witchcraft

I met my first witch about 20 year ago, on a military base. Her coven was using a wooded part of the base for rituals. Federal law required that we allow free expression of religion; base regulation authorized me to have a veterinary doctor at any event that involved animals. She objected, I stood firm, and she found a different place for their ceremonies.

Since then the frequency of my encounters with Wiccans, as they now are known, has increased, reflecting society’s fascination with the occult.

God hates witchcraft, which is different than saying he hates witches. But he made his feelings clear in Deuteronomy 18:10-12 “Let no one be found among you who . . . practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord . . . .”

I think one reason God hates the occult is the reason he is angered by false prophets. (Verse 20 reads, “But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.") God wants his own words to be the only thing we use to understand him. He doesn’t want us to guess by looking at animal entrails or weather patterns. He doesn’t want us deciding for ourselves. 

I wonder how often I’ve been guilty of this? In all those times I’ve been sure of God’s will, so sure that I even told others, how often did my ideas come from somewhere other than God’s revelation? If it ever does, I’m as wrong as the witches.