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97 Verses on the Risks of Occult Practices
Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived, and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
And when Asa heard these words of the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged and removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he captured in the hills of Ephraim. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.
They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, who trust in graven images, who say to the molded images, “You are our gods.”
You shall not make for yourself any graven idol, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below the earth.You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them who hate Me,
For the customs of the people are vain; for with the axe one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman.They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it may not move.They are as a scarecrow in a cucumber field, but do not speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do good.
They lift it on the shoulder, they carry it, and they set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it does not move. If one shall cry to it, it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble.
Has a nation changed their gods, though they are not gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
Every man is ignorant by His knowledge; every founder is humiliated by the graven image, for his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together.
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites.
It shall come to pass when they say, “Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “As you have forsaken Me and served strange gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.”
My people seek counsel from their wood, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have played the whore in defiance of their God.
Thus you shall say to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.
They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that recently came along, whom your fathers did not fear.
inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?
You must not bow down to their gods, or serve them, or do according to their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break down their images in pieces.
First I will doubly recompense their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
But this is how you shall deal with them: You shall destroy their altars and break down their images and cut down their Asherim and burn their graven images with fire.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country: “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her king in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images, with foreign vanities?”
They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their punishment they will perish.
Nor shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them. So they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
Then the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense. But they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
So concerning the eating of foods that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
The Lord has given a command concerning you: “No longer will your name go forth. I will cut off the carved image and metal image from the house of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are despised.”
I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.
But do not turn aside, for then you would be going after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.
The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not cease to worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which cannot see nor hear nor walk.
But draw near to here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and prostitute.
He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside so that he cannot deliver his soul, or say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”
Then he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you fugitives of the nations. They have no knowledge who set up the wood of their carved image, and pray to a god that cannot save.
They are vain and a work of mockery; in the time of their punishment they shall perish.
For they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
Even from the beginning I have declared it to you; before it came to pass I announced it to you, lest you should say, “My idol has done them, and my carved image and my molded image has commanded them.”
They made a calf at Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord? Who can declare all His praise?Thus they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass.
You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes, and sent your messengers far off, and made them go down to Sheol.
And they will spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They will not be gathered or be buried. They will be as dung upon the face of the earth.
Elijah came to all the people and said, “How long will you stay between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not say a word.
They shall be ashamed and also humiliated, all of them; the craftsmen of idols shall go away in confusion together,
Do not turn to spirits through mediums or necromancers. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,You shall stone him with stones so that he dies because he has sought to entice you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.All Israel shall hear and fear and no more do any such wickedness as this among you.If you hear it said in one of your cities, in which the Lord your God has given you to dwell, saying,“Certain men, the sons of wickedness, are gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ ” which you have not known,then you shall inquire, search out, and ask diligently. And behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been among you,you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, utterly destroying it, all that is in it and its livestock—with the edge of the sword.You must gather all the spoils of it into the middle of the street and burn the city with fire along with all the spoils within it for the Lord your God, and it will be a heap forever. It must not be rebuilt.Nothing of the cursed thing there must cling to your hand, so that the Lord may turn from the fierceness of His anger and show you mercy, have compassion on you, and multiply you, just as He swore to your fathers,if you listen to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, and do that which is right in the eyes of the Lord your God.and the sign or the wonder comes to pass concerning that which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods,” which you have not known, “and let us serve them,”you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices a lie.
On one occasion, as we went to the place of prayer, a servant girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.She followed Paul and us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”She did this for many days. But becoming greatly troubled, Paul turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out at that moment.
Now the Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith and pay attention to seducing spirits and teaching of devils,
Then the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, nor have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and emptiness, and the deceit of their heart.
But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
For these nations, which you shall possess, listened to soothsayers and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
Moreover, Josiah disposed of the mediums, the soothsayers, the teraphim, the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
Now the works of the flesh are revealed, which are these: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, lewdness,Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, rage, selfishness, dissensions, heresies,
There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or uses witchcraft, or an interpreter of omens, or a sorcerer,or one who casts spells, or a spiritualist, or an occultist, or a necromancer.For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God will drive them out from before you.
The person who turns to spirits through mediums and necromancers in order to whore after them, I will even set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
When they say to you, “Seek after the mediums and the wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek after their God? Should they consult the dead for the living?
Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor.”
He made his son pass through the fire, was conjuring and seeking omens, and dealt with mediums and soothsayers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
He even made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; and he had conjurers, and practitioners of divination and sorcery, and necromancers, and mediums. So he did a great amount of evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that God was provoked.
A man or woman who speaks to spirits as a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from these things that shall come upon you.
Therefore do not listen to your prophets, or to your diviners, or to your dreamers, or to your enchanters, or to your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon.”
then I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will no longer have fortune-tellers.
They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, “The Lord says,” when the Lord has not sent them. And they have made others to hope for the confirmation of their word.
Many who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them before everyone. They calculated their value, which equaled fifty thousand drachmas.
Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the nations; do not be terrified at the signs of heaven, although the nations are terrified at them.
therefore you women shall no more see vanity or practice divinations, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries and for the great abundance of your enchantments.
“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream.
Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, who go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you are led astray and worship them, and serve them, that which the Lord your God has allotted to all nations under the whole heaven.
You shall defile also your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molded images ornamented with gold. You shall scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”
Stand fast now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth. Perhaps you shall be able to profit, perhaps you may cause trembling.
The seers will be shamed and the diviners disgraced, and they will all cover their beards, for there is no answer from God.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves with the children of strangers.
they served their idols, which became a snare to them.They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and recount them and cause My people to err by their lies and reckless boasting. Yet I did not send them or command them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
So Saul died for his unfaithful deeds against the Lord, because he did not keep the word of the Lord, and because he consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
who frustrates the omens of the boasters and makes fools out of diviners, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish,
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars shall have their portion in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.”
For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land. And I will drive you out, and you shall perish.
To the law and to the testimony; if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves cast metal gods: I am the Lord your God.