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Why Is Witchcraft Handled So Differently Across Scripture? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to Witchcraft and Wizardry Week. On apj we asked,
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  Speaker 1: is there good magic and edifying sorcery debate we hear
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  Speaker 1: all the time over Lord of the Rings and Harry
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  Speaker 1: Potter and other fantasy literature. Pastor John dove into that
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  Speaker 1: big debate on Monday with a twist of his own,
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  Speaker 1: as you'd imagine in APGA twenty one twenty one. And
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  Speaker 1: another question about witchcraft and wizardry comes in today from Archie,
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  Speaker 1: a listener who is putting together three texts coming up
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  Speaker 1: in our Bible reading this month. Pastor John, Hello, he writes,
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  Speaker 1: in our Bible reading is coming up in the Old Testament,
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  Speaker 1: we read that sorcerers and those who practice witchcraft are
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  Speaker 1: to be killed. That's very clear to me, according to
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  Speaker 1: Exodus twenty two eighteen in Leviticus twenty twenty seven. But
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  Speaker 1: when Jewish Bible scholar the Apostle Paul enters Ephesus, a
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  Speaker 1: city full of magic, he calls for no one to
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  Speaker 1: be executed, simply for all the books to be piled
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  Speaker 1: up in the city center and to be burned that
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  Speaker 1: I see in Acts in nineteen nineteen. Certainly Paul would
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  Speaker 1: have known full well the contrast from what he saw
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  Speaker 1: in scripture, from what he was calling for an ephesis.
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  Speaker 1: Why is the Old Testament more violent here and why
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  Speaker 1: is the same sin handled so differently in the New Testament.
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  Speaker 2: Well, this is huge. I mean it has to do
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  Speaker 2: with the relationships between God's way of working in Israel
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  Speaker 2: in the Old Testament and his way of working today.
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  Speaker 2: So let me back up and start with Abraham. With
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  Speaker 2: the calling of Abraham in Genesis twelve, God brought into
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  Speaker 2: being a people for his own name. That people was
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  Speaker 2: defined both by physical lineage as Jewish and by covenant
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  Speaker 2: in which God pledged himself to work for their good
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  Speaker 2: on their behalf as they trusted him and obeyed his laws. Now,
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  Speaker 2: from the beginning, this people was both a political and
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  Speaker 2: a religious reality. They were a nation state, and they
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  Speaker 2: were in a privileged position toward God. The laws of
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  Speaker 2: the religion Jewishness were the laws of the state. They
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  Speaker 2: functioned among other political nation states. This nation did Israel.
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  Speaker 2: They had a standing army, They claimed a geographic territory
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  Speaker 2: as the rightful place of their earthly national existence. So
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  Speaker 2: for two thousand years, from Abraham to Christ, there was
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  Speaker 2: this primary focus of God's saving work on that people.
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  Speaker 2: That's the way he worked his redemptive plan in the world.
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  Speaker 2: He focused on Israel. Paulsade in Romans nine to four.
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  Speaker 2: They are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, the glory,
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  Speaker 2: the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises.
