Do you think that there is any connection between the "familiar spirits" mentioned in the Bible, and the Spiritualism of the present day? If so, is it not as sinful now to have any dealings with them as it was then? Will you tell us what is meant by "the sin of witchcraft" (1 Samuel 15:23)?
What Is a Familiar Spirit?
A familiar spirit, as the term as used in the Bible, is an evil spirit, supposed to attend at a call. In modern Spiritualism each Spiritualistic medium is generally supposed to have a spirit which comes whenever a "sitting" or "seance" is desired, and by which the medium is controlled, and under whose influence and inspiration the medium writes or performs. In other words, the medium has a familiar spirit.
God gives His prophets revelations and dreams, not at their call or appointment, but when He desires and sees it would be best for them to have them; but the hosts of darkness, as a rule, come on demand. They are "familiar," too familiar and common altogether. They should never be called, but resisted always. He who trifles with them is treading on forbidden ground.
The Bible plainly reveals the fall of Satan as well as the fall of man. (Ezekiel 28:13-19; Luke 10:18; John 8:44) It shows that many of the angels of heaven also transgressed and fell with him. "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell." (2 Peter 2:4) "And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Revelation 12:9)
The last text shows to what place Satan and his angels were cast. It was to the earth. It also shows what has been his work since his banishment from heaven, deceiving the world: tempting man through the deceptions of lies, magic, witchery, cunning and craft, as he did Eve, to transgress against God, with whose law and government he is at war.
God, who knows his subtlety and cunning, and the thousands of ways by which he seeks to snare and enslave men, has ever sought to warn men against those deceptions. Thus, just before Israel entered into the land of Canaan, He gave them the following plain prohibition: "When you are come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you." (Deuteronomy 18:9-12)
This is plain language, and is as much a command and prohibition against the practice of these things now as when first given. God does not change. Divination, witchery, and the consulting with familiar spirits are as much abominations to Him today as they were anciently. There is the same evil behind them now, and the same deception connected with them, as when "the daughters of Moab called the people [of Israel] unto the sacrifice of their gods." (Numbers 25:1-2)
Fifteen hundred years later Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that you should have fellowship with devils." (1 Corinthians 10:20)
And the nature of these things has not changed in the eighteen hundred years which have elapsed since Paul wrote. They are still abominations and from an evil source. They are still Satan's means of deceiving the world.
The Sin of Witchcraft
When the children of Israel were traveling from Egypt to Canaan, the Amalekites came out to oppose their progress by arms. This was nothing less than an act of armed rebellion against God, under whose guidance the Israelites were marching, and therefore God said, "Because the hand of Amalek is against the throne of the Lord, therefore the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." (Exodus 17:16,margin)
The Amalekites filled up the measure of their iniquity, and the Lord chose the Israelites, in the days when Saul was king, to be the instruments by which He would execute judgment upon them. Accordingly the prophet Samuel came to Saul with the following command from the Lord: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (1 Samuel 15:3)
So Saul departed on his mission, and smote the Amalekites; "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly." (1 Samuel 15:9)
This, it will readily be seen, was in direct violation of the express command of the Lord; yet so deceived was Saul, that he thought that he had obeyed the Lord; for when Samuel came to seek him, "Saul said unto him, Blessed be you of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord." (1 Samuel 15:13)
Samuel, however, was not deceived. The evidences of Saul's disobedience were too numerous; the cattle themselves proclaimed the fact. And so, to Saul's protestation of obedience, the prophet said, "What means then this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (1 Samuel 15:14)
To this pertinent question Saul replied, "They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed." (1 Samuel 15:15)
It will be seen from this that Saul had so far recovered from his deception that he was willing to excuse himself from any connection with the disobedience, and to lay the entire blame upon the people. Yet he excused the act as a righteous one, inasmuch as they designed ultimately to kill all the cattle that they had taken. He seemed to think that so long as the cattle were finally destroyed, it would make no difference how or when it was done. Indeed, he seemed to think that offering them as a sacrifice to the Lord, would more than make up for the disobedience; for upon Samuel's reproving him for his arrogant disregard of the Lord's commandment, Saul again replied: "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord your God in Gilgal." (1 Samuel 15:20-21)
Even this did not make any difference; the disobedience was too evident, and the prophet of the Lord said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (1 Samuel 15:22-23)
The reader will notice that the words "is as" in the verse last quoted, are in italics in the Bible, indicating that they have no equivalent in the Hebrew, but are supplied by the translators. The Hebrew language is brief, and a simple connective is often omitted when it would necessarily be understood. In reading "Rebellion, the sin of witchcraft; and stubbornness, iniquity and idolatry," it would be most natural to supply the copula "is," but there would be no necessity nor warrant for supplying "as." So that we may understand the prophet to say, as given in the Jewish rendering, that rebellion is indeed the sin of witchcraft, and that stubbornness is iniquity and image-worship. Wherever therefore we find rebellion, there we find the sin of witchcraft.
This idea is expressed by the Apostle Paul when writing to the Galatians, who were turning away from the purity of the Gospel, and were disobeying the truth of God. (Galatians 1:6-7) To them he exclaimed: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth crucified among you?" (Galatians 3:1)
The Root of the Matter
Having seen that plain violation of one of God's commandments is the sin of witchcraft, no matter how specious the excuse, let us now go to the root of the whole matter. Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said: "I fear; lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:3)
It is evident that in every attempt to beguile men from the truth as it is in Jesus, the devil has used the same arts with which he succeeded in deceiving Eve. Let us, therefore, see by what means she was deceived. Read the account in Genesis 3:1-6.
God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, saying: "In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
The devil came with artful insinuations against God, intimating that God was unjust in giving such a commandment. "Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Can it be possible that He would be so arbitrary as that?"
This prepared the way for a bolder strike in response to Eve's statement that God had said that they might eat of every tree but one, but that they should die if they ate of that. The serpent said: "You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods [literally, like God], knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)
Then the record says that: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and thatit was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." (Genesis 3:6)
But the fact was that the tree was not one to be desired; neither, since God had prohibited it, was it good for food. It was poisonous for her, as has been amply demonstrated; for it was--
that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe.
--John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1.
How then did the woman see that the fruit of the tree was good for food, and to be desired? She saw it through the representations of the tempter. He caused her to see it by means of his magic arts. She was bewitched. She saw that which did not exist, just as has been the case with many people since, when they have been under the spell of the conjurer. It was witchcraft and magic that caused the sin from which all other sins have sprung. And thus we see why it was that rebellion is the sin of witchcraft.
But what was the magic by which the tempter induced Eve to transgress the express commandments of the, Lord? It is all summed up in one sentence, "You shall not surely die." (Genesis 3:4)
It was the belief of this lie that caused the first sin and all the sins that have followed in its train. It is by the subtlety by which the serpent beguiled Eve that our minds are in danger of being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. False prophets and teachers are threatened with punishment by the Lord, because, as He says: "With lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." (Ezekiel 13:22)
Saul's disobedience finally led him to actually consult with a witch before he died. Read the record in 1 Samuel 28 and 1 Chronicles 10:13-14.--Present Truth, April 30, 1903.