Re-Posted from "Meditations of a Charismatic Calvinist Who Does Not Speak in Tongues".
What is a witch? Are we to accept the idea of an old crone with a
broomstick and a black cat familiar? Or should we look at a follower of
the modern practice of Wicca? What does the Bible mean by a witch?
There
are various things addressed in Scripture that fall into this category.
There is the practice of divination, attempting to determine the future
by various means (Acts 16:16-19; Ezekiel 21:21-23), of casting spells
(Acts 19:19; Isaiah 47:8-15), of performing wonders by one's own power
(Exodus 7:11; Acts 8:9-11), or of being involved in communicating with
the dead (1 Samuel 28:3-25; Isaiah 8:19). The underlying principle is
the serious practice of magic (as opposed to the stage magician).
Scripturally,
God is the only legitimate source of supernatural help. And He cannot
be manipulated, only asked. From the Christian viewpoint the main issue
is not good intentions versus bad intentions (white versus black
magic), but taking to ourselves a power that belongs solely to God. Nor
is the issue explicitly worshiping Satan. While I am sure Satan is
flattered to be directly worshiped, in the final analysis he does not
care who you worship so long as it is not God. While much of it is
charlatanism, I do believe Satan and his minions can supply the
supernatural power behind serious magic. (Acts 16:16-19 suggests this.)
But this is not dependent on the practitioner's consciously following
Satan. I know in my youth I dabbled in such things, and it at least
seemed to work for me, though only on a small scale. But whether or not
it works, it is wrong.
How, then, is the Christian
respond to such things? First, we should avoid the use of all such
things. I have known Christians to make excuses for such practices. It
is also possible to approach spiritual gifts from an attitude of
witchcraft, where we start to see them as our personal power rather then
depending on God. But we can also become unnecessarily paranoid of
witchcraft and everything associated with it. We need to remember that
God is victorious over Satan and can protect us (1 John 4:4; Colossians
2:15). Therefore, we should avoid panicking at every mention of
witchcraft or reading it in when it is not there. Witchcraft is wrong,
but it is no more wrong than many other things our society takes for
granted. We should not condone it, but we should face it boldly through
faith in Christ.
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