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Counterfeit Guidance and Power: Witchcraft and Sorcery as Sins of Action · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm your host and I have to be honest with you, I spent most of
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  this week feeling just a little bit spooked.
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  I think it's a fair reaction to this week's material.
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  Yeah, we are taking a really hard left turn from our usual
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  discussions on, you know, systematic theology or church
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  history. We're walking into a topic that,
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  at first glance, feels like it belongs in a fantasy novel.
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  Or maybe a history book about the 17th century?
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  Right, exactly. I mean, we were talking about
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  witchcraft, sorcery, and not in some kind of metaphorical sense,
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  but in a very literal, very present day sense.
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  When I first saw the topic, my first thought was, OK, are we
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  doing a history lesson on Salem? But then I looked at the data
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  you brought in and it just. It stopped me cold because
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  according to these numbers, this isn't history at.
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  All it's current events, absolutely.
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  And I think that is the biggest misconception we have to
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  dismantle right out of the gate, OK.
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  We're sort of trained to think that the West, you know, Europe,
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  North America, is moving in the straight line towards
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  secularism. Right, that we're becoming more
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  scientific, more rational. More materialist.
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  We think the supernatural is something we just kind of grew
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  out. Of that's the standard
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  narrative, isn't it? The idea that religion dies out
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  as science advances and we all become this a sterile, godless
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  society. But the data says the complete
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  opposite. We aren't seeing the death of
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  the supernatural. What we're seeing is a massive
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  shift in where people go to find it.
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  A shift to where? Well, the source material quotes
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  some recent sociological data that frankly shocked me.
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  There are an estimated 1.5 million practicing Wiccans and
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  Pagans in the United States right now.
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  One, one and a half million. I actually had to double check
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  that number because I was sure it was a typo.
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  It's. Not a typo.
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  And to give you a sense of scale, that number arguably
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  eclipses the total membership of entire historic Presbyterian
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  denominations. That is wild.
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  So what you're saying is, if I walk into a coffee shop,
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  statistically I might be more likely to bump into a practicing
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  witch than a Presbyterian? Depending on the neighborhood.
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  And that tells us something huge.
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  It tells us the West isn't becoming less spiritual.
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  It's becoming differently spiritual.
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  It's undergoing what some call a re enchantment, but it's a re
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  enchantment through the occult. We're seeing this massive
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  revival of paganism, but it doesn't look like the scary
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  movies. It doesn't look like Macbeth.
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  Right. And I think that's why we miss
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  it. When I hear witchcraft, my brain
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  immediately goes to a cauldron. I'm picturing an old woman in a
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  Hut in the woods. A pointy hat.
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  A pointy hat. But if I walk into a Barnes and
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  Noble right now or just scroll through TikTok, I don't see any
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  of that. No, what do you see?
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  You see the Wellness section, You see self-care?
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  It's. Beige.
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  It's all very aesthetic and very clean.
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  It's high end retail and that is the absolute brilliance of the
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  rebranding. I mean, if the enemy showed up
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  with horns in a pitchfork, we'd run.
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  Of course. But if the occult shows up,
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  offering mindfulness and energy alignment to help you cope with
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  your stressful corporate job. We pull out the credit card.
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  We. Pull out the credit card.
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  You're talking about things like crystals, right?
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  Manifesting. Checking the energy of A room.
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  Exactly. It feels modern.
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  It feels therapeutic. But biblically, we have to strip
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  away all that marketing. The real tension we need to sit
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  with today is that while these things are sold as personal
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  empowerment tools, the Bible identifies them as a rival
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  allegiance. So our mission for this
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  discussion is pretty clear. Then we want to define
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  witchcraft and sorcery not by their aesthetic trappings, no
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  pointy hats, but by biblical authority.
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  We need to diagnose the theological root of these
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  practices, like why do we do it? And then, most importantly, we
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  have to present the gospel remedy.
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  And to do that, we're going to be standing on the shoulders of
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  the Westminster Confession of Faith and especially the
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  doctrine of divine Providence to help us steer through all this,
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  because this isn't just some cultural quirk, it's a
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  theological crisis. OK, let's get into the
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  definitions then, because I think the words here really
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  matter. The source material describes
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  witchcraft as sorcery, as a sin of action.
