The magic Christian

[Lamb]

I was reading a website where a Christian woman was bashing other Christian forums because she said they were really promoting witchcraft with their acceptance of Halloween, Harry Potter, etc...

I was always told that magic as entertainment was just that...entertainment. But there are Christians out there who will put down other Christians and proclaim them as NOT being true Christians until they denounce all the things they have on their lists such as Halloween and anything magical. I suppose their children never hear of any fairytales either?

Are these Christians helping other Christians or are they making themselves look foolish?

 

[Rens]

I won't say they're not real christians but I hate that stuff.
My kids were playing minecraft. Ah innocent building blocks just like block craft on a computer.
Then I heard they were making a portal.
A what? That's occult.
Looked it up. They have portals to hell, can fight monsters. Ehmm. They shut those options off now and just build blocks but I'd rather throw it away altogether.

 

[Stravinsk]

Isn't magic - in it's basic sense - something meant to deceive? Or a counterfeit of some sort?

Just different levels of it?

Like one goes to a magic show, and sees "tricks" - card tricks, illusions of various types etc - and the magician is seen as either cleverly disguising the reality of what is presented, so that it is a deception, just that most people are unaware of the *how* of it,

or

(in some contexts) seen as calling on evil spirits or forces to either bring about an illusion or bypass nature in some way?

I don't know. Exodus 7:10-12.

Pharaoh's magicians did the same thing with their staffs - they became serpents. Was this a trick, as in a deception of some sort - or was it real? If real then it's a counterfeit force.

For those who inclined to dismiss the supernatural explanation, or that it's just some facet of nature we don't understand fully yet - then to those people I understand why they may think it is just harmless entertainment. However I don't foresee an understanding of some facet of nature that allows sticks to become snakes.

As for Halloween and other "holidays" - there are people that practice their dark occult crafts on those days. To the majority it's harmless fun, but there are those who take it very seriously.

Does the bible actually give a definition of magic/sorcery?

 

[Brighten04]

I believe in the supernatural. The Bible is full of the supernatural. There are people who shun anything that even hints at the supernatural and will castigate anyone who believes in it or who practices it. But faith is a supernatural force. One of these days the Body of Christ is going to wake up and embrace what Jesus taught.

 

[MoreCoffee]

I was reading a website where a Christian woman was bashing other Christian forums because she said they were really promoting witchcraft with their acceptance of Halloween, Harry Potter, etc...

I was always told that magic as entertainment was just that...entertainment. But there are Christians out there who will put down other Christians and proclaim them as NOT being true Christians until they denounce all the things they have on their lists such as Halloween and anything magical. I suppose their children never hear of any fairytales either?

Are these Christians helping other Christians or are they making themselves look foolish?

It is like that passage in the old testament where one needs to say "shibboleth"[SUP]*[/SUP] the right way to be accepted. Denouncing Harry Potter as witchcraft is the "shibboleth" one needs to say to be accepted in some circles.

*: The men of E'phraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, "Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire." And Jephthah said to them, "I and my people had a great feud with the Ammonites; and when I called you, you did not deliver me from their hand. And when I saw that you would not deliver me, I took my life in my hand, and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into my hand; why then have you come up to me this day, to fight against me?" Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with E'phraim; and the men of Gilead smote E'phraim, because they said, "You are fugitives of E'phraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of E'phraim and Manas'seh." And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the E'phraimites. And when any of the fugitives of E'phraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead said to him, "Are you an E'phraimite?" When he said, "No," they said to him, "Then say Shibboleth," and he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not pronounce it right; then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time forty-two thousand of the E'phraimites. Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in his city in Gilead. Judges 12:1-7