The Sin of Witchcraft

VI. From what cause did witchcraft become universal among the ancient heathen?

That witchcraft was universal with the nations that God drove out before Israel, we learn from Deut. 18. These nations, therefore, in their heathenish darkness and abominable licentiousness, see Lev. 18:24-30, were grounded in the doctrine of the soul's consciousness in death; for it was upon this doctrine as a basis that witchcraft rested, as manifested in necromancy; i. e., divining by means of the dead; enchantment; i. e., making things which have no existence seem real; and dealing with familiar spirits, which is a pretended communion with the dead.

But how came these people by this doctrine? They belong to that class that Paul says "did not like to retain God in their knowledge," and "who changed the truth of God into a lie." Rom. 1:21-28. Demon worship, i. e., the worship of dead heroes as conducted through witchcraft, was their religion. And the first principle of this religion is the consciousness of the soul in death. Nor is this doctrine the foundation of heathenism only, with its worship of deified dead men; it is equally the foundation of Romanism, with its purgatory, prayers for the dead, worship of the saints, and deification of Mary as queen of Heaven; and of Mohammedanism with its promise to the bloody men who fight its battles that if killed in battle they shall sup that night in Paradise; and of spiritualism, of which the whole stock in trade is the sayings and doings of dead men; and of MODERN ORTHODOXY, which makes death the gate to endless joy, and bestows rewards and punishments upon the dead without waiting for the resurrection and the Judgment.

Who gave the heathen this first principle of their religion; a principle, by the way, absolutely indispensable to almost every system of false religion? When Paul says of these ancient heathen that they "changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather [margin] than the Creator," Rom. 1:25, he tells us a startling truth. For, instead of worshiping the living God, they worshiped the souls of the dead heroes that they believed had now become gods. Thus we read:—

Num. 25:1-3: "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel."

Let us read again, and we shall learn what kind of gods these were whose sacrifices the Israelites ate at Baal-peor.

Ps. 106:28: "They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead."

The gods, then, to which these sacrifices were offered, were deified dead men. And they were confirmed in worshiping these dead heroes because they received such wonderful responses, so perfectly characteristic of the men. But they supposed themselves receiving responses from the souls of these dead warriors to whom they thus sacrificed as gods. Paul tells us who really received this worship, and, of course, who returned the response. Thus he says:—

1 Cor. 10:20: "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to DEVILS, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils."

They worshiped dead men in name, and devils in reality. They had no doubt that these departed warriors and kings still lived; for they had manifest and characteristic responses. But who cannot see where these responses came from, or what being it is that has an interest that men should believe in their own present immortality?

But who taught the heathen this doctrine that the soul of man does not die, or that men became as gods by dying? If we go back to Satan's first great lie, we shall find this doctrine stated in express terms: "Ye shall not surely die. . . . .ye shall be as gods." Gen. 3:4, 5. Here is the fountain-head of heathen philosophy, and of almost every false system of religion. With this idea established in the minds of men, Satan has been able, by means of witchcraft, to control the world to an unlimited extent. He sends his evil angels in the name of their dear departed friends, and, imitating the peculiarities of those friends most perfectly, he throws them off their guard, and, instilling into their minds the doctrines of devils, leads them captive at his will. To see what kind of morals attend the practice of witchcraft, read and compare Deut. 18:9-14, Lev. 18:24-30.

Witchcraft, or the dealing with familiar spirits, is Satan's system of spiritual gifts; for he holds communion with men through his evil angels, as God does through the holy angels. But as they cannot deceive us if they come in their own name, they have chosen an effectual disguise, and so come to us in the very form and manner of our dearest departed friends.

We can understand why Satan has made so great an effort to draw men into the sin of witchcraft; for it gives him control of their minds, and makes their ruin almost certain. And we can see the mercy of God in closing up this pretended avenue to the most wonderful knowledge. The whole thing is a deception and fraud; and God has fenced up the road with his prohibition, that we may understand it to be a dangerous and fatal thing to travel that way. God is equally merciful in what he commands and in what he prohibits. It was Satan, therefore, with his first great falsehood, that originated the principles and established the practice of witchcraft among mankind.