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  I found that distinction really interesting.
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  What are we getting at there? That phrase sin of action is so
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  helpful because it separates the acts from, say, a passing
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  feeling or thought. We aren't talking about a
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  passive curiosity or just having a weird thought pop into your
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  head. We are talking about a
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  deliberate practice. The definition we're working
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  with here is that sorcery is the attempt to seek hidden knowledge
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  or to manipulate spiritual realities apart from the Lord's
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  appointed means. Apart from the Lord's appointed
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  means that that seems to be the key phrase.
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  It is. It's the whole thing.
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  It is an action taken specifically to bypass God.
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  It's looking for a shortcut to power or knowledge.
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  OK, so the anchor text for this, the place where the Bible really
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  draws the line in the sand, is Deuteronomy 18.914.
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  I pulled it up before we started.
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  This is Moses talking to Israel right before they go into the
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  Promised Land. Yeah, and you should set the
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  scene for us because the geography really matters here.
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  OK, so Israel is standing on the edge of Canaan.
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  They've been in the wilderness for 40 years, and now they are
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  about to enter the land God promised them.
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  But this wasn't just, you know, empty real estate, was it?
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  No, and this is where we have to use our imagination a little.
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  We often think of Canaan as the land of milk and honey, which
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  sounds lovely and pastoral, but spiritually it was a land of
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  shadows. It was a culture that was just
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  teeming with spiritual toxicity. The nations living there had
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  built their entire society, their religion, their government
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  around accessing hidden knowledge and manipulating
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  unseen forces. So when God gives them this list
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  of don'ts in Deuteronomy 18, he isn't just being a killjoy, He's
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  giving them a survival guide. He is preparing them to survive
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  in a spiritually hostile environment.
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  He says When you come into the land, you shall not learn to
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  follow the abominable practices of those nations.
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  And then he just lays them out 1 by 1.
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  The list starts with a real heavy hitter.
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  There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or
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  his daughter as an offering child sacrifice.
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  It starts with the most horrific practice imaginable, Bullock
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  worship. I have to pause there because
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  it's interesting and really disturbing that child sacrifice
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  is listed right next to things like fortune telling.
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  I mean, in our modern minds, one is clearly murder and the other
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  is parlor trick. Why are they grouped together?
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  That is a great question, and the answer reveals the internal
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  logic of the occult. In the Pagan worldview, the gods
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  are transactional. They are not a loving father.
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  They're power brokers. And if you want maximum control
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  or maximum favor or maximum victory in your next battle, you
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  have to pay the maximum price. It's the logic of buying power.
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  You get what you pay for. It's.
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  Purely economic to transaction. And while we might recoil at the
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  idea of burning a child when we should, that same impulse is
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  still the heartbeat of idolatry today.
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  What do you mean? I mean sacrificing what is most
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  precious to you in order to secure control over your future.
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  That happens every single day in corporate offices and on Wall
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  Street. Wow, that is a chilling thought.
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  We might not be building a literal fire, but we're
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  sacrificing our families, our health, our integrity on the
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  altar of security or success. The mechanic is identical.
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  I give this so that I can get control.
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  OK, so moving down the list in Deuteronomy we get to terms that
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  are a bit more technical. The source broke down the
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  Hebrew, which I really needed. We have divination or quasm.
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  Right, so quasm refers to the attempt to uncover secret
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  information. It's about reading signs.
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  Could be tea leaves, the flight patterns of birds, spots on a
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  liver to get data that God has not revealed.
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  It's an information heist. It's a perfect way to put it and
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  information heist. And then there's sorcery.
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  Or Kashaf. Yes, and kashaf literally means
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  cutting or shredding. It likely refers to, you know,
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  chopping up ingredients for potions or incantations.
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  But the intent is different from divination.
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  How so? Divination is about knowing the
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  future. Sorcery is about forcing the
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  future. It's an attempt to alter reality
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  through ritual. So 1 is hacking the database and
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  the other is hacking the control panel.
