Anti-Witchcraft series I: Suffer not witchcraft to live
- Sanfo Agyo
- Oct 29, 2023
- 5 min read
God does not hate witches but the act of witchcraft
Exodus 22:18 "You Shall Not Suffer A Witch to Live"
I have been fascinated with this passage and thought for many hours about it. Does the passage give us license to kill witches? Of course, we know this scripture was the basis for the Witchcraft Act of 1542 and the Witch trials of the 16th and 17th Century with over 500 witches estimated to have been executed.
And the controversial question is why will a good God who just saved 3 million Jews from Egypt give such barbaric instruction?
In fact as though Ex. 22:18 was not enough, God spoke more about it extensively and gives us an overview of witchcraft in Bible times as stated in other scriptures,
Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes."
Leviticus 20:27 “A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.”
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you."
2 Kings 21:6 And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
2 Chronicles 33:6 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
From these passages and studies on witchcraft and other similar practices, we can make some conclusions
God’s ultimate goal was to dethrone 'witchcraft' and crown the act of 'Godliness'. God does not hate witches but the act of witchcraft.
Witchcraft has led to many atrocities and key among them was child sacrifices.
As in the case of Saul, consulting mediums (in the big picture) was of no benefit to the nation. The national implication of witchcraft was doom and gloom.
People used witchcraft to gain unneeded knowledge and uncontrolled power.
Witchcraft kills hard work and integrity.
So, God vehemently instructed against witchcraft and all practices of such. However worryingly, though Witchcraft was hard fought against in Europe from the 16th to 17th century, nevertheless, Christians have back-pedalled over the last 100 years allowing a lot of adulteration. Witchcraft has subtly found its way into our culture again.
There are no middle grounds with God, thus there is no good or bad witchcraft
Most Disney princesses have some connection with Witchcraft; Snow White ate the enchanted apple, Aurora (sleeping beauty) was cursed at her christening by a witch, and Beauty needed to save a prince from witchcraft divination. Cinderella’s godmother used witchcraft with her wand, and how else do you explain Elsa’s powers? Little Mermaid is a princess who lives under the water and Jasmine had to work with Aladdin to defeat the wizard, Jafar.
What is most worrying about these stories is that most children have grown up being fed the concept of good and bad witchcraft. This is made evident by good witchcraft in ‘Beauty and the beast, little mermaid and Frozen. With bad witchcraft in sleeping beauty, Snow White and Aladdin.
As though that is not enough, the Harry Potter books paint this picture more fully introducing a world of wizardry like never before, championing good and bad witchcraft. But this concept was built upon previous works by respected writers like CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. Though CS Lewis tried to teach the Bible in Chronicles of Narnia, we can’t still overlook the big reference to what Aslan calls the ‘Deep Magic’. In the 'Lord of the Rings', the true hero is not Frodo or Aragorn, it is the visionary leader Gandalf whose show of courage by saying“you shall not pass” to a demon is possibly most remembered in the trilogy. Other big sellers like George Martin's Game of Thrones, Percy Jackson also push this case of witchcraft further. Even the english vocabulary is littered with borrowed words and phrases from witchcraft. Netflix has a plethora of movies and series that promote Witchcraft, and there is more to come....
So, this is the implication - witchcraft is on the rise again and this time it is more deadly. A recent survey shows that the witchcraft hashtag has over 7 million posts on Instagram and more than 11 billion views on TikTok or, as it’s known in the community as, 'WitchTok'. Halloween celebration and the pandemic has got many people seeking spiritual help to find love, avert curses, find direction in life etc.
There is nothing new under the sun and God gives us clues about what to do, and it's not to kill witches. Hear here the words of scripture,
Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
First, witchcraft and all its child processes are a no-no for a Christian. There are no middle grounds with God, thus there is no good and bad witchcraft. We must champion seeking God over witchcraft.
Christians need to change the narrative; from movies to book - we must change the books we read and O boy do we need more grace to produce new and better books the next generation needs to read.
We need to champion the move that Jesus is not a magician but a miracle worker in all forms of media. In all, witchcraft must not be allowed to live rather the fruit of the Holy Spirit must be allowed to blossom in the lives of people.
God is not a magician, He is a miracle worker
I recommend the Lamplighter Theatre books which were of great inspiration to me. They were written between the 16th and 19th Centuries by a variety of Christian writers who thrived in the age of the church in England and America with most of them purely based on biblical principles with little or no adulteration. You can check them out at Lamplighter Theatre | Lamplighter.
Ultimately, God would want 2 Tim 3:16 to be fulfilled, "Every writing which is written by The Spirit is profitable for teaching, for correction, for direction and for a course in righteousness….” So that the implication for generations to come will be “that the man of God will be perfect and perfected for every good work." 2 Tim 3:17 (Aramaic Bible in Plain English).
Say no to Witchcraft!
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