Welcome to Buttafleye Ministry Interactive Bible Study. Theme: Witchcraft in the Church. Topic: "Occult, Divination, Astrology, and Sorcery." Answer the interactive questions at the end of this blog. Join this FREE study or other studies of interest. JOIN STUDY
The Occult
By the "occult," we are speaking of some supra-human or supernatural influence that is not from God. We commonly associate the occult with that which has demonic influence.
In the United States today the occult has become much more popular than it was twenty years ago. Today, there is popular Satanic music, Satanic street gangs, an increase in Satanic worship, more widespread use of the horoscope and study of the signs of the zodiac, and Satanic games that can be purchased. In spite of this, many people do not take the occult seriously. They laugh off the notion of the Power of Evil as actually being a part of the "real" world in which we live.
Demonic influence is very real and it constitutes a dangerous threat to our spiritual well-being. What is written here is, at best, a brief summary of a reality that I have no desire to spend much time exploring. My purpose is simply to give you enough knowledge to be able to at least suspect the presence of the occult so that you can avoid it completely.
In the letter to Ephesians (1:3-10), Paul tells us that the Most High God chose us in Yeshua (Jesus) Christ before the world began. We are called to be holy and without sin in his sight. The Most High God called us to be his children through Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ). In Jesus (Yeshua) and through his Blood we have been saved and our sins are forgiven. This is how generous our Father has been with us. And He has given us the wisdom to understand this mystery, this plan He revealed to us in Christ (Hamashiach).
We have the power to renounce Satan, all his works, and the empty promises of the kingdom of darkness. In these We profess our faith in Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ) and in the Church. Now the kingdom of God is absolutely opposed to Satan's kingdom.
Salvation in Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ) presupposes our rejection of the kingdom of darkness. Our life, though, is spiritual warfare. In the first letter of John (1 Jn. 5:18-20) he tells us two things. First of all, we who are born of the Most High God (by Baptism and the Holy Spirit) are protected the so that the Evil One cannot touch us. But he also tells us that the whole world is under the Evil One.
The Evil One can tempt us, but he cannot touch us directly unless we open the door for him. We should not fear Satan nor should we be constantly looking for him in the ordinary happenings of our life.
Do not concentrate on the Evil Spirits, but fix your eyes and your faith upon Our Savior Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ). We are saved by Yeshua Hamashiach (Jesus Christ) alone, through prayer, obedience, and our adherence to the Word of the Most High God in the Bible.
Matthew 28 20 20: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. The Modern World English Bible translates the passage as 20: teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you.
New Age Practices and the New Spirituality, Emerging Worldwide
New Age Religion Many Christians also hold what are sometimes characterized as “New Age” beliefs – including belief in reincarnation, astrology, psychics, and the presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees. Many Americans who are religiously unaffiliated also have these beliefs. These beliefs have infiltrated the church in an attempt to destroy the body of Christ.
In 1970 American theosophist and founder David Spangler moved to the Findhorn Foundation, where he developed the fundamental idea of the New Age movement.
New-age religion is not new. It is the same old Egyptian, Babylonia, Hinduism, and pagan religions mixed all together with Christianity. This religion has been repackaged and renamed. The Bible says there's nothing new under the sun.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9
The New Age Spirituality
The term "spirituality" can be used in several ways. The first definition, highly unremarkable and rather banal, is a person's focus on their so-called "inner" world, or the essence of their being. People who are exploring their spirituality frequently talk about feeling "one with the Universe" on an emotional or intellectual level, or "understanding the meaning in life or their place in it", and they do not have to be religious or believe in a god to say so. They can believe in many gods or mother nature, most tend to care about animals and nature to the extreme. New age engages in the spirit realm they pray and do other occult activities not ordained by the Most High.
Meditation
People who see themselves as spiritual in this way may pray, meditate, or do other activities for these personal "journeys". There is rarely anything magical or even marketable about it. The second meaning falls right in the heart of Woodom. These are people who see their spirituality as something larger than human understanding, it appears to be magical, and transcendent of all rational ideas. They use the term "spirituality" because they do not have a particular religion, believing in a 'creative energy' that gives an anthropomorphic consciousness to all things. A third group uses "spirituality" as a code word of sorts for a person who has moved away from organized religion but has not given up God, even though their view of God is really no different than it was when they believed in their religion. "I am no longer a Christian. Now I am just spiritual.
