Witchcraft in the Digital Age

The Bible forbids all attempts to do any sort of magic, whether communicating with the spiritual world, drawing power from the natural or spiritual world, fortune-telling and astrology, or potion making and cursing. These practices have found new life on social media, and AI is adding a new and dangerous dimension. How should Christians think about this?

The Christian Worldview Foundation

There are several passages that are foundational for the Christian teaching about witchcraft.

First, the Mosaic law contains the first overt prohibitions of several types of witchcraft.

You shall not allow a sorceress to live. (Exodus 22:18)

Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God. (Leviticus 19:31)

As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. Therefore, you shall set yourselves apart as holy and be holy, for I am Yahweh your God. And you shall keep my statutes and do them; I am Yahweh who makes you holy. (Leviticus 20:6–8)

Now a man or woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them. (Leviticus 20:27)

When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who is an enchanter or a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh. (Deuteronomy 18:9–12)

The rest of the Old Testament is no kinder to the practice of witchcraft. When Saul turns to the witch of Endor to call up the spirit of Samuel, it is an indication that he has finally and irreversibly rebelled, and he dies the next day in the judgment that Samuel’s spirit foretold (1 Chronicles 10:13). One of the common elements of the wickedness of the kings of Israel and Judah was that they engaged in occult practices. Ezekiel 13 contains a scathing rebuke of false prophetesses who used divination. Micah 5, which contains a prophetic passage about the Messiah’s reign, records God’s declaration: “And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will have soothsaying no more” (Micah 5:12).

The New Testament is just as clear that any type of witchcraft is contrary to faith in Christ. In Acts 19, new converts who had previously spent a lot of money on magical scrolls and other items burned them in a big heap. This very public act of repentance was also a public witness to the gospel! Witchcraft is part of the vice lists in Galatians 5:19–21 and Revelation 21:8.

There are several important biblical truths that should ground our thinking when it comes to witchcraft and spiritual powers.

1. God is the Creator and has ultimate power over the universe. No one, including spiritual powers, is like Him. As the Creator, He is the source of every good gift. One of His greatest gifts to us is His Word, the Bible, where He tells us everything we need to know to be saved and live in a right relationship with Him.
2. The spiritual realm is real. There are holy and fallen angels, demons, and the spirits of dead people who have passed on. Living people are forbidden from trying to communicate with this realm.
3. The Bible commands us to trust God to provide us with every good thing that we might need. God is a good Father to us, and we can trust Him.

Magic Is Mostly Malarkey

The Satanic Panic of the 1980s attributed everything from Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games to rock music to the devil, and today, that time period is looked at as a stock example of a hysterical overreaction to things the critics mostly didn’t understand. Most of what passes for witchcraft today is not overtly demonic, but it is still forbidden by Scripture and should be opposed by Christians for some good reasons.

First, witchcraft is an attempt to gain something apart from God.

First, witchcraft is an attempt to gain something apart from God. Consider that the first sin in Genesis 3 was an attempt to gain wisdom and become like God apart from God and you get a hint of how serious a sin this is! This is something that we shouldn’t think about even dabbling in. And there’s utterly no need for a Christian to do so—we know that God gives us every good gift, and if God doesn’t want us to have knowledge about the future, or wealth, a particular partner, or the ability to speak with our dead grandma, there’s a good reason for that! Even if it’s a meaningless pantomime that doesn’t actually do any of those things, the act is still forbidden and is not glorifying to God.

Second, witchcraft is a spiritual activity that takes attention away from God. If you are trying to get direction from tarot readings, that’s time you’re not praying about that decision. If you’re doing spells to attract money, you’re not trusting God to provide what you need. Trying to take power into your own hands is the opposite of what we’re commanded to do as Christians. God condemned this aspect of magical practices when He said, “Now when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah 8:19). If God expected the Israelites living before the death and resurrection of Jesus, without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to turn to God rather than engaging in these unbelieving practices, how much more does He forbid those us of who have the full revelation of His Word and are indwelt by His Spirit to reject these false and futile practices?.

Third, even if you don’t get the effects from witchcraft that you want, you can be deceived by practicing it. If you do witchcraft with the goal of getting a promotion at work and that happens, you will attribute it to your spells, not your hard work. If you give your boyfriend a love potion and he proposes, you will think the love potion did it, even though that’s nonsense. This will make you spend more time, money, and effort on practices that are ultimately futile. And again, this is not glorifying to God, which should be our goal as Christians in everything we do.

