Occult Practices in the Churches How the occult has been fully integrated into many Christian lives and fellowships by Sandy Simpson
This DVD is a message based on
The Bible is quite clear about occult practices.Neither Israel nor the Church is to have anything to do with the way the world tries to gain secret knowledge.The Gnostics were and are known for promoting new revelation that is either loosely tied to Scripture taken out of context or not at all.The Israelites seeking information from the dead or in omens were judged harshly by the Lord who had warned them numerous times to stay away from that stuff.
Yet due to the influences of heretical teachers in the New Apostolic Reformation, Word of Faith, Emergent Church, and the New Age many have been successful in getting lots of churches and denominations into occult practices that have been thinly disguised as "Christian".Many of those who follow these people, I'm sure, have no idea how far they have strayed into the occult.
First I want to give the dictionary definitions and then Biblical warnings against these practices.Then I will give examples in the churches taken mainly from the ElijahList e-newsletter.
List of Practices Detestable To God
Deuteronomy 18:9-12 "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.
Isaiah 8:19 When they say to you, "Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Using the above list from Deuteronomy and Isaiah, let's take a look at each individual practice.