Existentialism is the philosophical belief we are each responsible for creating purpose or meaning in our own lives. Our individual purpose and meaning are not given to us by The Most High Gods, governments, teachers, or other authorities.
What does existentialism mean?
social science specialized. /ˌeɡ.zɪˈsten.ʃəl.ɪst/ uk. /ˌeɡ.zɪˈsten.ʃəl.ɪst/ a person who believes in a philosophy (= system of ideas) according to which the world has no meaning and each person is alone and completely responsible for his or her own actions: He's a pessimistic existentialist.
Although the New Age Movement itself is arguably over, many practitioners of what has been called the New Spirituality continue New Age ideas and practices if not the specific goal of initiating a new age.
The Source of Our Problems
To understand New Age practices, we need to start with their diagnosis of the problem we face as human beings: we are ignorant of the nature of reality. This ignorance manifests itself in a variety of ways. We are unhealthy because we do not know the proper things to eat and the right way to breathe and exercise. We do not prosper because we see life as competition rather than recognizing that cooperation, creating win-win scenarios, is the route to success.
Because of our unhealthy emphasis on competition, we do not live lives of benevolence and love; instead, we plunder the environment and exploit others, leading to dysfunctional cultures, particularly Western industrial capitalism.
Many New Agers believe that your attitude creates your reality: If you think of yourself as sick, you are sick; if you think of yourself as poor, you are poor; if you think of yourself as lacking opportunity, you lack opportunity; if you think of yourself as trapped, you are trapped. You attract problems into your life through your thinking and your words.
This may come from karma from a previous lifetime—you inherited a negative mindset from your karmic stream which you need to overcome in this lifetime—or it may have been imposed on you by your family, your religion, or your culture, all of which conspire to keep you in ignorance of your freedom and your power to create a new reality for yourself through changing your mentality.
The problem of ignorance leads directly to social forces that exploit people and the environment, repressive political and economic institutions and policies, and other problems within society. In this way, the New Spirituality links to both Cultural Marxism and the Gaian worldview. According to the New Spirituality, these problems are produced by systems dominated by spiritual inertia that locks ignorance of human potential into the culture.
New Age practices are intended to lead to a “higher consciousness” in the practitioner, generally involving a pantheistic vision of the world and awakening or recognizing your own divinity as an expression of the great cosmic whole. As a result, the enlightened individual is serene, benevolent (since helping others is the same as helping yourself), full of peace, love, and harmony, as well as in control over the circumstances of life.
The New Age movement tends to be non-dogmatic about solutions. Since all (or at least many) roads lead to the same spiritual truth, it does not matter which path you follow. Eclectic approaches are quite common, as each person chooses from a smorgasbord of options to construct a personal spiritual path.
A Wiccan may practice
Combined with yoga (from Hinduism) and Reiki (from Japanese Buddhism), but also participate in Native American chanting and dancing or African drum circles, and receive past life therapy, all
of which are seen as pointing to the same spiritual truth. Though not all New Spirituality practitioners are eclectic, many are, and networking among practitioners and teachers is common.
Not surprisingly, the New Age movement draws its adherents primarily from the well-educated, particularly those from the upper middle class and wealthy backgrounds or aspirations. People who are struggling to make ends meet rarely have the time, resources, or inclination to pursue spiritual enlightenment or to spend money on the classes that lead there. The movement is thus a phenomenon centered on elites rather than the masses.
Entering the New Age
The New Age Movement had an additional goal beyond personal enlightenment. Led by spiritually enlightened people, both living and “ascended masters”—enlightened teachers who have already passed on to a higher state of life but who choose to instruct people on the road to enlightenment via channeling, visions, meditation, or other means—more and more people will develop a new, higher level of consciousness.
When enough people reach this level of enlightenment, human consciousness will shift worldwide and usher in the Age of Aquarius, a promised “new age” where we enter the next stage of human spiritual evolution.
The idea of a coming spiritual golden age has largely fallen by the wayside, shaken no doubt by the level of fear and anxiety in the world caused by events such as 9/11. But aside from dropping the concept of a New Age, most elements of the New Age Movement continue in the New Spirituality.
One particularly important offshoot of New Spirituality and its earlier antecedents is the rise of Neo-Paganism.
