What is the occult?

In our days the masses of professing Christendom are wholly indifferent to these truths. Others openly oppose them, sneer at them and reject them as superstitions. Well has it been said, "No one but an unbeliever can overlook and despise them." Behind all these denials and sneers, coming from the camps of higher criticism and the new theology stands the dark shadow of Satan. The rulers of darkness of this world, the wicked spirits, do all in their power to keep a lost world, with its supposed progress and scientific discoveries, in ignorance and darkness about themselves. And occultism, known by the names of spiritualism and Psychical research, tries to establish communion with departed spirits. In reality it is communion with the wicked spirits in the heavenlies, who use this unlawful intrusion to delude their victims and make them doubly secure for the impending doom.

Of great interest are verses 9-14. The nations who possessed the land practised evil things, through which Satan manifested his awful power to lead astray and to corrupt. His people were to beware of these things. We, too, are warned not to intrude into those things which we have not seen (Col. 2:18). Moses puts together the words which the language contained for the different modes of finding out the future and discovering the will of God. Passing a son or daughter through the fire, the awful Moloch service, is forbidden once more (Lev. 18:21). Then follow all the abominable things. There are seven of them mentioned, which come under the term "divination":

Observer of times, predicting good or bad things by observation of the heavens and circumstances;2. Enchanter. The Hebrew word is menachesh connected with nachash the Hebrew word for serpent. It means one who murmurs enchantments;3. Witch;4. Charmer;5. A consulter with familiar spirits;6. A wizard, who has access to an unlawful wisdom;7. The necromancer, who asks the dead.

These abominations existed then and they exist today. Clairvoyancy, palmistry, astrology, soothsaying, fortune-telling, spiritualistic seances, theosophy, the formulas and treatments of "Christian Science" are a few of the modern names of this ancient demonism. It is awful to see their growth as the end draws near. What is claimed to be "Psychical research," studying "occult phenomena," is nothing less than stepping upon the same territory of evil. And Satan uses these wicked things, his familiar spirits, and asking the dead to prepare the way for the great delusion of the end, with its signs and lying wonders. Spiritualism with its demon-possessed mediums, Psychical research, theosophy, Christian Science, are Satan-cults. They are an abomination to Jehovah and His righteous judgment will soon fall upon them. We add here the solemn warning of another.

(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.

Witchcraft — sorcery — "Spiritualism" — for this great evil has many names, is very ancient. Early in the history of the race, when men turned their backs upon God, they sought to get into communication with the invisible world by illicit means. Satan was, of course, their instructor in this, for thereby he gained ears which should have been ever open to the voice of God. Deuteronomy 18 is stern in its commands to the people of Israel to deal unsparingly with this great evil when they got into the promised land. They would find Canaan full of it, but God's own people must neither learn it nor spare it.

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.

Verse 11 adds to this the evil of conjuring spells, that is, hypnotism, and also the wickedness of one acting as a medium, which means one who is a go-between, bringing messages from an evil spirit to another person. A spiritist is similar, that is, one having contract with evil spirits. One who calls up the dead is one who claims to actually bring a dead person in contact with a living person. This is deception, for it is actually a familiar spirit who impersonates the dead person. The witch of Endor was asked by King Saul to bring up Samuel (1 Sam.28:11), but when the woman saw Samuel she was terrified (v.12), for she was accustomed to the deceit of a familiar spirit. But God intervened in this one case to make a striking exception.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (v. 18.) The essential idea of a witch was commerce with spirits, which finds its counterpart in the spiritualism of the present day. Hence in Leviticus she is described as "a woman that hath a familiar spirit." (Lev. 20:27.) The witch of Endor is the exemplification of her kind; for we read that Saul went to her and said, "I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring him up whom I shall name unto thee." (1 Sam. 28:8.) This is the very thing that spiritualists profess to do — to bring the inquirer into communion with departed spirits. Like Saul, unable to obtain communications from God, they seek information concerning things unknown and unseen through the agency of spirits. It is in fact a turning from God to Satan. The whole system, whether in Israel or our own day, is Satanic. A witch therefore was to be destroyed; and this shows the utter antagonism of her vocation to God; and the spiritualism now in vogue is no less hateful, and, if persisted in, no less destructive to souls.

"Witchcraft" (or sorcery), a form of Satanic mischief prevalent in all ages, is rifer in our own than is commonly supposed, and is likely to abound yet more. From Egypt to Babylon the great, and from Pharaoh to the last and proudest of the race of wilful kings, this spirit has been working and will work. It is vastly comprehensive in its range, as well as varied and subtle in its energy, Sometimes declaring openly its true character under the name of spiritualism, it far oftener assumes forms of a less suspected kind. It is at work wherever truth is systematically opposed, and power is ascribed to any other than the living God. It has ruined the Chaldean Babylon, and is written among the chief charges of the Spirit of truth against the city which is called in Scripture "mystery" (Isa. 47:9, 12), and which drinks the wine-cup of the wrath of God (Rev. 18:23; 16:19). It is active at this moment in the palace and the workshop, and is fast hurrying its dupes to their fore-written place (Rev. 21:8).

Following this, we have "all the words which the language contained for the different modes of exploring the future and discovering the will of God" (Keil) practiced by the heathen, brought together under one general condemnation. Nor are we past the need of reviewing them, so constantly does the power of evil work through the need and corruption of man to the same results, — modified only and disguised by the manners of the age, but which in no wise affects their inner meaning. Spiritualism, clairvoyance, and theosophy today have only freshened our apprehension of what has been in some shape always at work, although now energetically working in proportion as the end approaches, and the enfeebled power of Christianity allows them to appear with boldness.*

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 above is a brief glance at the subtle power of Satan in the unseen world, by which he deludes mankind, at least where man is the willing victim. Is it not clear that divination should not be confounded with mere jugglery? However much that may be associated with it, the real power of Satan is behind it. Some sorcerers converted in modern times in various parts of the earth have confessed that they were controlled by a power beyond their own; but that it ceased entirely on their believing and confessing Christ. It is important to see that this power is of Satan, because of the great increase in the present day of attempting to have intercourse with the spirits of the dead, to which even Christians may be, and indeed have been, drawn out of mere curiosity. "Let no man beguile you of your reward . . . . intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Col. 2:18.

It is the practice in some quarters to mock at Satan's power, and to ignore his presence in the world; and, still more, to reject the thought of a multitude of wicked spirits; and yet we cannot read the Gospels without realizing that our Lord recognized them fully, and that their power in His day was widespread and great. In some cases the satanic power seemed simply to manifest itself in inflicting personal injury upon the possessed one. They would be dumb, or subject to spasms, or the mouthpiece for unclean and blasphemous language. So much did these afflictions resemble insanity, that the two have been confounded. But the damsel with a spirit of divination at Philippi was not merely possessed in this way, but gave professed revelations, evidently of a satanic character. All through the centuries the arts of divination have been practiced, in so-called Christian as well as heathen countries; and it is most significant that in these last days, when so much light and truth abound, there has been a revival, under the modern spiritualistic cult, of the witchcraft of former days. Truly man, however cultured and apparently moral, as was king Saul in many ways, is no better than his fathers. The flesh remains unchanged, and will seek those who "peep and mutter" now as well as then.