Originally posted by racrguy
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"In their present form, beliefs in witchcraft are not "traditional" – changes since earlier times are obvious. Modern beliefs see the power of witchcraft as emanating from evil spirits that possess the witch and endow him or her with the power to harm. This belief in possession by evil spirits has been promulgated in Africa by western missionaries of fundamentalist, particularly Pentecostal, Christian beliefs. It has enabled Africans to retain a modified version of their former beliefs in witchcraft, obtaining the approval and support of Satan-hunting Christians whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of evil. New churches, started by Africans with a self-proclaimed "divine mission", have sprung up everywhere.
These churches do not "control" witchcraft beliefs, although they encourage and profit from them. Nor is it true to say that it is only as witchcraft escapes from the control of the church that it becomes evil; witchcraft is evil from the beginning. Some people may feel protective of Christianity, but Christianity is at fault here. The pastors of independent African churches may identify children as witches (for a fee) and are prepared to "cure" them (for a further fee) by exorcising the evil spirits. Such exorcisms are often violent; beating and the use of cold water to cleanse and purify the possessed being is common in many Congolese churches and elsewhere in Africa, too."
My belief is that the Old Testament was superceded by the New Testament after Jesus died on the cross. We no longer need to make sacrifices of animals and people.
Here are some references from the Bible regarding witches. I seperated the old and new Testaments.
Old Testament
Exodus 22:18 ESV / 52 helpful votes
“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
Leviticus 19:31 ESV / 19 helpful votes
“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 18:9-14 ESV / 16 helpful votes
“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. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, ...
Leviticus 20:27 ESV / 10 helpful votes
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”
Leviticus 19:26 ESV / 9 helpful votes
“You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Micah 5:12 ESV / 8 helpful votes
And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
1 Samuel 28:7 ESV / 8 helpful votes
Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek out 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 medium at En-dor.”
Isaiah 8:19 ESV / 7 helpful votes
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?
2 Kings 21:6 ESV / 7 helpful votes
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.
Daniel 2:27 ESV / 6 helpful votes
Daniel answered the king and said, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked,
1 Chronicles 10:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes
So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance.
2 Kings 9:22 ESV / 5 helpful votes
And when Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” He answered, “What peace can there be, so long as the whorings and the sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many?”
Deuteronomy 18:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes
Or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,
Galatians 5:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes
Idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
Isaiah 19:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes
And the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers;
2 Chronicles 33:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes
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.
1 Chronicles 10:13-14 ESV / 4 helpful votes
So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.
Deuteronomy 18:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes
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
Exodus 8:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes
The magicians tried by their secret arts to produce gnats, but they could not. So there were gnats on man and beast.
Exodus 7:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes
For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs.
1 Samuel 15:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Exodus 7:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
2 Kings 23:24 ESV / 1 helpful vote
Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.
Leviticus 20:13 ESV / 1 helpful vote
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.
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