.

OCCULT.

GOD FORBIDS INVOLVEMENT IN THE OCCULT.

BIBLE READING: Deuteronomy 18:9-13

KEY BIBLE VERSE: Never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling or sorcery, or allow them to interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. (Deuteronomy 18:10-11)

SPIRITUAL REBELLION AGAINST GOD.

Child sacrifice and occult practices were strictly forbidden by God. These practices were common among the pagans. Some of Israel's neighbors actually sacrificed their children to the god Molech (Leviticus 20:2-5). Others of their neighbors used occult means, such as contacting the spirit world, to foretell the future and gain guidance. Because of these wicked practices, God would drive out the pagan nations (Deuteronomy 18:12). The Israelites were to replace their evil practices with the worship of the one true God.

SATANIC TRAP.

The Israelites were naturally curious about the occult practices of the Canaanite religions. But Satan is behind the occult, and God flatly forbade Israel to have anything to do with it. Today people are still fascinated by horoscopes, fortune-telling, witchcraft, and bizarre cults. Often their interest comes from a desire to know and control the future. But Satan is no less dangerous today than he was in Moses' time. In the Bible, God tells us all we need to know about what is going to happen. The information Satan offers is likely to be distorted or completely false. With the trustworthy guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Bible and the church, we don't need to turn to occult sources for faulty information.

He asked the LORD what he should do, but the LORD refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. Saul then said to his advisers, "Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do." His advisers replied, "There is a medium at Endor." (1 Samuel 28:6-7)

DISTORTING TRUTH.

Did Samuel really come back from the dead at the medium's call? The medium shrieked at the appearance of Samuel-she knew too well that the spirits she usually contacted were either contrived or satanic. Somehow Samuel's appearance revealed to her that she was dealing with a power far greater than she had known. She did not call up Samuel by trickery or by the power of Satan; God brought Samuel back to give Saul a prediction regarding his fate, a message Saul already knew. This in no way justifies efforts to contact the dead or communicate with persons or spirits from the past. God is against all such practices (Galatians 5:19-21).