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What the Holy Scriptures Say About...

Magic - Idols and Idolatry - Witchcraft

Divination - False Christians - Disordered Eucharistic Celebrations

2 Then the king commanded to call together the diviners and the wise men, and the magicians, and the Chaldeans: to declare to the king his dreams: so they came and stood before the king.

6 And he made his sons to pass through the fire in the valley of Benennom: he observed dreams, followed divination, gave himself up to magic arts, had with him magicians, and enchanters: and he wrought many evils before the Lord, to provoke him to anger.

4: 20

20 Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass: and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.

7: 10 - 12

10 So Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and did as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron took the rod before Pharaoh, and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent. 11 And Pharaoh called the wise men and the magicians: and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets did in like manner. 12 And they every one cast down their rods, and they were turned into serpents: but Aaron's rod devoured their rods.

17: 8-13

8 And Amalec came, and fought against Israel in Raphidim. 9 And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men: and go out and fight against Amalec: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill having the rod of God in my hand. 10 Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec; but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up upon the top of the hill. 11 And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame. 12 And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset. 13 And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight, by the edge of the sword.

4: 29

29 Then he said to Giezi: Gird up thy loins, and take my staff in thy hand, and go. If any man meet thee, salute him not: and if any man salute thee, answer him not: and lay my staff upon the face of the child.

4: 31

31 But Giezi was gone before them, and laid the staff upon the face of the child, and there was no voice nor sense: and he returned to meet him, and told him, saying: The child is not risen.

12 My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.

19:26

26 You shall not eat with blood. You shall not divine nor observe dreams. 27 Nor shall you cut your hair roundwise: nor shave your beard. 28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh, for the dead, neither shall you make in yourselves any figures or marks: I am the Lord.

19:31

31 Go not aside after wizards, neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

20:6

6 The soul that shall go aside after magicians, and soothsayers, and shall commit fornication with them, I will set my face against that soul, and destroy it out of the midst of its people.

20:27

27 A man, or woman, in whom there is a pythonical or divining spirit, dying let them die: they shall stone them: their blood be upon them.

9 When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10 Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard,

11 Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead. 12 For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming. 13 Thou shalt be perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God. 14 These nations, whose land thou shalt possess, hearken to soothsayers and diviners: but thou art otherwise instructed by the Lord thy God.

23 Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel: and like the crime of idolatry, to refuse to obey. Forasmuch therefore as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king.

7 And Saul said to his servants: Seek me a woman that hath a divining spirit, and I will go to her, and inquire by her. And his servants said to him: There is a woman that hath a divining spirit at Endor. 8 Then he disguised himself: and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said to her: Divine to me by thy divining spirit, and bring me up him whom I shall tell thee. 9 And the woman said to him: Behold thou knowest all that Saul hath done, and how he hath rooted out the magicians and soothsayers from the land: why then dost thou lay a snare for my life, to cause me to be put to death? 10 And Saul swore unto her by the Lord, saying: As the Lord liveth there shall no evil happen to thee for this thing.11 And the woman said to him: Whom shall I bring up to thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.

22 And when Joram saw Jehu, he said: Is there peace, Jehu? And he answered: What peace? so long as the fornications of Jezabel thy mother, and her many sorceries are in their vigour.

3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel: moreover he consecrated also his son, making him pass through the fire according to the idols of the nations: which the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.

17 And consecrated their sons, and their daughters through fire: and they gave themselves to divinations, and soothsayings: and they delivered themselves up to do evil before the Lord, to provoke him.

6 And he made his son pass through fire: and he used divination, and observed omens, and appointed pythons, and multiplied soothsayers to do evil before the Lord, and to provoke him.

19 And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?

9 Therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall not serve the king Babylon.

21 For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols, and consulted entrails.

11 And I will destroy the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strong holds, and I will take away sorceries out of thy hand, and there shall be no divinations in thee.

4 Because of the multitude of the fornications of the harlot that was beautiful and agreeable, and that made use of witchcraft, that sold nations through her fornications, and families through her witchcrafts. 5 Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will discover thy shame to thy face, and will show thy nakedness to the nations, and thy shame to kingdoms.

4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.

7 And they shall no more sacrifice their victims to devils, with whom they have committed fornication. It shall be an ordinance for ever to them and to their posterity.

14 And the Levites shall pronounce, and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice: 15 Cursed be the man that maketh a graven and molten thing, the abomination of the Lord, the work of the hands of artificers, and shall put it in a secret place: and all the people shall answer and say: Amen.

The history of the idol of Michas, and the young Levite.