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  That's a great analogy. Yes, and then of course we have
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  necromancy consulting the dead. Which is, just think about the
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  insult there. It's bypassing the living God to
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  go whisper to the dust. You have the God who speaks, the
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  God of all life, and you turn your back on him to ask a corpse
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  for advice. It's a profound rejection.
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  Now God gives a moral verdict on all of this.
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  He calls these practices abominations or to they, and
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  that's a really strong word. It's not just saying, hey, this
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  is against the rules. No.
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  Tubeva is visceral. It implies a kind of physical
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  repulsion, like a gag reflex. It means something is ethically
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  and spiritually repulsive to God.
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  But why though? I mean I get why child sacrifice
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  is repulsive, but why is reading a horoscope so repulsive?
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  Why does that trigger a gag reflex in God?
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  Because it is a functional denial of his fatherly
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  government. Here's an analogy.
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  Imagine a child who has a loving, wealthy, attentive
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  father, and every single time that child needs lunch money or
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  advice or protection, instead of asking the father who is sitting
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  right there in the living room, the child sneaks out and runs to
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  the creepy neighbor down the street.
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  That would absolutely break the Father's heart.
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  It's insulting. It says I don't trust you, I
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  don't believe you'll take care of me.
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  That's what we do to God when we turn to these other sources.
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  That brings up the covenantal logic of it all.
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  The source material mentions that turning to mediums is
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  described in Leviticus as whoring.
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  Yes, spiritual prostitution. It is a relational betrayal.
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  The issue isn't just that you are making an intellectual error
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  like you got a math problem wrong.
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  No, it's personal. It's deeply personal.
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  You are cheating on God. You are giving your allegiance,
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  your fear, your trust, all the things that belong to him to a
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  rival source. It really reframes the whole
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  discussion, doesn't it? It stops being about is this
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  real or does this stuff actually work?
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  And it starts being about who is your God?
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  Spot on. The text in Deuteronomy says the
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  nation's listen to fortune tellers.
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  But, and this is the key, As for you, the Lord your God has not
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  allowed you to do this. It's all about who has your ear.
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  OK, I want to dig deeper into the why of it all.
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  What is going on in the human heart that drives us to this?
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  I mean, I consider myself a rational person, but I can still
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  feel that pull, that desire to know the future.
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  We all do. The source calls this the
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  mechanics of mutiny, which I think is just a brilliant
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  phrase. It contrasts Providence with
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  mechanism. Can we break that down?
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  This is the theological core. You get this.
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  You get the whole problem. The Reformed view, the biblical
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  view, is that God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs
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  all creatures, actions and things.
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  Meaning the universe is a personal Kingdom ruled by a
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  father. Yes.
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  So everything that happens, from a Sparrow falling to the ground
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  to nations rising and falling, is under his personal care and
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  control. It's personal.
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  It's deeply personal, but the occult view, and this is true
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  whether you're talking about ancient Canaan or modern New Age
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  spirituality, is that the universe is a machine.
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  It's just a system of hidden forces like electricity or
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  gravity. And if it's a machine, it can be
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  hacked. Exactly.
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  If you know the right code, the right spell, the right ritual,
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  you can pull the lever and get what you want.
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  You don't have to ask the machine for permission, you
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  don't have to submit to it. You just operate it.
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  And that really is the distinction between a Christian
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  posture and a sorcery posture as well.
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  The Christian prays your will be done.
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  It's total dependence. The sorcerer says my will be
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  done. It's pure manipulation.
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  Witchcraft is the liturgy of anxious autonomy.
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  I love that phrase from the source.
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  It's a person saying I am anxious about the future.
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  I don't trust God to handle it so I'm going to take the wheel
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  myself. It's.
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  Trying to find a back door into the control room of history.
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  That's it. And John Calvin had something to
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  say about this, didn't he? He talked about the idol of
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  curiosity. He did.
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  He diagnosed the human heart as having a foolish and frantic
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  curiosity. We just we cannot tolerate
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  mystery. We hate not knowing.
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  We despise it, you know, Deuteronomy 29.29 says the
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  secret things belong to the Lord, but we don't want them to
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  belong to Him. We want them.
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  We want to peek behind the curtain.
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  We want to know the future so we can secure ourselves.