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  Speaker 2: To them belong the patriarchs. And from their race, according
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  Speaker 2: to the flesh, is the Christ, who is overall blessed
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  Speaker 2: forever men. One of the reasons that God established his
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  Speaker 2: presence among the nations through the people of Israel in
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  Speaker 2: this way, this particular national way, was to demonstrate the
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  Speaker 2: hopeless condition of humanity and to prepare them for the
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  Speaker 2: coming of a savior. The history of Israel is not
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  Speaker 2: a history of successful relations with God. It is mainly
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  Speaker 2: a history of failure. The Law was given to Israel
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  Speaker 2: to show that salvation by lawkeeping was impossible because of
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  Speaker 2: how deeply sinful humans are. Paul sums it up in
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  Speaker 2: Romans three nineteen. Now we know that whatever the law says,
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  Speaker 2: it speaks to those who are under the law as
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  Speaker 2: Jewish people, so that every mouth that's the nations, might
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  Speaker 2: be stopped, and the whole world, not just Israel, may
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  Speaker 2: be held again coutable to God. That's why he created
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  Speaker 2: Israel the way he did and gave her the law
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  Speaker 2: the way he did, and then he continues for by
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  Speaker 2: works of the law, no human being will be justified
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  Speaker 2: in his sight, since through the law comes the knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of sin. So one of the purposes of God in
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  Speaker 2: dealing with Israel the way he did for two thousand
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  Speaker 2: years was to show that not only could Israel not
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  Speaker 2: be saved through lawkeeping, but how much less could anybody
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  Speaker 2: else in the world be saved who didn't have the
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  Speaker 2: privileges of Israel. All of this was preparatory for the
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  Speaker 2: coming of a savior, Jesus Christ. Since during those two
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  Speaker 2: thousand years, Israel, God's people were a geographic political national state,
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  Speaker 2: with religious laws functioning as her national laws. Therefore, the
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  Speaker 2: punishments for disobedience to those laws were carried out by
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  Speaker 2: it Israel in her capacity as a national political state.
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  Speaker 2: God's aim for those centuries was to make vivid on
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  Speaker 2: earth the nature of His holiness and the seriousness of sin. Thus,
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  Speaker 2: for example, the carrying out of capital punishment was part
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  Speaker 2: of the lesson book for the nations. The law of
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  Speaker 2: God was being fleshed out in Israel. This is how
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  Speaker 2: serious sin is. And so sorcery was a capital crime
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  Speaker 2: Exodus twenty two. Cursing your mother and father was a
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  Speaker 2: capital crime Exodus twenty. Bestiality having sex with an animal
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  Speaker 2: was a capital crime Exodus twenty two. Adultery was a
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  Speaker 2: capital crime for both the man and the woman Exodus twenty.
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  Speaker 2: Homosexual intercourse was a capital crime Leviticus twenty thirteen, and
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  Speaker 2: so on. This was to show on earth, among the nations,
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  Speaker 2: and for us in our bibles, the ultimate standards of
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  Speaker 2: God's holiness. And therefore we should not read this history,
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  Speaker 2: the history of God's dealings with Israel, and say, well,
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  Speaker 2: that shouldn't have happened. That shouldn't have happened in those days.
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  Speaker 2: We should not say that we shouldn't call God's way
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  Speaker 2: in that time into question. God chose that it happened
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  Speaker 2: that way, and he did it in order for us
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  Speaker 2: to tremble at the prospect of committing sin and to
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  Speaker 2: send us flying to Christ. In those punishments, God was
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  Speaker 2: showing his intense opposition to attitudes and behaviors that exalt
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  Speaker 2: human self determination and belittle God's laws. Such punishments were
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  Speaker 2: indeed severe, but they were no more severe than the
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  Speaker 2: punishments that await such flagrant sinning in our own time.
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  Speaker 2: For God will come to judge the quick and the dead.
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  Speaker 2: It's only a matter of time until all sin that
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  Speaker 2: is not repented of and forsaken will be brought into judgment,
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  Speaker 2: a judgment every bit as severe as capital punishment in
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  Speaker 2: the Old Testament, indeed far more severe. But with the
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  Speaker 2: coming of the Messiah, the Savior Jesus Christ, profound changes
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  Speaker 2: came into the world and transformed the nature of the
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  Speaker 2: people of God and the way this people witness to
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  Speaker 2: God in the world. The Kingdom of God is taken
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  Speaker 2: away from Israel and given to a people producing its
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  Speaker 2: fruits Matthew twenty one, forty three. The new people of God,
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  Speaker 2: the Church of Jesus, are no longer those who are
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  Speaker 2: ethnic by origin or by circumcision, but only by faith
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  Speaker 2: in the Messiah gesa Es. That's who's made a part
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  Speaker 2: of the pilgrim people of God, the Christian Church. We
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  Speaker 2: are not a nation or a political entity. We have
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  Speaker 2: no geographic location, and therefore there is no direct correlation
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  Speaker 2: between the laws of the state and the law of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: In his Church. We are transferred out of darkness into
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  Speaker 2: the Kingdom of Christ Colossians one thirteen. Christ's kingdom is
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  Speaker 2: not of this world John eighteen thirty six. Otherwise we
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  Speaker 2: would use the sword to enforce his rule. But we don't.