1 There was at that time a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Michas, 2 Who said to his mother: The eleven hundred pieces of silver, which thou hadst put aside for thyself, and concerning which thou didst swear in my hearing, behold I have, and they are with me. And she said to him: Blessed be my son by the Lord. 3 So he restored them to his mother, who said to him: I have consecrated and vowed this silver to the Lord, that my son may receive it at my hand, and make a graven and a molten god, so now I deliver it to thee. 4 And he restored them to his mother: and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, to make of them a graven and a molten god, which was in the house of Michas. 5 And he separated also therein a little temple for the god, and made an ephod, and theraphim, that is to say, a priestly garment, and idols: and he filled the hand of one of his sons, and he became his priest.

5 "Filled the hand"... That is, appointed and consecrated him to the priestly office.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every one did that which seemed right to himself. 7 There was also another young man of Bethlehem Juda, of the kindred thereof: and he was a Levite, and dwelt there. 8 Now he went out from the city of Bethlehem, and desired to sojourn wheresoever he should find it convenient for him. And when he was come to mount Ephraim, as he was on his journey, and had turned aside a little into the house of Michas, 9 He was asked by him whence he came. And he answered: I am a Levite of Bethlehem Juda, and I am going to dwell where I can, and where I shall find a place to my advantage. 10 And Michas said: Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver, and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.

11 He was content, and abode with the man, and was unto him as one of his sons. 12 And Michas filled his hand, and had the young man with him, for his priest, saying: 13 Now I know God will do me good, since I have a priest of the race of the Levites.

The expedition of the men of Dan against Lais: in their way they rob Michas of his priest and his gods.

1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of Dan sought them an inheritance to dwell in: for unto that day they had not received their lot among the other tribes. 2 So the children of Dan sent five most valiant men of their stock and family from Saraa and Esthaol, to spy out the land, and to view it diligently: and they said to them: Go, and view the land. They went on their way, and when they came to mount Ephraim, they went into the house of Michas, and rested there: 3 And knowing the voice of the young man the Levite, and lodging with him, they said to him: Who brought thee hither? what dost thou here? why wouldst thou come hither? 4 He answered them: Michas hath done such and such things for me, and hath hired me to be his priest. 5 Then they desired him to consult the Lord, that they might know whether their journey should be prosperous, and the thing should have effect.

1 "Not received"... They had their portions assigned them, Jos. 19. 40. But, through their own sloth, possessed as yet but a small part of it. See Judges 1. 34.

6 He answered them: Go in peace, the Lord looketh on your way, and the journey that you go. 7 So the five men going on came to Lais: and they saw how the people dwelt therein without any fear, according to the custom of the Sidonians, secure and easy, having no man at all to oppose them, being very rich, and living separated, at a distance from Sidon and from all men. 8 And they returned to their brethren in Saraa and Esthaol, who asked them what they had done? to whom they answered: 9 Arise, and let us go up to them: for we have seen the land which is exceeding rich and fruitful: neglect not, lose no time: let us go and possess it, there will be no difficulty. 10 We shall come to a people that is secure, into a spacious country, and the Lord will deliver the place to us, in which there is no want of any thing that groweth on the earth.

11 There went therefore of the kindred of Dan, to wit, from Saraa and Esthaol, six hundred men, furnished with arms for war, 12 And going up they lodged in Cariathiarim of Juda: which place from that time is called the camp of Dan, and is behind Cariathiarim. 13 From thence they passed into mount Ephraim. And when they were come to the house of Michas, 14 The five men, that before had been sent to view the land of Lais, said to the rest of their brethren: You know that in these houses there is an ephod, and theraphim, and a graven, and a molten god: see what you are pleased to do. 15 And when they had turned a little aside, they went into the house of the young man the Levite, who was in the house of Michas: and they saluted him with words of peace.

16 And the six hundred men stood before the door, appointed with their arms. 17 But they that were gone into the house of the young man, went about to take away the graven god, and the ephod, and the theraphim, and the molten god, and the priest stood before the door, the six hundred valiant men waiting not far off. 18 So they that were gone in took away the graven thing, the ephod, and the idols, and the molten god. And the priest said to them: What are you doing? 19 And they said to him: Hold thy peace and put thy finger on thy mouth and come with us, that we may have thee for a father, and a priest. Whether is better for thee, to be a priest in the house of one man, or in a tribe and family in Israel? 20 When he had heard this, he agreed to their words, and took the ephod, and the idols, and the graven god, and departed with them.

21 And when they were going forward, and had put before them the children and the cattle and all that was valuable, 22 And were now at a distance from the house of Michas, the men that dwelt in the houses of Michas gathering together followed them, 23 And began to shout out after them. They looked back, and said to Michas: What aileth thee? Why dost thou cry? 24 And he answered: You have taken away my gods which I have made me and the priest, and all that I have, and do you say: What aileth thee? 25 And the children of Dan said to him: See thou say no more to us, lest men enraged come upon thee, and thou perish with all thy house.