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  Yeah, rather than having to trust the one who holds the
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  future. It's an intolerance of
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  vulnerability. It is, and the New Testament
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  takes this even further. In Galatians 5, Paul lists
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  sorcery. The Greek word is pharmakeia as
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  a work of the flesh. Wait, Pharmakeia?
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  Is that where we get our word pharmacy?
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  It is. Yeah.
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  In the ancient world it often referred to the use of drugs or
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  potions in spell casting. But look at what Paul lists it
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  alongside Sexual immorality, fits of anger, envy,
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  drunkenness. Wow, that really strips away any
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  of the glamour, doesn't it? We tend to think of sorcery as
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  this mystical, high minded, spiritual thing.
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  Paul's putting it in the gutter with a drunken brawl.
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  He's saying no, it's not high art, it's just flesh.
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  It comes from the exact same corrupted place as the urge to
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  sleep around or the urge to punch someone.
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  So it's self-centered gratification.
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  And a demand for control, the urge to cast a spell or check a
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  horoscope, is coming from the same sinful nature as a fit of
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  rage. It's the eye asserting itself
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  against God. It's the ego throwing a tantrum
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  because it isn't God. That's it.
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  OK, let's bring this into the present day because again, most
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  of our listeners aren't, you know, sacrificing goats in the
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  backyard. I would hope not.
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  But the source talks about old sin in new clothes.
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  How is this manifesting right now, today?
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  The most pervasive form is what we call the soft forms.
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  This is where the occult is marketed as Wellness.
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  Take astrology apps, for example.
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  Oh, I have friends who swear by these, and they'll say I'm not
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  worshipping the stars. It just helps me understand my
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  personality, you know? Oh, I'm such a Gemini.
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  That kind of thing. It seems so harmless.
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  It's just fun. It's aesthetic, yeah, but think
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  about what it's actually doing. It's training the conscience.
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  What do you mean by that? If you check your horoscope
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  every morning to understand your identity or to decide how you're
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  going to handle a conflict at work, you are training your
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  heart to consult signs in creation rather than the creator
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  scripture. You're looking to the stars
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  instead of the maker of the stars.
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  You're letting a calculation of planetary alignment define who
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  you are, rather than the God who knit you together in your
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  mother's womb. It's a very subtle but very real
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  shift in authority. And then there's manifesting.
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  This is huge on social media. I was scrolling the other day
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  and saw this influencer saying, you know if you want that job
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  you just have to speak it into existence.
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  Your words create your reality. That is the Lie of Eden
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  repackaged for the digital age. You will be like God.
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  But explain the mechanism there. Why is speaking it into
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  existence wrong? It sounds like positive
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  thinking. Because it treats your thoughts
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  and your words as if they are levers that exert force on
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  reality. It is a metaphysical technique.
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  It's telling people you are the sovereign 1.
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  You create your reality. It completely erases the
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  sovereignty of God. It sounds good though.
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  I mean, if you feel out of control, the idea that you can
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  think your way into a better reality is it's intoxicating.
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  It is, and that's why it's so dangerous.
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  It feeds that idle of control, and worse, it tells you that if
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  you're sick or poor, poor or unhappy, is because you didn't
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  manifest hard enough. It puts the crushing burden of
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  godhood on your own shoulders. Then you have all this
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  therapeutic spirituality practices, like cutting cords
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  with people or consulting spirit guides.
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  These are basically spiritual technologies designed to manage
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  your anxiety without any need for reconciliation with God.
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  You get the feeling of doing something spiritual.
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  You light the sage, you say the mantra, but you don't have to
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  submit to a holy Lord. You don't have to repent.
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  You don't have to repent, you just perform the ritual and feel
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  better for a little while. Now I want to push back a little
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  bit here on something the source talks about, Christianized
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  sorcery. This is when we take the logic
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  of the occult and we just dress it up in Christian vocabulary.
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  And frankly, this is the part that might step on some toes it.
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  Probably will, yeah, But we have to be honest about it if we want
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  to be biblically faithful. The source mentions the decree
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  and declare movement. You hear this in some
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  charismatic circles. Someone praying I decree healing
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  over this body or I declare prosperity.
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  Now let me play devil's advocate for a second.
