TRICK or TREAT

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 their 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; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. Deut. 18:9-12

THREE times the word "detestable" is used in that paragraph. The Lord God means to EMPHASIZE how He feels about those "practices." Other translations use the word "abominations" here. Same Hebrew word in the text... "a disgusting thing."

In the above verses, God is speaking to the second generation of "delivered-out-of-Egypt" Israelites. The first generation was destroyed over the course of 40 years of desert wanderings... So the LORD'S anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed. Numbers 32:13
The Israelites are about to go in and displace peoples out of the land that the Lord is giving them. The indigenous people are to be utterly destroyed because of those detestable, abominable practices.

There are only two sources of spiritual power: God and satan. Those of us who believe this, live our lives accordingly. Those who don't believe; guess what... they live their lives accordingly too. We will ALL answer to God though. Believers will live with God because we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. Unbelievers will live with the other... God has said so.

The devil has only the power that God allows him to have for the time God allows, but it is considerable. Unbelievers fail to accept that we are puny creatures compared to those in the spiritual realm, with The Sovereign God infinitely more so. Their pride and arrogance dooms them. Everything satan does is a counterfeit to holiness, and without holiness, no one will see God, Heb. 12-14.

Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying. Rev. 22:14-15

All sins have already been atoned for by Jesus the Christ… for everyone. But the REJECTION of that Gospel is what will doom many. We are ALL sinners (Rom. 3:23) …the difference is “those” who accept the Gospel and “those” who reject it. Atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin in general through the death and resurrection of Jesus, enabling the reconciliation between God and man.

Since the beginning, people have sought supernatural experiences which God did not allow… with Eve being the first. Enticed and deceived by the devil, Eve wanted to be “like God.”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Gen. 3:4-5 (the serpent was a democrat)

Her eyes were opened indeed, and she saw that she was naked (unclothed, unrighteous) and evil, and that God was right (good). 

Trick or Treat? 

To say that God takes witchcraft very seriously, is to diminish, underestimate, minimize, undervalue, trivialize and do a great injustice to God’s lofty Holiness. It is an intolerable abomination to Him. The penalty for practicing witchcraft under the Mosaic Law was indeed death, as it was for Adam and Eve, and as it is for all of us who reject God’s salvation.

For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

Not to digress but…we should notice in Rom. 6:23 above that death is NOT of God, but the GIFT of Eternal Life is from God. So many people blame God for the “bad” things. Everything bad in the world – death, sin, disease, sorrow, lawlessness, perversions, etc., are from satan……period!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

In the New Testament, “sorcery” is translated from the Greek word pharmakeia, from which we get our word pharmacy (drugs). Witchcraft and spiritism often involve the ritualistic use of magic potions and mind-controlling drugs. So-called “altered states” can also be self-induced or sub-consciously effected by (evil) spirits.

Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thess. 5:21-22

What words would one use to describe Halloween? Holy? Blessed? Virtuous? Righteous? I don’t think so! More like morbid, evil, gross, macabre, dark, wicked, nefarious, malevolent, fiendish, shocking... oh yes, DETESTABLE!! I’m sure you could add to the list. Isn’t the contrast obvious? Oh I know, some people think they can disassociate themselves from all the “bad” by dressing their kids or themselves in “angel” costumes, or “good” fairy queens, or even “good witches.” ??? Ya think so? Be careful.

The unjust shall be caught in their own snares. Prov. 11:6

A wicked man's iniquities entrap him; he is held in the ropes of his own sin. Prov. 5:22

The nations have fallen into the pit they have dug; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden. Psalm 9:15