26 And so they went on the journey they had begun. But Michas seeing that they were stronger than he, returned to his house. 27 And the six hundred men took the priest, and the things we spoke of before, and came to Lais to a people that was quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword: and the city was burnt with fire, 28 There being no man at all who brought them any succour, because they dwelt far from Sidon, and had no society or business with any man. And the city was in the land of Rohob: and they rebuilt it and dwelt therein. 29 Calling the name of the city Dan after the name of their father, who was the son of Israel, which before was called Lais. 30 And they set up to themselves the graven idol, and Jonathan the son of Gersam the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests in the tribe of Dan, until the day of their captivity.

31 And the idol of Michas remained with them all the time that the house of God was in Silo. In those days there was no king in Israel.

13 And Michol took an image and laid it on the bed, and put a goat's skin with the hair at the head of it, and covered it with clothes. 14 And Saul sent officers to seize David: and it was answered that he was sick. 15 And again Saul sent to see David, saying: Bring him to me in the bed, that he may be slain.

16 And when the messengers were come in, they found an image upon the bed, and a goat's skin at its head.

5 But Solomon worshipped Astarthe the goddess of the Sidonians, and Moloch the idol of the Ammonites.

6 And Solomon did that which was not pleasing before the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as David his father. 7 Then Solomon built a temple for Chamos the idol of Moab, on the hill that is over against Jerusalem, and for Moloch the idol of the children of Ammon. 8 And he did in this manner for all his wives that were strangers, who burnt incense, and offered sacrifice to their gods.

3 And he turned, and built up the high places which Ezechias his father had destroyed: and he set up altars to Baal, and made groves, as Achab the king of Israel had done: and he adored all the host of heaven, and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said: In Jerusalem I will put my name. 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the temple of the Lord.

6 And he made his son pass through fire: and he used divination, and observed omens, and appointed pythons, and multiplied soothsayers to do evil before the Lord, and to provoke him. 7 He set also an idol of the grove, which he had made, in the temple of the Lord: concerning which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son: In this temple, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever.

20 But that we write unto them, that they refrain themselves from the pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

11 But now I have written to you, not to keep company, if any man that is named a brother, be a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat.

5 For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

10: 16-21

16 The chalice of benediction, which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread, which we break, is it not the partaking of the body of the Lord? 17 For we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread. 18 Behold Israel according to the flesh: are not they, that eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? 19 What then? Do I say, that what is offered in sacrifice to idols, is any thing? Or, that the idol is any thing? 20 But the things which the heathens sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God. And I would not that you should be made partakers with devils.

21 You cannot drink the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice of devils: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord, and of the table of devils.

11: 17-34

17 Now this I ordain: not praising you, that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. 18 For first of all I hear that when you come together in the church, there are schisms among you; and in part I believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies: that they also, who are approved, may be made manifest among you. 20 When you come therefore together into one place, it is not now to eat the Lord's supper.

20 "The Lord's supper"... So the apostle here calls the charity feasts observed by the primitive Christians; and reprehends the abuses of the Corinthians, on these occasions; which were the more criminal, because these feasts were accompanied with the celebrating of the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament.

21 For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one indeed is hungry and another is drunk. 22 What, have you not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God; and put them to shame that have not? What shall I say to you? Do I praise you? In this I praise you not. 23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. 24 And giving thanks, broke, and said: Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me. 25 In like manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: This chalice is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of me.

26 For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until he come. 27 Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. 30 Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.

31 But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But whilst we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world. 33 Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If any man be hungry, let him eat at home; that you come not together unto judgment. And the rest I will set in order, when I come.

13: 4-12

4 So they being sent by the Holy Ghost, went to Seleucia: and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they were come to Salamina, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also in the ministry.

6 And when they had gone through the whole island, as far as Paphos, they found a certain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesu: 7 Who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a prudent man. He sending for Barnabas and Saul, desired to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for so his name is interpreted) withstood them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. 9 Then Saul, otherwise Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, looking upon him, 10 Said: O full of all guile, and of all deceit, child of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the right ways of the Lord. 11 And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately there fell a mist and darkness upon him, and going about, he sought some one to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul, when he had seen what was done, believed, admiring at the doctrine of the Lord.

19: 11-20

11 And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles. 12 So that even there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the wicked spirits went out of them. 13 Now some also of the Jewish exorcists who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. 14 And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, that did this. 15 But the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?

16 And the man in whom the wicked spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the Jews and the Gentiles that dwelt at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18 And many of them that believed, came confessing and declaring their deeds. 19 And many of them who had followed curious arts, brought together their books, and burnt them before all; and counting the price of them, they found the money to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So mightily grew the word of God, and was confirmed.

NOTES                

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