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What is the difference between Christianity and New Age? Yeshua (Jesus) Christ is presented in New Age as a teacher in contrast to the Christian understanding of him as the Savior of the world. While Christianity speaks of a Holy Spirit as one of the persons of the triune the Most High God, New Age doesn't recognize the idea of a Spirit at all.
What is the New Age god? Theologically, the New Age typically accepts a holistic form of divinity that pervades the universe, including human beings themselves, leading to a strong emphasis on the spiritual authority of the self.
Laws prohibiting various forms of witchcraft and divination can be found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. These include the following (as translated in the King James Version): Exodus 22:18 – Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Divination
What is divination?
The word divination comes from the Latin divinare, meaning “to foresee” or “to be inspired by a god.” To practice divination is to uncover hidden knowledge by supernatural means. It is associated with the occult and involves fortune-telling or soothsaying, as it used to be called.
From ancient times, people have used divination to gain knowledge of the future or as a way to make money. The practice continues as those who claim supernatural insight read palms, tea leaves, tarot cards, star charts, and more.
What is the Most High's view of divination?
The Most High God tells us His view of divination in Deuteronomy 18:10: “There shall not be found among you . . . anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens.” First Samuel 15:23 compares rebellion to the “sin of divination.”
Why were the Israelites exiled?
Practicing divination is listed as one of the reasons for Israel’s exile (2 Kings 17:17). Jeremiah 14:14 spoke of the false prophets of the time, saying, “They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.” So, compared to God’s truth, divination is false, deceitful, and worthless.
As Luke traveled with Paul and Silas in the city of Philippi, he recorded an encounter with a diviner: “We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling” (Acts 16:16). The girl’s ability to penetrate mysteries was due to a demon that controlled her. Her masters received “much gain” from their slaves. Paul eventually exorcised the demon (verse 18), freeing the girl from her spiritual bondage and angering the slave owners (verse 19).
Divination in any form is a sin. It is not harmless entertainment or an alternate source of wisdom. Believers should avoid any practice related to divination, including fortune-telling, astrology, witchcraft, tarot cards, necromancy, and spell-casting. The spirit world is real, but it is not innocent. According to Scripture, those spirits that are not the Holy Spirit or angels are evil spirits.
Believers need not fear the spirits involved in divination; neither are Believers to seek wisdom from them. The Believer or Christian’s wisdom comes from God (James 1:5).
What is the purpose of divination?
Divination (from Latin divinare, 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual.
What does divination mean in the Bible?
divination, the practice of determining the hidden significance or cause of events, sometimes foretelling the future, by various natural, psychological, and other techniques.
Astrology
the study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world.
Astrology is a method of predicting mundane events based upon the assumption that the celestial bodies—particularly the planets and the stars considered in their arbitrary combinations or configurations (called constellations)—in some way either determine or indicate changes in the sublunar world.
Christ himself talked about the importance of astrology when he said in Luke 21:25, “There shall be signs in the sun, moon, and stars.” He discusses with the disciples the importance of astrology and how it can be used as a sign of his return.
What does the Bible say about astrology?
Not only is astrology a sin, but it is also demonic as well. If you were to have anything to do with astrology in the Old Testament, you would have been stoned to death. Astrologers and people who seek them are an abomination to the Most HighGod.
Have nothing to do with these stupid demonic astrology sites. Trust in the Most High alone. Satan likes to tell people, “He doesn’t care it’s not a big deal,” but of course, Satan is a liar.
Divination is evil, aren’t we to seek the Most High God instead of things of the world? YHWH (God) is never pleased with idolatry and He will not be mocked.
The world might love astrology, but remember most of the world will burn in Hell for their rebellion against the Most High. He alone knows the future!
Scriptures tell us that astrology is a sin
1. Daniel 4:7 When all the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and fortune-tellers came in, I told them the dream, but they could not tell me what it meant.
2. Deuteronomy 17:2-3 “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden.” MORE
Sorcery in the Bible
Sorcery, the use of spells, divination, or speaking to spirits, is clearly condemned in the Bible. The word sorcery in Scripture is always used in reference to evil or deceptive practices.
For example, in 2 Chronicles 33:6, King Manasseh is condemned for his many evil practices, including sorcery: “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.”
