"I am sending you to them to open their eyes" (Acts 28:17)

• What impact is the spiritualist movement having on the lives of the people across the south side of Stoke on Trent?
• Can the church continue to ignore it and just hope it goes away?
• what is the churches view on consulting the dead and occult practicces?
• Is Longton Community Church powerless to chang our community?

What does the Bible Say?
Deuteronomy 18:9 (NIV)
When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, 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, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

Child sacrifice and occult practices were strictly forbidden by God. These practices were common among pagan religionss. Israel's own neighbours actually sacrificed their children to the god Molech (Lev.20:2-5).

Other religions used supernatural means, such as contacting the spirit world, to fortell the future and gain guidance. Becuase of these wicked practices, God would drive out the pagan nations (Deut 18:12). The Israelites were to replace their evil practices with worship of the one true God.

1Samuel 28
It was Saul who had banned all mediums and psychics (those who consult with the dead) from Israel, but in desperation he turned to one for counsel. Although he had removed the sin of witchcraft from the land, he did not remove it from his heart. We may make a great show of denouncing sin, but if our hearts do not change, the sins will return. Knowing what is right and condemning what is wrong does not take the place of doing what is right.Saul was overwhelmed at the shight of the Philistine army, and so he turned to the occult. When life is tough and hard, let life's difficulties and obstacles begin to push you in God's direction making you dependant upon him. As we see from Saul's story, turning to anything or anyone else only leads to disaster.

People who practise the occult have Satan and demons as the source of their information; God does not reveal his will to them. Instead, God speaks through his own channels:

• The Bible
• His Son Jesus Christ
• The Holy Spirit

Occult practies, sorcery, divination, consulting mediums and psychics are strictly forbidden by God (Deut 18:9-13) becuase the demonstrate a lack of faith in God, involve sinful action and open the door to demonic influences.

Today, many books, television shows and games emphasize fortunetelling, seances and other occult practices. Don't let desire to know the future or belief that superstition is harmless, lead you into condoning occult practices. They are counterfits of God's power and have their root in a system of beliefs totally oppsed to God

2 Corinthians 11:14 (NIV)
...for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.

Satan and his servants can deceive us by appearing to be attractive, good and moral. Many unsupecting people follow smooth-talking, Bible-quoting leaders into cults that alienate them from their families and lead them into immoral practices and deceit. Don't be fooled by external appearances. Our impressions alone are not an accurate indicator of whi is a true follower of Christ; so it helps to ask these three questions:

1. Do the teaching confirm scripture (Acts 17:11)?
2. Does the teacher affirm and proclaim that Jesus Christ is God, who came into the world as a man to save people from their sins (1John 4:1-3)?
3. Is the teacher's life-style consistent with biblical morality (Matt 12:33-37)?

• Where is the battle?
• Who are we fighting?

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