The Demonic Side

Most of what passes nowadays as witchcraft is nonsense, and if someone is getting a message from a Ouija board, it’s probably because the other person is moving their hand. But we know at least from Scripture that the spiritual dimension is real, and evil spirits occasionally can interact with people. This shouldn’t be our default conclusion, but the possibility is there anytime someone invites it through the practices of witchcraft. This is especially the case when people call on the names of various false gods, who the Bible reveals to be demons.

Ever since the serpent in Eden, malevolent spiritual forces have been in the business of deceiving people, so we should not want to invite those things into our life. Christians, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, don’t have to be afraid of these things, nor do we need to really dwell on them. But an article about witchcraft would be incomplete without the caveat that sometimes there could be actual spiritual beings behind these things, which should be enough to warn away any believer who wants to please God and, really, anyone with sense.

AI Necromancy and Channeling

ChatGPT can do (or claim to do) all sorts of things, including giving you spiritual advice, masquerading as a Norse deity, or speaking in the voice of your deceased loved one. There have always been attempts to commune with spirits, human and nonhuman, but AI means that you get the illusion of something actually speaking back to you.

This practice is particularly dangerous for a portion of the population, and it’s impossible to know whether you’re one of those people until it’s too late. AI psychosis has caused people to hurt both themselves and others.

AI can be a useful tool in some applications, but using it for spiritual practices is especially dangerous. We have seen that AI can sometimes “coach” people into committing suicide after lots of interaction. Therefore, consider how much worse (and faster) harmful AI messages could be if someone asked it for “life advice from spirits.”

Does God Want Us to Kill Witches Today?

The Old Testament gave the death penalty for witchcraft. This shows how seriously God takes this sin. He set Israel apart as the special nation through whom the Messiah would come into the world, so it was important that the nation reflect His character. The death penalty was a civil penalty for the sin for the ancient nation of Israel, which was a theocracy.

No one today lives in the ancient theocracy of Israel, so the civil penalty of execution for witchcraft does not apply. So today, as in the New Testament, people who had practiced sorcery and repented could be part of the church.

Today, people who practice witchcraft should be told to repent.

We also don’t have to be afraid of people who claim to be witches, even if they say they put a hex on us or claim to have a scary prediction about something that will happen to us. Any spells they use are probably based on some nonsense they saw on TikTok, and even in the very unlikely event they were in league with an actual spiritual power, believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit who is much more powerful than any demonic powers.

What Should You Do If You Have Practiced Witchcraft?

If you have practiced witchcraft, that is a sin, and like all sin, it is a rebellion against God and separates us from Him. But the good news is that God forgives us when we repent and trust in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus who paid the price for all our sin.

If you believe that you’re a “Christian witch,” that is a form of syncretism, an attempt to mix Christian practices with another religion.

If you believe that you’re a “Christian witch,” that is a form of syncretism, an attempt to mix Christian practices with another religion. In reality, that isn’t Christianity at all, and you are called to repent and believe the gospel and turn away from any type of occult practices.

Repentance means to stop doing any type of that sin, which could include getting rid of any of the things you used to do witchcraft so you aren’t tempted by it again, repenting to anyone who you wronged, and encouraging others to also repent.

Witchcraft is not “the unforgivable sin,” but none of us know how many days we have left to repent, so if you think there may be something you need to ask forgiveness for and repent, do it today!

True Spiritual Power in Christ

People have always been fascinated by the spiritual realm, and the temptation to engage with it in illicit ways has been a problem ever since Eden when Eve desired to be like God. Various occult practices may seem exotic, and being forbidden may make them seem more attractive. However, just like the fruit in the garden, God forbids witchcraft practices for good reasons.

When we trust in Christ for forgiveness of our sins, we are brought into a right relationship with God, our sins are forgiven, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we can know that God hears our prayers. That’s the spirituality we truly crave and were created for. Don’t settle for cheap and deceptive imitations! Even in the best-case outcome, they don’t help us and are deceptive. In the worst-case scenario, they can open the door to forces that are more than the practitioners bargain for.