The apostle Paul lists sorcery as one of many sinful practices that mark the lives of unbelievers: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife . . . 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” (Galatians 5:19-21).
Interestingly, the New Testament Greek word translated “sorcery” is pharmakeia, which is the source of our English word pharmacy. In Paul’s day, the word primarily meant “dealing in poison” or “drug use” and was applied to divination and spell-casting because sorcerers often used drugs along with their incantations and amulets to conjure occult power.
Sorcerers were common in the culture of ancient Egypt (Exodus 7:11; Isaiah 19:3). We also see sorcery in the kingdom of Babylon, especially in association with King Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 27:9; Daniel 2:2).
Sorcery is an attempt to bypass God’s wisdom and power and give glory to Satan instead. God has no tolerance for sorcery. In Deuteronomy 18:10-12, sorcery is listed among the sinful practices of the nations surrounding Israel. God calls it an abomination: “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. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.”
Malachi also speaks of God’s judgment on those involved in sorcery: “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers” (Malachi 3:5).
Apparently, sorcery will still be practiced in the end times. Spiritual Babylon, representing the false religious system of the last days, will deceive “all nations” with sorcery (Revelation 18:23) before judgment falls.
The book of Revelation says that sorcerers “will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8; see also Revelation 22:15).
Sorcery is clearly sinful and is not to be part of Christian living. There is a wisdom that is “earthly, unspiritual, of the devil” (James 3:15), and this is what sorcery offers. Our wisdom comes from God (James 3:17), not from deceiving spirits. The power of God is much greater than the power of sorcery (1 John 4:4).
Who is a sorcerer in the Bible? Simon Magus (Greek Σίμων ὁ μάγος, Latin: Simon Magus), also known as Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, was a religious figure whose confrontation with Peter is recorded in Acts 8:9–24.
The act of simony, or paying for a position, is named after Simon who tried to buy his way into the power of the Apostles.
The Book of Sirach, also called the Wisdom of Sirach or simply Sirach, and also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus or Ben Sira, is a Jewish work originally in Hebrew of ethical teachings, from approximately 200 to 175 BCE, written by the Jewish scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his father Joshua
YOUR POWER SOURCE
WHAT IS YOUR POWER SOURCE?
CLASS VIDEOS
WITCHCRAFT IN THE CHURCH
WHAT WITCHES, WARLOCKS, AND SORCERERS NEVER TELL YOU
THE FALSE CHRISTIANITY MOVEMENT- NEW AGE
AS WITCHCRAFT SURGES IN AMERICA, IS THE CHURCH PREPARED?
IS IT POSSIBLE TO SELL YOUR SOUL? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOUL AND SPIRIT?
CELEBRITIES WHO HAVE BEEN OR ARE INVOLVED IN THE OCCULT
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT SORCERERS?
THE DEATH OF HUMAN GODS
NEW DOCUMENTARY TRAILER ABOUT THE WORSHIP OF SATAN
WITCHCRAFT IN THE CHURCH
Interactive Bible Study
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What does the Bible say about sorcery?
What is the occult?
What is existentialism?
What is new age religion?
What is the difference between Christianity and New Age?
What is the New Age god?
What does the Bible say about divination?
What is sin?
What is your power source, and where does your power come from?
What is the difference between soul and spirit?
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Extra Credit Question
What did you learn from this blog?
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Participation Questions
Comment your answers below and don't forget to give your classmates your personalized feedback.
1. What does the Bible say about sorcery?
2. What is the occult?
3. What is existentialism?
4. What is new age religion?
5. What is the difference between Christianity and New Age?
6. What is the New Age god?
7. What does the Bible say about divination?
8. What is sin?
9. What is your power source, and where does your power come from?
10. What is the difference between soul and spirit?
Extra Credit Question
What did you learn from this blog?
The Greek word for sorcery is pharmkeia where we get the word for pharmacy. In the new testament times sorcerers often used drugs as they practiced their dark arts.
Supernatural , mystical or beliefs practice or phenomena.
A philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development though act of will.
New Age beliefs is reincarnation, astrology psychics, and presence of spiritual energy in physical objects like mountains or trees.
While Christianity speak of Holy Spirit as one of the persons of the triune Jesus( Most High God The new age doesn't recognize the idea of a spirit at all.
The universe including human beings themselves, leading…