ABOMINABLE PRACTICES IN THE CHURCH (PART II)

“Divination, Conjuring, Fortune-Telling, Omens, and Sorcery in the Church”

By Akin Ojumu

Abominations are actions, deeds and behaviors that the LORD hates. As Google AI defines it, the term “abomination” (often translated from the Hebrew to’ebah or Greek bdelugma) refers to practices, behaviors, or objects that are considered deeply detestable, extremely repugnant, or morally abhorrent to God. These actions often violate God’s holiness and covenantal laws.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14

“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, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.”

In the last iteration of this commentary, more than two weeks ago, we examined the modern-day practice of child sacrifice. We said, at that time, that any act that would imperil the life of a child, born or unborn, can be considered child sacrifice. This would include abhorrent acts like abortion (a cause célèbre of the political right) and morally reprehensible deeds like eliminating social-welfare programs that support a mother and her child or making healthcare accessibility and affordability much more difficult for the family (things that get the juices flowing in the political left).

Besides child sacrifice, however, Deuteronomy 18 also describes other practices that God despises. These include divination, conjuring, soothsaying, telling fortunes, interpreting omens, and sorcery. Others are charmer, medium, necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. All of these practices are heads of the same Lernaean Hydra. 

Derived from the same source, and committed to the same mission, divination, telling fortunes, interpreting omens, sorcery, being a charmer, a medium, or a necromancer, and inquiring of the dead are bastard children of the same demonic whore. They are all a form of witchcraft. 

In today’s commentary, we will examine a few of the abominable practices. For the purpose of full disclosure, nothing you are about to read can be credited to my deep insight or intellectual prowess or some esoteric revelation received in visions or dreams. Like in all my commentaries, I consulted trustworthy sources and I read the writings of gifted theologians and expositors to educate myself and be well-informed on the subject. The information is borrowed, almost verbatim, from Bible Hub and The Macarthur Bible Commentary. All I did was to add a few thoughts of my own to these two rich sources.

Practices Divination or Conjury or Tells Fortune

Divination, conjuring, and fortune-telling all refer to attempts to gain insight or predict the future through supernatural means, often involving rituals or the consultation of spirits. These practices were common in ancient Near Eastern cultures and were used to seek guidance or favor from the gods.

However, God explicitly forbids these practices for His people, as they demonstrate a lack of trust in His sovereignty and provision. Instead, God provided prophets to communicate His will (Deuteronomy 18:15-22). The reliance on divination is seen as a form of idolatry, turning away from the true God to seek knowledge from false sources.

Interprets Omens

Interpreting omens involves reading signs or events as indicators of future occurrences. This practice was widespread in ancient cultures, where people looked to natural phenomena or unusual occurrences for guidance. The Bible consistently warns against such practices, as they can lead to superstition and distract from faith in God. In contrast, God calls His people to rely on His Word and promises. The rejection of omen interpretation is part of a broader call to trust in God’s revealed will rather than human speculation or manipulation of spiritual forces.

Practices Sorcery

Sorcery involves the use of magic or supernatural powers to influence events or people. It often includes the use of spells, charms, or rituals to harness spiritual forces. In the biblical context, sorcery is condemned because it represents a reliance on powers other than God and often involves invoking demonic forces. The New Testament continues this prohibition, with sorcery listed among the works of the flesh. 

Galatians 5:19-21

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Those who practice sorcery will burn in the Lake of Fire.

Revelation 21:8

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Whereas the Bible warns us that it is an abominable thing to engage in divination, soothsaying, and fortune-telling, yet these evil practices are common in the Church today. In spite of explicit instructions in Scripture that we should not corrupt our soul by reading omen or dabbling into sorcery, these detestable deeds are now the norm in Church life. Like the stranger fire that Nadab and Abihu brought before the LORD, the very things that the Bible tells us are abominations to God have found their way into the Church and have become so entrenched that they are considered authentic Christian practices.

Pentecostal Gospel hucksters and Charismaniacal fraudsters have made out of whole cloth an entire cotton industry of divination and fortune-telling. Scoundrels of the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and scumbags of the Word of Faith movement have built for themselves vast empires and have amassed enormous fortunes out of the practice of sorcery and vaunted ability to read omens.

Of course, the diviners and fortune-tellers of the Church often camouflage their evil in a thin-crusted veil of spirituality. Omen and sorcery in the Church today are disguised in a beguiling veneer of deep spiritual insight. To legitimize and perpetuate their deception, those who practice these abominations ascribe their detestable deeds to the move of God and operations of the Holy Spirit. Rebranded and repackaged, divination, conjuring, fortune-telling, omen, and sorcery are now all thought of as prophetic declarations and words of knowledge.

Facilitated by the social media world that we live in, not a minute goes by that you wouldn’t find a diviner or conjurer or fortune-teller giving a word of “prophesy” about future events or giving a “word of knowledge” to an undiscerning captive audience. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc are awash with an avalanche of Christianized omen and spiritualized sorcery. These are all cesspools of abominable practices.

Sadly, these practices are not just limited to the stratosphere of social media. Unabashedly, diviners and fortune-tellers boldly ply their trade from Church pulpits on a daily basis. Unashamedly, church folks invite sorcerers and sorceresses to the House of God to come demonstrate their supernatural powers. Undiscerningly, those who call themselves children of God make important decisions of life by reading signs and omens.

This is what has become of Christianity in our day. Practices forbidden by God have replaced the true faith passed down to us by the original Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of biblically qualified overseers, elders, and deacons guiding the Church in the acceptable worship and devotion to the Apostle doctrines, diviners, conjurers, fortune-tellers, omen peddlers, and sorcerers now run the show in the Household of Faith. 

Inevitably, the hostile takeover of God’s Church by wolves in sheep’s clothing is evident in the destructive heresies, doctrines of demons, and depravity that have become the defining features of the religious establishments today. This much is clear, though, a day of reckoning awaits these folks. If you engage in the abominable here described, you should know that you are destined for the doom and gloom of utter darkness. 

2 Peter 2:12-17

“But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness. These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved.”