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  Isn't that just strong faith? Isn't that just believing God
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  can do it? Where's the line between bold
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  prayer and sorcery? That is the crucial question,
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  and the line is this Who is in charge?
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  OK, unpack that for me. Biblical prayer is always asking
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  a Father. It is always, always framed by
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  your will be done. Even Jesus himself in the Garden
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  of Gethsemane prayed not my will, but yours be done.
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  It is a posture of humble dependence.
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  So the believer asks and then leaves the result to God's
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  sovereign wisdom. Right, but the decree and
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  declare theology often treats our words as if they are
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  containers of power that activate God.
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  It treats God like a mechanism that must respond if the right
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  formula is used. So if I say the words with
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  enough faith, God has to do it. Precisely.
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  And do you see what that does? It turns the creator of the
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  universe into a cosmic vending machine.
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  I see, so you put the coin of faith in you, press the button
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  of declaration and the blessing has to drop out the bottom.
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  That is mechanical. That is not relational.
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  When we teach sheep to act as if they are the shepherd, when we
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  teach them to command reality, we are teaching them the
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  mechanics of mutiny. We're teaching them to play God.
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  And the Word of Faith or prosperity gospel movement plays
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  into this heavily. It does.
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  It essentially tells people that faith is a force.
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  You know, like gravity or electricity.
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  If you have enough of the force of faith, you trigger the
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  blessing. But biblically, faith isn't a
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  force. Faith is trust in a person.
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  That's a massive distinction. Faith isn't a power bar we have
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  to charge up, it's just looking at Jesus.
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  Precisely. And there's also a critique of
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  pragmatism in the source material, this idea of using
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  atmosphere or technique to try and manufacture the Holy
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  Spirit's presence. Oh, you mean like the smoke
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  machines and the really emotional music pads and some
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  church services? It can be that, but it's more
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  about the mindset behind it. If we think, OK, if I play this
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  specific chord progression and I dim the lights just so, and I
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  speak in this very whispery cadence, then the spirit will
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  move. We are drifting into magic.
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  We are trying to summon God. We are trying to manipulate the
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  divine presence through human technique, but the Spirit blows
• 18:33
  where he wishes. He is not summoned by our
• 18:35
  production value. We can invite him, we can wait
• 18:38
  on him, but we cannot manufacture him.
• 18:40
  That is a sobering check for all of us, I think even those of us
• 18:44
  who aren't in the decree and declare camp.
• 18:47
  We all try to manage God sometimes.
• 18:48
  We do. It's part of our fallen nature.
• 18:50
  So we've defined the sin, we've diagnosed the heart and we've
• 18:54
  looked at the modern versions, but we can't stay there.
• 18:57
  The show is called Reformed Thinking, but it's really about
• 19:00
  the good news. What is the remedy?
• 19:03
  Because if I'm listening to this right now and realizing, oh,
• 19:05
  I've been doing some of this, what do I do?
• 19:07
  The remedy is Christ, and specifically it's Christ in his
• 19:11
  offices. We need to see Jesus as the
• 19:14
  direct answer to the specific problems that witchcraft tries
• 19:17
  to solve. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 18
• 19:20
  immediately after. God forbids all these occult
• 19:22
  practices. He doesn't just say stop it, He
• 19:25
  gives a promise. Yes, Deuteronomy 18.15 the Lord
• 19:29
  will raise up for you a prophet like Moses.
• 19:31
  God's answer to the prohibition of divination is not silence,
• 19:34
  it's a person. And the New Testament is clear
• 19:37
  that this is talking about Jesus.
• 19:38
  Acts 3. Hebrews 1.
• 19:40
  Jesus is the fulfilment and the implication of that is just
• 19:43
  massive. Why do people go to mediums or
• 19:46
  psychics? Because they want a word from
• 19:48
  the other side. They want to break the silence.
• 19:50
  And God says I have already broken the silence in these last
• 19:54
  days. He has spoken to us by His Son.
• 19:57
  We do not need mediums, we do not need omens, We do not need
• 20:01
  to read tea leaves because the Word has become flesh.
• 20:04
  God has spoken fully and finally in His Son.
