What are the magic arts in Revelation 21:8?

(6) Sorcerers are those who profess intercourse with spirits. Death was the appointed penalty under the law for those who practised spiritualism in those days (Deut. 18:10-12). The lake of fire is God’s appointed doom for all who practise witchcraft, spiritualism, devil worship, and other forms of sorcery.

In the N.T., besides the case referred to of the damsel possessed by a spirit of Python, we read of others, such as Simon who used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria for a long time, Acts 8:9-11; and Elymas the sorcerer, a Jew who was met with in Cyprus, who perverted the right ways of the Lord. Acts 13:6, 8. These used magical arts (called 'curious arts' in Acts 19:19) and bewitched the people. Another word is used for sorceries in the Revelation, φαρμακεία, which refers to drugs, 'to stupefy with drugs,' and then for any system of sorcery by incantations. Rev. 9:21; Rev. 18:23; cf. Rev. 21:8; Rev. 22:15. Sorcery is classed with the grossest of sins, and is also applied to the professing church in mystical Babylon. The same word is translated 'witchcraft' in Gal. 5:20.

The dreadful contrast to all this is seen in verse 8. Who can estimate the awful horror of the end of those who choose to reject the faithful, gracious Lord of glory? Solemnly, “the cowardly” are mentioned first — those whose fear of human disapproval causes them to refuse the Son of God! “The unbelieving” are those who refuse God's testimony, the only means by which they could be preserved from the company of “the abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars.” Every unbeliever chooses such company, and he or she will have part with them in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death, not annihilation, but separation (the basic meaning of death) — separation from God in eternal torment. If the symbol of fire is dreadful, what must the reality be?

The list of those on whom this doom falls is sadly instructive. It begins with the fearful and unbelieving. Being without faith, they feared man and did not confess Jesus as their Lord. Those who bore the character of the devil, who is a murderer, and were marked by lust and traffic with the powers of darkness, come next. The list finishes with "all liars," for lying is another characteristic of the devil, and deceit takes a variety of subtle forms. The overcomers of verse 7 are sons of God. The damned of verse 8 proclaim themselves as sons of the evil one. They share his doom.

Sorcerers (i.e. Spiritualists) are classed with murderers and whoremongers in Rev. 21:8, for whom is destined the lake of fire for ever.

Rev. 21:8. — “But the fearful (or cowardly), and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” God here, as in the previous utterances, is the Speaker. As another has said, “We ought to notice how much of these eight verses is made up of direct utterances of our God.” In the previous declarations God as love speaks, but in the final statement of eternity He speaks as light. God never foregoes His character as Judge of evil. The lake of fire is an actual and eternal place of punishment. In what part of the universe it is situated we know not. The current denial of eternal punishment finds no support, but absolute condemnation in the solemn passage before us. The eighth verse is as distinctly eternal as the first or second. We can introduce no measurements nor limitations within these eight verses. In them is embraced God’s eternity and man’s eternity, whether in Heaven, earth, or the lake of fire. There are eight classes specified:

In thy further Meditations, O my soul, on the Christian's "Vocation" there is yet one department which thou wilt do well duly to consider; namely, "The Christian's Warfare." Rare qualities are needed in warriors, and great honours are heaped on the victorious: but who praises the coward? Alas! he stands at the head of the dark list of the lost, in Revelation 21:8. "But the fearful" — "the fearful" here means those who are afraid to confess Jesus as Saviour and Lord, from the fear of consequences. They are cowards in reference to Christ. This, in God's sight, is a sin of the meanest and blackest character; for such evidently know something of Christ and of His goodness, and yet they are ashamed of His name before men. Therefore, under the ignominious brand of "the fearful" or cowards, they are consigned to their own place in the lake of fire.

The last verse of our chapter shows that along with this will go complete moral breakdown. Sorceries or witchcraft indicate traffic with demonic powers, in all its various forms; the other three things specified we are all acquainted with. When life is held cheaply, when personal purity is quite disregarded, when the rights of property are ignored, a state of things must be produced reminiscent of the state of the earth before the flood, or the degradation that prevailed in Sodom and Gomorrah at a later date.

Practicing witchcraft or soothsaying was also firmly forbidden, as well as the claim of interpreting omens, that is, anything that appeared to be unusual, to which superstition might attach some hidden meaning. One who pretended to have discernment to interpret such things was the victim of satanic deceit. Sorcery, also forbidden, is the practice of delving into spiritism by the use of drugs.

(2) “Witchcrafts,” or “sorceries,” the claim of supernatural power, illicit intercourse with spirits, professed telling of the future. The witch of Endor (1 Sam. 28:7) and Elymas the sorcerer (Acts 13:8) are examples of those who practised “the black arts of witchcraft.” This ancient Canaanitish iniquity was sternly denounced by God, and death was the decreed penalty for those who practised it (Deut. 18:10-12; Lev. 20:27; Ex. 22:18). Sorcerers are classed with dogs, murderers, fornicators, and idolaters as shut out from the heavenly city (Rev. 22:15). Spiritualism is making rapid strides, and soon Christendom will be given over almost wholly to its practice.