Though many modern Christian churches shun mysticism, fortune-telling, and magic of any sort, these things were all alive and well in Biblical times.
Though the Bible does condemn dark magic, it doesn’t seem to forbid magical arts outright, as seen in the following instances:
– The use of divination stones called Urim and Thummin, were regularly used by Jewish high priests to obtain oracles and signs from God. (Exodus 28:30, 1 Samuel 28:6)
– “Lots,” which were stones or sticks bearing symbols (similar to Runes), were often cast in order to determine the will of God. (Proverbs 16:33)
– Daniel, of Daniel and the Lion’s Den fame, was not only a renowned magician and interpreter of dreams, but was “made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers” by the King of Babylon. (Daniel 5:11)
– At the command of God, Moses engaged in what more or less amounted to a wizard’s duel with the magicians of Egypt. (Exodus 7: 9-12)
– The “wise men” who came to visit Baby Jesus are believed by many scholars to have been Babylonian magicians who were alerted to Jesus’ birth by God via the use of astrology. (Matthew 2: 1-2 )
M. Garza
Harlingen