• 20:07
  Exactly. So seeking fresh, extra biblical
• 20:10
  revelation, trying to get a new word from a psychic or a spirit
• 20:15
  guide, is actually a denial of Christ's sufficiency.
• 20:18
  It's an insult to the son. It's like saying Jesus what you
• 20:21
  said isn't quite enough. I need more info.
• 20:23
  I need the B sides. When we realized that in Christ
• 20:26
  are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, that
• 20:29
  frantic, anxious search for secret knowledge just it ends.
• 20:33
  That addresses the knowledge aspect, but what about the power
• 20:36
  aspect? The fear?
• 20:37
  A lot of people turn to the occult because they are
• 20:39
  genuinely afraid. They're afraid of curses, bad
• 20:41
  luck, demons. They buy the evil eye bracelet
• 20:44
  to protect themselves. This is where we have to look to
• 20:46
  crisis priest and victor Colossians 2.1415 is the anchor
• 20:50
  texture. It's the doctrine of Christus
• 20:52
  Victor. Talk to us about the legal
• 20:54
  aspect of this. The source used a legal analogy
• 20:56
  that I thought was brilliant. It is so Colossians talks about
• 20:59
  the handwriting of requirements. That's the record of our debt,
• 21:02
  our broken law in the spiritual court.
• 21:05
  That debt is what gave Satan the legal right to accuse us.
• 21:09
  He's the prosecutor. He holds up our sin and says
• 21:12
  God, you are just so you have to judge this person.
• 21:16
  I have the evidence right here. It's blackmail material.
• 21:19
  It's legitimate legal standing. But what happened at the cross,
• 21:23
  that record of debt, that handwriting, it was nailed to
• 21:27
  the cross. It was cancelled.
• 21:28
  So the blackmail material is destroyed.
• 21:30
  It's gone. And because the evidence is
• 21:32
  gone, the prosecutor is disarmed.
• 21:34
  Paul says that Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities.
• 21:38
  He stripped them of their legal right to accuse you.
• 21:40
  So if I am in Christ, Satan has no leverage on me.
• 21:43
  None whatsoever. And this applies directly to
• 21:45
  curses, too. There's this pervasive fear that
• 21:48
  someone could put a hex on you or send bad energy your way.
• 21:51
  But if you were in Christ, where are you?
• 21:53
  Ephesians 2 says we were seated with Him in the heavenly places.
• 21:55
  I love the image the source used.
• 21:58
  For a curse to even hit a believer, it would have to pass
• 22:01
  through Christ first. You would have to get through
• 22:03
  the King of kings to get to you. And Galatians 3.13 says Christ
• 22:07
  already became a curse for us. He absorbed the ultimate X, the
• 22:11
  full wrath of God against our sin, so there is no wrath left
• 22:15
  for us. That is incredibly freeing.
• 22:17
  If Jesus took the ultimate curse, a little bad vibe from a
• 22:19
  crystal isn't going to touch me. Exactly.
• 22:22
  If you are in Christ, you are spiritually billet proof
• 22:25
  regarding your standing before God and your security against
• 22:27
  the enemy. You don't need a protection
• 22:30
  charm. You are hidden in the Son of
• 22:31
  God. So let's land the plane with
• 22:33
  practical application. We like to use the framework of
• 22:36
  head, heart and hands. Let's start with hands.
• 22:38
  What do we actually do? We have to talk about
• 22:41
  renunciation and we have to be bold here.
• 22:44
  Look at the model in Acts 19. When the Ephesians converted,
• 22:47
  they realized their magic practices were totally
• 22:50
  incompatible of following Jesus and they didn't just put their
• 22:52
  magic books in the attic. No, they burned them.
• 22:55
  And it wasn't a small bonfire either.
• 22:57
  The text says the value is 50,000 pieces of silver.
• 23:01
  I mean, that's millions of dollars in modern currency.
• 23:03
  It was a fortune, but they understood that you cannot hold
• 23:06
  on to the tools of rebellion while claiming to serve the
• 23:09
  king. So practically if you have
• 23:12
  occult objects in your house, tarot cards, crystals you use
• 23:15
  for healing, Lucky Charms, books on spells you need to get rid
• 23:19
  of. Them and not just give them
• 23:20
  away. No, do not sell them on eBay.