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  Speaker 2: We are sojourners and exiles, scattered among the nations, and
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  Speaker 2: we are defined not by national or political or geographic
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  Speaker 2: borders or political structures. The old Covenant, hebrew says, has
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  Speaker 2: passed away. The priesthood is replaced with Christ. The sacrifices
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  Speaker 2: are replaced with Christ. Died to the law, all foods
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  Speaker 2: are declared cleans. You don't have those ceremonial laws in
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  Speaker 2: the church anymore. The temple is no longer the center
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  Speaker 2: of our religious life, and our life in this world
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  Speaker 2: has been put on a new footing. This new life
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  Speaker 2: in the Church in Christ is characterized by the fact
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  Speaker 2: that Jesus came not to condemn the world, but that
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  Speaker 2: the world, through him might be saved. The Church is
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  Speaker 2: on a mission to rescue sinners from condemnation by offering
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  Speaker 2: them forgiveness through Christ. That includes forgiveness for sins that
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  Speaker 2: once would have been immediately executed as capital crimes. Paul
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  Speaker 2: lists some of those sins in First Corinthian six nine
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  Speaker 2: and ten that would have been executed, and then he says,
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  Speaker 2: such were some of you, But here you stand with
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  Speaker 2: your head still on. In other words, instead of being executed,
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  Speaker 2: repentant sinners are justified, cleansed, sanctified, forgiven, folded into the
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  Speaker 2: new people of God. The sins are just as serious
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  Speaker 2: now they were serious in the Old Testament. They're just
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  Speaker 2: as serious today. And the punishment that awaits those whose
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  Speaker 2: sins are not repented of and forsaken will be far
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  Speaker 2: more severe in hell than anything the Old Testament ever
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  Speaker 2: did through capital punishment. The same standards of holiness prevail
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  Speaker 2: today as in those days. But we live in a
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  Speaker 2: day of mercy, a day of reprieve, a day of
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  Speaker 2: salvation and reconciliation with God. And so the Church continues
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  Speaker 2: to bear witness to the absolute holiness of God, and
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  Speaker 2: yet makes the world aware, now is the favorable time. Behold,
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  Speaker 2: now is the day of salvation. Be reconciled to God.
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  Speaker 1: Hey man, thank you, pastor John. And if you want
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  Speaker 1: to discover more on this key distinction between the sins
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  Speaker 1: that call for execution and the Old Testament and how
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  Speaker 1: those same sins call for excommunication in the New Testament.
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  Speaker 1: See the episodes I digest in the Ask Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: book if you have that handy on pages forty seven,
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  Speaker 1: forty eight, and sixty three is where you'll find them.
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  Speaker 1: Pages forty seven, forty eight and sixty three. The difference
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  Speaker 1: between sins that call for execution and the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: and excommunication in the New Testament, same sins. Thanks for
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  Speaker 1: joining us this week for a week of witchcraft and wizardry.
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  Speaker 1: If you have a question to ask Pastor John, find
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  Speaker 1: a link to email us and find our complete episode
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  Speaker 1: archive at Askpastor John dot com. Every episode with audio
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  Speaker 1: and full transcripts available for you. Twenty four to seven. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we must live with ambition, Gospel sized ambition, each of us.
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  Speaker 1: So what does it look like to live out this
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  Speaker 1: life with Gospel sized ambition? We'll ask Pastor J on
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  Speaker 1: next time. Montoni Ranky, see you on Monday.