• 23:22
  Do not give them to a thrift store where someone else can
• 23:24
  pick them up. Destroy them.
• 23:26
  Break the connection. And for the modern digital
• 23:29
  version? Delete the apps.
• 23:30
  If you have costar or the pattern on your phone, delete
• 23:34
  it. Unfollow the manifestation
• 23:36
  accounts on Instagram and TikTok.
• 23:38
  Stop checking the horoscope. It's about a decisive physical
• 23:41
  removal. You stop the soft practices
• 23:43
  immediately and. That's hands.
• 23:45
  Let's move to the heart. What's the internal work?
• 23:48
  Because I can delete an app and still be just as anxious as I
• 23:51
  was before. Repentance.
• 23:53
  But specifically it's about identifying the root sin.
• 23:57
  And as we've established, the root is the idol of security.
• 24:01
  It's the desire to control the future.
• 24:03
  So we need to repent of the desire to be the master of our
• 24:06
  own fate, to be our own God. Right.
• 24:08
  We have to consciously shift from seeking the peace of omens,
• 24:12
  which is the false peace of knowing what will happen, to the
• 24:16
  peace of Providence, which is the true peace of trusting the
• 24:19
  one who knows. It's learning to say I don't
• 24:21
  know what tomorrow holds, but I know my father holds tomorrow.
• 24:24
  And that is a hard prayer. It takes daily practice, but
• 24:27
  that is the work of the heart. And finally, the head.
• 24:30
  Or we could save a life. We can't just create a vacuum.
• 24:33
  If we remove all these things, what fills that space?
• 24:35
  Replacement. This is so important.
• 24:38
  If you renounce all these things, but you don't fill your
• 24:40
  life with the truth, you're just leaving yourself vulnerable.
• 24:43
  We replace illicit guidance with the Bible.
• 24:45
  We replace technique driven spirituality with the ordinary
• 24:49
  means of grace. We hear that phrase a lot in
• 24:51
  Reformed circles. Ordinary means of grace.
• 24:53
  It sounds, well, kind of ordinary.
• 24:56
  It is ordinary, and that is the whole point.
• 24:59
  The occult is exciting. It's secret knowledge.
• 25:02
  It's power. God's way is humble.
• 25:05
  It is the simple preaching of the Word.
• 25:07
  It is the administration of the sacraments.
• 25:09
  Just bread and wine. Just water is prayer.
• 25:12
  Prayer is petition, not as a demand.
• 25:14
  Exactly. These things seem weak to the
• 25:17
  world. A sermon, some bread and wine.
• 25:19
  But these are the channels God himself has ordained to
• 25:22
  strengthen us. This is how he feeds his people.
• 25:25
  And fellowship, yes. Seek counsel from the church,
• 25:28
  not a medium. If you're anxious about the
• 25:29
  future, go to your elders. Go to wise believers in your
• 25:32
  small group. Don't go to a psychic.
• 25:34
  We are not lone Rangers trying to hack the universe.
• 25:37
  We're children in a household. This has been a heavy
• 25:40
  discussion, but I hope a really hopeful one as well.
• 25:43
  As we wrap up, how would you summarize the big picture for
• 25:45
  us? Witchcraft, at its core, is a
• 25:48
  rebellion of shadows. It's an attempt to manage the
• 25:51
  world without the Father. It is a tragic grasp for control
• 25:55
  in a world that feels completely chaotic.
• 25:57
  But the good news is. The good news is that the search
• 25:59
  for hidden knowledge is over. The silence has been broken by
• 26:02
  the word. Jesus has come.
• 26:05
  So the final charge to you, the listener, is this.
• 26:08
  Do not stoop to whisper to the dust or interpret omens.
• 26:11
  Look to the Risen One, who holds the very stars in his hand.
• 26:14
  Amen. Leave the land of shadows and
• 26:17
  walk in the freedom of the Gospel.
• 26:19
  You are secure in the sovereign grip of the Triune God.
• 26:22
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
• 26:23
  We hope this helps you think more clearly, worship more
• 26:26
  fully, and rest more deeply in the finished work of Christ.
• 26:29
  Until next time.